Bavette, Horsforth

I do like finding great local restaurants. The only problem is that I have a tendency of fixating on certain places or dishes and then favouring the known and loved over the new. Case in point - currently, every time D suggests a quick lunch / supper in town I immediately start craving the spicy beef noodles from Northern Market. We were supposed to have those this week actually, and I literally almost cried when we arrived and the vendor, Yuzu Street Food, was closed. 

Anyway, Bavette, a French bistro in the Leeds suburb of Horsforth, was recommended to us ages ago by people who know their grub. And no less a personage than Jay Rayner reviewed it for the Financial Times and gave it a glowing write up. And Horsforth is a 15 minutes taxi ride away from our house. But still, we’ve only just got around to going. If I have my way, we’ll be back again soon - although I don’t think D was quite as enamoured as I was. 

Which is not to say that the food was perfect. Of the two snacks that we tried, the Comte croquettes were fantastic - crispy, gooey, cheesy, what’s not to like? But the egg with mayonnaise and anchovy was verging on the slightly too rich - I’d have liked a second piece of anchovy to cut the richness a bit more. 

D’s steak tartare was excellent - absolutely classic, with pops of flavour from the capers and cornichons finely chopped through the tender meat. I opted for a tomato salad with whipped feta and chimichurri - fabulous flavours but I actually think they’d have been better off crumbling rather than whipping the feta, as the whole dish ended up a little bit soupy (delicious soup though). 

My main was practically perfect though - a perfectly cooked piece of monkfish, rich creamy beans and some salty girolles to garnish. D opted for a pork chop with ratatouille which was well cooked although he said that the olive oil pomme puree was a tad on the rich side (I tried a mouthful and can confirm that this was the Scrooge McDuck of potato dishes).

The absolute highlight though was dessert. We shared a St Emilion au chocolat - basically a very dense chocolate mousse - garnished with Amaretti crumbs, Armagnac syrup, prunes and a dreamy prune and Armagnac ice cream. Heaven on a plate. I’m not often a fan of chocolate and booze together (separately, of course, is an entirely different matter) and always eschew a liqueur truffle but here the balance was just right so that all the ingredients harmonised together to create rich chocolate and fruit perfection. Bliss.

Perhaps it was the glow of that dessert that was still with me when we left and I declared my intention of returning soon because, reading this back, I can see that it definitely had some flaws. The service, incidentally, was friendly but speedy - our snacks and starters were out at break neck pace and I definitely got the sense that they were turning tables which never makes for very relaxed dining. But then, given the state of the industry at the moment, you can’t really blame a venue for wanting to make the most of being busy and popular. And it really was busy and buzzing, even on a wet Wednesday evening. Merci bien, Bavette, et au revoir (probablement). 

Recent eats: a new addition to the Leeds pub scene!

Good old fashioned British pub food, done properly, is an absolute joy. You know the kind I mean. All too often, pub food falls into one of two brackets. Either Wetherspoons-esque, with a wipe down menu that serves generic frozen rubbish. Or, a venue that calls itself a gastropub but what it really means is that it is a restaurant with a bar and not actually a pub at all.

Well, a fab new place has opened up in Leeds, brought to you by the people behind the wonderful Empire Cafe. I say new; there's been a pub on the site for as long as I can remember but to say that it was not known for its food is something of an understatement. What used to be The Highland has been rebranded as The Highland Laddie and it is definitely still a proper pub and it DEFINITELY serves wonderful food with a menu that is designed to warm the cockles of any English man (or woman)'s heart.

We went for lunch and between the two of us got through two out of the five bar snacks and two slightly larger plates.

The sausage roll was absolutely delicious - really dense, flavoursome sausage with a good whack of garlic, encased in the butteriest of pastries. Just look at that bad boy! These are apparently made fresh on site every day.

The half pint of crevettes were so sweet and fresh that they didn't really need the accompanying sauce (although I'll never say no to Marie Rose).

The first of the mains (although in terms of portion size it was probably more like a starter) was something a little bit different - lobster madeleines with chorizo butter. This was definitely the kind of dish that you get at Empire - a little bit quirky but with loads of flavour and finesse. The sweetness of the madeleines was beautifully balanced by the funky chorizo.

And finally - the "sliced ham from the fire" with dinner rolls was just the kind of thing you want to be eating in a pub. Simple as can be, but when the produce is this good, why mess with it?

The chorizo butter may well have found its way onto the dinner rolls as well. I neither confirm nor deny.

That's not the end of the story though, because the following week, D was back - tempted by an Instagram post he decreed that he simply had to try the Laddie's take on a cheeseburger. Well, he was not disappointed - despite it's relatively unassuming exterior, he declared this the best burger in Leeds, which is quite the compliment when you consider how many he has consumed over the years.

