Food for thought Good food was on the tip of everyone's tongue in Dingle last weekend as the town swelled to capacity welcoming record crowds to the second annual Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival.
From Friday to Sunday the town's culinary heritage came to the forefront as a wide variety of food based activities took place hosting everything from tastings, food producers conferences and exhibitions to a food trail and wine tastings at a variety of restaurants and pubs around Dingle.
Tutored tastings and chef demonstrations were among the festival highlights and Dingle's Farmers Market was expanded for the festivals duration transforming the town into Ireland's largest outdoor food market for the weekend. The Dingle Peninsula Food Festival will also hosted the inaugural Blas na hÉireann- Irish National Food Awards -over the weekend which drew an unprecedented 700 entires from all over the country. The Blas na hÉireann Awards celebrated the quality and imagination of the best Irish food producers with gold, silver, and bronze medals awarded in 24 categories by a judging panel which included chefs , food writers, representatives from Tralee IT, retailers and professors from UCC. Blind tastings and sensory analysis were used to select the winners. According to festival organisers, the standard of entires was extremely high and Kerry 's food producers scored well with the Supreme Champion Award going to Castlegregory based Dingle Peninsula Cheeses. The Specialty Meats category saw Killarney's German Butcher Shop awarded the gold medal for their Kassler (mild cured smoked pork) while in the Sausage category Dingle based Jerry Kennedy Butchers were awarded the bronze medal for their Blasket Island Lamb Sausage with Rosemary & Garlic. In the Seafood category, Kerry reigned supreme as Kenmare Bay Seafoods took gold for their Mussels Marinade of Honey & Herbs with Dingle's Iasc Uí Mhathúna Teo coming in second and third place respectively for their Oak Smoked Organic Salmon and Hot Smoked Mackerel. The festival was a resounding success according to the festival's organisers. “We were expecting around 200 entires for the Blas na hÉireann Awards but ended up with around 700!" said Kieran Murphy, one of the organisers.A detailed run-down of the Blas na hÉireann awards is available at www.irishfoodawards or www.dinglefood.com.
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