Things to do : Chilli and Chocolate : A Belfast Food Blog (Northern Ireland, UK)

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Fresh cupcakes! Luvverly fresh cupcakes!

Posted: 16 July '10 by Kelly

Cupcakes and Fairycakes at St. George's Market

Niall and I are regulars at St. George’s Market and love going to find some tasty ingredients for a dinner party or some tasty snacks – it’s always a great day out, what with the live music and the many, many food stalls. We’ve even entertained thoughts of getting our own stall – so, when Bernadette and Martine from Cupcakes and Fairycakes suggested I join them on their busy Sunday market stall, I jumped at the chance to get involved and see how it all comes together. This is how my day went..

You can see more photos here Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

An 8am start!! OK, it’s hardly the crack of dawn (Bernadette and Martine had been baking since 6am!!), but after a few glasses of wine the night before it certainly felt like it!

As soon as I arrived at St George’s Market I helped set up the stall: putting up the banner, arranging the stands and laying out the samples. The delicious, sugar-y aroma of all of those freshly baked cupcakes made my stomach rumble. A cupcake for breakfast?? Could I?!! Of course I could!! After a restorative cup of tea and a flour-less chocolate cupcake with white chocolate topping (yummy) I felt half-human again and began to learn the ropes.

The first thing to get to grips with was the menu – Strawberry Shake, Dime Bar, Oreo Choc Cream, Vanilla Pod, Kiddies’ Suprise and a flour-less dark chocolate with white chocolate topped with a glittery strawberry. All of the cupcakes were beautifully iced and decorated, like little works of art and almost too good to eat.. I ate my way through all the flavours (purely for research purposes) and I can confirm that each and every one of them are superbly moist and fluffy.

With this intimate knowledge of the Cupcakes and Fairycakes range I quickly got up to speed on the prices and how the cupcakes and fairycakes were made. As the doors opened and the music started I could feel my hangover slowly begin to fade away as the whole buzz of the market took over. I got off to a great start, chatting to a few people and selling box after box of those delicious buns. I think the best thing about working at the market are the colourful characters you meet and believe me, I met quite a few that day. I think my most memorable was the man who asked me could I sprinkle some arsenic on top for ‘the wife’… I don’t think he was serious though!!

There really was a great atmosphere about the market that day and I got chatting to the lovely girls that were working on the bakery stall beside us. They were so friendly and the day really flew by. I even brokered a food-swap with them during a tea-break – a cupcake for Katie’s amazing, melt-in-the-mouth carrot cake!!

As the day came to a close and we counted up the profits from the days’ trading, my feet ached and I longed for a cup of tea and a foot massage. Mind you, I wouldn’t have missed the chance to see what life on the other side of the stall is like – I met some great people, ate my way through far too many cupcakes, listened to some great stories, and generally had great fun.

If you are looking for something to do on a Sunday you could do a lot worse than to head down to St George’s market for some live music, good atmosphere and delicious food! Don’t forget to pop by the Cupcakes and Fairycakes stall to say ‘Hi’ to Bernadette and Martine and to sample their delicious cupcakes.. they’re honestly worth the journey alone.

Make sure you visit the site again for my interview with Bernadette and Martine where they show me how to bake the ‘perfect’ cupcake.

Other information

St. George’s Market is now open on Sundays, from 10am to 4pm. You can click here to find out more information about the market.

If you would like to try some of Bernadette and Martine’s delicious cupcakes you can get in touch by:
Cupcakes and Fairycakes
T: 07879400177 or 07968225732
E: info@cupcakesandfairycakes.com
W: www.cupcakesandfairycakes.com

Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Categories: Things to do

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Wine-tasting in aid of Action Cancer, 24 June 2010

Posted: 23 June '10 by Niall

Direct Wine Shipments

This November Susan from Direct Wine Shipments will be running the New York Marathon in aid of Action Cancer. To help raise money there’s a wine-tasting evening on Thursday 24th June 2010, 7.30 for 8pm.

Susan will be hosting the wine-tasting evening with Denis Broderick, one of Northern Ireland’s leading wine educators, the featured speaker. A buffet supper will be provided by Crumbs catering.

Action Cancer is a Northern Ireland cancer charity. At Action Cancer the mission is to save lives and support people and they maintain a pioneering role in the development of cancer services, including, early detection services for the Northern Ireland community, counselling and support services for cancer patients and their families, cancer prevention & health promotion.

The details

When: Thursday 24th June 2010, 7.30 for 8pm
Cost: £25
How to book: contact 028 9050 8000 or email susan@directwine.co.uk
More information: www.directwine.co.uk

It’s not very often that you can savour a delicious wine knowing that you’re helping a very good cause.. And that someone else will have to run a marathon – so make sure that you get in touch!

Best of luck, Susan!

Rating: 10.0/10 (4 votes cast)

Categories: Things to do

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Belfast Taste & Music Fest 2010

Posted: 14 June '10 by Niall

Belfast Taste & Music Fest 2010

The Belfast Taste & Music Fest returns to the Great Lawn in Botanic Gardens from Wednesday, 4th August to Sunday, 8th August 2010 (noon to 10:00 p.m. daily).

