MacKinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky

You might remember the Whyte & MacKay competition we mentioned a few weeks ago.

To commemorate the discovery of MacKinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt in Ernest Shackleton’s camp from his Antartic expedition in 1907, Whyte & MacKay had re-created the whisky and hidden several bottles in cities across the UK. You can read more about this very special whisky at enduringspirit.com.

Well, after trudging around the streets of Belfast in the wind and the rain, we found the winning tag and won the prize – and when we got home last night, there was an early Christmas present waiting on our doorstep..

The presentation-box for MacKinlay's whisky

Commemorating Shackleton's Antartic expedition in 1907

Opening the box to reveal the bottle of whisky

Our winnings - MacKinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt

Where was the winning Repudo tag? At The Lyric theatre on Ridgeway Street!

The location of the winning Repudo tag

Thanks again, Whyte & MacKay!

The big question is whether we keep it for posterity or drink it?!

MacKinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky

Breaking news!

Whyte & MacKay want people to discover their own spirit of adventure and explore their city to find a very special bottle of whisky.

Using the Repudo app on their smartphone, explorers will have to hunt through a couple of locations in their city, one of which will contain a bottle of the special edition MacKinlay rare highland malt whiskey, valued at £100.

Once the tags for each city go live at 10am on Monday mornings it’s a race to the prize – and it’s Belfast and Dublin’s turn today!

All the explorers have to do is:

1. Download the Repudo App (available for iPhones, BlackBerry and Android devices)
2. Turn it on
3. Click Nearby to find the Repudos in the area
4. Search through the Repudos to find the right one

The Repudos will be rolling out on a week by week basis on the following timetable:

• W/B Nov 14: Dublin, Belfast
• W/B Nov 21: Glasgow, Edinburgh
• W/B Nov 28: Cardiff, Leeds
• W/B Dec 5: Southampton, Manchester
• W/B Dec 12: London, Birmingham

Good luck to all of the intrepid explorers!

Other information

Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt is a re-creation of the original malt whisky shipped to Antarctica in 1907 by the explorer Ernest Shackleton to fortify his ‘Nimrod’ expedition, bottles of which have recently been discovered at Shackleton’s camp near the South Pole. You can read all about the journey and re-discovery on the Enduring Spirit website, and you’ll also see how the MacKinlay malt was re-created.

You’ll be able to see if the bottle in your city has been discovered by following updates on the Enduring Spirit Facebook page.

You can click here to visit the Enduring Spirit website here
You can download the Repudo App here.

The crates of whisky at Shackleton's hut in the Antarctic

The Irish Government reduce VAT rate to help restaurants

I never thought I’d see the day – politicians acting decisively and doing something sensible!

The Irish Government have moved to help the hospitality and tourism sector with a series of new policies, including a reduction in the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9% for restaurants and hotels, and the abolition of the controversial Air Travel Tax.

There’s no doubt about it: these changes will make a significant difference to the restaurant trade.

Understandably, The Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI), which represents some 700 restaurants in the Irish hospitality sector, has welcomed the news.

What does this mean for Northern Ireland?

The announcement made by the Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, has made the Republic of Ireland a cheaper place for tourists to visit at a stroke.

While this is great news for the Irish economy, you don’t have to be Robert Peston to realise that if something isn’t done, then grim times lie ahead for the tourist trade in Northern Ireland. With our VAT rate now set at a crippling 11% above that for customers in restaurants and hotels in the Republic, it’s difficult to see how restaurants north of the border can compete.

With the Northern Ireland Assembly elections having taken place so recently, giving our MLA’s new mandates at the start of a new term, can Robinson, McGuinness et al can put the usual tribalism aside and match this attempt to help our own hospitality industry in such a tangible way?

Crossgar wine merchants JNwine.com

County Down wine merchant, JNwine.com, is running their own version of The Apprentice, challenging novices to prove that they can turn their passion into a career and become a professional wine expert.

The selection process for the training scheme will be a gruelling one, with applicants having to impress judges in a series of challenges, including a blind wine-tasting.

The most promising candidates will join the Crossgar-based specialist on a paid nine-month training programme – which includes a work placement with one of Europe’s top producers during a wine harvest. JNwine.com will also sponsor the winners through the industry-approved Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) certificate.

Managing Director James Nicholson said: “Wine is a global product and one that excites people, but good opportunities to work in the industry can be rare. With the right experiences and a little training you can use your palate and knowhow to build a rewarding career anywhere in the world.”

Lucy McMillan was chosen as an apprentice through the scheme which ran in 2008 and went on to claim a full-time position with the company before clinching another role at a London-based wine company earlier this year.

How to apply

If you’re interested in applying you should email liz@jnwine.com for an application pack, or visit www.jnwine.com/vacancies.aspx.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 1st June 2011.

Observer Food Monthly Awards 2011

It’s that time of year again.. Nominations are now open for this years’ Observer Food Monthly Awards.

