Dishing Up Sunshine!
We’ve a brand new dish for you to try when you take the Tasteful Tour – taste our South-East Sunshine Blaa! What makes it even more special is that this is a collaborative dish which represents the South-East region, by bringing together three terrific Irish products while also celebrating the producers behind them. These products and producers are, a Blaa from Walsh’s Bakehouse in Waterford City, Killowen Farm Irish Cream Cheese produced by the Dunne Family in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford and Smoked Rainbow Trout by Goatsbridge Farm in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. It’s topped off with some freshly grown herbs from The Granary Café, which is a ‘brilliant blaa stop’ on the tour route.
Background of the Dish
Last year, Sinéad owner of Tasteful Tours traveled to a food conference in Tours France to present a paper. At an evening social event organised by the College, guest speakers were asked to bring a selection of food stuffs from their ‘home’ countries. Sinéad decided to bring the Waterford Blaa back to its associated country France.
She packed some Walsh’s Blaas in her suitcase but needed something tasty to stuff them with that would also travel well. A smoked product perhaps? Goatsbridge Trout came to mind so she bought some of their smoked Rainbow Trout and added it to her suitcase. She served the blaa buns halved with some French cream cheese spread on them (as Irish Cheese wouldn’t have survived the plane journey!) and topped off with a slice of Kilkenny trout. The tray of blaas received many compliments from attendees at the after-party hailing from France, Germany, Portugal, Poland, Italy and the U.S. etc.
When she returned home Sinéad wanted to recreate the dish so sourced a cream cheese from neighbouring Wexford made from milk from the cowherd at Killowen Farm. This is silky, super creamy and melts in your mouth. It tastes sublime when paired with some locally smoked fish from Goatsbridge Trout Farm. Then after Sinéad spoke to Ray, manager of The Granary Café, the dish started to take shape. He was very enthusiastic about this new offering. Ray filled a soft fluffy blaa from Walsh’s Bakehouse with these ingredients, dressing it with some fresh locally grown dill which finishes it off beautifully – the South-East Sunshine Blaa was born!
This Collective Dish enhances the tour, while it also…
- Creates a spirit of collaboration between counties
- Sparks creativity and innovation between food producers, hospitality business owners and tourism entrepreneurs
- Showcases products and producers from the South-East region
- Offers an enhanced tour experience and more choice to customers
In Time for Summer
Our South-East Sunshine Blaa is available from the first week of June, just in time for the start of Summer! The dish is aimed at those following a pescatarian diet or simply anyone who is not big on eating meat. It offers fish lovers and adventurous tour-goers an alternative to the traditional ‘bacon, sausage and egg’ blaa. The combination of these ingredients truly complement each other and make for a lovely, light and tasty option. This innovative blaa dish will only be sold on the Tasteful Tour.
Be one of the first tour-goers to taste test it when you Prebook Tasteful Tour Tickets Here.
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A big thanks to all the food collaborators for this dish and special thanks to Ray & his team at The Granary Café in Waterford City.
All Photographs by Lorenzo Tonti Photography
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