Rediscover Northern Ireland Foods 2007

The quality and variety of Northern Irish produce comes as a surprise to those who have not yet had the pleasure of tasting it.

In Washington this year, at the Rediscover Northern Ireland events and functions where hospitality has been provided, we have tried to ensure that guests have been given a "flavour" of these foodstuffs and styles of cooking by providing a recipe booklet for caterers to produce canapes that reflect Northern Ireland's traditional ingredients and contemporary cuisine.

You are invited to browse our booklet Canapes for Caterers  online and find culinary inspiration that you can try at home to impress your friends and relatives.  Another publication, Food Reflections Northern Ireland produced by the staff and students of Newry and Kilkeel Institute of Further and Higher Education can be purchased at the Smithsonian Festival Marketplace or direct from Newry Institute.

Do come and visit Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian at the Smithsonian's 41st annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC between June 27 and July 8 2007. Culinary traditions are a feature of the Northern Ireland exhibit. Visitors will be able to watch local cooks preparing and explaining dishes and discuss the finer points with them. This will probably rouse your appetites, so a visit to the Northern Ireland food concession located on the Mall at the Lough Erne Inn should be next on your list of things to do at the Festival. Here you will hear the friendly accents of the students from Newry Institute who will be serving at the food concession and helping you make your selection. You are invited to take your meal into the Lough Erne Inn and to help you digest it and rest your feet, Northern Ireland's best session musicians(*see below) will play a variety of traditional tunes to entertain you and leave you with happy memories of Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian.

If you think you might need a "little something" to take home, then the perfect solution can be found in a visit to the Festival's Marketplace (outside the Freer Gallery) where local foodstuffs in the form of jams, jellies, condiments, teas will be on sale. Here you will be able to buy orange marmalade that will help with the recipe for Chicken in Whiskey Marmalade in the booklet.

If all of this really stimulates the tastebuds, there's just one thing left that you can do and there's no substitute for it. Come and visit us in Northern Ireland, see the beauty of the landscape; feel the warmth of the welcome and discover the true taste of these ingredients not far from where they have been produced.

* Local session musicians from DC and surrounding areas are invited to come down to the Mall and join us.