Declan Cashin

Mmm, land of chocolate

2008-07-25T08:43:00.003+01:00

Feature on this weekend's Chocolate Festival in Temple Bar from today's Examiner.

Chocolate, as the saying goes, is not a matter of life and death – it’s more important than that. This is certainly the philosophy behind the sweetest event of summer 2008: the first ever Chocolate Festival which takes place in Temple Bar in Dublin this weekend.

The festival will bring together chocolate artisans from all over Ireland for three lip-smacking days of sampling and tasting, as well as talks, exhibitions, workshops and movies all revolving around the world’s most popular confectionary.

It should certainly go down well in this country where research shows we are officially a nation of chocoholics. Ireland has the highest per capita consumption of chocolate in the world (just ahead of the Swiss), munching our way through 11.2kg each of the stuff every year. What’s more, our chocolate market is the 12th biggest in Europe, estimated at e544m, and we remain the biggest export market for the UK.

It should come as little surprise therefore that attitudes here towards chocolate have become more sophisticated in recent years. While chocolate produced by commercial giants like Cadbury and Nestle evidently remains popular, there has been a growing interest in speciality chocolate, particularly focusing on the origins, and quality, of the product’s cocoa beans, and the conditions in which it is made.

According to market analysts ABM Amro, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk was the strongest seller in the Irish market (40 per cent) for the years 2006-2007, followed by Galaxy (12 per cent of market share) and Bournville (10 per cent).

However, the big news from that research was the growth in sales at the premium end of the chocolate market, notably the organic Fairtrade producers Green and Black’s, which grew by double digits in the year.

This development itself is proof of the interest in high-quality chocolate. Micah Carr-Hill, head taster with Green and Black’s, puts the company’s surge in sales down to the growing interest in organic food and that its product contains more cocoa than its milk chocolate rivals (double the amount in some cases).

“I also think the company really took off because we use a fine flavour variety of bean called Trinitario, which has a more distinctive flavour than the Forastero type used by the majority of the world’s chocolate producers,” Carr-Hill says.

“I’m in charge of product development, but I worked in the wine industry beforehand, so I approach the job from a point of view of general taste, not just chocolate.”

The Chocolate Festival’s organiser, Eimear Chaomhanach of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, says one of the purposes of this weekend’s event is to encourage a wider appreciation of chocolate and how it is consumed.

“There’s so much out there in this field,” she explains. “We had been doing initial preparation on a festival like this for a few years, and we just had the capacity this year to do it.

“The idea behind it really just came from feedback from chocolate enthusiasts nationwide: people who wanted to celebrate high quality, handmade chocolate where the cocoa content is high up the scale. The response has been phenomenal: mention chocolate to anyone – adult, child or connoisseur – and their face just lights up.”

One of the artisan producers taking part in the festival is the Skellig Chocolate and Cocoa Bean Company, which is based in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry. They specialise in handmade confectionary, and one of their trademarks is their adventurous approach to flavours and recipes: recent concoctions have been infused with sea salt, lime and black pepper, gin and tonic and even a Christmas chocolate bar with sprinklings of pine needles and festive spices.

“Chocolate is a fantastic but affordable luxury, and high end chocolate is going the same way as wine, coffee or olive oil,” explains Skellig’s Emily Sandford. “People are travelling more and sampling different cuisines so their understanding of food has improved.

“They are beginning to understand the various flavours of chocolate and the ways it can be used in different combinations and styles.”

The festival will also look at one of the more surprising developments to emerge in the chocolate industry in recent years: the supposed health benefits from indulging your sweet tooth. For centuries cocoa and its derivatives had been hailed as some kind of natural remedy for ailments such as liver disease and kidney disorders.

Of course, in recent decades, chocolate has gotten a bad rap from health officials, as the majority of chocolate consumed is heavily processed, and so is problematic in terms of saturated fat, cholesterol and sugar. However, less-processed darker chocolate with a high cocoa quotient has been shown to be high in flavonoids, an antioxidant which slow down cell damage.

Chocolate artisan Natasha Czoper is a self-confessed “raw foodie” who will deliver a lecture during the festival entitled ‘The Chocolate Revolution’ in which she will extol the virtues of the cacao plant and its positive effects on the body.

Czoper’s company, Natasha’s Living Foods, makes its products from raw cacao beans sourced from the Andes that are cold pressed, rather than roasted, and so retain most of their nutritional worth. Cacao contains some 300 compounds including protein, fibre, iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium, which helps to build strong bones and is known as a muscle relaxant. And it doesn’t end there.

