Food & Wine Archives - Page 5 of 21 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

How to be a Paddy on St Patrick’s Day

17th March 202417th March 2024 funtime65

And as Daddy’s Little Girl’s Scots beau gets a first burst of Dublin life here’s for the rest of you… how to be a Paddy on St Patrick’s Day.

Well, the first thing is to wear green.

And this is where it gets fun, you can pinch someone who doesn’t wear green.

And they can pinch you back!

Of course, you can go full Paddy and dress up as St Patrick in a big flowing cassock and mitre.

And accessorise with snakes, the types he is reputed to have driven out of Ireland.

For every St Patrick there is, of course, a million leprechauns.

Now you’ll need a big felt hat with shamrocks, a ginger beard and a ‘Kiss Me, I’m Irish’ tie.

Sláinte all

Now, onto the eating and drinking.

The time was in Catholic Ireland that St Patrick’s Day was the one day during your 40-day Lenten fast.

That you could break that fast and hit the gargle.

Of course in these less churchy days few give up the ales all 40 days.

So today is just an invitation to partake more.

And it must be Guinness with a shamrock drawn on the foam.

Party on

While there’s a nod to the past in eating corned beef, bacon and cabbage.

Although coddle, a sausage, rashers and veg stew is more Dublin

Now the Irish are in the middle of their week of the year.

And are extending their Cheltenham Festival festivities and Six Nations rugby party a further day.

None of which is lost on the hostelries or drinks bands around Ireland.

And I’m reminded here of the Arthur’s Day experiment from 2009-2013 by Diageo.

When on our annual pilgrimage up to my Mum’s old homestead of Brockagh, Co. Donegal, we lunched in her old bar, the Ramblers.

And I asked the owner Con what the regular at the bar would be doing to mark that day.

And wiping the foam off his mouth, he smiled back: ‘Same as every other day.’

Of course, like all national days there is an amplification of traditional music.

Crazy World

But if you want some insider knowledge on how to be a Paddy on St Patrick’s Day then do like the locals.

And get into a bar where there will deffo be a pub singer singing Aslan’s Crazy World.

And be part of the Paddy’s Day party… it’s all right, it’s all right.

Food & Wine, UK

Chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury

23rd February 2024 funtime65

And there I’m saying it, it’s the best sweet attraction bar none so chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury.

You probably think little of what’s gone into your favourite Dairy Milk, Flake, Crunchie, Fudge or of course Bourneville when you munch ’em.

But, of course, as well as magical chocolate there is 200 hundred years of love with a story which would give Wonka a run for its money.

Which was how it was with Roald Dahl inspired by the great Birmingham chocolate maker to work as a chocolate taster as a young boy.

Where Dahl tasted many have gone before and since with my own brown-eyed chocoholic daughter going back for repeats.

After Cadbury had given her her four bars of chocolate at the end of our tour.

The real Dahl

Now, for those who have never been to Cadbury in Bourneville (yes, it is the name of the village) then why not?

Because it is without doubt a tale worthy of a big-screen movie… a land of sweet imagination.

For Willie Wonka here read George Cadbury and for the oompah-loompahs substitute the honest men, women and children of Birmingham.

Who all availed of George’s socially-conscious Quaker ideology.

Because the Cadburys got into the cocoa and chocolate field because of their opposition to alchohol… and here we differ.

An interesting Boering story

Eat up: And you’ll get a chocolate dessert

And here a tale from the history of Cadbury when they stood up to Queen Victoria.

Vic had wanted Cadbury to send a morale-boosting New Year’s tin of chocolates to each soldier fighting in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900.

Only as Quakers they were confirmed pacifists.

The companies did not want to put their logos onto the chocolate tins but the Queen wanted to show that she was purchasing quality chocolate for her soldiers.

So they stamped their names on the chocolate bars.

Best bar none

Now back to Bourneville and the forward-thinking Cadburys wanted to ensure that his employees’ lives in and out of work were as comfortable as they could possibly be.

Which meant that he built them cottages.

And a playground for children, country outings and summer camps.

While the men played football, hockey and cricket while tennis and squash courts were also added.

Along with a bowling green and swimming pools with heated changing rooms.

And Cadbury too were all for holidays with Saturday half-days for its workers.

So chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury.

Here’s to the next 200 of the best chocolate bar none.

Countries, Culture, Europe, Food & Wine

Drink in vintage Firenze

18th February 202418th February 2024 funtime65

Si, we like this type of culture which puts the emphasis on wine and like which is why we agree, we should drink in vintage Firenze.

