We really love writing about our cooking, our local producers and suppliers, and our local restaurants – and the fact that you like reading it makes the whole thing even more enjoyable.

We’ve also met a lot of great bloggers and twitterers along the way – the more the merrier!

We’re really looking forward to 2012 too. There’s loads planned – starting with our reviews of Little Wings and il Pirata – so hopefully you’ll join us on our foodie adventures.

Have a great Christmas and a peaceful and profitable New Year!

We’re getting married next week and then jetting off to Thailand (and eventually to Australia) until the start of November.

Typically, the trip involves food at every stage, and we finish up by visiting Sydney during the “Crave” food festival – more by accident than design – but we’re really looking forward to it all.

Thanks to everyone who’s followed our blog, and to everyone who has wished us well on our big day.

See you in November ;)

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.

Kelly and I are really enjoying the whole thing: cooking all of these recipes, meeting producers and suppliers, running a few competitions, and visiting local restaurants.

We’re really looking forward to 2011 too. We’ve loads planned – hopefully you’ll come along for the ride!

Have a great Christmas and a peaceful and profitable New Year!

Irish Blog Awards

We’ve been nominated for the Irish Blog Awards 2010!

Thanks to all of you who’ve read our recipes, reviews, and rants over the past year – and thought we deserved an award for it.

The award ceremony will be held on Saturday 27th March, 2010 in Galway. We’re in the “Best Food/Drink Blog” category, which is sponsored by Bord Bia.

You can see the full list of nominees here.

We’ll report back on how we get on. In the meantime..

Thanks again!

The “Buy Now” button will take you to the PayPal website to allow you to buy your tickets. The payment is totally secure – just have a look at the bottom right hand corner of your window, or at the end of the address bar at the top to see the “lock” symbol.

You can buy your tickets for our wine-tasting evening here.

Hopefully we’ll see you all there!

Wine-tasting at Direct Wine Shipments

In our last post we mentioned the exciting work that we’re doing with Direct Wine Shipments and that there was another announcement to come..

Chilli and Chocolate are holding a wine-tasting evening at Direct Wine Shipments on Friday the 12th of March 2010!!

Not only will you get to taste an array of selected wines but there will also be some of our favourite producers and stores there too – with samples for you to enjoy.

The companies attending are:

	Susan Rees from Direct Wine Shipments
	Deirdre McCanny from Co Couture, the gourmet chocolatiers
	Antoinette Morrow from Clydesdale and Morrow, purveyors of fine cheese
	Ronan McElherron from Biostore, specialising in imported olive oil and balsamic vinegar
	Bernadette McIlhatton from Cupcakes and Fairycakes

As well as getting to taste all of the delicious treats on display there’ll be some short introductions to the owners (who are more than willing to chat away to you), a bit of a discussion about how to properly taste wine, how to select the perfect cheeseboard, and more.

It’s an informal evening and a chance for all our members to meet over a good glass of wine. It certainly is an alternative to your usual Friday night out in Belfast.. We’re really looking forward to it!

DWS have also been good enough to give you an extra incentive to become a member of Chilli and Chocolate – any wine purchased that night comes with a 15% discount!

The details:

• All attendees must be members of Chilli and Chocolate;
• Tickets cost £10.00 per person – just a little more if you’re paying by PayPal. You can buy your tickets online through the member’s page. You do not need to have a PayPal account to pay using this method;
• The evening will start at 7pm at the Direct Wine Shipments premises: Direct Wine Shipments, 5-7 Corporation Square, Belfast BT1 3AJ;
• There won’t be any ticket sales on the night – you have to have bought your tickets before the evening itself – and ticket sales will stop on Wednesday 10th of March; and
• We’ll send everyone that is attending an email on Thursday 11th of March with details of the event.

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Kelly and Niall

Other information

You can find the DWS store at:

Direct Wine Shipments
5-7 Corporation Square,
Belfast
BT1 3AJ
T: 028 9050 8000
E: shop@directwine.co.uk
W: www.directwine.co.uk
You can also find DWS on Google Maps.

Direct Wine Shipments

These are exciting times here at Chilli and Chocolate!

We have a lot of things planned for 2010, but the newest development and one which we’re most excited about is working with Direct Wine Shipments.

The main reason for starting Chilli and Chocolate was to let you know about what was available out there – products, producers, and providers that Kelly and I love and which we went back to again and again. Another reason was to allow you to get to know some of the producers and store-owners, to allow you to talk to them and find out more about where your food and wine come from.

Direct Wine Shipments are wine merchants in Belfast and definitely fall into this group – and, after another really enjoyable wine-tasting at their premises on Corporation Square, we got talking..

What does this mean for Chilli and Chocolate?

You’ll notice that DWS are now sponsoring our Wine Reviews section. So rather than buying bottles of wine at random from wine-stores up and down the country we’ll be sampling selected wines from their store – which means that you’ll know where to find it and how much it costs.

We’ll also be writing a post in our “Local Food Heroes” section all about Direct Wine Shipments so you’ll get to know them – who they are, what they do, and what their plans for the future are.

What does this mean for you?

The most important development for our members is that there will be discounts, events, and competitions from DWS just for you.

It also means that we’ll be running a couple of private tastings for our members at Direct Wine Shipments, so they’ll get to know you too. Keep your eyes peeled for news about these tastings later in the month.

This is the first of several big announcements planned for the year ahead – hopefully you’re as excited as we are about what 2010 has to offer!