Hot Flavours: Our Tastes and Tipples of the Fortnight

Hot Flavours is all sorts of excited about the arrival in Kevin Street, Dublin 2 of Pang, the city’s first Vietnamese Rice Paper Roll restaurant. A sort of Asian take on burritos, the Prawn & Mango with Pea Shoots, Thai Basil, Noodles and Leaves with a Coconut Curry Sauce combo is the pick of a very fine bunch, and will set you back a mere €4. They also have a range of more substantial Bánh Mí open baguette sandwiches – the Beef Brisket rocks! – and traditional Pho noodle soups. lovepang.ie.

At the posher end of the culinary scale, Michelin man Andy McFadden has taken over the Fitzwilliam Hotel space vacated last year by Kevin Thornton. Promising “sensual mementos you’ll treasure”, Glovers Alley offers a two-course lunch – we’d recommend the Violet Artichoke with Bitter Leaves, Hazelnut & Foie Gras followed by the Sika Deer with Smoked Bone Marrow, Beetroot & Grapes – for €35 which is decent value for cooking of this calibre. gloversalley.ie.

Food will once again be at the heart of February 16-March 4’s Dublin Chinese New Year Festival celebrations. The opening Friday is free dumpling day in the Asia Market on Drury Street, D2 – see dublinchinesenewyear.com for details of the Mama Wong-hosted pig/veggie out.

Cully & Sully launch into 2018 with a new range of super-healthy 12-Hour Beef & Vegetable, Japanese-Style Miso, Chicken & Vegetable and Veggie broths. Available in Dunne’s and Tesco stores, they’ve already received an enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ from Queen of Nutrition, Roz Purcell. Full of quality artisan Irish ingredients, they’re also perfect as a base for more substantial stews.

Not content with selling over two million bottles of their signature Trooper Premium British Beer every year, Iron Maiden have created a new 4.1% ABV Light Brigade Golden Ale with family brewers Robinson’s, which will benefit members of the UK armed forces injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. ironmaidenbeer.com.

From the makers of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown comes the new Netflix six-parter, Rotten, which exposes some of the international food industry’s less edifying practices. These include allegations of Chinese garlic being processed by prisoners who separate bulbs from roots with their teeth; honey being adulterated with an illegal antibiotic, and yet more American chicken farming horror stories.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority says that people should go to a doctor or dietician rather than relying on the food intolerance test kits being sold by pharmacies here.
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FIVE POINTS 5.4% BRICK FIELD BROWN
While doing our bit for the Irish bar and off-licence trade by refusing to observe Dry January – everyone we know who did is now having a Flooded February – we did decide to put the barley wines and imperial stouts on ‘hold’ for a while and have a more sessionable month.
Hackney’s Five Points Brewing Co. are launching into Ireland in a big way, with this modern take on a traditional English brown the pick of a very fine bunch.
Although it says 5.4% on the label, the bold toffee, hazelnut and burnt brown sugar notes suggest a far higher ABV.
The Five Points crew are renowned for adding oats to their brews, which explains why it’s so full-bodied.
“It’s a hug in a glass,” say the tasting notes and we can do nowt but concur.