Author: Olivia

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Allta – my standout meal of 2025

When reflecting on 2025 there was one meal I knew deserved its own post. I have long followed Allta’s story and been really keen to visit. I am glad that I was able to make it happen in 2025. Allta has moved around Dublin in the last few years and is now settled in the docks area. what hasn’t changed is Allta’s focus on time and place and championing Irish produce. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left we experienced the very best in hospitality from front of house to numerous chefs visiting our table, making us feel so welcome and taking us on a journey celebrating the very best of Irish produce. We even had the opportunity to see the raw ingredients as the meal began.

Allta offers a 12 course seasonal tasting menu with a range of snacks followed by bread, fish, meat and sweet courses. The food was exciting, clever and most of all delicious; so much skill and creativity poured in to every dish. What made it even more special was being able to engage with the very chefs who made the dishes. This is a meal that will live long in the memory.

The menu:

Monally’s heritage carrot, smoked velvet cloud sheep’s yoghurt, sunflower seed and squid, guanciale and shiso doughnut

bbq red shrimp, peanut and green chilli koji butter

wicklow venison tataki, cacao and coffee miso, damson

polpetta di sarde and parker house bread, truffle and toasted yeast jersey butter

hand dived scallop, smoked malone’s raspberry hot sauce, green tomato nam pla, bbq corn

salt baked beetroot, glenidan farm cobnut, blackcurrant, tarragon 

bbq ray wing, native shrimp sabayon, pumpkin seed, black garlic, january king, padron

dermot’s oxford sandy and black pork, clam xo, smoked bone marrow, pear, merguez

glenidan farm sea buckthorn, buttermilk icecream, ginger

apple and canelé bread and butter pudding

petits fours – hazelnut and coriander bonbon, juniper and sloe berry tart

We finished our meal with an incredible dessert wine – 2015, ‘anam üll’, apple icewine, slane valley, Ireland

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My 10 Stand out dishes of 2025

Every year I like to reflect on my favourite dishes of the year. Here are the top 10 of 2025

Stand out dish 1 – the oxtail giouvetsi, bone marrow, beef fat pangrattato at Oma

Stand out dish 2 – char siu pork, spice roast pineapple, sesame & ginger at Skosh

Stand out dish 3 – pork belly with gochujang miso tahini and cured egg yolk at Babushka evenings

Stand out dish 4 – ash baked sweet potato, wildflower vinegar & wild lemon labneh at the Fodder Lughnasadh feast

Stand out dish 5 – wood roast half chicken with Café de Paris butter, morels and baby leeks with a side of duck fat fries at Dove

Stand out dish 6 – Phuket style soy braised pork with hom mali rice at Kolae

Stand out dish 7 – purple heritage carrots at Black Wheat Club evenings

Stand out dish 8 – kale borani with flat bread at Capparelli at the Mill

Stand out dish 9 The rotisserie chicken and gravy at Capparelli at the Mill. this year was definitely the year of the roast chicken!

Stand out dish 10 – brussel sprout pakoras with salted mango, lime and cumin at Skosh

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2025 Food Memories

2025 was a much quieter year for me in terms of food adventures but it still brought new places and some old favourites.  We’ve continued to explore London and at the beginning of the year we finally got to Oma in London just before their Michelin star was announced.  We also had the chance to visit Darjeeling, Luna, Kolae, Dove, Kricket and have dim sum in Chinatown.

We’ve been back to Donegal a couple of times and managed to tick Bar Fisk off the list.  As always we included a visit to Scarpellos on the way home.

We’ve tried a few new places in Belfast including Frankys Lasagneria, Margot, Pica, Seoul Food Studio and the much anticipated Capparelli’s at the Mill.  We also made sure we snuck in a couple of visits to one of our favourites – Yugo.

We had a few visits to Dublin, went on a pizza trawl and had the meal of the year at Allta. We even managed 3 visits for Wine and cheese at Loose Canon = 🎉

I’ve continued to seek out bakeries wherever I go and the highlight was getting my hands on a Roundhouse Bakery Panettone just in time for Christmas.

As in other years there were the constants:

Numerous visits to Middletown coffee which always includes a hash brown stack.

Brunch at Fodder as part of our days out to the coast and forest walks.

Hot sandwiches at Lightfoot. The highlights of Lightfoot this year being the moulin rouge with cafe de Paris butter, the Po Boys, the lobster rolls and the Christmas sandwich!

