Irish Food Bloggers Event, Bord Bia

A few weeks ago, Donal Skehan of the Good Mood Food Blog decided to update his blogroll. He was aiming to create a list of the most regularly updated Irish food blogs; something that I hadn’t as of then come across in any of the internet’s many corners. If that wasn’t enough, he also planned - with the help of Bord Bia – an ‘event’ to facilitate this update that would see a whole host of the aforementioned Irish food bloggers gathered in one place for a gastronomic chat, iPhone frenzy, Twitter-thon and all of the inbetweens! Luckily, I caught wind of all this early on and managed to secure an invite, despite only being just three months into the whole food bloggery (my new favourite word!) lark. Roll on an incredibly humid Thursday and there I was, rubbing shoulders with around thirty other bloggers from various counties in Ireland and even a handful who hailed from overseas! Some, like me, were new and a few others were altogether seasoned (no pun intended, but I might as well...) but nearly all of us had never experienced something like this before.

Of course, to just stick a group of food bloggers into a room and let everything develop organically from there would have been far too much of a comical disaster waiting to happen, so an afternoon’s worth of entertainment and foodie showmanship had been arranged to keep all of our minds busy. Kicking off the festivities was Bord Bia’s Maeve Desmond to welcome everybody who had arrived on time, ie not me. Five minutes later (plus my own personal nametag!) and I got in just in time to catch the start of David Owen of Bord Bia’s meat department’s presentation on Irish pork.

Speaking of which, as part of the buildup to the event, Bord Bia kindly arranged for several pork packs to be distributed to quite a number of the bloggers in attendance. This was all in light of an ongoing promotional drive of Irish pork products by Bord Bia, the reputation of which has suffered in recent years due to a largely isolated hiccup in 2008. Rest assured, the pork that was delivered to my door was quite possibly some of the best meat I’ve ever tasted. It also did nothing to help dispel Irish stereotypes given that it was signed for and taken by Rebecca (proper Cockerney luv!) from a farmer wearing none other than a straw hat! In the end we used it to made two dishes: roasted pork with homemade colcannon and apple sauce, and sweet and sour pork with udon noodles. I wasn’t entirely happy with either recipe at the time so neither have featured on the blog, but after tasting meat that delicious you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be giving it another whirl in the not too distant future!

So, the recurring theme of the day quickly turned out to be a porky one. Well, after Lorraine Fitzmaurice of Blazing Salads had taken her turn at demonstrating some vegetarian cooking for us that is. She was kind enough to take time out of what I’m sure is a hectic schedule to give pointers on baking spelt soda bread and how to create a quick and simple miso pesto tagliatelle dish that was just as quickly gobbled up by everyone in attendance!

Following shortly afterwards was a presentation by master butcher Pat Conway of GMIT who provided the best tagline of the afternoon: ‘and if Maeve will allow me the time!’ with regards to everything, anything he sought to do.

An entertainer in the making if not already a skilled butcher, Pat explained in precise detail the ins and outs of preparing your very own sausages, loin and shoulder of pork with not one piece of meat spared. The lovely Maire Dufficy then proceeded to rustle up a plethora of dishes using similar cuts of meat, also introducing pork belly and mince into the mix.

The best tip we picked up along the way? Don’t annoy your local butcher by only having him mince a small amount of pork for you at once, their mincing machine will have to be cleaned out afterwards.

A quick networking tips and pointers session for Damien Mulley led us into lunch, which, as you may have guessed, featured plenty of delicious pork loin and belly cuts with the added bonus of a very light cheesecake for dessert! Of course, nobody touched the food for a good five minutes for the sake of photography; it’s nice to know I’m not alone in eating most of my meals lukewarm.

Time constraints meant that advice from Eoin Purcell about developing your blog into other forms of media had to be delivered at the same time as the cheesecake, whilst the following hour or thereabouts was dedicated entirely to the professional food styling of Jacosta Clarke and Erica Ryan. Altogether they provided some fantastic tips but reading through my fellow bloggers’ pages does nothing but suggest that anybody actually needed them!

What followed was probably the last thing anyone with the slightest ounce of common sense should have done: left a mountain of culinary freebies for a gaggle of food bloggers to consume. To sum it up, I walked off with a bush of rosemary in hand, cheese in a folder and smoked trout in my pocket. There were delightful oat biscuits courtesy of Lilly Higgins, a great range of Good4U produce, herbal tea and even shredded, dried beef by a company called Biltong; the closest thing I’ve seen to American beef jerky on this side of the Atlantic! Let’s put it this way: I ended up with wrist cramp at having to figure out the best way to carry my plunder up Nassau Street.

