eating your world

you know the sort of thing "100 books to read or films to watch or places to see before you die". Now to add to our coffee table collection of books, has arrived "500 food journeys of a lifetime" a lavish luscious colourful guide to extraordinary journeys and places to eat around the globe from Puchkas in Calcutta to Mescal in Mexico. Ireland doesn't fare too badly - from fishing in the Moy valley to the kitchen garden at Longueville House Mallow. Though you'd have to question some stereotypes after reading their description of St.Patricks day in Dublin on p.84

"The Irish celebrate with parades, pub crawls and Guinness, and many also eat traditional dishes, including bacon and cabbage, soda bread, colcannon, and corned beef and cabbage."

A pub crawl around Dingle also gets a recommendation. Once while i was "visiting" Dick Macs a well known Dingle watering hole where the barman also trades as a tanner, an American couple came in wanting to buy a collar for their dog. The barman/tanner asked if they wanted a shamrock stamped on it. "Yeah..." they replied "...loads' of them"

P.S. while in the middle of writing this, Aodan O Cearbhaill, Head of School Culinary Arts came into the library with a visiting academic, M Andre Cointreau, the Director of Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. And yes, on p.121 there is an entry for the school. See also the blog post from 29th Jan.

School of culinary arts

"C'EST HORRIBLE!" he shouts at me. With that, he begins a rant. "Ca n'est pas difficile! . . . Pourquoi presenteriez-vous ce plat?! . . . Vous ne pourriez pas servir ceci!"

So begins "The Sharper the knife, the less you cry: love, laughter and tears at the world's most famous cooking school" by Kathleen Flinn. I looked quickly to see if it was about Cathal Brugha st., or whether the author Kathleen Flinn was a graduate from here. But no and even allowing for the fact that "most of the names have been changed" it is based not on DIT but the famed (or feared?) Le Cordon Blue cooking school in Paris. But prehaps, like Ratatouille, you might recognise some of the characters portrayed and think hey yeah that kinda reminds me of ......