Hot Flavours: Food and Drink Tips for the Fortnight

It’s a marriage made in Carlow, Offaly and, indeed, heaven. O’Hara’s Brewery has teamed up with Tullamore D.E.W. to produce a limited edition Irish Wit beer.

Deliciously malty and a highly sessionable 4% ABV, it’s fabulous with spicy dishes – we’ll never scoff a Lamb Saag again without one! – and also works well with a Greek Salad. It won’t be hanging around for long, so buy on sight!

If you’re a gyoza fan worried about carbon footprints, the good news is that these little Japanese parcels of gorgeousness are now being made, with much love, in Wicklow by Asian Artisan Food.

Available in SuperValu and specialist outlets under the Wild Wok brand name, their Pork, Prawn & Chive dumplings are nibblesome-ly good and great value too.

The big Belfast restaurant news is that the Glasgow-based Scots-Italian chef, Nico Simeone, is opening Six By Nico in March on Waring Street.

A man who loves to have fun with the food he creates, Simeone will be treating the Cathedral Quarter to a new themed menu every six weeks, with Willie Wonka, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Sicily, Childhood and The Chippie some of the ones he’s already come up with on the other side of the Irish Sea. The six-course experimental feast will be £28 or £53 with paired drinks included. There’s no launch date yet, but Snow Patrol-ers Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connolly are plotting a new Mexican eatery with Mourne Seafood man Andy Rea.

Located on the Ormeau Road, the Belfast Taco Cartel will dish up the spicy, beany, cheesy treats the lads enjoy when they’re on tour. The duo behind the Poachers mixer range, Vaughan Yates and Oisín Davis, are poised to open Ireland’s first permanent alcohol-free bar just down the road from Hot Press on Capel Street.

Open daily from 4pm-11pm, The Virgin Mary will have an extensive range of beers, wines, spirits and cocktails, but none that will make you wake up the following morning with The Fear.