That’s not to say I didn’t spend time chatting to my fellow food bloggers before leaving, no. I met some great people there from all kinds of different backgrounds, many of them named Aoife coincidentally! To actually put a face to some of the Irish blogs I’d already seen was a big thrill, and to discover new ones even better. If I learned anything from the group, it’s that many felt exactly the same way about the recipes they post as I do: worry over whether or not it’s good enough. At the end of the day however, what I see on their blogs consistently looks and sounds fantastic so I guess the right attitude to adopt is to put yourself in everybody else’s shoes and imagine they think the same about your own work; it’s probably the truth! Either way, only good things can come of us networking between each other, especially for me given I’m always on the lookout for dining buddies. I managed to catch up with Donal briefly as well, who’s midway through writing his second cookbook at this stage.

All in all, the food bloggers event was a massive success and a great experience for everyone involved. Maeve, Donal and Klara Golez of Bord Bia did a fantastic job at arranging the entire event, so a huge thank you goes out to them from myself and Consumed. Apart from that, all I have to say (or ask, rather!) is when’ll the next one be? And count me in.

One minor note to finish up with: check out my blogroll. Just do it. You’ll see it now contains virtually all of the blogs listed on Donal’s update. Like he says, us foodies have to stick together!

Cola Flavoured Yop: a Blast of Validation from the 1990s

‘You’re a liar’, ‘it was just a dream’, ‘don’t be stupid, they’d never mix yoghurt with cola’ and ‘my, haven’t we an active imagination?’; all replies I got to my recent suggestions that a Yop that was cola flavoured could be found on supermarket shelves at one stage during the early nineties.

Up until two years ago, Google went at least some way toward backing me up with a few sporadic mentions of it, but recently there’s been zip, nadda; absolutely nothing to suggest that such a Yop ever existed. So, I did the only thing I could: I e-mailed Yoplait’s Irish customer service address in hope that they could validate me where nobody else would. Then I waited. A day, two days, a week... I had visions of everybody in the customer services office having a laugh riot at the implication that a cola flavoured Yop ever existed. So, I pretty much gave up on the idea of ever being able to prove myself right. It was over. Or was it? Yesterday, I opened my hotmail and surprisingly, there was an e-mail from one Eve O’Leary. No prizes for guessing what she said, all that matters is that yes, they did exist and no, I amn’t losing my mind. Yet. Validation achieved, and here’s the screencap to prove it!

What I find interesting is of course the mention that it may be reconsidered as a flavour at some stage. Naturally you’d take a comment like that with a pinch of salt, but my nostalgic, ignorant inner child really does hope it happens. If they did, I’d at least know if my memory’s in full working order and I still do actually remember what they taste like. Back then at the age of four-ish, anything cola flavoured was considered a treat so naturally I only got to taste two or three of these pan dairy-mineral delights before they were banned altogether. Nonetheless, the flavour has, for some odd reason, stuck with me. Well, what I think it tasted like has.

So, I’d like to say a big thank you to Eve O’Leary at Glanbia for taking the time to respond to my odd enquiry. Not only has she validated my sanity, but she’s proven all of the doubters wrong. All that’s left now is to kick start a petition to return cola flavoured Yops to our shelves and my work here will be done!

Meeting Extreme Pizza's Philip Martin

A few weeks ago, Rebecca and myself had lunch in Rathmines’ newest restaurant, Extreme Pizza. Any of you who are following Consumed will remember that I was excited about finally trying out the menu I’d read so much about prior, but ultimately left disappointed with what had been served up. There’s no need to elaborate, the pizza we ate on that day just didn’t live up to our expectations. I wrote up a review summing up as much, and that was effective the end of that for all intents and purposes.

Unbeknownst to myself, it would take Philip Martin – owner of Extreme Pizza and effective master of the franchise on this side of the Atlantic – only a couple of days to come across my review and get in touch with me regarding it. How he did so is still a mystery to me, but there’s a big online campaign behind this particular restaurant (with Philip himself at the helm) so it may well have been brought to his attention through Extreme Pizza’s growing fan base. Regardless, he not only took any criticisms I had on board but was also kind enough to invite me for a chat about the food itself, to see where I thought the problem lay. A week or so later and there I was, back in Extreme Pizza much earlier than I’d intended to be!