“Cacao also contains phenylethylamine (PEA) which is a ‘bliss’ chemical,” Czoper explains. “This helps to release serotonin in the brain, which creates the same feeling you have when you’re excited or in love. It also helps to keep you focused and alert.

“The way cacao helps stimulate neurotransmitters from the brain is what makes chocolate so powerful and addictive. These chemicals help to orchestrate our moods and energy levels, and they create a compulsion to eat it.”

Czoper also stresses that the mere act of eating high quality chocolate can be just as powerful. “Chocolate is about enjoyment and sharing something beautiful, even if it’s just with yourself,” she says.

“You’ll find that within five minutes of people eating this kind of chocolate that they’re giggling or flirting because they’re starting to relax. Chocolate gives the body pleasure, as well as it being a pleasurable thing to eat.

“People love their sweets in Ireland, but we have such an issue around guilt. The thinking goes that anything that’s really tasty obviously has to be bad. I want to change that attitude and show people that things that are luxurious and tasty can also be healthy and pleasurable.”

Heaven is a halfpipe

2008-07-25T08:38:00.002+01:00

My feature on skater culture and this weekend's Kings of Concrete festival in today's Irish Examiner.

Mention skateboarding to the average Irish person and the first image that will probably come to mind is of Michael J. Fox out-manoeuvring a group of bullies with his board in the time-travelling classic Back to the Future.

Marty McFly’s iconic shenanigans blazed onto the silver screen at the height of the skater resurgence of the 1980s, but until very recently in Ireland, skateboarding itself seemed like a fantastical, futuristic novelty, such was the dearth of facilities and official support for the pastime.

Not anymore, however. This weekend, Dublin’s Wood Quay will leap to life in a frantic flurry of ollies, slaloms, pivots and wheelies, as Ireland’s top skaters congregate for the third annual Kings of Concrete festival.

The family-friendly bash will feature ramp competitions for the country’s skater brethren, as well as celebrating other urban sports like parkour (free-running), blading and BMX-ing, with some music, break-dancing, and street art thrown in for good measure.

This year’s event has broadened in scope, extending over two days as opposed to just one last year, a move that is reflective of the rapidly expanding skater scene here in Ireland. More importantly, argues organiser Dave Smith, the Kings of Concrete festival is the perfect vessel to demonstrate the positive aspects of the skater culture.

“Skateboarding has traditionally been perceived in a negative way – alienated, rebellious youth and all that - when it’s the opposite in reality,” explains Smith, who collaborated on the event with Geoff Fitzpatrick, his partner in their multimedia company Micromedia.

“For instance, if you go to a skate park, you’ll see the older kids teaching the younger ones tricks, and when they master it they all start banging their boards in support. That spirit and ethos comes out in the festival. It’s always extremely vibrant and eclectic, and generates a lot of good will in the community.”

Smith himself has been a keen skater since his teens, despite the woeful lack of resources available in the country. “I’m from west Cork, but I had to travel to Dublin just to buy a board,” Smith recalls. “There was nowhere to practice, and no real outlet for kids who were into more alternative pastimes than hurling or soccer.”

One man who understands only too well the struggle to bring skateboarding to the masses is Clive Rowen, a skating fanatic who opened Ireland’s first skate shop in Dublin’s Hill Street in the early 1980s (the store, Skate City, is now based in Temple Bar).

Rowen started selling boards here in Ireland after making contact with a wholesaler at the European Championships in Lowestoft, England in 1981 – and he spent the next two decades pushing for facilities to help enthusiastic young skaters to master their skills.

“In the early days, we would just roll around on the street, but then I built a mini-ramp in my backyard,” Rowen explains. “The shop on Hill Street was on a quiet road, so I built a series of ramps to put out on the public road every morning in order to hold jams. The guards did give us a bit of hassle over them, understandably, but as soon as the cops were gone, the ramps would come back out again.”

For decades, the major issue holding up the development of proper skate parks was insurance. Indeed, ever-increasing liability costs are held up as one of the main reasons why skateboarding went underground nearly everywhere after the peek of its popularity in the 60s and early 70s.

Here, skater groups spent years lobbying for resources to no avail. However, in 2002, Waterford City Council gave the go-ahead for a skate park, having convinced the Irish Public Bodies Ltd to provide liability cover.