Celebrating the best of the UK food industry, there’s a really wide range of categories, including: Best Restaurant; Best Place to Drink; Best Cookbook; and Best Food Blog.

There’s even a chance for you to take part in the event by submitting a recipe that you’ve devised, or the details of a cocktail that you’ve invented.

Although most of the categories are decided on the number of votes cast, the winners of the Best Reader’s Recipe and Best Reader’s Cocktail categories will be chosen by a panel of judges, which includes Nigel Slater, Jay Rayner, and Angela Hartnett.

How to vote

You can enter your nominations online by visiting www.easyanswer.net/observer/.

By entering you’ll also be included in a prize draw for:

• A wine lover’s trip to Bordeaux;
• A meal for four at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal; or
• An overnight stay and Michelin-starred lunch at The Manor House in Wiltshire

So come on, people! Get voting for your favourite restaurants/pubs/chefs/food blogs from Northern Ireland!

The awards schedule

• Voting closes at midnight on 24 June 2011.
• Judging will take place in July 2011.
• Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in October 2011.
• The winners will be announced in October’s edition of Observer Food Monthly magazine and online at observer.co.uk/foodmonthly.

Other information

You can read more about the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2011 by visiting: www.guardian.co.uk/observer-food-monthly-awards.

Nigel Slater's autobiography Toast

The first World Book Night took place on 5 March 2011 and we were one of the lucky ones – we were selected to give away copies of Nigel Slater’s autobiography, “Toast: The story of a boy’s hunger”.

Not all went as planned, though. The 5th of March came and went, and there was no sign of our books. Weeks passed, and they still hadn’t arrived.

Cue much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and phone-calls to the organisers.

Well, they do say that good things come to those that wait, and we finally got our books – and you can get yours too.

Toast – a short review

This is Nigel Slater as you’ve never seen him before. Gone is the successful columnist, the polished TV cook – this is Nigel laid bare, his childhood and adolescence described in frank and unsentimental detail.

The writing-style is energetic and engaging, capturing the terrible honesty, wanton cruelty, and petty selfishness of childhood. There’s nothing contrived about this – the big events in his young life are told as he remembers them, with the feelings as he remembers them, no matter how embarassing or delicate the subject.

Any sentiment or nostalgia is reserved for food. I really enjoyed the way Nigel can evoke the atmosphere of the Sixties, an innocent time as far as food was concerned: the discovery of spaghetti and powdered parmesan in a tin; the joy of finding out that there was trifle, or eskimo roll, or Angel Delight for dessert; the socially-defining when his Mum made grilled grapefruit, which he bragged about at school the next day. Although I grew up a decade later, it really resonated with me.

There are big emotions in this book: loneliness, anger, loss, love and humour.

I finished “Toast” in two days.

Get your own copy

We have 45 copies of the autobiography to give away, and we’re doing that in two ways:

1. Using BookCrossing.com: BookCrossing is a great site – you register your books, add a sticker inside the front cover, say where you’re leaving them, and hope for the best! We’ve released 6 copies of “Toast” around Belfast so, if you see a copy lying in an unlikely spot somewhere around Belfast (like the Europa bus station or Caffe Nero on College Street), you should pick it up, take it home, and enjoy a good read. We’d love to hear if you’ve managed to track one down – just follow the instructions on the label and become part of the chain; and
2. Give-away to Chilli & Chocolate members: if you go to the members’ section you’ll find out how to claim your free copy.

The label from BookCrossing.com inside our books

World Book Night 2011

The big idea behind World Book Night is to encourage people to read more, and to share that experience with others. The first event, held on 5th March 2011, saw 20,000 people like ourselves give away 1 million books – 40,000 copies of 25 titles. Events were held around the country: from nearly 10,000 people in Trafalgar Square to smaller gatherings in hundreds of libraries, bookshops, arts venues, coffee shops and homes.

The next World Book Night is on 23rd April, 2012.

Other information

You can find out more about World Book Night 2012 by visiting www.worldbooknight.org.

We love the idea behind BookCrossing – visit the site and see if you can track down some travelling books! www.bookcrossing.com.

Hugh's Fish Fight

We’re not the preach-y types here at Chilli & Chocolate, but there are some things which are so important that we feel we have to tell you about them.

Kelly and I signed up to Hugh’s Fish Fight in the early days of the campaign and thought that you might want to as well.

The Fish Fight isn’t another ego-polishing, flavour-of-the-month issue that some celebs seem to champion for the publicity – it’s a very serious issue and, being a small island, one that affects our local environment and industry more than most.

What’s it all about?

The issue revolves around a single term: discards.

The problem is that fishermen can’t control the species of the fish that they catch – just because a trawler is looking for cod, for instance, doesn’t mean that they won’t catch pollock too. If there isn’t a demand for these other fish, or the trawler has exceeded its quota of fish they are allowed to land, the only option is to throw them overboard.

The vast majority of the discarded fish die.

These discards aren’t monitored, so it’s difficult to know exactly how serious the problem is, but the EU estimates that between 40% and 60% of the total catch is discarded in the North Sea. That’s a staggering amount of waste.

