Tickety-Moo
The changes in Irish food have been staggering and today anything is possible. Three years ago, Steve Giles and Gareth Grey started their ice cream company Tickety-Moo. They have a herd of Jersey cows that produce fabulous milk that is high in butterfat, protein and calcium a therefore is superb for making luxury ice cream. The cows are milked on the same site where the ice cream is made to ensure the best freshness possible. When the ice cream is made, a process called blast freezing freezes the ice cream in ten minutes which creates a beautiful smooth texture.
Just like the name, the website is fun and playful. Move your cursor across each of the cows to watch them do their own activity. Tickety-Moo has a total of 18 flavours in the range. Retail flavours include Tully Vanilla, Hunny Comb, Just Jersey and Chocoholics Chocolate while Farm shop Flavours include Irish Cream, Mango and Passion fruit Sorbet and White Chocolate and Strawberry. If you are in the area stop by the farm in person. You can watch the milking, meet young calves and best of all sample those flavours.
Tickety-Moo is located in Irvinstown, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, Ph: 44 (0) 28 68628779, email: info@tickety-moo.com or www.tickety-moo.com.
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Belle Isle School of Cookery
 Located in a small country estate in County Fermanagh, Belle Isle School of Cookery is a great place to escape to for a weekend course or a four week master course. Accommodation on the site includes The Courtyard which houses 8 self-catering cottages (which received a 4 star rating from Northern Irish Tourist Board). Or you can stay in The Cottages, you’ll have three to choose from but all are a ten minute walk from the school. Lastly you could decide upon Belle Isle Castle itself which has 8 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. The interiors were designed by renowned interior designer David Hicks.
In July courses include Indian Cookery and Perfect Pasta. August offers Summer Entertaining and Sweet and Savoury Tarts while in October consider a course on Autumn Entertaining or Fish and Seafood. Belle Isle School of Cookery is located in Lesbellaw, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland BT945HG. Ph: 44 (0) 2866387231 or email: info@irish-cookery-school.com or www.irishcookeryschool.com.
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Ireland’s Spring Treasure Hunt
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Wonders Ireland’s Culinary Scene: “Homegrown with a Dash of Exotic”
 Few people outside of Ireland saw this one coming, yet the entire island has slipped quietly into a new role as a must-visit destination for food-lovers from all over the world. In early 2008, champagne corks were popping in restaurants across the country when the latest batch of Michelin stars was awarded. Ireland now has seven Michelin-star restaurants. The two new additions to the fold—Mint Restaurant and Bon Appetit in Dublin—both managed to secure the coveted status within two years of opening, which is an indication of how truly dynamic and vibrant the Irish culinary scene has become.
Irish chefs quite literally cook meals “fit for a king”—or, rather, a queen. Kevin Dundon has cooked for many celebrities and international figures during his career, including the Queen of England, President Bush and Bono. Kevin went on to establish Dunbrody House, which is now considered one of Ireland’s premier establishments. The cookery school he established at the hotel has become one of the most respected in the country. Dunbrody has won numerous awards, among them Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, and Country House of the Year.
The style of food obviously varies greatly at these and other Irish restaurants, but what they all have in common is the warmth and individuality that has always been at the heart of Irish hospitality—and, no matter how diverse the courses, their basic building blocks are the excellent raw materials for which Ireland has a wonderful reputation.
 In Belfast, Restaurant Michael Deane maintained its outstanding record and received the illustrious Michelin star for the twelfth year running. Northern Ireland is, in fact, a gastronome’s hot spot, with a great choice of options from fine dining and enticing seafood bars to dozens of attractive, casual restaurants, cafés and pubs.
A mild climate, extensive pastureland and a pride in animal husbandry produce excellent beef, lamb, pork and poultry. You will also encounter a living baking tradition, the fruits of which you can enjoy at afternoon tea in numerous home bakeries, cafés and teashops. There has long been a heritage of apple-growing in Armagh and Portadown, and the glorious sight of the apple blossoms in season is not to be missed. The vast waterways and Irish Sea play a huge part in the cuisine, which features seafood from the sheltered waters of Strangford and Carlingford Loughs, Lough Neagh eels (a local delicacy), prawns from the pretty village of Portavogie, and superb Dundrum oysters, the perfect accompaniment to a creamy pint of Guinness.