This opened the door for other councils to get similar cover, and in November 2005, the then Environment Minister, Dick Roche, announced some e2 million in funding for the construction of 21 skate parks around the country (with planning input from Irish and American skater experts). The most recent park at Steamboat Quay in Limerick opened just last weekend.

It is initiatives such as these that have brought skateboarding more and more into the mainstream here and abroad in recent years. For example, last month, it was announced that skateboarding will be an Olympic sport in time for the 2012 Games in London. Here in Ireland, the burgeoning confidence of skater culture was exemplified by the launch of the country’s first skateboarding magazine, Wizard, earlier this summer.

Now that there’s greater support from officialdom, the focus has switched to how best to nurture Ireland’s young talent. “It’s like the whole 50m swimming pool issue here: unless you have the facilities you’re not going to be able to produce people who know what they’re doing,” Clive Rowen says.

“Younger kids are coming to these parks to give skateboarding a go simply because the parks are there. When a kid starts a sport at an early age they have no fear and they just throw themselves into it. That’s how we have so many rising skater stars today.”

One such rising star is Gav Coughlan (19) from Walkinstown in Dublin. The Trinity engineering student was inspired to take up the pastime at aged 12 after buying a board while on holiday in America, and crammed in as much practice as he could in makeshift skate venues.

“Generally I practiced beside the school in my area,” Coughlan says. “There were about 5 or 6 of us so we just kept finding new places in the city to skate, like car parks, but you’d be kicked out of them pretty quickly. Bushy skate park is just around the corner from my house now so I’m lucky.”

Coughlan’s dedication is paying off: he has already come to the attention of several influential sponsors in the US.“I have some video footage of my skating, so one of the magazines sent it to the team manager at an American skateboarding firm named Zero, and now they provide me with boards, wheels, and clothes,” he explains.

“I then won a competition in Belfast organised by a shoe company called Emerica, who gave me 12 pairs of shoes to last through the year. I just got talking to their rep, showed him some footage, and he put me on their team.”

The young skater says he would love to go professional, but accepts that it could be a tough road ahead. “I’d love to be able to make a living from it,” he states. “At this point, it’s about getting coverage, making better footage of your skating to show to the right people, and trying to take part in jams in America as much as possible.

“I’m taking part in Kings of Concrete, then going on the America Tour in England on August 16, but then it’s back to college. Hopefully I’ll get a back-up career out of that if I can last it! Either way, I’ll always keep skating.”

See http://www.myspace.com/kingsofconcreteireland

Diep Impact

2008-07-25T08:37:00.002+01:00

Restaurant review of Diep-Le Shaker in Day and Night in today's Independent.

The end is nigh. This is the Last Hurrah. The economy is in the toilet; consumer confidence is at an all time low; we're pariahs in the EU following the Liz Bonnin treaty debacle; and embarrassing new licensing laws are about to annihilate any lingering remnants of a party atmosphere in this country.

Continue here.

Picture of the day

2008-07-24T20:26:00.002+01:00

Ich bin ein Berliner. Obama in Berlin - read transcript here and watch video here.

How NOT to take a cake order over the phone...

2008-07-24T15:38:00.000+01:00

R.I.P Estelle Getty

2008-07-22T21:55:00.002+01:00

Read here. Altogether now: thank you for being a friend...

Itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny tribute

2008-07-22T09:25:00.002+01:00

From today's Independent.

This month is a deeply significant one in the American calendar. After all, the Fourth of July celebrates the birth of the nation, marking the moment of the country's glorious independence from the British crown.

However, you might not be aware that another culturally important American event is honoured in July -- it's National Bikini Month. Continue here.

Irisss: "Homosexuality is worse than child abuse"

2008-07-21T15:24:00.004+01:00

Iris the Virus strikes again. Seriously, what can be done with this woman?

Hollywood Muppets

2008-07-21T15:21:00.003+01:00

Loving this. Cheers for the link Gav and Ciara (Giara? Gavra?)

Golden Knight?

2008-07-21T15:15:00.001+01:00

The influential AwardsDaily website is speculating on the Oscar chances of Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight, and it argues that TDK could seriously end up picking up nods for 9, possibly 10 Oscars next year. Read here.

Joe's Reasons to be Cheerful

2008-07-21T12:12:00.002+01:00

Joseph O'Connor's 'Reasons to be Cheerful' from last week's Drivetime on RTE and reprinted in yesterday's Tribune. Perfect reading on a recession-era Monday...

