Hot Flavours: Our Tastes and Tipples of the Fortnight - Never Mind The Nutribollocks

Team Hop Press are delighted to once again be descending on the Dublin RDS from September 7-9 for the latest Irish Craft Beer Festival. As in previous years, our man Stuart Clark will be hosting a series of beery panel discussions and one-on-one interviews with brewing legends across the three days.

Most importantly, there will be 300-plus beers, ciders, gins, vodkas, whiskies and other fine spirits to sample from – deep breath! - Wicklow Wolf, O’Hara’s, Falling Apple, Craigies Cider, Mont, Scotts Cider, Long Meadow, Porterhouse, Dingle Distillery, White Hag, 8 Degrees, Arthurstown, O Brother, Trouble, Kelly’s Mountain Brewing, St. Patrick’s Distillery, Boyne Brewhouse, Wicklow Brewery, Killarney Brewing, Toby’s Cider, Western Herd, Sullivan’s, Galway Hooker, Independent, Kildare, Dew Drop, Dan Kelly’s, Lough Gill, Irishtown, Reel Deel, Wood Key, Bridewell, Milcil Poitin, N17, Bonac24, MOR, Four Provinces, Priory Brewing, 2 Sides Brewing, Torc and Ballykilcavan.

With ticket prices coming down this year, it’s shaping up to be the best beery Ballsbridge three-dayer yet! Irishcraftbeerfestival.ie.

The MART Creative Hub at 23 Portobello Harbour, D8 is home from July 20-22 to Tiger Street Eats, which will include an exclusive appearance by Chan Hon Meng, the first food hawker to win a Michelin Star with his Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice. Tickets are available from eventbrite.ie for a mere tenner.

One of our Best Of Ireland must-tries, Brother Hubbard on Capel Street, has expanded into the neighbouring premises formerly occupied by celebrity chef Gary Rhodes.

Meanwhile, another of their D1 neighbours, Klaw, has popped up next to the Central Bank Building in Temple Bar with their trademark mix of New England-style seafood ‘n’ brews.

Purveyors of what he considers to be fad diets get eviscerated by The Angry Chef, AKA Anthony Warner, is his excellent new tome, Bad Science And The Truth About Healthy Eating.

“Just because eating no carbohydrates, or cutting out gluten or sugar, happened to work for one particular blogger with a large social media following does not make it a scientifically proven fact,” he proffers. “There’s GAPS, paleo, detox, gluten-free, alkaline, the sugar conspiracy, clean eating... Unfortunately, a lot of it is not only wrong but actually harmful.”

By the end of its 336 extremely animated pages, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amelia Freer, Deliciously Ella and the rest of what Warner describes as the “nutribollocks” industry will be left feeling decidedly battered and bruised.

Viewers of TV3’s The Six O’Clock Show were wowed last week by Lina Gautam, one of the driving forces behind Temple Bar’s famous Monty of Kathmandu restaurant who’s penned the fabulous Lina’s Nepalese Cookbook. Available from montys.ie priced €15, it’s equal parts childhood memoir and recipefest with her Masu Ra Mula Ko Raas Lamb & Radish Curry a thing of spicy Asian beauty!

Tipple of the Fortnight

9 White Deer 4.2% Stag Saor Stout

Don’t you dare tell ‘em, but during the summer months we stick this little beauty in the fridge for 10 minutes before popping the cap. Conventional wisdom says that chilling stout kills the flavour, but the Madagascan vanilla and cacao nibs still jump out at you when the 500cl bottles are misted.

Ballyvourney’s 9 White Deer crew only had to go down the road to Macroom to source the oats, which add to the character of their silky smooth, gluten-free creation.

Widely available through SuperValu, this really is a brew to savour. There’s also some deadly merch – ours is an XL Black Lightning Hoodie, please! – available from 9whitedeer.ie/shop.