Food Festival in Lisdoonvarna

Lisdoonvarna was the place to be last weekend. Slow Food Clare had organised a Food Festival. It started on Friday afternoon with speeches from John McKenna and several Clare based business people on different subjects. As I went to the Cork City Slow Food event instead - I missed all the speeches. Local restaurants had special rates for visitors.

Saturday and Sunday was dedicated to cooking demonstrations and farmer's market. Darina Allen opened the market on Saturday with a speech that we all should support our local markets but she also hit out on institutions like prisons, hospitals etc to buy more Irish produce (I totally agree here by the way).

We met Thomas from the Ponaire Coffee Roastery in Limerick. A nice guy. His wife is doing all the roasting of the beans herself and Steve was a happy man leaving the stall with 2 big packages of strong coffee. Cheese - my favourite subject next to wine was also on offer. We got some amazing matured cheddar (not Hegarty's but very close) and I grabbed also some Irish feta. All types of cakes, bread, jams etc were on display and all stalls had tastings to offer. I loved the atmosphere as it was buzzing and the stall holders were happy to talk about their produce. I had 2 great days in Clare.

Sunday morning we went for a spin as the BBQ wouldn't start before 1pm and ended up in The Burren Perfumery - okay okay, it's not foodie but I enjoyed myself nevertheless.

Back to Lisdoonvarna....wow it was even more buzzing than on Saturday - with live music wanting you to linger around longer. Cooking demonstrations were given by Darina Allen (in lieu for Clodagh McKenna who cancelled), Dianne Curtin (an amazing chef and food writer), Natasha from Living Foods and so many more. We were also treated to some great Burren Smoked fish.......hmmmmmm...still dreaming. There was also some Italian wine available which I didn't buy for some reason - okay one reason, they didn't have tastings and I still have loads of wine at home....

Hope your weekend was as good as mine - but I doubt it :-)