Good gracious, is that the time of year? I can hardly believe that March beckons already, and while we’ve been busy spring-cleaning our parliament and choosing new political colour schemes, one thing remains certain: Paddy’s Day is a-coming and it’s green all the way. If you happened to be around these parts this time last year, you might remember what that meant: a great big ol’ celebration of Irish food. So, if you’re food blogging something with St. Patrick’s Day in mind, why not join me for another Paddy’s Day Food Parade this year (and if you’re participating in the Irish Cookalongs traditional Irish cookalong on March 4th, why not send along your best Irish wares for display in the parade too). To join in, send an email to paddysday... Similar posts

In a world full of doomsday predictions and visits by Olli Rehn; students being clubbed down on the streets; and men tossing off under Cara magazine on Aer Lingus flights, it seemed as though we really were going to hell in a handcart. Until this happened. Through the gloom broke a shining golden beam of crispy deliciousness. Representing all that is right and true and good about Ireland came news of the Tayto Theme Park. A happy place, populated by Hunky Dory buffalo and where baby Taytos gambol in Crispy Creek. So you thought the idea of Jurassic Park was far fetched?  Baby, the word has been made flesh.  We cannot express our joy at the thought of the Tayto Park.   Could this be the place we have always dreamed of – a place to go and legitimately stuff our faces with as... Similar posts

1. Beer Protector – First of all, not everyone has given up smoking. And just because the smokers have left the bar for for a drag, it doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned their pints. Is it not bad enough for them that they’re forced to indulge their filthy habit outside, shivering in the drizzle hunched over... Similar posts

So anyway you come out of work and you’re walking down the street and you think Fuck it, I’m gonna grab a cheeky bag of crisps, and you go into the shop and pick up a packet of smoky bacon because it’s been a while and to be honest you’re not up for the whole King-Tayto-King-Tayto dance you have to do every single time you go for cheese and onion, and so you pay up and you leave and you’re walking along and yeah, you made the right choice, these are reet tasty. Skip ahead a couple of minutes and you’re nearly finished and there’s a bin just up there, how handy… only you’ve misjudged how close to the bottom you were, so you end up standing beside the bin munching away like a div, and after a while the people who saw you leave the shop... Similar posts

Following several discussions with family and friends about how small the content of crisp packets were getting, I decided to carry out a survey of content between my two favourite crisps, Tayto Cheese and Onion and Hunky Dorys Buffalo. Over the past two weeks I have purchased 24 packets of Tayto Cheese and Onion and 24 packets of Hunky Dorys Buffalo flavoured crisps, I made my purchases at various shops throughout Meath in order to obtain a good and fair sample for my study.Tayto Cheese and Onion which are sold in bags stating that the weight of the bag and its content are 37g - as can be seen from the picture above, were found in all 24 sample bags to weigh 30-34g, not one of the bags passed the 34g mark.Hunky Dorys Buffalo which are sold in bags stating that the weight of the bag... Similar posts

You may think that it’s all fancy dinners and the like ’round here, but not so, I tell ya, not so. For instance, the other day, I rushed home to take delivery of… A truly authentic ham sandwich from Denny …a ham sandwich. Yup. White sliced pan, something butter-like and Denny ham. No more, no less. Notwithstanding the fact that I’m not an eater of meaty sandwiches (oops, Denny forgot again), the significance of what is an Irish Institution was not lost on me. The ham sandwich (more properly referred to in certain parts of the country as the hang sangidge) has graced many’s the Irish lunchbox and been consumed by countless thousands of attendees at GAA matches, community field days and parish hall functions. A ham sandwich, thus presented, is nothing... Similar posts

Sadface, kinda So Galway and the Irish Blog Awards came and went last night, and while I was a shoe-in for Best Spud, the food and drink honours this year went to the very sweet and multi-talented Donal with his Good Mood Food Blog. He adds the blog crown to his cookbook, newspaper columns, television appearances, pop-stardom and who-knows-what-else to come – quite a phenomenon to contend with! I would just like to make it clear, however, that I remain as dedicated as ever to all that is potato and that, folks, is really all that matters. Case in point: McDonagh's Chips I will have you know, for example, that upon arrival in Galway yesterday, I had a mighty feed of fish and chips (but mostly chips) in advance of the evening’s events, as procured from McDonagh’s of Quay... Similar posts

