Salt and pepper, and a bit of cooking oil are perhaps the minimum expectations you can hope for in the kitchen in a holiday home rental. But you never can be sure. Especially if you like your black pepper freshly ground and your salt as fleur de sel. It may be that it ran out, or that it was never there in the first place. But there’s no telling until you get there.
While a rental I stayed in some years ago in San Sebastian had a kitchen equipped to top tier level, this is a city where you're likely to be doing little cooking and the gleaming kitchen had all the evidence of this. But if you're heading to a rented property around the country in Ireland, particularly at the more economical end of the market, have a go-bag before you set off. Keeping this packed and ready to grab will pay off.
While the pandemic imposed overseas travel restrictions over the past two years, the upside for me (and many others) was a move to remote working, which didn’t actually have to be done from home. So I booked a week away each month, which meant my husband had some interesting backgrounds for his Zoom meetings and I got to explore the food shops and restaurants beyond Dublin. Not everywhere had wifi but a little research worked well if I needed it for interviews and the like. Yotam Ottolenghi was jaw-drop enthralled by my scenic background and the sunny weather we were having when I interviewed him on Zoom last summer, sitting outside the Michael Cusack centre in the Burren.
The kitchens varied as much as the cottages we stayed in, ranging from Connemara, west Cork, the Burren, Mayo and Donegal, to a beautiful spot in Shillelagh in Co Wicklow. Inevitably there were favourites, and places we returned to more than once. But it wasn't necessarily because of the superior kit, it was for other reasons, such as the quietness of Connemara, the craic of Ballydehob and the amazing restaurants in the locality, and the spellbinding beauty of the Burren.
The Merchant’s Store in Kilrush got a load of Instagram love when I put it up on my stories last September. I quickly discovered that it had been featured on TV on Dermot Bannon’s Super Small Spaces. It is a kitchen made for Insta, where everything – including the extractor fan hidden behind original snuff boxes – is so cleverly concealed that it looks like the original shop, with a grocer’s weighing scales on the original shop counter and a snug to the front of the house offering privacy from prying eyes on the street.
As the year progressed, so did our appreciation of what was needed to ensure we were kitchen-swap ready, capable of rustling up a quick meal without a knife injury, or going into battle with a lobster. Top tip, if you don’t have a lobster claw cracker with you, a hammer will do a reasonable if less refined job, and if there isn’t a hammer to hand (quite rare in my experience), a large stone will work. It’s an operation that is best delegated, and performed outside on a newspaper. Wear old clothes and mind your fingers.
So, key learnings from a year of cottage hopping. Rule one. Never, ever expect to get a sharp knife. Buy a few of those brightly coloured sheathed knives and keep them in a separate bag for your travels. And do buy more than one, chopping vegetables happens faster when two people do it.
Rule two. Do not expect a set of wine glasses. It varies hugely. Some kitchens may have a shiny new set of six, others may have a menagerie that look more like an unpacked family of Matryoshka dolls, going up in size, but without the matching bit. I was recently charmed to discover two glasses with handles, perfect for hot ports after an exhilarating walk (don’t forget to pack cloves), and a full set of wine glasses. But there were no tumblers for whiskey. An absolute necessity for the person in charge of our lobster dismembering. The solution is to pack those small stubby glasses which work both for whiskey and as bistro-style wine receptacles. They’re also an essential piece of picnicking kit, as of course is a corkscrew.
Rule three, make a list. Rule four, check it twice. Otherwise you may find that the Champagne for your New Year’s Eve toast is still lurking in the hallway with some Jura whites and Tuscan reds as you unload the car at your rural home for a week. And rule five, don’t give out to your husband about it. Particularly if it is clearly his fault. Not a word.
The pandemic saw the acquisition of a pre-loved MX5 being added to our household’s means of travel, and apart from the joy of driving with the top down in the winter sun, the tiny boot means packing has now been whittled down to a fine art. No room for the wicker picnic basket but definitely room for the plastic-backed picnic rug.
While I prefer to buy my food locally when on holidays, there are a few things I always pack. Good quality salt and pepper, because it makes so much difference to a simple meal; charcuterie and interesting cheeses that may not be available close to where you’re staying, and a very good olive oil that you can use for drizzling, dipping and adding a little bit of magic to salads. A block of frozen milk is your only man, particularly if you have limited space, as it doubles up as an icepack to keep food chilled and will have thawed just enough for two cups of Barry’s tea when you arrive and discover that you’ve forgotten the wine.
One last tip, if you plan to cook anything with plenty of aromas, let’s say lamb, fish or lobster, it’s better to do it earlier in the week, as you don’t want lingering smells when you place the key back under the welcome mat. And to save yourself the cleaning up, eat out or get a takeaway for the last night.
So, to ensure happy travels, here is a checklist for your go-bag and a few tasty bites for when you arrive.
HOLIDAY KITCHEN SURVIVAL KIT
Utensils and bits
A sizable chef’s knife and two paring knives, we like the ones from Zyliss or Kuhn Rikon that come with plastic sheaths for safe travelling
Tongs for cooking, sturdy metal ones with silicone tips
Digital thermometer, an instant-read one made by Thermapen is one of our most prized possessions and is used many times every week
Swiss Army knife, or Opinel folding knife. Essential for picnics
Corkscrew
Lobster claw crackers, if going to a coastal area and likely to hunt down lobsters
Space permitting, consider a big lobster cooking pot – you can pack other stuff inside it
Robust stubby glasses for picnics, pad them with a few tea towels
Picnic blanket or microfibre towel
Folding picnic chairs
Kitchen wipes
Dishwasher tablets
Extension cable
Food
Top quality olive oil
Black pepper mill
A small container of fleur de sel
Good quality pasta
Tinned tomatoes
Charcuterie
Artisan cheese if no speciality shops nearby
Frozen litre of milk in a chill bag
Buy on arrival
Milk
Butter
Bread
Eggs
Sausages and rashers
Cheese
Kitchen roll
