They pride themselves on eating well in Brussels. A key part of the brief for the European commission's new Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in rural Kiltale, Co Meath, called for "kitchen and dining facilities to commission standards". Perhaps they thought we couldn't do it, but the FVO's dining hall — the largest room in the complex — is a veritable cathedral to the business lunch. Its great ash ceiling sags in the middle, swollen and distended, like the belly of some sated gourmand.