It was a simple choice: eat my words or eat the contents of my freezer. What happened, you see, was that Love Food magazine, published with yesterday’s Irish Independent, had included a little piece from me on tips for Christmas (ah, yes, fame at last! – even if it did miss out on my current top tip, which is to head over here for a shot at a free box of Tayto crisps). Exciting indeed to see my words in actual newsprint but, having urged everyone in the country to fill their freezers with mince pies and the like, I had a weeny problem on that front myself. My freezer bore one of those looks that said “defrost me now, or else…”. I had been trying vaguely attempting to clear the freezer for months now. No sooner had one lot of frozen comestibles been used up,... Similar posts

Remember Mr. Tayto, he of the crispy cheese & onion empire? Well, let’s just say that he’s been getting quite chatty of late. One week, he’s letting me know about his twitter page and his schedule for book signings, the next, he’s offering to send me copies of his autobiography. Personally, I think he fancies me. Mr. Tayto and La Spud - a match made in potato heaven? Not that I would ever dream of taking advantage of a situation like that, but I did politely enquire of Mr. Tayto my new beau whether he would consider spreading his cheese & onion love by providing some of those iconic Tayto crisps for readers of the Spud. I am naturally delighted to report that he said yes (I really am quite irresistible, after all). As a result, one lucky Spud reader... Similar posts

The Man Inside the Jacket – Mr. Tayto Text of review reads: Despite being the most loved snack food in Ireland, we dont know much about the man whose face has been smiling happily from bags of crisps in Ireland for over 50 years. Many people cite Bill Cullen’s rags to riches story as being an example for all entrepreneurs to follow. The Mr. Tayto story gives oul penny apple man a run for his money. For the first time ever, we get an insight into the life of this enigmatic icon. Written in plain language and with plenty of photographs sprinkled throughout, Mr Tayto tells it all with help from the men behind Podge and Rodge. The book is a limited edition and for under six quid it’s a bargain. A contribution from the sale goes to Aware as well. Just buy it. Rated 5/5 on... Similar posts

Rarely can there be a group as worthy of support as this (The Tayto appreciation society on Facebook) - I had to join as in an increasingly transient world the continuity and happiness provided by Tayto is important! My life and Tayto have crossed on two occasions, both in a previous life as a VAT inspector in Dublin.In the early 80's I'd to call on a chipper called "CeeBees" in Parnell Street in Dublin - This was a strange operation as it only opened Monday to Friday from 12 to 2 and from 4 to 7, not the normal trading hours for a central Dublin chippie! It turned out it was owned by the Collins Brothers (CeeBees, geddit?) who had founded King Crisps and having sold it to Tayto for, then. good money, found themselves bored with time on their hands and ran this dilettante chipper just to... Similar posts

A story of hope and courage, of setbacks and success, of triumph and despair, of cheese and onion. So says Mr. Tayto of his newly released autobiography – The Man Inside The Jacket – and he should know. For those not familiar with the legend that is Tayto Cheese & Onion, let me just say that these crisps are right up there with Barry’s tea as one of the must-have taste-of-home items for the Irish abroad. In addition to being a tasty end unto themselves, place some Tayto crisps between two slices of buttered white bread, with or without a slice of ham as you prefer, and you’ve got yourself a crisp sandwich, close cousin to the chip butty. Add a bottle of Club Orange and maybe a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and you’ve got yourself some classic... Similar posts

What springs to mind when you hear the word culture? Does it conjure up images of the arts and theatre, dahling? Or does your mind turn to those things that help to define a shared national identity? Or do you think, instead, of buttermilk? (in which case your view of culture would appear to be rather more bacterial than regional) Culture (in the not necessarily high-brow and decidedly non-bacterial sense of the word) is a many-faceted thing and food is most definitely one of those facets. Aspects of what we eat, how we eat it and who we eat it with can bind us (culturally speaking) to some and differentiate us from others. Ditto for drink, of course. For the Irish among us, it’s tea, it’s Guinness, it’s soda bread and (yes) it’s potatoes. And it’s not just... Similar posts