Pizza at Flout

Curry at the Viceroy

Coffee at coffee rustler, Copeland distillery, babushka, Fidela and Kiosk

A Dishoom breakfast when in London

And when in York goats cheese poached eggs at Black Wheat Club and making sure we visit Skosh when we can!

All in all its been another good year. Here is to more good eating in 2026.

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Scarpello and Co

Za'tar flatbread and burrata small plates

It has become a bit of a Frivolitea tradition that any trip to Donegal begins or ends with a trip to Scarpello and Co. A place where, to quote my husband, ‘the world feels a little bit better’ when you enter.

Tucked behind a service station on the Buncrana road, Scarpello has a small but perfectly formed seasonal menu of coffee and pastries in the morning and a range of lunch choices including toasties, small plates and sourdough pizzas. Kemal and Rachel are part of the Real Bread Ireland network and their care for food and its provenance shines through the menu. We always include a pizza in our order as I’m married to a man for whom life begins and ends at pizza!

Our favourites on the menu are the Za’atar & sesame flatbread, the red pizza with local smoked sausage and the white pizza with wood roast fennel sausage. The pizza base is a classic Napoli style base that is wonderfully puffed up around the edges and packed full of flavour because of the sourdough.

Za'tar and burrata dishes
Smoked sausage, spinach, potato and chilli pizza with a side of Compania fries
White pizza with wood roast fennel sausage and broccoli rabe, chilli, garlic and oregano

However what makes this place extra special is the people. Every time we visit their love of serving people shines through. Rachel has always served us, she is the very definition of hospitality and I always look forward to a conversation. It is so clear to see how much love Rachel and Kemal put in to this place.

This is definitely a place to put on your list if you are anywhere near Derry or to be honest even if you’re not. Take a drive and go – and make sure you buy a cinnamon bun for the journey home!

Cinnamon bun in a box
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Celebrating British and Irish Cheese

British and Irish artisan cheese has been dealt a devastating blow by the closure of restaurants, hotels, pubs and cafes. Practically overnight, cheesemakers and cheesemongers who supplied these businesses saw a massive loss of business. There have been some fantastic advocates of the industry over the last couple of months, in particular Jenny Linford who wrote this great article in April encouraging us to support our cheese producers. The publicity has been a lifeline for some but sadly not all have survived. This week we heard that Highfield Farm Dairy is ceasing production. They make one of my favourite goats cheeses, Innes brick. It is sad to think the little bit I have left is the last I will ever eat, thankfully the goat herd have found a good home in Cumbria with Martin Gott who makes St James cheese.

I know that 2020 has been a very challenging year for many of us but I hope that in the midst of this we can take time to learn more about our food traditions, make some choices about where we buy our food and consider supporting artisan producers in Britain and Ireland.

For cheese in particular we have the amazing Courtyard Dairy in the Yorkshire Dales and in London we have Neal’s Yard Dairy, championing cheese producers of the British Isles. Both ship nationwide and provide a wealth of information about the cheese and producers so that you can educate yourself more about cheese. If you are in Northern Ireland then Indie Fude is frankly the best shop that has ever existed (really, check it out) and has a stunning collection of Irish cheeses alongside a wide range of Irish produce perfect to accompany cheese. Indie Fude ships across Ireland and the UK.

If you do one thing this week, order some cheese. You won’t regret it I promise.

Here is my current list of cheese favourites if you are wondering where to start:

My Yorkshire Highlights

Dale End Cheddar, Summerfield Alpine and Moorland Tomme from Botton Creamery on the North York Moors. Some can be bought from Food Circle’s weekly market at Tang Hall Community Centre.

Ribblesdale Goats Cheese by Ribblesdale Cheese

Hebden Goats Cheese by Ten Acres Farm

Shepherds Purse Fine Fettle ( feta style)

Barncliffe Brie by Yorkshire Fine Cheese

Richard III Wensleydale by Fortmayne Dairy

Leeds Blue and Yorkshire Pecorino by Olianas

My British and Irish Cheese highlights at the moment

Ogleshield from Motntgomery Cheese

Rollright Cheese from Kingstone Dairy

Baron Bigod Brie from Fen Farm Dairy

St James Cheese

Kirkhams Lancashire

Berwick Edge from Doddingtons

Brinkburn Goats Cheese from Northumberland Cheese Company

Young Buck Blue from Mike’s Fancy Cheese

Triple Rose from Ballylisk Cheese

Gubbeen

Corleggy Goat Cheese and the Drumlin wild garlic and chilli from Corleggy Cheeses

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Smoked trout fishcakes

Ingredients

approximately 300g mashed potato ( we used leftovers from Sunday lunch)

1 portion of smoked trout ( we used Staal Smokehouse)

4 spring onions sliced ( including greens)

Method

Put the mashed potato in a bowl and season.

