I first became aware of Mark Hix in 2007 when he appeared on season two of The Great British Menu.  He stood out to me as he seemed so quietly confident in the simplicity of his food whilst some of his competitors faffed furiously with elaborate creations – he was obviously very passionate about using superb local produce and happy to let it speak for itself.  Mark won his round with a rather fantastic, and most delightful sounding, Rabbit and Crayfish Stargazy Pie – well how could a pie with a name like that fail to impress? [Read more…]

I was most pleased to receive the excellent Bridgestone Guides to 100 Best Restaurants and 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland for 2011.  I am looking forward to having a nice hot bath this evening and a good look through – especially the Best Places to Stay as I would really like to get in a weekend away (or two) this year. I am delighted to see Knockranny House Hotel representing Mayo in both Guides, in fact KHH is Mayo’s only entry in the restaurant guide.  These comprehensive county-by-county guides are invaluable for anyone who wants to try out somewhere new or take a break here at home in Ireland.

This week also saw the launch of Eat Magazine, a new free Irish monthly publication containing lots of food and drink news, reviews, features and guides – I particularly like the Food Stuff gadget/ingredient news section.  I understand from Mikey Maguire, the man behind Eat, that the magazine will be distributed in the Dublin region but it is available nationwide online and the first edition features an excellent pull-out Dublin restaurant guide and what’s more iPhone and iPad apps are due to launch in February.

Firstly I must apologise for the lack of posts lately – I had great intentions for December but then the untimely demise of my camera coupled with year-end preparations got the better of me.  I hope you all had a wonderful break and 2011 brings you peace and happiness.

In October last year the fabulous English Mum put together a very lovely Around the web in 20 clicks – in praise of bloggers post setting out some of the blogs she likes to read.  The baton was swiftly passed to Tara at Sticky Fingers and then on to Like Mam Used To Bake.  Seeing as it is the start of a new year I thought that this might be a good time to pick up the baton and put together my own ‘top 20’ list of blogs that I like to read – and here it is. [Read more…]