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
(After Ian Dury)

Lately we're worried. We need advice.
We were Boomtown rats. Now we're poor church mice.
Fretful, anxious, broke and fearful
But still –
there's reasons to be cheerful...

Continue here.

Animal Pharm

2008-07-21T10:53:00.001+01:00

From today's London Independent. Bee-zarre.

Knight Fever

2008-07-20T22:37:00.002+01:00

The Dark Knight is already one of the biggest box office hits of all time - after just its first weekend in the US.

Beauty Queen

2008-07-19T11:33:00.001+01:00

From today's Independent..

For anyone who doubted that a woman can still be sexy after 60, the shots of actress Helen Mirren flaunting her curvaceous body in a bikini this last week should more than set the record straight.Continue here.

Wowsa

2008-07-18T12:00:00.001+01:00

Excitement...

Breaking up is never easy I know...

2008-07-18T07:40:00.002+01:00

Feature in today's D'Indo

With lurid revelations involving internet porn addiction and affairs with teenage girls, supermodel Christie Brinkley's divorce from ex-husband Peter Cook has proved yet again that nobody can do messy break-ups and custody battles like celebrities. Continue here.

The long and the short of it

2008-07-17T15:02:00.002+01:00

My piece from today's Examiner (no pictures alas - go buy the paper to see!)

It’s not every day that I can solicit wolf-whistles, literally cause jaws to drop, and nearly stop traffic just by walking down the street. But then, it’s not every day – mercifully – that I find myself strutting about Dublin city centre wearing a stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb shorts-suit ensemble.

What inspired this act of sartorial daring/social hari-kari? Apparently, notions of what is acceptable as office wear are more fluid than ever before. A survey from the UK last month found that just 24 per cent of office workers are still required to wear a suit to work, compared with 37 per cent four years ago.

GQ magazine then went one further in their last edition when they trumpeted the cause of the shorts-suit look amongst men in London. “Shorts are becoming a natural summer staple for those who dress well in the city,” the magazine stated, hailing the sawn-off shorts-suit as “a bold fashion statement that’s totally tied to 2008”.

The leading men’s clothing chain, Topman, was soon reporting that its jacket-and-shorts combos were rapidly selling out, which prompted the question: if the shorts-suit trend is gaining traction in London, will it take off here in Ireland too? There was one sure-fire way to find out.

Last Wednesday morning, I put the look to the test, by decking myself out in a light grey fitted suit jacket, lilac shirt, white tie, grey knee-length shorts, black socks, and navy loafers courtesy of the flagship Topman store on Grafton Street.

My personal opinion of myself was that I looked like an over-grown schoolboy, or someone akin to Tom Hanks’ character in Big: a dorky, self-conscious teenager who suddenly woke up in the body of an even dorkier, more self-conscious adult.

I start my bare-kneed journey in my local area of Smithfield, right in the heart of the north inner city. The weather is not the best – of course - which makes me look even odder. Out on the main street, the very first reactions I get are from a man who does a double take, and a young woman walking her dog, who openly laughs. I approach her, and she seems relieved when I tell her my look is just for work, and not my personal style.

“I was just thinking, ‘What has he got on him?’” she says in between chuckles. I pass the Luas stop, and a bunch of Spanish students, who are not as reserved as the others waiting there, openly gawk at my legs, though I think their fascination had more to do with the paleness of my hairy pins rather than the shorts themselves.

I start making my way down the north quays. At one point a taxi passes me, and I can see the driver staring with his mouth open. He slows down slightly as he gapes, prompting a disgruntled blare of the car horn from the vehicle behind him. Fearing I may cause an accident, I move on.

While waiting at a crossing guard, a wolf whistle draws my attention to a woman leaning out of the window of a passing van, who shouts, ‘Looking sexy love!” I mentally decide to strip the comment of its sarcasm and take her at her word, for something tells me I’m going to need all the self-esteem boosts I can get.

As I make my way over towards Temple Bar, I note that the majority of women who pass me seem amused (or perhaps it’s bemused?), while men, in general, appear truly disgusted, even afraid. One man gives me such a dirty look that I momentarily fear for my life.

More than once, people talking on their mobiles stop mid-sentence as I pass them, only to then hear them tell the person on the other line, ‘Sorry I completely lost my train of thought there,” or ‘You’ll never believe what I just saw some guy wearing’.