What can you do?

There’s a lot each of us can do, and more that we can achieve as a group.

1. Sign the petition: You can sign-up to Hugh’s campaign at: http://www.fishfight.net/sign-up/. Hugh originally hoped to get 250,000 signatures by the Summer of 2011 – as of today, there are 663,136 names on the petition. More are needed though – the more signatures there are, the more likely it is that those who draft these policies will understand how serious the issue is, and that a change is needed. There is no simple solution, but a re-think is needed.
2. Write to your own MP: The issue directly affects us here in Northern Ireland – the sustainability of our fish for food, the safety of our marine environment, and the jobs of our fishing communities. It’s important that our politicians know about the campaign and that they publicly support the Fish Fight.
3. Buy other varieties of fish: There are lots of delicious species of fish out there, but for some reason many of them have fallen out of favour. By choosing to buy something other than the likes of cod or salmon, you can help to save those species that are currently discarded because they aren’t in demand.
4. Tell more people about the campaign: The more signatures the petition can gather, the louder our voice will be.

Other information

There are a few important links for you to know about:

• http://www.fishfight.net/sign-up/ – the sign-up page for the campaign.
• http://www.fishfight.net – the homepage for Hugh’s Fish Fight.
• http://www.facebook.com/hughsfishfight – the Fish Fight Facebook page.
• http://twitter.com/hughsfishfight – the Twitter account.

Michelin Guide to Britain and Ireland 2011

Despite holding its Michelin-starred status for 14 years, today we heard the sad news that Deanes Restaurant has lost it’s star in the Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland 2011.

This means that Northern Ireland is without a single star from the world’s best known and most respected guide to restaurants, which is a disgrace, and in a year in which a record number of stars were awarded to restaurants in the British Isles.

In all, a total of 143 stars were handed out by the Michelin Guide 2011, topping the 140 awarded last year and the 137 in 2009.

Commenting on the loss, Michael Deane said “while I am disappointed the news comes as no real surprise to me, given that we had to close for four months at the beginning of the year.”

Northern Ireland did get a few bits of good news though. The three entries in the “Bib Gourmand” category (known as the “Good food at moderate prices” range) stayed the same as last year:

• Oregano – Ballyclare, County Antrim
• Cayenne – Belfast, County Antrim
• Restaurant 23 – Warrenpoint, County Down

Yes, the ‘food revolution’ is still in its early days here, but there are some fine eateries, and the quality of our produce is really second to none. Here’s hoping Deanes can put this behind them, pick themselves up and get back to winning ways.

Or is it time for someone else to carry the torch?

Other information

You can see the whole Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland 2011 here.

The “Bib Gourmand” is also available from the Michelin website.

We're back after the Christmas holiday

Isn’t the first day back to work after the Christmas break just awful?

Kelly and I definitely needed that extra week off too – all of that rich party food left us in need of a little de-tox, but we’ve put the salads and mineral water away and we’re ready to start talking about real food and wine again.

Christmas was pretty busy for us, with lots of cooking and tasting! We tried some great recipes: homemade Gravlax, mince pies, pickled pears served with a pork terrine, an incredible Italian porchetta.. So many things to post to our blog!

We also discovered some excellent Yorkshire ales which got us thinking.. But that’s for another time..

In the meantime, welcome back to Chilli & Chocolate!

Other news – developments at Biostore

We’ve just received word that the Biostore website is back up and running – together with a brand new Facebook page and a shop in Newry!

Ronan and co. have a simply fantastic range of regional olive oils, along with other eco-friendly products. Make sure you check them out at St. George’s Market in Belfast every Saturday.

Biostore
81 Upper Damolly Road,
Newry,
Northern Ireland
BT34 1QW
Tel: 02830252757
Mob: 07792947845
W: www.biostore.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Biostoreie/172810792751919

You can read our short introduction to Biostiore here.

Clydesdale and Morrow

Christmas Dinner just wouldn’t be the same without a suitably impressive cheeseboard to bring proceedings to a close.

Clydesdale & Morrow, a wonderful fromagerie on Belfast’s Lisburn Road, has become an annual festive pilgrimage for us – they stock a fabulous range of cheeses, chutneys and crackers and can even put together whole hampers for you.

The shop gets incredibly busy the week before Christmas and we know from bitter experience that stocks can run low – so don’t leave it until the last minute! Our advice is to telephone the shop and reserve your selection, collecting the cheeses closer to the big day.

This year Kelly and I have gone for:

• Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire
• Cornish Yarg
• Stilton
• Reblochon

You can see the whole range of cheeses available in Clydesdale & Morrow here.

Opening Times

The shop will be open from 9am to 6pm every day (except
Sunday) from now until Christmas Eve, closing about 4pm on that day.

Other information

Clydesdale & Morrow
581 Lisburn Road,
Belfast
BT9 7GS
T: 028 90662790
E: enjoy@clydesdaleandmorrow.com
Web: www.clydesdaleandmorrow.com