The Taste-Fest is Northern Ireland’s premiere food and entertainment event, and is expected to attract over 30,000 visitors over the 5 days.

Event Details

Date: 4th – 8th August 2010
Location: Botanic Gardens, Belfast
Opening times: Noon to 10pm daily
Price range: £5 from Noon to 5pm, and £10 thereafter. There are various ticket packages available – for full details visit www.belfasttasteandmusicfest.com/times-tickets/

The Food

Featuring a whole host of local chef restauranteurs, this years’ foodie boulevard includes:

Simon Dougan – Yellow Door Deli, Portadown
Alan Higginson – 27 Talbot Street, Belfast
Tony O’Neill – The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Paul Catterson – Mango, Maghera
Dean Coppard – Uluru, Armagh
Andy Rea – Mourne Seafood Bar, Belfast
Patrick Leonard – Fitzwilliam Hotel, Belfast
Danny Millar – Balloo House, Killinchey
Niall McKenna – James Street South, Belfast

This year will also see a selection of our major food suppliers: O’Kane Poultry, Kettyle Irish Foods, Get Fresh, Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum and Cookstown.

The Entertainment

There’s a great menu for the entertainment too – everything from Flash Harry, to Mary Coughlan, to Les McKeown’s Bay City Rollers. Something for everyone there!

A word to the wise

Entry to the event doesn’t mean that you get to taste the food! You’ll need to buy Taste Fest food tokens which are priced at 50p each – in blocks of 20 for £10, and “top-ups” of 10 tokens for £5 after that. These tokens can and will disappear at an alarming rate – so bring some spare cash to buy those precious top-ups.

Kelly and I will venture down again this year, although we are going to get there earlier in the day than we did last year.

You can read about what we thought of the Belfast Taste and Music Fest 2009 here.

Other information

You can visit the Belfast Taste and Music Fest website for more information.

Rating: 8.5/10 (6 votes cast)

Categories: Things to do

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We’re going walkabout with Direct Wine Shipments, are you?

Posted: 31 May '10 by Niall

Direct Wine Shipments

Direct Wine Shipments are holding another one of their “walkabout” wine-tastings on 18 June, 2010.

These events are always fun – a great way to sample a wide range of DWS-recommended wines and to have a chat with their friendly team – all in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Megan Daily from Sainte Eugénie, a producer in the Corbières AOC of Languedoc-Roussillon, will also be attending.

The details

The details of the walkabout wine-tasting event are:

Date: Friday 18th June 2010
Time: 4.30pm – 7.30pm
Cost: £15 per person
Tickets: You can buy the tickets online at www.directwineshipments.com

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Chilli and Chocolate members:

As a member of Chilli and Chocolate you get a big discount on the ticket-price for this event. Visit the Members’ Section for more details.

Rating: 8.2/10 (5 votes cast)

Categories: Things to do

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We alight at London Bridge for the Platform party

Posted: 22 April '10 by Dominique Vincent

Platform restaurant, SE1

Kelly and I were delighted to be asked to go to the launch of Platform, a new restaurant in London – especially when we heard of the wholesome philosophy behind the venture.

Started by friends Tony McKinlay and Barnaby Butterfield, the restaurant cuts out the middle-man in a “Gate to Plate” system: Barnaby raises rare breeds of cattle and pigs in the all-natural, traditional way, and Tony (helped by head chef Jake Tutill) dishes this flavoursome produce up to the lucky customers.

You can imagine how disappointed we were when we realised that we couldn’t go (more about that later).. Fortunately, friends and fellow Chilli-and-Chocolatiers Dominique and Charlotte were able to step into the breach, put on their glad-rags, and dodge the paparazzi to investigate for us.

Over to Dominique..

The launch party

Living in London, I always thought it was a shame that Chilli and Chocolate’s Kelly and Niall live so far from me, all the way over there in Belfast. Mind you, after being asked to stand in for them at the launch of ‘Platform’ I can now see a plus side.

It was all glittering disco ball, free champagne, paps (and therefore somewhat inevitably Sophie Anderton) at last week’s opening. But behind the usual London ‘razzle dazzle ‘em’ attitude, there’s a really nice feel to the restaurant situated under the arches of London Bridge station’s platform 1.

Surprisingly, behind the glamour, the ethos of the place is recycle, recycle, recycle with all the furnishings from reclaimed sites. The mantra even extends to the kitchen where they plan to create dishes from what has, until recently, been ‘unfashionable’ cuts of meat such as cheek.

Behind the enterprise is a dream shared by a restauranteur and a farmer. Farmer Barney explained how he only rears the best quality of meat and will supply the whole carcass to Platform; the chef is so talented he can create wonderful flavours from these ‘cast off’ parts of the animal. Gone are the days of boring fillets of steak, says Barnie, it’s wasteful and lazy cooking.

Later in the evening they brought round meaty nibbles to taste. Kelly and Niall let you down here by picking me to report back – I’m a dreaded veggie. I can’t tell you what the meat tastes like, but if it’s half as tasty as farmer Barnie is passionate about the project, then Platform might be worth a visit next time you’re over.

And if you’re lucky, you might just catch the lovely Sophie.

You can see more photos here Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5