Restaurant review: Gary Bell at The Portaferry Hotel

Posted: 27 January '12 by Niall

Chef Gary Bell at The Portaferry Hotel

As soon as Bill Wolsey bought The Portaferry Hotel he placed chef Gary Bell in the kitchen, which tells you all you need to know about how important food is to the lough-side hotel. We made the short trip down the Ards Peninsula to try his Tasting Menu.

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Categories: Restaurant Reviews


Swedish Meatballs in Dill and Vodka Sauce

Posted: 24 January '12 by Niall

Swedish meatballs in dill and vodka sauce

Meatballs are as Swedish as ABBA, Volvos and saunas, so when we got our hands on a bottle of Absolut Vodka Mode Edition, there was only one recipe we could make: Swedish Meatballs in Dill and Vodka Sauce – with Lingonberry jam, of course!

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Categories: Recipes


Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2012

Posted: 20 January '12 by Niall and Kelly

Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2012

Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2012 is on from 22-28 January, encouraging everyone to eat a healthy breakfast to kick their day off. Helping to reduce obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, breakfast isn’t called The Most Important Meal of the Day for nothing!

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Categories: Things to do


Restaurant review: Il Pirata restaurant

Posted: 18 January '12 by Kelly

Il Pirata, Newtownards Road, Belfast

Il Pirata is the newest restaurant to open it’s doors in East Belfast and the latest of Sam Spain’s ventures. Dishing up tasty rustic Italian treats, we thought it’d be the perfect antidote to the excesses of Christmas Day – but did we find a little treasure?

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Categories: Restaurant Reviews


Mushroom Pie Recipe

Posted: 13 January '12 by Niall

Mushroom and Pancetta pie

Autumn and Winter are all about big hearty cooking. This recipe for Mushroom pie is a sure-fire winner, and a delicious alternative to the usual casseroles and stews – even for avowed meat-eaters like myself!

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Categories: Recipes


Restaurant review: Little Wing pizzeria, Lisburn Road

Posted: 10 January '12 by Niall

Little Wing Pizzeria, Lisburn Road, Belfast

We love pizza! It’s fair to say that Belfast hasn’t been blessed with too many decent pizzerias, though. Little Wing, Bill Wolsey’s chain of eateries, are trying to change all that – they’ve even sent their head chef to Italy to research the perfect pizza! We visited the Lisburn Road restaurant to see if it was worth all of that effort.

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Categories: Restaurant Reviews


Merry Christmas!

Posted: 23 December '11 by Niall and Kelly

Merry Christmas from Chilli and Chocolate

Merry Christmas to all of our readers – thanks for following our Belfast food blog in 2011. See you in 2012!

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Categories: Site Messages


Italian Bread and Cheese Dumplings

Posted: 15 December '11 by Niall

Recipe for Italian bread and cheese meatballs

These Canederli – or Italian bread and cheese dumplings – are so good, you wouldn’t know the meatballs are just made with bread! Great for using up any stale bread you might have, they take no time at all to make and are really tasty.

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Categories: Recipes


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