In keeping with the 1980s nostalgia theme this week, I’ve been inveigled into writing this week on the topic ‘Food Memories of the 1980s’. It’s kind of a tall order, given that I was only a small boy at the time. The decade was a blur of penny sweets and Subbuteo as far as I can recall . Go on, they said. There must be a few special Eighties food memories that stick out… Well, there was that time Duran Duran dropped by my house and we ate Rice Krispie Buns and played Space Invaders. Really, they gasped? No, of course not. I grew up in Ballyhaunis. I didn’t eat in a restaurant until I was fifteen. My mother used to buy a chicken every weekend. She roasted it on Sunday morning and we ate it after mass. The poor animal might have assumed that was then end of its ordeal.... Similar posts

I've been running behind a bit on the news. I started a new job 2 weeks ago and been a wee bit busy. Looking at all the news articles over the past 2 weeks, I think I'll make this posting about the various job losses and the economy in Donegal.Redundancies are on the up and up, this was before the latest Budget:http://www.highlandradio.com/news.php?articleid=000003789Figures released by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment show there were 173 redundancies in Donegal in march, 132 of them men.Meanwhile, employers body IBEC says the Government should reduce social welfare payments by three per cent in next week's emergency budget ... It (the IBEC) wants a short-term emergency support package for enterprise to be prioritised to kick start the economy.Director General Turlough... Similar posts

A not-so-little red rooster So that was the year that was. 2008, the UN International Year of the Spud, no less, a year that was intended to underscore the “potato’s important place in the global food system”. Whatever about those worthy efforts, there’s never been any doubt about the humble spud’s importance in my own local food system. Eaten in all shapes and forms, though loved most especially when they’ve been dug straight from the back garden, steamed and served with salt and butter. That and when they’ve been converted into Tayto crisps (the snack whose failure to achieve world domination remains a source of mystery to my friend KD and others). My favourite new way with potatoes in 2008 was crash hot potatoes, a divine cross between baked... Similar posts

Quick lesson in “image etiquette” on the interwebs. If you’re going to use an image from someone elses site (e.g.: mine) - as long as you’re sure they won’t have a problem with it, of course, there’s two things you should do. 1. Download it from their site, upload it to your own - meaning you’re using your own bandwidth, not theirs. 2. Credit them for the image. Thanks on both these counts to the lovely lecraic. Boo hiss! on both counts to Amanda’s Growing Pains. Here’s a screenshot. Her blog entry DID have a picture looking like THIS in it: … and okay, granted- that’s not MY original photo, but it’s hosted on my server and she directly linked to it, using my bandwidth (albeit a small amount) - so I changed the file... Similar posts

The above has just hit me and I think my heart has ripped open. Don’t expect me to make sense for a while. Cuirfimidne chun bóthair arís inniu Chuig aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath. Deireadh an tsamhraidh buailte linn Mac eile ag imeacht. Eisean féin a thiománfaidh an carr Tús curtha ar a thuras fada. Ag mionchomhrá treallach, míloighciúil Meilfimid an aimsir. Staidéar ar ríomhtheangacha A bheidh idir lámha aige. Béarfaidh sé ar an bhfaill Faoi spalladh gréine i Houston, Texas. Tar éis slán a chur leis Agus greim láimhe againn ar a chéile Pléifimid na buntáistí a bheadh aige thall Nach mbeadh ar fáil sa bhaile. Gealgháireach, fuadrach a bheidh Na stráinséirí inár dtimpeall. Ní bhacfaimid le cupán caife Siúlfaimid go dtí an carr go mall. Deireadh an... Similar posts

Yeah… don’t get why this house (near Donabate beach) has a confederate flag flying outside. Maybe this girl lives there. Tayto’s answer to Pringles? … “Toobz”. Yeah, that’ll work. Do they have a BLINGIN’ CAR? … I THINK NOT!!! What, so THEY’re allowed park illegaly? And up ON the footpaths, no less! . . Wow… that was a nice lazy blog post… © Niall for NiallOK's Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment Add to del.icio.us Search blogs linking this post with Technorati Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Cars, Dublin, Girls, Personal, Photos, Radio, Technology, WTF?, blogging, blogs, irishblogs,... Similar posts