And on that small note, let me give you a little insight into my philosophy on bad dining experiences. We all have them, whether or not it’s to do with service, the restaurant itself or a simple matter of the food on offer not appealing to your tastes. They happen, and in many cases we all immediately decide never go back to X, Y or Z eatery again after only a handful of hiccups on their part. Personally, I think this attitude is a terrible one to take when it comes to dining out. It’s important to remember that most restaurants are extremely dynamic places; service, atmosphere and the food are almost never the same on any given day or at any given hour and what you eat is, of course, a mere fraction of the entire menu. If you thought one single item from said menu was sub-par, it’s entirely reasonable to imagine that it may just have been an off day where the cook and that particular dish are concerned. We are, after all, only human and this applies to everybody who is working an ever worked in a restaurant. To expect comparatively consistent perfection – even proportionately – is a fool’s errand. To complain with conviction when you don't get it is even worse. Instead, expect the best that can be done and, as you should do in general throughout life, throw in a bit of empathy for good measure. In a nutshell, don’t rule out giving restaurants a second chance if one or two things go wrong! I never do, and Extreme Pizza was no exception to this. The only difference here was that instead of going of my own volition, Philip was inviting me back personally.

Of course, I wasn’t visiting for a meal this time. No, what had been arranged instead was a sampling plate of select ingredients from the pizzas Rebecca and I had ordered the last time and a half n’ half pizza from the menu. Philip and myself talked about food and the business, I tried the ingredients and gave what I thought was the advice best suited to the problems I’d experienced with the previous two pizzas. The main issue beforehand had been the thickness of the base which ended up dominating the pizza, however this time around I was introduced to Extreme Pizza’s wholemeal base; more flavoursome yet considerably thinner without pushing into Neapolitan thickness territory. It yielded space for the flavours of the pizza toppings themselves to shine, and altogether worked far better than the plain version we’d eaten the last time.

As for the ingredient platter, it raised more questions for me about how the cooking process affected good tasting, fresh ingredients. Philip takes pride in how he sources those that go into his pizzas, with a meticulous selection process going into each one. He sources the salami himself, with two varieties currently on offer. The tomato sauce used in some of the pizza recipes tasted fantastic, and I pointed out that Rebecca’s pizza had suffered from a lack of it. Other customers had done the same, but Philip puts this down to a matter of taste at the end of the day; some like more sauce, some don’t. I’d still say that more could definitely be used, if only in tandem with the normal base.

What was also brought to my attention that hadn’t been during our last visit was Philip’s enthusiasm for micro breweries; small beer and ale producing companies a that, in general, create a much more refined drink than what you’d get from the bigger multi-nationals. They feature heavily on Extreme Pizza’s chalk board, with Curim in particular standing out as one I recognised. It’s great to see serious, positive backing to local companies like this, especially from restaurants that you wouldn’t normally expect to provide it! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to push my luck enough to get a sample, but when I do go back I most definitely will.

Yes, if I hadn’t already made it clear then let me make it even clearer: I will indeed soon be returning to Extreme Pizza for another meal. Under normal circumstances I’d definitely have been a little slower to, but here we have a restaurant that’s run by somebody with a genuine passion for what he does; enough to see my and Rebecca’s negative dining experience not an irreversible disaster, but rather an opportunity to make amends and show off what he can offer instead. That alone is reason enough to bump it up into second chance salon, never mind that what I tried when meeting him tasted much better! Even if, somehow, the food still then isn’t my cup of tea for round two, I still have great respect for what Philip showed me in how he approaches running a restaurant. Any up and coming catering enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find a better role model. And if you happen to be just plain interested in a chat about pizza, he’s got you covered there too!

Taste of Ranelagh Festival Preview

I said it at the beginning, in that little 'about me' paragraph to the right and I will say it again: this blog is as much about my own foodie learning experience as it is yours, if indeed those of you who read it have any learning left to do! I make no pretences to being able to cook effortlessly, and I have a long way to go in terms of exploring the rich tapestry of Dublin's epicurean scene. Food festivals, and my lack of attendance therein, fall firmly into the latter shortcoming. With embarrassment, I'll admit I've never actually been to one in Ireland yet! Markets; yes. Events in other countries; a few times. But never one of Dublin's numerous foodie festivals. Why, you ask? Because I never actually took the time to check and see if I could find out when and where they took place.

