Camden Street Frite
Chips, frites, French fries – call them what you like, but the humble fried potato stick is having a bit of a moment. The fancy Maison F cocktail bar and restaurant in central Paris specialises in them, with a constantly changing menu of three different varieties of fried potato as a bar snack. Here in Dublin, Padraic Hayden of Camden Kitchen has drawn on his experience of living in Brussels, where the chip is king, to open Fritehaus at 87 Camden Street. The Fritehaus chips (€3.50) are fried in beef dripping (vegetable oil by request) and you can choose from 20 house-made sauces to go with them as well as sausages and frankfurters (€6.95-€8.95).
Jane Russell's venison and bratwurst varieties are pitched against original frankfurters and spicy chorizo from Hick's, and an intriguing Sweeney Brothers' black pudding and onion sausage with smoked Gubbeen. Fritehaus is open all day and late into the night, and also serves craft beers, and kir royale and bellinis.
Iago stages a move
After 20 years in the English Market in Cork, Josephine Kennedy and Sean Calder-Potts have relocated their Iago Food Company. They haven't moved far: just two minutes away to 9 Princes Street.
In the new shop they are selling their range of cheese, cured meats, olive oils and deli products, as well as handmade pasta and sauces. Kennedy and Calder-Potts, whose brother Rod runs Highbank Organic Farm and Orchards in Kilkenny, say they miss the camaraderie of the English Market but the reaction to their new shop has been heartwarming. "We have had flowers, Champagne and even the unusual and lovely gift of some carol singers, sent by a friend."
Über tuber
If you're picking up Christmas supplies in Dublin this weekend, you might consider calling to the Craft and Design pop-up at Block T in Smithfield, or Lilliput Stores' hamper market at Rosemount Terrace in Stoneybatter, to buy some potatoes with a conscience. Spuds, a community group which promotes the growth of naturally blight-resistant potatoes, is selling 5kg hessian bags of Sarpo Axona potatoes at these markets for €10.
Corking flavour
Midleton Farmers' Market's big Christmas market takes place on Monday, December 23rd (9am-1pm). Pick up some cranberry spiked goat's cheese from Jane Murphy's Ardsallagh farm; the spiciest Christmas pudding you'll ever taste from Green Saffron spices; cakes and bakes from the Ms Hedermans, and smoked fish from the Hederman family's other business, Belvelly Smoke House, as well as Declan Ryan's Arbutus bread.