 Ireland’s famous pastures make for a wide range of fabulous products, notably beef and lamb, while its rivers and seas provide an abundance of fresh fish and seafood. Local produce is a point of pride in the best kitchens everywhere, and a growing interest in specialist production is reflected in the availability of products like hand-smoked fish and meats, baked goods and preserves, plus a wide range of organic vegetables and fruit, many of which are sold at local farmers markets.
The final cog in the Irish culinary wheel can be seen at some of the stunning luxury hotels across the island. These wonderful properties are only too aware that along with beautiful lodgings, they must provide outstanding cuisine to match. The Merchant and the Culloden in Belfast and the Dylan in Dublin, for example, have invested in chefs with years of international expertise, and they are reaping the rewards of providing the “total hotel package.” Their kitchens, like many others throughout the island, have taken Ireland’s homegrown ingredients and flavors, sprinkled in a dash of the exotic, and now offer a dining experience to rival anywhere in the world.
 Why eat wonderfully for only a day or two when you can learn to cook sublimely at home as well? There are few things more enjoyable than whiling away an afternoon up to your elbows in flour, baking a loaf of soda bread, or learning to combine kale, scallions, potatoes and butter to make the perfect dish of colcannon. Plentiful in Ireland, cookery schools allow visitors to combine a holiday with a short cookery course.
Complementing this expert tuition are the idyllic locations of some of these schools. The Belle Isle School of Cookery near Enniskillen is deep in the heart of the lush Fermanagh lakelands, while Ballynocken House and Cookery School is nestled in the hills of the Garden of Ireland, County Wicklow.
If hands-on seems like too much hard work, then why not try a thoroughly satisfying afternoon demonstration by celebrity chef Darina Allen at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, East Cork? Here—and, indeed, in most Irish cookery schools—you can investigate the kitchen garden where much of the produce used is grown using traditional or organic farming methods. Students are taught classic or creative modern cookery in a homely setting that, like the Irish culinary scene, leaves you always wanting seconds.
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The Gourmet’s Guide to Ireland
 Varied rural landscapes, the natural friendliness of the people, the tradition of hospitality and the unique quality of the food experience make Ireland a wonderful place for a foodie holiday. The island is small enough that you can reach any point within a few hours—you’ll be surprised at how much terrain you can cover in a short time. For such a small island, you’ll also be pleasantly surprised at how much there is to see and do.
The unique food experience in Ireland involves far more than just tasting regional specialties, such as air-dried hill lamb from Connemara, eels from Lough Neagh, or blaas (a floury bread roll) from Waterford. You’ll want to visit specialist shops and food markets to meet with farmers, artisan food producers and farmhouse cheesemakers—all of these highly skilled people have a passion for food that has been passed down through generations. And traveling through Ireland, you will quickly appreciate the healthy, verdant landscape as the source of these fine food ingredients.
 Today, Ireland produces and exports grass-fed meat (beef, lamb, pork, wild boar and venison); dairy is also an important industry, with Irish milk, butter and creamery-produced cheese sold around the world. You only have to stand at the piers in Killybegs, County Donegal; Kilkeel, County Down; or Dunmore, County Waterford, and watch foreign buyers frantically trying to outbid each other for the day’s catch to understand the importance of Irish fish and seafoods.
Bushmills and Jameson Irish whiskeys are also well-traveled; likewise, there are few who wouldn’t instantly recognize an Irish stout in the guise of Guinness, Beamish or Murphy’s, while Bulmers and Magners Irish ciders and liqueurs such as Bailey’s Irish Cream are as familiar worldwide as they are at home. The history of Irish whiskey can be traced on guided tours through any of the Irish whiskey visitor centers: the Irish Whiskey Corner in Dublin, Bushmills Distillery in County Antrim, and the Jameson Heritage Centre in Midleton, County Cork.
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The Irish Food Scene by Top Irish Chef Rachel Allen
 In the United States, the concept of great eating means more and more the best of fresh, seasonal, local and traditional food. Lush and green and full of happy grass-fed dairy cows, Ireland almost seems to epitomize that way of cooking. To a certain extent that theme has always been quite strong in Ireland, but there has definitely been more emphasis on this concept in the last few years. This is due to a few factors, among them the huge increase in farmers’ markets springing up all over the country where the producer gets to sell seasonal and local foods directly to the consumer. The producers of our food are definitely being seen as the heroes now. It makes so much sense in Ireland to eat like this, as we have such fantastic resources available—such good meat, dairy and vegetables—because of our rich, fertile land. There has also been a resurgence in artisan producers making food by traditional methods, such as cheese making, meat curing and fish smoking.