The experts at Titan Travel have analysed which major cities host the most “things to do,” from tourist landmarks to art galleries to music tours.

And here is where Fizzy Frosty gets interested… in which destinations have the most five-star restaurants and wine-tasting tours.

Of course, we should credit palace city Granada in Andalucia, Spain, with its Alhambra for taking No.1 spot.

But it’s Firenze which has been concentrating Her mind since we had to cancel our trip there last September when her much-storied Dad, oul’ Casey Jones sadly passed on.

Firenze frenzy

A great Italianophile he would, no doubt, have furnished us with books and maps on the city before we left… and somewhere in his legendary library we’ll find the very thing.

Florence, to give it its English name, as we found out when we were doing our homework, offers some of the world’s best wine tours (60.06 per 100,000 people).

And there’s even a Florence dinner and “Three Tenors” concert, where you can soak up Florentine food and culture and drink in vintage Firenze during a traditional dinner and concert experience.

Czech out the culture

Touch of class: On the King Charles Bridge in Prague

Now it might come as a surprise to those who only associate it with stag and hen parties that Prague comes in third on the list.

But not to Prahaphiles like us who have sampled the tastes above and underground.

Up the Castle and the climbing baby TV tower and in the beer cellars, Anthropoid crypt and nuclear bunker.

Prague, we’re told has 63.4 sights per 100,000 people to see in the Czechia capital by the Vlatva.

True Peru

For the cultural capital with the most things to do you do need to head to the Inca Empire.

It has the most excursions with 579.72 things to do per 100,000 people.

So for those of you know little more about Peru than Paddington and Machu Picchu then read on.

Architecturally-spectacular Lima does boast a statue of Paddy on Lima’s Miraflores Boardwalk, clad in his famous floppy hat and duffle coat, emblazoned with the British Union Jack.

We all know, of course, that Pad is a bespectacled bear and you can see his rellies, and maybe even Aunt Lucy, in the Chaparri Conservation Area.A community-owned and managed reserve, it covers a pristine area of grassy hills and vertical rock walls and studded with trees and cacti.

A 90-minute drive from Chiclayo, it boasts a wild population of threatened species including the spectacled bear.

And you can stay there at the Chaparri Lodge.

Whether Paddington, bespectacled bears and marmalade sandwiches are your cup of tea is your call.

Caribbean, Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland, UK

The ultimate New Year hangover cure

1st January 20241st January 2024 funtime65

It makes sense when you discover its magical contents, and for the day that’s in it we’re recommending the ultimate New Year hangover.

Coconut water, and who knew that the ubiquitous Caribbean drink (other countries are available) will put you back on your feet.

It’s all to do with the potassium, electrolytes, fibre and natural sugars.

All in those coconut shells you see traders carving out by the side of the roads that cost pennies.

Of course it might be that all that dancing you did the night before.

And the fruit from your rum punch and water to rehydrate protected you from the ravages of the hangover.

Or the fact that you’re in Barbados for carnival that makes you blank out the lethargy in your head.

Fry and high

Of course, there are those, ourselves among them, who swear by…

The Ulster/Scottish/English fry of bacon, sausage, eggs, puddings, mushrooms, beans… it’s replacing the lost salt, you know.

And I will forever be indebted to Donna for putting Jevan and myself back together after our all-nighter at Foreday Morning.

And giving us the cold splash of reality that is a hosing down.

To remove the mud and purple paint and wake us up… never a thing for those trudging back from Edinburgh this morning.

Bru knew?

The Scottish hangover cure they say is to just carry on (behave!)

But what is true is that the Jocks do swear by the elements in the bubble-gum tasting Irn-Bru soft drink.

Yes, it’s a rush of sugar but also that iron, although there’s only 0.002 ammonium ferric citrate.

But according to an expert in this field, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, who spent 10 years drinking in 30 cities across 14 countries it deffo works.

Now if coconut water, big fry-ups or Irn-Bru aren’t your thing (and why not?) then caffeine is a favourite fall-back.

Cup of coffee for the road

One more cup of coffee: With my Dear Old Mum

I developed my taste for coffee from 15/16 and having it thrust into my hand the morning after a school house party.

How you take it is your own beeswax but I’ve been a black only drinker since my days at uni in frozen Aberdeen.

When leaving the flat to go down into the bracing wind to the shop for milk became too much effort.

Particularly after the first al-nighters with Jevan when he introduced me to real Bajan rum, Mount Gay.

Now where is that streetside coconut water seller in Aberdeen when you need one?