Fortunately, a lot has changed. Lazy Rob has jumped out of a skyscraper window and what's left is an excited young man, a little bit more up to speed with what's in the pipeline and eagerly awaiting his first food festival experience. Which, coincidentally, is coming up tomorrow.

Yes, it's back to the proverbial restaurant Mecca that is Ranelagh once again! Only on this occasion, they're all coming together for the Taste of Ranelagh Festival. For the first time ever, the combined forces of over fifteen local restaurants, shops and the Ranelagh village market throw what's described as a 'complimentary taste experience', designed to showcase what each of them can do and draw in prospective eaters. There'll be food, drink, cooking demonstrations and a voting competition to select the outright restaurant, dish and cocktail of the year. It's a wonderful collaboration, the best part of which is that it's entirely free!

Considering that Ranelagh village is, on the nicest of weekends, a must visit for any Dublin foodie, the Taste of Ranelagh Festival is an absolute no-brainer. It's also an ideal starter to the eventual main that is the Taste of Dublin Festival. So, if you have the Sunday off and fancy a culinary experience to knock you off your feet then swing by; it's only a Luas journey away.

Taste of Ranelagh Festival
Ranelagh Village Market Marquee,
Ranelagh Village,
Dublin 6

http://www.tasteofranelagh.ie/

Taste of Dublin Festival Preview

It's the one event of the year that every Dublin foodie should have penned in on their calendar: the Taste of Dublin Festival. Now in its fifth year, you'll find it held annually for several days in June at one of the city's most picturesque locations, the Iveagh Gardens. What normally is one of Dublin's more quiet and secluded parks will, for four days, play host to a collection of the most exciting chefs in Ireland, over fifteen restaurant teams, inumerable Irish food exhibitions and up to thirty-thousand hungry Dubliners. This year's festival will in particular will be my first ever (assuming I get the time off work, that is) and also something of a mini school reunion since an old classmate of mine, Donal Skehan of the Good Mood Food Blog, will be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dorina Allen and Neven Maguire in the chef demonstration pot! To say that I'm excited is an understatement, and with a good summer predicted it's bound to be a blowout.

The festival runs from the 10th through 13th of June and tickets are now availalable, handily coming in three categories to suit your wallet; standard, premium or VIP. Purchasing premium upward will also grant you twenty florins, a Taste Festival currency which can be used to buy the various dishes on offer, the average price of which is six florins or thereabouts. Come with money to spare, bring your cookbooks for autographs and most importantly, don't spoil your appetite!

Taste of Dublin Festival
June 10th - 13th,
Iveagh Gardens,
Clonmel Street,
Dublin 2

Tph hotline for ticket bookings: 0818-30-00-30

http://www.tastefestivals.ie

The Importance of Being Serviced

Yes, the title of this entry is a terrible play on words that has probably been recycled a hundred times in any number of food blogs. It also wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of people thought it extremely stuck up; not everyone is particularly bothered about whether or not you get a smile when the Subway girl hands over your change or how much in depth knowledge a waiter has of his wine list after all. So I apologise for making you cringe through it. The unavoidable truth is, however, that service is arguably the second most important part of any meal you pay for and as such, the cheesy title is warranted.

As we all know, service forms the link between the food you eat and the experience any given restaurant offers. It has the remarkable power to brighten your day when you find it in places you wouldn’t expect; equally so it can downright spoil an evening when it adds an undeserved percentage to what’s already a terrifying bill. Service is, of course, especially important when dining out proper, as the aim of any respectable restaurant should be to make the entire experience a relaxing one, altogether sending the customer away feeling like he or she had been the centre of attention and properly appreciated.

Here’s where I like to add a bit of perspective. You’d know very well not to expect Patrick Guilbaud’s surgical precision in say, Juice of George’s Street; most of their mains clock in at around the ten euro mark as opposed to fifty. Time and manners should, by comparison, be all that you’re concerned about. It’s what you’re paying for, right? As such, in restaurants like Juice, the little things that you shouldn’t expect make a huge and endearing difference: the glass of water appearing at your table without having to ask, regular refilling of said glass, unprompted recital of the day’s specials and a check up during each course... none of this you’d necessarily miss – and indeed probably don’t – in many similar restaurants but Juice impressively nails each one. It points firmly in the direction of a good, customer orientated mindset which deserves just as many plaudits as any enjoyable meal and will ultimately do half the work of drawing visitors back in for seconds.

