Eating out:I think it's a fair guess that the word "cafe", for most people, conjures up a very particular image. Industrial "muffins" in plastic packaging, mass-produced sandwiches in ditto, little bottles of alcoholic fruit juice masquerading as wine, chocolate bars at the checkout, and a biohazard with the code name "lasagne".
Mind you, it's not easy to run a cafe. The expectations of the Great Irish Public are so low that the truly dedicated just want to give up trying to produce real food. And the environmental health officers who roam the land, trying to keep us safe, are so keen on prepacked, pre-sliced products that you could be forgiven for thinking their pension plans are index-linked to the share prices of the catering supply companies. There must be some EHOs who have an interest in real food but they must find it hard to work in the business.
And so it's always a pleasure to find a cafe that does things properly, where you can eat at least as well as you do at home. After all, the nature of a true cafe is that it's a place where people who want real food are happy to go for a bit of a snack. A cafe is not a place for cheffing it up; it's a community resource, a place of refuge, and, ideally, a place where you find your own food standards reflected and even celebrated.
So, how many do we have? I'd love to hear from readers who have found somewhere good, somewhere that shines like a beacon among the ocean of "muffins" and microwaves.
If the Ballymaloe Café didn't press all the right buttons in this regard we might as well hang up our boots and just give up. Ballymaloe was the pioneer when Irish food was a bad joke, and the tradition of good food established by Myrtle Allen in the early 1960s is alive and well. This is the little cafe at the back of the Ballymaloe shop (which is one of the best places to buy kitchen equipment). Its size means that you will need to queue unless you get your timing right, but the wait is worth it.
On our family outing we consumed a bowl of hearty potato and rocket soup (and there are not many places offering that) and four main courses. There was a tart of caramelised onions with goats' cheese served with tomato relish and pickled cucumber (always the hallmark of an education at the Ballymaloe Cookery School at nearby Shanagarry), pork and spinach terrine (chunky and not too livery, even for an offal-hater like me), an open sandwich of sweet, smoky and not too-salty bacon (which puts most hams to shame) and a salad of Frank Hederman's quite exceptional smoked mackerel from the smokehouse at nearby Belvelly.
Each of these main courses was accompanied by proper, real, fully authentic salad based on leaves that were neither grown in a chemical fog in north Co Dublin or Holland nor bred for six weeks' shelf-life. There was mizuna and mibuna, the feathery Japanese brassica leaves that I wouldn't like to have to tell apart, baby beet leaves, good lettuce, some parsley, a little coriander and some sweetly bitter but crunchy chicory, all perfectly dressed.
And there was plenty of brown soda bread, made to the infallible Ballymaloe recipe, and some good chewy white batch with butter that was soft and ready to spread.
We finished with smashing desserts: a luscious Tunisian orange cake, a chocolate brownie just as it should be (shared between our two children) and both a hazelnut and a chocolate macaroon. The butter icing sandwiching the former was the only missed beat; it had turned very slightly in the warm, muggy weather.
With decent coffees, mineral water, a home-made lemonade and a home-made elderflower cordial, our bill for four came to €68.45.
"The Café at the End of the Shop", Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Midleton, Co Cork, 021-4652032, www.ballymaloe.ie
DRINKS CHOICE:There is a crisp and zesty white wine in the shape of Vina Cantosan Rueda and a supple Spanish red called Asensio Tinto, both at €4.95 a glass or €19.50 a bottle and both way better than the average house wine. It's hard enough to find barely drinkable stuff at this price. Home-made lemonade and home-made elderflower cordial are both reasons to favour this cafe above most others. They are delicious, made on the premises to old recipes and contain a lot less sugar than anything out of a can. You can also have the Czech lager Budvar or Murphy's Stout at €4 a bottle. Organic apple juice is €2.50 while organic hot chocolate will set you back €3 for a big one or €2.50 for a smaller one. Teas made from fresh herbs are available in season at €2.20. The free tap water is very well filtered - I could detect no sign of chlorine or other nastiness.