Now I am nothing if not a service-provider and of course the ultimate New Year hangover cure is the sunshine you get.

On the road with the Further Adventures of Bandanaman.

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland, UK

Simple Irish message from festive Fermanagh

29th November 202329th November 2023 funtime65

Do we really need another Dawn French saccharine M&S Christmas advert… no, give us a simple Irish message from festive Fermanagh.

Enniskillen, in the north of Ireland, is seared into the international consciousness for an atrocity which befell the town.

On Remembrance Day 36 years go.

Which is marked now with a lasting memorial.

So it is reviving to see the market town now celebrated for its message of peace and brotherhood rather than decried for its darkest hour.

The unlikely heroes of this story are an old man who seeks companionship and shelter from the cold.

Charlie Bravo

Having placed flowers on a grave and having been ignored on the street he pops into Charlie’s Bar.

Where a dog sits himself opposite the old man and a couple at the bar follow their mutt to sit and sup with him.

And not a mince pie, turkey, stuffing, cracker or anything else that M&S are selling this Christmas, in sight.

Of course, the message that manageress Una Burns is sharing in the £700 video.

Which has garnered millions of views on X and 60,000 likes on TikTok is hospitality and companionship.

Which is, of course, the essence of Irishness.

Now, being a son of Irish hotel and bar people, with a sprinkling of weaver and shop people from this part of the world, I can vouch for that.

The bar is the ideal starting and finishing point on your tour of the Fermanagh Lakelands.

Where you can explore the waterways, caves and historic sites and go walking, kayaking and hydrobiking.

Of course, all of that will put a thirst on you and that is best slaked with a pint of plain as they say in these parts… the magical Guinness.

But Fermanagh also boasts a thriving gin industry too in a setting unmatched anywhere we’d wager.

Joe McGirr’s pride and joy Boatyard Distillery is on the banks of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland and can accessed by both boat and road.

And we know which one would be more fun.

Enniskillen native Joe learned his trade well in Edinburgh and in ten years at the Glenmorangie distillery in Tain in the Highlands.

Before adapting his new-found knowledge back home in Ireland.

Which we, of course, road tested instead pf working one autumn day in Dublin’s Temple Bar.

Of course our Christmas old man and his pals prefer a Guinness around the table.

And the doggie a bowl of water at Charlie’s.

But whatever your tipple the simple Irish message from festive Fermanagh is the Gaelic watchword Fáilte.

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland

Guinness Dublin’s green and white Christmas

22nd November 202322nd November 2023 funtime65

Even in the home of the black stuff they’re dreaming of Guinness Dublin’s green and white Christmas.

You’ll see I’ve Christmas cribbed from Guinness’s enduring festive advertising and am happy to do so.

And, of course, we put caressing a pint (or gargle, my collective noun) of plain at the centre of our Christmas carousing.

We learned to in, of all places at the Ri Ra Irish bar in Las Vegas.

Now the best place to sup your Guinness is Ireland and while we all have our fave bars there’s only one Guinness Storehouse.

Where you get the panoramic view from their Gravity bar, the top floor of their seven storeys.

But don’t take my word for it (well do) but American Presidents (and their governor pals) and British royalty have all sipped the stout.

Kodaline high hopes

Some, of course, going the full hog to don a white foam moustache.

This year Guinness Storehouse in the capital’s Liberties district is pushing its already excellent green credentials.

By dressing up the Christmas tree with 1759 lights, soundscaped decorations and a festive menu of Irish produce.

The recently awarded Leading Tourist Attraction in Europe has collaborated with multi-media talents, Farouk Alao, Sorcha O’Higgins and Ger Clancy, as well as Jason Boland (Kodaline), who has created an original piece of music.

Sorcha’s artwork represents the Guinness Storehouse through the ages – an industrial past, an iconic present, and a technicolour future.

While Ger Clancy’s take on the iconic St James’s Gates makes for the perfect backdrop to festive photos this season.

Tunnel of love

Friends in high places: With former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe

This year, visitors can interact with a cinematic experience that uses cutting edge technology to breathe new life into stories and photography from the Guinness Archives.

Curated by Nigerian Irish multi-disciplinary artist Farouk, each scene uses motion technology to invite visitors to explore, capture and share moments of festive celebration with friends and family during their tour.

One of the first visual installations that consumers will see is the dramatic tunnel, which sits beneath the Guinness Storehouse Christmas tree featuring those 1759 lights as a nod to the year Guinness began.

And reframes the 9,000-year lease signed by Arthur Guinness.

