Food on the go along the streets of Galway

I'VE never been one for taking the 'official' tour when it comes to visiting places. Joining a hoard of leaflet-laden out-of-towners snapping selfies at every pitstop while trying to listen to a well-informed tourism pro project a too long and too well-rehearsed spiel never appealed to my lack of patience.

But perhaps, just as I've been assured countless times by the beauty pros – everyone has a shade of red lipstick, perhaps until now I simply hadn't stumbled upon a tour to suit me.
It's also surprising that my maiden voyage into the “follow me” world would be on my own doorstep, pretty much. It also showed how Galwegians or at least Wild Atlantic Way natives should have a go at playing tourist on our own beat now and then.
While some towns have a plethora of beauticians or pharmacies, Galway's boast has to be its food options. I'm adamant that the destination offers some of the best dining experiences for all pockets anywhere in the country. And so I was more than intrigued when I came across Galway Food Tours. Would it be a pot full of begorra, ashen stew and a box of brown bread mix?
Unless blow-in Sheena Dignam, who hails from the South East but spent many years in France, had an absurd lust for a trail of batter – munching your way around Galway surely could only be a delight?
The West is definitely the best when it comes to local producers at the moment and with Galway being next year's location as European Region of Gastronomy, we need to savour for ourselves what has the hundreds of thousands of tourists pretty much licking their plates as they leave.
Delicate French pastries, Japanese sushi and Indian curry are all must-eats on the Galway menu and merge seamlessly with more traditional jam-dripping scones, aromatic warm crusty breads, gleaming oysters and freshly brewed tea.
A food lover herself, Sheena Dignam is now in her third year of offering Galway Food Tours and they have grown to include some for cyclists, corporate and private clients as well as venturing to other locations such as Connemara, along the Wild Atlantic Way and across to the Aran Islands.
The two-hour meandering of munching and nibbling taste-size portions of loveliness while hearing stories of where perhaps the gouda-like goat's cheese came from, how to team locally brewed beers with feather light cakes or letting a dropeen of pot stilled whiskey give you a rosy glow and a giggle was relaxed, easy and probably best suited to flats.

Read the feature in full in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald