Ireland: Emerald gems

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's Pure South Sharp Blacks won the silver medal in the "world cup of butchery" in Northern Ireland earlier this year. Captain Corey Winder gives the team's picks for the best spots for carnivores.

1 St George's Market, Belfast

A great and historical local market with great food options. Lots of locally produced artisan products as well as locally reared specialty meats such as home-reared pork and rabbit, wild venison, dry-aged beer-fed beef plus homemade pies. This market even has two of Northern Ireland's champion sausages — pork and steak. Our personal favourites were the steak. They were very tender and perfect for the UK favourite, bangers and mash.

2 The Giants Causeway, County Antrim

Meat aside, we loved County Antrim in Northern Ireland, where we visited, among other spots, the incredible Giants Causeway. It was a great day spent away from the knives and out enjoying the sites that Northern Ireland had to offer. It was an incredibly cold day but breathtakingly beautiful wandering around what Mother Nature had created. A definite highlight of the trip.

3 Pat O'Doherty's Fine Meats, Enniskillen

We enjoyed visiting all the local butchers' shops in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, as much for the characters behind the counter as for the meat. A tale or two can always be told from a local butcher (and we would know). We particularly loved Pat O'Doherty from O'Doherty's Fine Meats, who is known all over Ireland for his famous black bacon. Pat raises his rare breed pigs on nearby Inish Corkish Island on the Upper Lough Erne river.

The pigs roam free and he takes a little motorboat across the river to hand feed them twice a day. His philosophy is "a happy pig is a tasty pig" and we definitely agree. We didn't try his burgers but, as nine-time winners of the Northern Ireland burger championship and winners of the All Ireland burger championship, they sound like they should be pretty tasty.

4 Temple Bar, Dublin

A must visit in Dublin even if just for a pint and to enjoy the location. We absolutely loved the pubs and pub grub in Temple Bar and the area as a whole. The pub fronts, flower displays, and street musicians gave it a really great vibe, and the cobblestones made for light entertainment when watching people leave the pubs after a few too many. The pubs all had loads of great rich Irish stews, which we washed down with a pint of Guinness or an Irish whiskey while sitting back and enjoying some live music.

5 Old Bushmills Distillery, County Antrim

Another definite highlight was Bushmills, one of the oldest whiskey distilleries in the world and a great place to warm up after visiting The Giants Causeway. Although there was no meat in sight, a match suggestion would definitely be something smoked or roasted.

● Knives Out, streaming now on TVNZ OnDemand, follows the Pure South Sharp Blacks on their journey to the 2018 World Butchers' Challenge.