There are so many artisan producers, veterans and those new to the game, who are being celebrated, rightly so, for their wonderful products. Among them are Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen Farm, who rears his own animals and makes divine salamis, chorizos and other cured meats according to traditional Irish and European recipes and methods. His parents, Giana and Tom, make the delicious and multi-award-winning Gubbeen cheese at the farm too. Frank Hederman is a smoker of all things fishy, and people go in droves to markets and shops around Ireland to buy his smoked mussels, salmon, eel mackerel and pâtés.
The term “modern Irish food” has actually returned to its roots, so to speak; modern Irish food is more about celebrating the best of what we have here, be it fantastic local vegetables or great dairy or meat, teamed up with our best artisanal products. There is no denying that we have fantastic spuds, so a great Irish meal would often consist of potatoes in some manner or form. I love a buttery mashed potato with shredded and cooked kale or dark-green leafy cabbage stirred through it; this is known as colcannon. Or even soup made from potatoes and kale or cabbage (so long as it is not overcooked!), then maybe a pâté made from smoked mackerel served with wonderful crumbly Irish brown Soda Bread.
There really is nothing like a delicious Irish stew using sweet and succulent lamb (or actually hogget or even mutton) with new baby carrots, sweet little onions, fragrant herbs and, of course, the best potatoes—this on a winter’s day is just what one needs. In the summer (and often in wintertime, too), I love having a lunch that is basically a plate with a selection of all the best things that I found at the market that day—cured meats, salami, smoked fish, homemade mayonnaise, wonderful relishes, cucumber and beetroot pickles, great cheeses and some delicious bread on the side with some homemade country butter .
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Ireland’s Farmer’s Markets
 There is only one problem you will face when confronted with all the culinary goodies before you when you visit any of the new generation of farmers’ markets in Ireland: How on earth will you keep your self-control? After all, you do need some of Frank’s smoked mackerel pâté when you go to Midleton, and some of Seamus’s sushi when in Galway; and you need Valerie’s country butter when in Clonakilty, and David’s cider when in Temple Bar; and you need Con’s apple juice when in Cahir, and so, endlessly, delightfully, on and on.
So how come all these markets have sprouted and developed and flourished throughout Ireland during the last five years? Where have the bakers and cake makers and chocolatiers and sausage makers and fish smokers come from? The answer is simple: Ireland has simply rediscovered its noble tradition of rural markets, and has added a few in the metropolitan and urban areas also. But what is new is the color and choice these markets offer. Hand-caught and home-smoked trout in Galway. Tapas in Dublin’s Temple Bar. Wild boar sausages in Macreddin, County Wicklow. Single estate teas in Blackrock, County Dublin. Sea vegetable tapenade in Limerick, or sea vegetable–flavored artisan cheeses in Dingle. There are organic and bio-dynamic vegetables in Dublin and Douglas, fresh oysters in Galway and Dublin. There are chocolate sauces in Naas and seasonal pumpkins in Trim. In Belfast, you’ll find organic chickens and some of Trevor’s spicy, but nicey, sausages and his fantastic cured gammons.
 Best of all, the markets let you meet the people who create and produce these splendid foods. You can buy an almond slice from the baker who baked it, or smoked bacon from the young guy who reared the pigs and then smoked the bacon. You can ask what fresh cheese the cheese-maker has this week, or have a taste of what the butter made from spring milk is like. The creator of the food is also the seller and stallholder. This is shopping as it should be: fun, festive (even if it’s the middle of February), vibrant, animated, connected, spontaneous, with the food chain brought back to its origins: a producer making food and selling directly to the customer, with nothing but a trestle table in between them.
 The farmers’ markets of Ireland are places of dynamic creativity, places where new foods, new ideas, new experiments are always in evidence, are always in ferment. In Lisburn, there might be some brand-new fresh cheese or a seasonal chutney to be enjoyed. In Dingle, there might be smoked pumpkin seeds. In Carlow, you might find an apricot croissant, or puffball mushrooms, or heritage tomatoes bursting with ample red fleshiness. Visit the markets, and you get a snapshot of modern Ireland. From north to south, there is bonhomie, bounty, a sense of the blissful sensuality the Irish—at heart a Mediterranean people—invest in their food and their food culture.
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