Colin Manning

I was in Munich last weekend for long weekend and visited the Christmas market in the old town. It and the shops nearby were mobbed. There's no sign of an economic downturn in Munich. It is a very clean and organized city. I was struck, however, by just how many shops didn't have lifts. That's not something I would have noticed until I started going places with the buggy. Eating out was about the same or slightly less expensive than in Ireland. But I guess there are very few places left that are actually more expensive than home. There's lots of shopping to be done in Munich. But I wasn't really in the mood and so came away empty handed. But the Christmas market did fill me up with Christmas vibes.

We went to Isaac's on MacCurtain St tonight for the first time. I was surprised. I really don't know what all the fuss is about. Apart from an interesting tempura, the menu was very boring. The siñorita's tempura was fun and as far as I'm concerned wasabi is the new black. But we were hard pressed to find anything else interesting on the menu. I opted for a goat's cheese salad. The salad was boring and the goat's cheese very thin on the ground. The siñorita, for want of anything interesting, opted for lamb. It was nice, but not special. I had some stuffed chicken. Again, nothing wrong with it. But very uninteresting. The atmosphere at Isaac's is casual. Too casual. It hits that sweet spot that lies somewhere between cafeteria and bus station. Atmospheric 18th-century warehouse my arse. There's nothing screams not-atmospheric-18th-century warehouse like Formica. I thought the food was over-priced. Isaac's certainly is not special enough to warra...

All Irish Pork products have been recalled because of a dioxin safety scare. Confidence in beef is surely to be hit also. This will have a serious impact on these industries. Ironically I have been finding it increasingly more difficult to actually buy Irish pork and beef. Whenever I go to the supermarket for ham for my sandwiches it takes me ages to figure out if the ham is actually from Ireland or not. Often there are no Irish ham slices at all. Of course many traditional Irish brands no longer use Irish meat preferring to source it in Brazil. This places these faux-Irish brands in a well deserved position. By not coming clean on the product labels about where the meat is actually sourced, they will suffer the same fate as the Irish products at a time when they could be cleaning up because of the scare. Now the misleading Paddy's Irish Style Rashers and Sausages are suddenly less attractive than the more honest Paulo's Pork and Samba Sausage. Aldi refuses to say where ...