On Dame Street, I happen upon a group of young kids on an outing, the most brutal of audiences because they are so honest. “The state of your man,” one calls out to the other. Touche, my boy. Touché.

Then, as a timely confidence-building remedy to that encounter, I get my first cheer and purring sound from a builder, who also gives me the thumbs-up as I make my way past College Green. A little bit later on Grafton Street, an elderly lady comes up to me while I’m getting my picture taken and says: “You look gorgeous – shame about the legs.”

Onto my final destination, Stephen’s Green, where I spot a group of young men and women in suits having a cigarette break outside an insurance firm. Some of their jaws drop as I approach them. One literally turns and runs back inside, while another girl calls a colleague inside on her mobile, imploring her to come out and see this. Those who remained gracefully give their opinions on my look.

Man 1: “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that, mate.”
Man 2: “No offence, you look ridiculous.”
Man 3: “I worked in London and Stockholm for years, and you would definitely see guys mixing casual and formal wear like that. But not here.”
Man 4: “Maybe lads would wear them if it was really hot or we had good weather all the time. But no way would I wear it.”

I think the verdict is pretty clear. We might like to think we’re as fashionable, cutting edge, savvy, and cool as Londoners or New Yorkers, but if this small experiment is anything to go by, we still have some distance to travel in terms of our acceptance of non-traditional fashion looks for men.

The experts are in agreement with that view. “The mix just won’t fly in an Irish business context,” says stylist Suzie Coen. “It doesn’t fall into any remit. Even on casual Fridays most people resort to the conservative chino and shirt look.

“I can’t see it being worn on business, or in the pub, or on the Nightlink bus home. From a stylistic point of view we’re just not ready for it.”

But what is it exactly about the look that doesn’t work? “I think it’s a leg thing – we don’t have the tan – and it’s hard to know what to do with the footwear,” Coen replies.

“I also feel the majority of men don’t want to stand out. They want nice clothes, but they don’t want to be on trend. I’d imagine very young guys, or musicians aged 20-25, would most likely try this look.”

Declan Leavy, men’s editor with Social and Personal magazine, offers an even harsher assessment of the suit shorts trend. “Personally I think it looks awful,” he states. “I was in London myself last week and I saw a guy walking into Harrods wearing a really smart suit jacket and a matching pair of shorts. He looked ridiculous, and got plenty of odd glances from me and other shoppers.

“From an Irish point of view, I don’t think society needs to be inflicted with our dodgy male legs in weird suit-shorts. They would not do Irish guys any justice. The David Beckhams of this world, who can carry off almost any fashion trend, would probably look effortlessly chic in suit shorts, but those specimens are few and far between here!”

Are you taking the mic?

2008-07-17T14:59:00.002+01:00

Feature from today's Independent...

The Reverend Jesse Jackson last week painfully learned one of the most crucial lessons about life in the public eye: always beware of the live microphone. Continue here.

Emmy love

2008-07-17T14:57:00.001+01:00

Full list of Emmy nominations here.

The leading nominee...

23 Nominations
John Adams

17 Nominations
30 Rock

16 Nominations
Mad Men

12 Nominations
Pushing Daisies

11 Nominations
Recount

"You know who gets upset about cartoons...?"

2008-07-16T17:40:00.001+01:00

Jon Stewart makes a good point about the Obama/New Yorker controversy. Watch here (and wait until the end)

Share the Emmy love...

2008-07-16T12:02:00.003+01:00

This year's Emmy nominations are announced tomorrow so Salon has a feature on last minute suggestions to make the cut...read here.

Art Dexo

2008-07-14T14:48:00.001+01:00

Via Mr Mulley Via Fffound. I bought season 1 of this show on DVD last November on a trip to the States and still haven't watched it yet. It's on the list... Great poster art though.

When bad satire happens to good people

2008-07-13T23:36:00.001+01:00

"On the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue of the The New Yorker, in ‘The Politics of Fear,’ artist Barry Blitt satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign." Continue reading here.

Long Day's Journey into Knight

2008-07-13T23:33:00.002+01:00

Tuesday morning. I cannot wait

Early reviews are in to add to the sense of anticipation. Follow the links from here.

Bad Abbotts

2008-07-13T20:13:00.003+01:00

Anyone unfamiliar with the truly astounding life story of Paul Abbott, creator and writer of the TV dramas Shameless and State of Play, should read this interview from yesterday's Guardian.