One guide fits all:If you'd like to make a reservation at Restaurant David Norris (no, it's not on North Great George's Street, it's in Tralee), buy stout-cured beef (from Malone Foods, in Castleblayney) or order a wedding cake in the shape of the Sagrada Familia (from Cannaboe Confectionery, in Ballinamore, Co Donegal), you'll find out how to go about it in the new Bridgestone Irish Food Guide.
Subtitled All the Best Places to Eat, Shop and Stay, this 536-page bible is one of the most useful guide books you'll ever buy. Local knowledge is the key to keeping any guide up to date, and writer and editor John and Sally McKenna have assembled a dedicated band of foodies countrywide to keep them abreast of arrivals, expansion plans and closures, and to sniff out the gems that a blow-in would never unearth. It's an all-Ireland guide, so it's refreshing to see the food culture north of the Border given due accord. The farmers' markets are comprehensively covered, too. The Bridgestone Irish Food Guideis published by Estragon Press, €15. See www.bridgestoneguides.com. Marie-Claire Digby