People from Cork don’t like food. They are completely and utterly obsessed with it.
From ruddy-faced butchers at the English Market to the innovative vegetarian restaurant chefs doing clever things with kale and couscous, it’s all about the edible.
From the moment I check into The River Lee Hotel, a short walk from the centre, it’s clear that I won’t go hungry.
I plonk myself in an armchair on the terrace bar and watch swans guide their cygnets around the river bend.
Cooking up a storm: Feasting is an art form in a city where the harbour trade brought food from far and wide
Soon a Taste of Cork plate arrives, piled with local cheese, cold meats, soda bread and home-made date chutney.
It’s a taste of things to come. The city is effectively an island, like the eye of a needle between two channels of the river, linked by 22 bridges. All of the main streets were once rivers.
Land was reclaimed and quaysides developed with wealth generated by trading butter, whiskey, sugar, tea and beef — as Alice Coyle of Fab Food Trails explains, the modern city really was built on food.
We walk past beautiful, if crumbly, Victorian buildings that house bookshops, cafes and bars.
It’s a short walk to grand old buildings such as the Opera House and Crawford Art Gallery, which houses everything from Roman sculptures to abstract paintings and light installations.
Cork is far from cohesive in its look, but you get the impression it doesn’t care. It’s far too busy having fun.
Alice guides our group around some of the foodie highlights, taking in trendy coffee bar Filter —where beans are displayed in jars like sweets and iced coffee is served in beer bottles.
Then it’s The Rocket Man, a juice and salad bar on Princes Street, which operated from the back of a van until a year ago.
Further along the street is Nash 19, a Cork institution that’s served classy comfort food since 1992. As owner Claire Nash admits, the restaurants are good in Cork — but the producers are better.
The farms (and there are more here than in any other Irish county) are the restaurants’ outof-town supermarkets. The English Market, in the centre of the city, is their pantry.
Established in 1778, this is one of the world’s oldest markets. It has survived fires, flooding and attempts by the council to turn it into a car park. Little old ladies haggle for sausages and suited gentlemen fork out for smoked salmon from Frank Hederman’s renowned smokehouse, which has supplied the Queen.
Upstairs is Farmgate Cafe, which overlooks the market. It’s time for another feed, and more local produce: spiced beef carpaccio, wild boar salami, apple chutney and salty, crumbly cheeses. There’s barely a breather before I am bombarded with more tasty offerings, this time at vegetarian restaurant Cafe Paradiso.
High spirits: Get to know Ireland’s whiskey heritage with a tour of the Jameson distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork
I eat cavolo nero (black cabbage) and Hegarty’s cheddar tortellini followed by feta and pistachio couscous cake. The dishes are tasty, cleverly composed and, of course, packed with local (and a little not-so-local) produce.
Paula, from The River Lee Hotel, explains the city was once the domain of the American ‘blue rinse brigade’, keen to tick a trip to Ireland off their bucket lists. Now the age group is more varied, with young couples and groups of friends enjoying outdoor activities such as sailing around the bay and rowing along the River Lee.
The vibrant bar scene is also a draw, from hidden drinking dens to microbreweries such as Rising Sons. and it seems people here love their drink almost as much as their food.
One of the more unusual watering holes is Arthur Mayne’s, which used to be a pharmacy.
Beyond cabinets filled with dusty medicine bottles, evaporated perfumes and ancient syringes, there are people eating tapas at wooden tables.
Another place with bags of character is Crane Lane, which is in an old theatre in the centre. It has four bars and live music every night.
Over at the Jameson distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork, tour guide Brian explains the mystery of the ‘e’ in ‘whiskey’.
This was first added by the Paddy distillery in 1913, in an attempt to distinguish its product as superior. Unfortunately, other Irish and American distillers followed suit. Our last feed is at Fishy Fishy restaurant in quaint Kinsale, half an hour from Cork.
Apparently, it’s known for disproportionately high numbers of divorced and single people of a certain age. Locals like to joke: ‘Are you married, or living in Kinsale?’ Which perhaps explains why four-times divorced, hard-drinking chef Keith Floyd had a bolthole here. That — and the food.