There’s yet another festival on at the moment, and this one is a yummy one: A Taste of West Cork Food Festival. It will culminate next Sunday in a giant market that will take over the main street of Skibbereen, but in the meantime every day brings something new – a farm tour, cooking and fish-smoking demonstrations, walking and boating tours, tasting menus, and special dinners.
Finola and Regina
Today we attended a lecture by Regina Sexton, a brilliant writer, broadcaster and food historian. Under the title “Teaching the Poor to Cook in 1847,” Regina led us through the contents of what might have been one of the earliest ever Irish recipe books. Published by a member of the Northern Irish gentry, it instructed the Irish ‘Peasantry’ on how to cook the foods available at the time as substitutes for the potato, then in catastrophic failure due to blight. Revealing as a document of the social and political philosophy of its time, it was eerily poignant given the death toll occurring all around at the height of the Great Famine. I was keenly aware of our surroundings at Liss Ard House, once a mansion where people enjoyed a fine standard of living, while the town of Skibbereen, down the road, had been an epicentre of starvation.
Everything locally grown!
I have written before about West Cork Food (here and here): this really is Foodie Heaven, with fresh vegetables, artisan cheeses, homemade preserves and relishes, breads of every description and a wide variety of seafood and organic meats all readily available not only in the weekend markets but in local shops and supermarkets. To add to this, my friend and neighbour Hildegard has been generous with her garden and we have been enjoying fresh beans, zucchini and lettuce and flavouring dishes with her wonderful basil and savoury.
Robert and I love to eat breakfast out as a treat. On one recent foray I ordered boiled eggs and it brought me back to my childhood and time-honoured rituals. Lift the top off the egg with a spoon, drop in butter and salt and put the top back on. Cut your toast into fingers to dip into the buttery yolk. When you have finished your egg, turn it upside-down in the egg cup and present it to an unsuspecting sibling.
Breakfast in Skibbereen
Roaringwater Journal 
Finola, my grandmother said “If it’s printed in the Irish Times it must be true!”. This is not the Irish Times but the Philadelphia Inquirer where the hottest rage in the hot spots is this new way of eating eggs – with soldiers! So I suppose “soldiers” wins!
http://www.philly.com/philly/food/20130926_Good_Taste.html
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That clinches it, then!
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We used to call them toast fingers (also “toasties”).
Also: I think I need a recipe for that amazing brown bread! Is the baker willing to share?
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You have to come and taste it first, before you get the recipe.
>
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Dippers!
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Dippers and divers… Sounds like a bird person talking!
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Finola, would you please add Jane to your list of recipients of your wonderful blogs – also add to Robert’s too (if he would be so gracious !) – jrhagy4@verizon.net. Hugs.
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Soldiers!!!
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Robert is on Amanda’s side.
On 2013-09-09, at 10:19 AM, Roaringwater Journal
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I’d forgotten about calling them Ducky Divers!
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What memories! We called the toast fingers “ducky divers” and my grandchildren, here in the US, all love this treat. Finola, it’s all so interesting to read about Skibereen & Bandon where my great grandparents were from. Oh! that brown bread toast, there’s nothing like it anywhere in the world. Enjoy!
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