Perspective can also be applied to the lower end of the eatery scale. Take McDonald’s: a fast food business where the fundamental idea is to get the food out into the waiting mouths and be done with it. They’re never going to produce a dickie bow wearing Ronald lookalike to personally deliver your meal, but you can still differentiate between a location that actively makes an effort toward offering service that isn’t necessarily expected and another that doesn’t. Think one in which the guy behind the counter offers to bring the food to your table if it’s quiet, instead of silently asking you to wait. This isn’t a difference that’ll to put you in a bad mood like a wrong order in an upmarket restaurant would, but it’s a small gesture that demonstrates whoever is serving you acknowledges the experience of the individual as opposed to the masses. You won’t ever tip him for it (shame on you!), but it certainly ought to register as an example of good quality service.

The reason I’m discussing this at length (although given how long every other entry is, so far it’s about right!) is because the other day, I had two very contrasting experiences with service. I was in town with Grace and, as always, looking for a place to eat before she headed Cinema-ways for Alice in Wonderland. I’d been racking my brain for a restaurant nearby Henry Street that I wanted to try and finally, I remembered that I hadn’t yet visited Koh on the Millennium Walk. I’d always heard good things about it; the combination of Asian fusion cuisine served in a trendy bar setting had several reviewers writing all sorts of pleasantries when it first opened. Awards soon followed, and it’s been firmly rooted on my ‘to do’ list since. It was decided. At first, getting a seat on a Friday night looked a difficult ask but they soon had us at a table with menus in hand. One plate of prawn crackers with a sweet chilli dip later and I’d chosen both a starter and main: Vietnamese shredded chicken salad followed by Thai style king scallop and prawns. Grace was skipping both and going straight to dessert as per usual, the Thai sticky rice and mango rolls in particular catching her attention. The salad, when it arrived, turned out to be a perfectly light and fragrant starter with the added bonus of ground peanuts! Nothing to get excited over if you’re allergic, especially given it wasn’t actually listed on the menu (I’d question what anybody with an aversion to peanuts is doing in an Asian restaurant in the first place to be honest) but for myself it was a welcome addition to the dish. Grace’s dessert was happily delivered at the same time and reminded me very much of a milk rice pudding I’d had in the now deceased Rajdoot. In other words, it was extremely delicious. She finished and split for the film, I stayed for the main. Ten minutes passed. Then twenty, thirty and finally forty without so much as a word from any of the staff. Yes, they had glanced in my direction quite a number of times but I hadn’t been looking for their attention, so nothing happened. By the time it was nearing three quarters of an hour I gave up, explained what had happened and paid for what I’d eaten. Why did I not simply point out to the staff that there’d obviously been a mix up with my main order you ask? Because the mistake itself was entirely independent of their failure to notice that nothing was happening at my table, despite it being a) a Friday night in an obviously popular spot where turning a table should probably have been a concern, and b) the aforementioned multiple looks in my direction. The manager was naturally apologetic, and in fairness offered to take one of two items off the bill as a good will gesture. Personally, I prefer to pay in full for whatever I’ve eaten; I’ll never request items be removed but won’t say no in cases like this, so I did appreciate the effort when he brought it up. The problem was that I paid for everything despite this. Whoops!

Now a few Euros lighter and feeling just as hungry, I decided to make a bee-line for Eddie Rockets on O’Connell Street since word had, by now, gotten around that they’ve completely revamped their menu. As always, you’re immediately seated by whoever’s on security detail (in this particular branch) and within minutes, seen to by one of the waiters. In this case, I wasn’t given a menu immediately and it looked like the beginnings of another wait. Thankfully, a waitress noticed that I was on my lonesome after only three minutes and quickly fixed the problem. Eddie’s 1, Koh 0. A quick glance at the menu reveals that last year’s blue plate special ‘sliders’ are now a permanent fixture, and at four euro for two with a decent portion of chips to boot you’re looking at one of the best meal bargains Dublin city has to offer outright!


The sliders themselves are miniature versions of the classic hamburger (based on the White Castle favourite, stateside) with a small slice of cheese, Eddie’s secret sauce and fried onions thrown in on top. Simple, compact, tasty and filling. Midway through, the same waitress who’d spotted me earlier checked up to see if everything was okay. Eddies 2, Koh 0. I finished up quickly and left the tip that would have otherwise gone to Koh if everything had worked out.