Guinness with it all

There are seasonal experiences to marvel at and excite the senses behind St. James’s Gate this Christmas.

A giant bauble display fills the building, perfect for capturing a story for Instagram, while pop-up live entertainment during the holidays will help visitors create special memories.

Of course the stout is at the centre of everything in the Storehouse.

So enjoy the best artisan producers like Kish Fish and Medialuna, Irish cheese producers, the spiced beef sandwich, and Mulled Guinness and Guinness smoked salmon.

Meaning you can take a taste of the Guinness Storehouse from our home to yours this Christmas.

Guests can also upgrade to the STOUTie or Academy experiences, both available as optional extras when booking on the Guinness Storehouse website for the ultimate day out in Dublin over the festive break.

Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse is included in each experience ticket.

Make a date

The law of Gravity: At the top of the Storehouse

EXPERIENCE DATES: Wednesday November 22^nd – Friday 5^th January

OPENS: 10am

PRICES: Start from €24 per adult

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland

Mixing with loveholidays

26th October 2023 funtime65

If you want to check out the leading online providers of vacations out there you’d better be mixing with loveholidays which is, of course, what we’ve been doing this week.

Which is the way with cocktail-making, my Saturday night go-to treat for the Scary One, but which is equally applicable to travel.

And for all the experience of 35 years of globetrotting and scribbling about it (all for you you understand) I always know that there is someone who knows more.

And that that someone is the travel provider who makes our dreams come true.

Back when I started out on this road computers were only what you saw on James Bond films where now we all have them.

The danger, of course, unless we’re careful it can all become a bit dehumanising but with the best online operators and here’s where loveholidays come in they bring the personal touch.

For consumers and for those us who are the bridge between the trade and the public… me and my pals.

Do you like Pina Colada?

Double jig time: With Mr Loveholidays Clem and old pals Eugene and Catherine

And in the interests of research and with. thirst and a hunger on us we gathered at the French-inspired Green Hen in Exchequer Street, off Grafton Street in Dublin to mix.

And when we say mix, of course, there’s the craic but also a mixologist on hand to walk us through making our own Pina Colada.

With a mini-bottle of rum, and coconut milk, pineapple and lime juice all set out for us.

As well as a jigger and two shakers.

Now this is what you want to do..

Take 1 oz coconut cream, 1 oz white rum, 3 oz pineapple juice

Mix with crushed ice until smooth and pour into chilled glass, garnish and serve.

Lovin’ it

Now, as we always associate Pina Coladas with the Caribbean, and Puerto Rico who recreated the vibe for us at the American Travel Fair in San Antonio.

Then we’re giving you a sample couple of loving.com deals that they’re promoting as part of their long-haul offerings.

With Cancun being noted as an adults-only magnet loveholidays are urging us.

In the words of Rupert Holmes to come with them and escape.

Love, as they’re affectionately known in the circles, offer us seven-days all-inclusive at the Golden Parnassus Resort and Spa.

Down from £1,534 to £1,058, travelling on March 12.

Dom from home: Melia Punta Cana Beach Wellness

Or you can go to one of the favourite isles of the rich and famous, the Dominican Republic.

Or Dom Rep as it’s called among the cogniscenti.

You’ll get seven days AI at the Melia Punta Cana Beach Wellness.

Down from £1,727pp to £1,170pp, travelling on April 19.

Love Vegas

While we’re taken too by an old favourite in Las Vegas where the cocktails are always flowing particularly at Harrah’s on the Strip.

Love are offering us seven nights from New Year’s Day (room only) at the nearby Venetian, complete with gondolas!

Down from £1,210 to £874pp, travelling on January 1.

Of course, seeing we all love holidays, we’ll be bringing you more loveholidays.

Short-haul, city breaks and long-haul deals to cheer us up.

Because we all love, love, love, mixing with loveholidays.

Europe, Food, Food & Wine

Anyone can be a pasta master

24th October 202326th October 2023 funtime65

The Scary One would hardly trust me with an egg in the kitchen but let me tell you that celeb chef Catherine Fulvio proved her wrong and showed anyone can be a pasta master.

And so as we mark World Pasta Day tomorrow let me indulge you with my own culinary skills.

Catherine, of course, is celebrated across Ireland for her food, the secrets of which she is happy to pass on to foodie fans.

At her Ballyknocken House and Cookery School in my old stomping ground of Co. Wicklow.

Where Catherine taught a number of fingers and thumbs wannabe chefs how to make pasta.

Now there’s one pasta dish with which we’re all familiar.

