THERE are few things in the world as fine as a fine bacon sarnie, and few things as difficult to get right.
You have to hunt down the right bread, and you can't get away with using trendy designer breads you need something earthy, like a good batch loaf.
And, most importantly, you need good bacon. Sweet, fatty, bacon that fries in the pan and crisps crunchily, all the better to bite into. Which brings us to Waterford.
If I was asked to make the perfect bacon sandwich, I would use bread from Barron's Bakery, in Cappoquin, and buy the bacon from John David Power's shop in Dungarvan. With some nice butter, and the produce from these two fine institutions, we would be away on a hack. A mug of tea, and we would be heaven bound.
Esther and Joe Barron are the latest generation of the family to run Barron's, a bakery which has operated since 1887, and where the original brick Scotch ovens are still in use. Joe Barron describes conventional, mass produced bread as "water standing up", and when you taste the difference between commercial pap and the sweet, true tasting bread of Barron's, you see what he means. It is old style bread batch loaves, sodas, turnovers, buttermilk browns and it is all good stuff.
John David Power's bacon, meanwhile, is the finest I have tasted in recent times. An old recipe is used, with little salt and a dry cure, and the meat is not soaked. It is gorgeous stuff, and there is no happier feeling than to be bringing home the bacon from Power's.
But, there is a lot more to do in Waterford than dream of the perfect bacon sandwich. My colleague Mary Dowey described the irresistibility of David Dennison's fine Wine Vault on these pages a few weeks ago, and anyone strolling down High Street should also check out McCluskey's, Paul McCluskey's new venture since he moped hips subtle, approachable, style of cooking from the kitchens of Waterford Castle.
At the other end of town, Martin Dwyer's much loved eponymous restaurant also enjoys a style of cooking which is subtle monkfish in a herb crust with tapenade garlic prawns in a rosti nest.
One place I love to visit on a summery evening is McAlpin's Suir Inn, down on the water at Cheekpoint, a few miles south of the city. Mary and Dunstan McAlpin's operation is swift and sprightly, the small menu cent red on seafood which is properly seen to, the little bar a cosy, comfy place. If the weather is up to it, then there are few things more fun than a pint of stout, a jug of wine, a couple of fish pies, and a chair outside from which to lazily watch a golden sunset.
THERE is good pub food, too, in Dunmore East, in The Ship, another expertly orchestrated operation, and a place which thrums with holiday bonhomie. Likewise, in Glencairn, a few miles from Lismore, Ken Buggy has begun to rattle the pots and pans in Buggy's Glencairn Inn. If you are heading south to Lismore, be sure to turn off the N8 at Cahir, than drive via The Vee down to Lismore it is one of the most enchanting drives anywhere in Ireland, and to be able to pitch up at Buggy's Glencairn Inn at the end of the excursion is sheer bliss.