Editors note: Bella Supiana is working with JJ Kavanagh & Sons on a new series called ‘Tastes of Ireland’. She’ll be travelling to our destinations and scouting out the best places for hungry travellers.
Fresh Five Fridays: Experience Limericks Food Culture
We all know exceptionally good food can sometimes punch a hole in our wallets. Fresh Five Friday, however, has been created by the team at The Milk Market in Limerick to provide an affordable experience of some of the finest artisanal products they have on offer. A fantastic place for a Friday lunch after a swamping week full of work, a brilliant space to get some fresh air into your lungs if you’re stuck in an office all day or a sociable nip away to chat with some of Limerick’s most prided and long standing producers!
As if that wasn’t enough there is live music to sing you through the market, chairs and tables go loir and shelter from the unpredictable weather that we are graced with here in Ireland! Oh and before I forget… You can munch to your hearts content with some ridiculously cheap €5.00 deals!
Here are just a few places you can take a bite of the next time you’re at Fresh Five Fridays:
The Griddle Cake Bar
This Dutch inspired stall, created and run by the knowledgeable and passionate Dennis Ryan is something absolutely any pancake or sweet tooth lover should try. The Griddle Cake Bar is all about Poffertjes, pronounced po-fer-chez or quite simply known as little fluffy pancakes! I can guarantee you will never have tried pancakes as feathery nor bouncy as Dennis’s unless perhaps you have tried an authentic Poffertjes in the Netherlands!
To say I was taken by surprise is an understatement. I didn’t know what to expect of a Fresh Five Friday as I had never been. I’m in love with Saturday’s at The Milk Market, so deep down I knew I was in for a tasty treat! Dennis caught my eye instantly and both being sociable by character, we hit it off straight away. His market venture is in the early days, being opened just over the one month mark, I can see success run from his copper colored cake stove with these little beauties!
For as little as €3.00 you can fall weak to the knees over these irresistible baby circles of pure pillow-like joy. I smacked my lips around a bundle of lemon syrup and vanilla biscuit crumb Poffertjes, sprinkled with icing sugar. They were super sweet, contrasted by the sharpness of the zingy lemon – my all time favorite!
I also tucked into the caramel and blitzed scots tablet (one of Denis’s families top secret vanilla fudge which melts in your mouth!) topping which left me thinking I should probably call the dentist at the end of my first leg of the whole ‘Tastes of Ireland’ series! Please do yourself a favor and check this guy out – great for the chat and bangs out a flipping excellent expression of the beloved pancake!
Bon Appetite
Here to serve up a slice of France is Sebastian Ridoux owner and main man behind the kiosk at Bon Appetite! All the way from the north of the food orientated land of France, he swivels some of the best crepes and galettes (savoury gluten free buckwheat crepes) I have ever gobbled not to mention his ridiculously delicious interpretation of the hearty and warming Tartiflette.
He told me how some ten years ago he decided to embark on an adventure to Ireland with the aim of improving his English. Somewhere during that time he was persuaded to stay and make a living here… I never quite got to the bottom of why he chose to live in Ireland but I’m guessing it might possibly be something to do with a spark of love or just the pleasant welcome any Irish man or woman would have given him!
He prides himself in using the best of ingredients where possible – think on the lines of West Cork produced ToonsBridge buffalo mozzarella in his galettes and imported Reblochon cheese, the key ingredient to his sought after Tartiflette, all the way from Val D’Arly in the Savoie region of Southeastern France.
Brilliant deals on Fridays: For just €5.00 get Sebastian to whirl you up a savoury galette, choose from a Notre-Dame (ham cheese and onions), Bastille (ham, cheese and tomato) or Greek (Feta cheese, baby spinach, vine tomatoes , black olives and green pesto) along with a crepe, either Classique (the famous lemon and sugar) or Parisienne (chocolatey Nutella).
He also generously offers his Galette Tosca, worth €8.00 at just €5.00 on Fridays, filled with Parma ham, semi sun dried tomatoes which are soft and melt in your mouth, ToonsBridge Buffalo Mozzarella, rocket and green pesto. Stop by to experience French food done so well and practise your best ‘parlez-vous francais?’!
The Limerick Chocolate Shop
An outlet at The Milk Market for Patricia Farrell’s Wilde Irish Chocolate to allure every person who sets foot past her eye catching chocolatey kiosk. Willie Wonka wouldn’t get a look in! All chocolate lovers aboard, Farrell’s heavenly display of chocolates, bars and fudges are sure to bring you on an adventure never yet experienced.
Produced in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare, a short distance from Limerick, they have been ‘mad about chocolate’ since the late nineties! Their innovative range offers something for every chocoholic
– Peanut Butter or Mint Crush milk chocolate, Strawberry Sprinkle or Cranberry Swirl white chocolate to the richly intense super dark 99% chocolate for that daredevil who’ll stop at nothing even when it comes to insanely bitter choco!
Definitely try their hot chocolate, at just €2.50 per cup it’s arguably one of the best hot mucky messes I’ve ever slurped up! The fudge is luscious – think deep fruity red raspberry or rich hearty Stout! You can enjoy a large Chocolate treat from these guys and a Vanilla Latte from Harpers just next door for just €5.00. Alternatively you could set your mind on a smaller Wilde Irish Chocolate treat along with a crepe from Sebastian’s Bon Appetite and an Americano from Harpers all for…? You guessed it – €5.00!
And the best bit? We can get down to Limerick for as little as €10 one way!