And was certainly the exotic dish of my youth was the famous Bolognese.

As well as being the first grown-up dish my Mum (and no Italian she but the best cook of them all) taught me.

Your Spag Bolidays

And that is why we’re pinpointing our pasta pals at Topflight and their Bologna & Adriatic Riviera package.

You’ll get a two-night stay in the famous old university city.

Before relaxing and unwinding for seven nights in the beach resort of Cattolica.

Bologna is known as La Grassa in Italy, meaning the fat one on account of its love of food.

And after all that Spag Bol and vino you’ll be wanting to flop.

Cattolica lurch

Located just 14km south of busy Rimini, Cattolica provides a sheltered beach that is popular.

With watersport lovers and sun worshippers alike.

While there is also a wonderful seafront promenade for a stroll.

Now we’ll pass over, or pasta over if you like, that Imola has the best claim for recipe for a ragù served with pasta.

And that students’ go-to dish might have entered our lives as Spaghetti Imolese.

Topflight of fancy

Well, everyday is an education, as we found.

Under Catherine Fulvio’s tutelage when she taught me to make own.

And others that anyone can be a pasta master.

While Topflight and their excellent guides will teach you the rest about Il Bel Paese.

Topflight’s Bologna and Adriatic Riviera starts from €1,200pp.

Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Putting our Hop in Zatec

13th October 202313th October 2023 funtime65

As we get spooked by the warning of beer shortages because of climate change we’re putting our Hop in Zatec.

Hoptown was rightly given the recognition it so richly deserves last month with UNESCO awarding the Czechia town World Heritage status.

The first hop area in the world to be credited thus.

With Zatec becoming one of 17 sites at the heart of Europe, an honour the Czechs hold close to their hearts.

Just as they do their beer with our Czechs pals quick to tell you that more people drink beer in their country.

Per head of population compared to anywhere else in the world.

Here for the beer

And few places take their beer more seriously than Zatec.

As we found when sampling its charms in the heady days before Covid.

Now it’s no exaggeration to say that Zatec only exists because of its beer.

With the town housing the highest concentration of buildings connected with hop processing and trade anywhere in the world.

Brewseum

With the best place to learn everything you ever need to know about hops right there in Hop Museum.

Where they’ll tell you that over their 700 years of turning hops into beer that they will regularly forego water for themselves.

So that the hops can get a drink… and they can get the rewards down the road.

Zatec runs to the cycle of time and life.

Clock this

Hands of time: The Zatec Astronomical Clock

So where Prague has its much-visited Astronomical Clock, Zatec has its Beer Astronomical Clock.

Where the diagrams on the clock face illustrate the dance with the devil of a drinker.

Not that that should put you off your Zatec bar Hop.

Watch this: The Prague Astronomical Clock

Because as they put the frighteners up us over our beer and the climate crisis.

We’re putting our Hop in Zatec.

And, of course, Czechia is one of our favourite getaways with Ryanair from £40.33.

Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Swiss cheese Raclette it be

7th October 20237th October 2023 funtime65

Swiss cheese Raclette it be… and there’s my cri de coeur for the inaugural World Raclette Championships later this month.

Or my let it crumble moment if you will.

Anyone who has visited Switzerland (and if not, why not?) will wax lyrical about their cheeses.

That melting magic when your cheese drips onto your potatoes like snow from your skis down the Alps.

Of which, of course, the Swiss when it comes to their cheese make it an occasion.

The big cheeses

For this first edition, our Swiss amis have invited several countries’ best big cheeses for a weekend in Portes du Soleil, north of Chamonix.

The five best cheeses in each of the three categories are judged by a Super Jury, of cheese experts.

Alpine Raw Milk Raclette
Cheeses made exclusively with raw milk from alpine pasures between June 15th and July 15th.
Raw Milk Raclette
Cheeses made with raw milk.
Other Raclettes
Semi-hard cheeses.

Yodel heroes

At the heart of the festivities will be a festive ‘Raclette Village’ with an array of alpine tasting cheeses and numerous workshops.

And what would a Swiss party be without a sing-song, a yodel, a glockenspiel.

And that’s what you get with the Raclette Village with an emphasis on kiddies’ entertainment.

Wonder if they’ll call it the YMCheeseA.

Melt your heart

So Swiss cheese Raclette it be.

It’ll melt your heart and probably clog it but hey, ho, we’ve got to go somehow.

And dripping cheese and amber lager is my idea of the best route and Air Swiss the providers to get you there.

The Swiss agree, why then would they call their lager Hell?