We’ve been looking forward to this for months and it did not disappoint. An overwhelming success for the organisers and the exhibitors. We had a fantastic few hours last night, sampling and chatting. Go!
Whilst the reports on this year’s Dublin Event varied, we had a strong belief that Cork would be good simply due to the smaller scale. Auntie Fi babysat the kiddies and we drove in to County Hall for 5.30 on the Friday evening. There was some confusion over buses but we got there quite quickly (you could just as easily walk to be honest).
I’ve never been in the City Gaol. Amazing! What a fantastic site and building. We’re definitely going to be back for a tour with the kids soon. The place was hopping even at 5.45 and we immediately took a quick recce to see where everything was.
Our first port of call was Bubble Brothers and we chatted with Austin and Christopher. They had the LouderVoice review wine collars in prime position which was fantastic. We kicked off with a Brightwater Sauvignon and I think I had a sparkling Rose which was top notch.
Right next door was Kay O’Connell’s fish and we got a small pack of their sushi which was fabulous. They were all part of a large stand containing all the English Market vendors. The legendary olive stand was there too. Yummmm.
We then just bounced from stall to stall trying samples of this and that, sipping on wine and just relaxing. The crowds did start to build and some things, particularly the demo tents and wine tasting became too full so we avoided them.
We ran into the wonderful Debz and Mr Debz of Spicendipity fame and had a fun time wandering around with them. Debz recommended some sausages and satay that she had tried.
The Woodford and Bourne wine tasting seemed to be of Torres which seemed a bit pointless as surely your local Esso garage has the full set? There were also a few stands which were just there for the sake of it rather than it providing much benefit to them or us e.g. SuperValu, Denny(!), Tropicana, Lindt. I was initially excited that Innocent Smoothies were there but it was just the usual dolly-birds handing out samples.
Some of the other highlights for me were Glenilen Farm and their mousse/cheesecake, Urru with their amazing cakes, Jane Russell’s sausages, Arbutus duck rillettes and fois gras and many of the wine stands.
We realised we hadn’t really had anything substantial to eat and headed over to the “meal” area. Earlier we’d had the Fenn Quay souffle and beetroot which didn’t look great but tasted wonderful. Unfortunately when we arrived back, there were massive queues for them, Ivory Tower and Ballymaloe House. We gave up and headed back to O’Connell’s for more sushi expecting it to be quite. Boy were we wrong. Totally mobbed! I queued for what felt like half an hour and got more fab sushi and some beautiful oysters.
We got to 9.20 and they were no longer selling the florin vouchers you use to buy all the nibbles, so off we trotted home.
My guess is that there are still plenty of tickets available for today and tomorrow due to people’s concern about the weather. You’ll meet some lovely exhibitors, eat some great food and have a few drinks. Not the cheapest few hours you’ll spend, but worth it once a year.
I’ve got some old low-quality Qik videos on my YouTube Channel here
A sample:
And all my pics here on Flickr.
comments powered by Disqus