Summer Days!

Photo: Mike O'Toole

Nowadays, we are all careful about all the details of our culinary life. We need the right ovens, the right bread, the right ingredients, the best meat, the best wines, the most soulful chocolate, the freshest fish. Then, when it's barbecue time, we line up all our best ingredients, then drive down to the petrol station and splash out a few quid on a bag of fuel-saturated rubbish, bring it home and light it, and expect culinary heaven. Of course, it doesn't happen. But, it can happen.

Recipe of the month

Congratulations to Hugo Arnold, who scooped this years Cookery Writer of the Year Award in the annual Glenfiddich awards. This is a richly deserved gong for many years of good work in all manner of print, and as tribute to Hugo we feature his splendid recipe for grilled entrecôte with field mushrooms and Bearnaise sauce, as recipe of the month, from his book 'Outdoor Feasts'. Read the Recipe.

The Greening of the Tea

The pivotal question, when you are touring the country on holiday, chilling out, and taking in the sights, is this: Where does the smart local money go to find the best restaurant food? Find out.

Menu of '77

Had the internet been around in 1977, our menu of the month might have been the Malton Room, in the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney. Here we give you an extract ­ just look at those prices!

Menu of the Month '01

'Who is that bearded man'? you might have asked yourself when the first Bridgestone Dublin Food Guide appeared a few year's back. And then, when the 2001 Bridgestone 100 best guides appeared, you might have said: 'There he is again! Who is that guy?' That guy is Harry McKeogh, now chef-patron of the spiffingly good Cherry Tree restaurant in Killaloe, on the shores of the Shannon. Just look at this special, set vegetarian menu, for example. Drool as you read it.

Slow Food at Baltimore, A Report

You might reckon that, given all they have to put up with, that the artisans of Ireland would stop inventing new products, would cease innovating, and would look for a simple, unstressed, life. You would be wrong. Find out why.

I Say Potaato

'You Say Potato', by Elgy Gillespie.
This book is a pure blast of culinary passion on the noble subject of potatoes. Read on.

Passion, by Paul Flynn

PASSION, oh what a word. Overused, bandied about and attributed to all sorts of people and their endeavours. Artists, fashion designers and the usual array of crafty people. I'm almost suspicious of people who announce that they are very passionate about something. Read on.

Book Review

Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire, (Random House, £15.44)

Green Thumb

Joy Larkcom is one of our heroes. Her gardening books are beautiful, practical and sage-like, and what we really admire is the fact that she once spent a year travelling around Europe in a caravan, studying plants and collecting seeds. Well, you can mainline some of Joyce's wisdom when she teaches 2 courses at the Ballymaloe School. Find out more.

Noticeboard

Cat Laughs at Café Sol and Erriseask House Hotel sold.

Letters Page

Dear John and Sally

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Competition

We offer Michael Pollan's newest masterpiece as this month's prize in our competition. Find out this week's simple question.