Flake in the smoked trout and add the sliced spring onions.

Mix together and use a little beaten egg to bind if needed.

Shape into fish cakes.

Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and fry the fishcakes until golden brown on each side.

Yes it is that simple.

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Wild garlic and asparagus tart

Ingredients

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

75g fresh curd cheese (I buy Botton dairy from Food Circle York)

small bunch of wild garlic, chopped

1 bunch of asparagus ( I bought local Sand Hutton asparagus)

zest of a lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 200c

Lay out the sheet of puff pastry onto a baking tray and using a knife, score a border about 2cm from the edge.

Trim the asparagus and cook in boiling water for a couple of minutes.

Mix together the curds, chopped wild garlic and lemon zest, using a bit of lemon juice to slacken if needed.

Spread the curd mixture on the puff pastry within the border you’ve created.

Lay the asparagus on top of the curd mix.

Put in the oven and cook for approximately 35-40 minutes until the pastry edges are risen and golden brown.

Serve warm with a side salad. I lightly pickled wild garlic flowers in cider vinegar and dressed the top of the tart with them.

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Black pudding hash

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4 slices of black pudding (approx 250-300g) diced

2 eggs

Method

Turn the oven on to 180c.

Par boil the diced potatoes for a few minutes til not quite cooked (about 7 minutes).

Put a bit of oil in a large frying pan and add the potatoes and the 2 cloves of crushed garlic . Fry, tossing occasionally.

Add the black pudding and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. You are looking for crispy potatoes and crispy bits of black pudding.

Transfer to an oven dish and make 2 wells. Crack an egg into each well and bake in oven until the egg is cooked but the yolk is still a bit runny.

Enjoy.

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Young Buck blue cheese scones

Ingredients

250g soda bread flour ( I use Mortons)

50g butter

125g Young Buck blue cheese

100ml buttermilk

1 egg

Method

Preheat a fan oven to 200c.

Put the soda bread flour in a large bowl, add the butter and rub the butter through flour to resemble breadcrumbs.

Cut up the Young Buck blue cheese into little pieces and add to the flour mix.

In a jug mix together the buttermilk and egg.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and lightly bring together ( don’t overwork it) adding a tiny bit of buttermilk if needed.

Turnout onto a lightly flour surface and gently roll or pat to an even depth.

Cut out the scones and put on a tray that has been lined with parchment/ baking paper.

Give the scones a light egg wash on top then bake for 10-12 mins.

NB if you cannot source soda bread flour you can use plain flour and add the salt and bicarbonate of soda. I’d recommend 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp bicarb.

I like to serve these with Abernethy butter and some pear chutney.

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Clam and Cork

If you suggested to me that my love of food would take me on a culinary adventure by way of a train to Doncaster and a walk to Doncaster markets I would have thought you had gone mad. BUT there I was, at Doncaster Fish Market having the time of my life. Turns out Jay Rayner knows what he is talking about 😉 Clam and Cork is everything I hoped it would be. Full on northern charm and hospitality that extends from staff to the plates of food. It sits on the edge of the market, allowing the sunshine to tease you, right next to the fish stalls. I’m a fan of food traceability and you can literally see where your fish has come from in this place. 

Clam and Cork offers a short but hugely inviting menu, I was on the edge of saying ‘all of it please’ when we were asked for our order. We went for a main of monkfish burger with chips and two small plates – calamari with chipotle mayo and roasted peppers, and pan seared scallops with lime, coriander and anchovy dressing. It was exceptional. No faff, no ponce, just damn good seafood treated with love and care. The scallops were cooked to perfection and the dressing perfectly balanced. The coating on the calamari and the monkfish in the burger had a delightful kick, beautifully accompanied by the chipotle mayo. The chips were just how my mum makes them.  The finest kind of chip. All if which was garnished with pea shoots. The queen of garnish. I can’t think of a better way to spend a lunchtime. We chatted away to the fishmonger from the next door stall and the chef about our love of food (and our love of Doncaster Sheffield airport) as we ate our lunch and, as if the afternoon wasn’t already going swimmingly, our visit coincided with the slow cooked pork coming out of the oven so we got a sample of the most stunning pork flavoured with star anise, ginger and chilli. Anyone visiting tomorrow is in for a treat!

I can imagine we will visit this place often! I mean, it’s only a 20-minute train journey from York and less than five minute walk from the station.  Why wouldn’t you?