The difference between Eddies and Koh is obvious. The latter is a twenty euro main course restaurant; a trendy spot that’s built up a fairly decent reputation amongst Dublin’s foodie elite in the past couple of years. It's the kind of place you’d expect – at the very least – regular checkups on the diners. Yet for forty-five minutes, I was stuck in a bubble! Eddies, on the other hand, is a near fast food café style eatery where few, if anyone, expect much beyond a burger and fries to be delivered, yet alone good service. Where Koh got it all wrong, Eddies got it absolutely right but what’s important to acknowledge is that none of what they did well was anything they necessarily had to do, beyond getting a menu into my hand to begin with of course. Perspective is the watchword. Everything that Koh did wrong, on the other hand, was a service disaster, because they forgot the absolute basics on a night where they needed to get those at least right. This was made a double shame since the food itself had been pretty enjoyable, and for that reason I will eventually go back; mistakes do after all happen everywhere and I don’t complain for the sake of it, but this was unfortunately one that repeated itself over the forty minutes. In a nutshell, I’d have major concerns if this wasn’t the first time it’s happened in Koh but will be happy to revisit to, hopefully, try out the rest of their menu.

Ultimately, I prefer to concentrate on whatever positives I can take from a bad situation. I had an enjoyable meal in Eddies and discovered that they now offer what’s probably the best value on decent food in the city. If you haven’t already checked out their new menu – and I’m sure most of you have – then get down there right now for a few sliders! And if you’re happy with their service, don’t forget to tip.

Koh Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge
New Millennium Walkway,
Dublin 1

Tph: 01-8146777

http://www.koh.ie/

Eddie Rockets
O’Connell Street,
Dublin 1

Tph: 01-8722374

http://www.eddierockets.ie/iopen24/

A Serving of Intent

Food. I like food. I like it a lot. Burgers, pies, steak, truffle, sushi, I like it all. I probably like what I haven’t even tasted yet! That's not to say I've liked food forever; there was a time that I felt sick at the thought of pizza, all kinds of ham and, shock horror, cheese too but thankfully, those days are long since gone. As they passed, I started visiting restaurants. Many, many restaurants; Restaurants in Dublin, restaurants in New York, Stockholm, London, Edinburgh; Italian restaurants, Moroccan restaurants, restaurants that dealt in cuisine that you could only consider an invention in themselves! The list is extensive. Some I visited only once, others, like Yamamori, I seem to end up in almost daily. The importance I came to realise was that no matter where it was or how good the food, I was always accumulating, learning, consuming ‘foodie’ knowledge as I went.

Up until recently, I never felt any urge to share beyond friends anything I’d discovered along this pretty delicious culinary voyage but in 2008, a restaurant called Kitty's Bistro closed its doors. Then, in 2009, Mint of Ranelagh followed suit. The final straw was the popular Bang Café in the early months of 2010. When I saw that dreaded paper sheet in Bang’s door window I stopped and thought of all the people who had never eaten a meal in these good establishments, myself included (regretfully) when it came to Mint in particular. I decided that the only thing to do would be to start writing about them, all of them, and never stop. Leave no eatery undiscovered, no take away, food stand or greasy spoon café left unvisited lest we arrive in a month’s time and find it gone.

There are, after all, some real gems out there, fantastic places to eat in a whole spectrum of cuisines, styles and, most importantly in today's environment, affordability. My and Consumed's aim is to bring these places to YOUR attention, and hopefully, in turn, your stomachs to them! Anything I cook – successfully – will also cameo, because hey, miracles do sometimes happen and you might even end up liking a recipe or two.

We all deserve a good meal; even those condemnded to die on death row get one in the end. Very little really compares to a satisfying dining experience when you think about it. It was after all Voltaire who said that “nothing could be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity”. To be honest, I know next to nothing about Voltaire beyond that he had a pretty cool name, but I do know that he had his priorities in order when it came to food. And that, boys and girls, is all that we’re concerned about here. Food.

So to wrap it up, I really hope you enjoy Consumed in the months and hopefully years to come. I hope that you find it everything that you expect a good food blog should be and most importantly that at the end of the day, I send you in direction that's right for you.

Special thanks has to go out to my lovely girlfriend Rebecca. Without her constant prodding I'd never have started writing this. Not to mention her HTML skills which helped me get the finished banner looking like it does! She's rather multi-talented, it has to be said. I'd also like to thank my friends for their support and finally, the writings of Paulo Tullio, Angela Flannery and Lucinda O'Sullivan of the Irish Independent which have been a constant source of digest God knows how many weekends now.

Bon appetit guys!