Hot Flavours: Our Food And Drink Tips For The Fortnight

Having bid a fond adieu to the RDS, the eighth annual Irish Craft Beer Festival & Gin Garden is pitching up on September 28 and 29 at the Leinster Cricket Club near Rathmines with the Ranelagh LUAS stop just ten minutes away.

Twenty-five of the country’s finest independent breweries will be sating thirsts in the Big Tent until 10.30pm both nights, with halves and pints €3 and €6 respectively. Add in live music, masterclasses, beer-friendly food, ping-pong, Janga and more, and it’s shaping up to be a cracker. Tickets priced €10 are available from irishcraftbeerfestival.ie – see hotpress.com for updates.

The city’s famous bacon industry is the inspiration for the Pigstown Culture and Food Series, which takes place throughout September in and around Limerick City’s newly launched Food Mile. The numerous highlights include the Guided Food Heritage Tours leaving No 1 Pery Square each Saturday morning at 10.30am, and ending up at the Milk Market where there are free cookery demos. pigtown.ie. Our attempts to be at least vaguely healthy are being aided by Back On Track, the new tome from former Irish Olympic runner David Gillick.

Part lifestyle manual, part cookbook, it mixes tips on things like digital detox and workouts (it’s not just our abs we’ve been crunching) with recipes for such artery unclogging fare as Spiced Chickpea Buddha Bowl and Chicken & Dublin Bay Prawn Gumbo. Our fave, though, is the simple Fermented Ketchup, which could put them Heinz folk out of business. Gillick’s even managed to make chocolate guilt-free with his Hazelnut Cocoa Squares.

Winner of a Best Vegetarian Establishment gong at last year’s Food Ireland Awards, Umi Falafel has been spreading its wings beyond its Dame Street, Dublin 2 HQ with further outlets in Rathmines, Cork and Belfast. It’s up to your good selves, of course, but we’d go for the Palestinian Falafel with a side of the smokiest Baba Ghanoush we’ve come across this side of old Beirut. They also do a very mean Grilled Haloumi Cheese number, which is yours – like its falafel-y counterpart – for a wallet friendly €6.50.

Never one to let the grass grow under his size nines, Dylan McGrath has magicked up a new range of small plate treats for The GastroBar at Fade Street Social. Two that immediately catch the tastebuds are the Charred Point End Steak with Charcoal Salt, Bone Marrow Butter, Burnt Spring Onion & Pine Nuts, and Braised Octopus with Tomato, Chorizo, Crispy Chickpea Custard, Onion Lyonnaise, Smoked Paprika & Parsley. If neither fish nor fowl passes your lips, the Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Truffle Dressing & Comté Cheese also sounds outrageously good. fadestreetsocial.com. Meanwhile, if it’s an Irish cheese toastie you’re after, look no further than Loose Canon, a new wine, charcuterie ‘n’ fromage joint at the Drury Street end of Georges Arcade in D2. Open six nights a week until 10pm – they sling their very fine hooks at five o’clock on Tuesdays – it’s standing room only and all incredibly tasty.