The menu seems to change on an extremely regular basis, although I'd guess some dishes (like the burger) will prove to be stalwarts. I can't wait to go back in the winter when my guess is that they'll do a fine take on classic pub grub such as pies and puddings. The Laddie is a real celebration of great British pub food and a very welcome addition to already wonderful Leeds food landscape.

Recent eats: an interminable January

I think January might have lasted forever. And even though we are, let's be honest, over a third of the way through February, February has just proved itself to be something of a January 2.0. Cold, wet, miserable and utterly ennui-inducing. D is only finally now shaking off a cough he's had since before Christmas, I've been feeling rundown and lurgy-ish and none of this has got 2025 off to a particularly dazzling start.

I decided to dust off the blog to do a recent eats post and went searching through my phone for pictures to share - needless to say, found very little. Little by way of food pictures, that is - if you want a picture of the cat asleep on the back of the sofa then I have several hundred iterations. We really haven't left the house very much, one exception being a lunchtime trip to White Cloth Hall, a relatively new Leeds venture which features a number of street food(ish) type vendors. We shared a Jamie Thiccston sandwich from Morty's Focacceria which was an absolute beast of a thing, but delicious for all of that. I would have liked slightly more burrata but, then, I think most things would benefit from more burrata. In general, the ratio of bread to filling was pretty good, there was plenty of salty, slippery mortadella and it wasn't so ridiculously huge you couldn't fit it in your mouth in one go to get the full benefit of the layers.

We've done some home cooking, of course,  and have enjoyed several dishes from Meera Sodha's latest book, Dinner which I commend to your attention, especially if you wish to up your vegetarian and vegan cooking game. Having said that, looking back over the archive meal plan, I think one of my top food moments from January was carnivorous; tucking into haggis, neeps and tatties on Burns night, smothered in a fabulous whisky sauce. Classics are classics for a reason. Oh, and I baked some blondies for my Dad's birthday which turned out rather nicely. 

But all in all not an awful lot to share from these first few weeks of the year. We plod on.

Christmas officially begins with a final fling at Empire Cafe!

D and I are both working until lunchtime today (Christmas Eve) so we decided a treat was in order last night - since it was practically the end of term (I am in the office today and there are about three other people on a floor meant to hold several hundred. And one of them is here to water the plants).

We decided to make a final 2024 visit to one of our absolute favourite discoveries of the year, Empire Cafe, which I first mentioned on this blog back in May. Since our first visit we have been back several times - including two Sunday lunches - and it never, ever fails to delight. 

Last night, we both kicked off with one of the small plates. In honour of our recent trip to Vienna, I went for the Bratwurst and smoked cheese spring roll.

In Vienna, I discovered a delicacy called Käsekrainer, which is basically a hotdog shot through with melty cheese - this was a slightly souped up version. If you like sausage and cheese and crispy pastry then there is nothing here that you won't enjoy. Although I did think the flavour of the smoked cheese was slightly overwhelmed by the curry element in the accompanying sauce. D has a crab bread and butter pudding served with lobster butter, which, judging by the speed at which it disappeared, was very good (I should also add it smelled fantastic, and I'm not the biggest crab fan in the world).

You really come to Empire for the chicken.

Last night, my half bird came with Kashmiri butter and chilli flakes. Absolutely lush. I've never had chicken this good anywhere else (that I can recollect). Although I find half a chicken slightly too much after a rich starter, so maybe the campaign to get them to start doing quarter birds starts here?

I was slightly gutted to not have any capacity for the mince pie waffle with brandy cream and a brandy snap but may try and recreate something similar at home because, well, why wouldn't you?

Replete with chicken and cheer, we then rolled to the Leeds Everyman to watch a special screening of the Royal Ballet's "Nutcracker". Which was as full of magic and sparkle as you can imagine and a really lovely way to start the Christmas celebrations proper (this morning's trip to the coalface aside).

To anyone and everyone out there - wishing you all a very, very happy Christmas and a magical New Year!

Empire Cafe

6 Fish Street

Leeds

LS1 6DB

Six by Nico, Leeds

August was supposed to be a quiet, relatively frugal month as September and October look set to be quite busy (and spendy). But it doesn't seem to have quite worked out that way. Last Saturday found us visiting somewhere that has been on the radar for a while - Six by Nico. 

There are quite a few of these now (I count fourteen on the website) but it's not your usual chain restaurant in that it offers a tasting menu. All the branches do the same six course menu designed by the head chef Nico Simeone. These menus, which change every six weeks, are all themed - "inspired by a different memory, place or idea". They also offer a matching wine pairing, and both food and wine are priced pretty reasonably, although apparently the prices do vary depending upon which city you are in. We, for example, paid £42 for the food and £33 for the wine pairing. 

Our theme was "Guilty Pleasures" and we had such high hopes for the menu. Included were takes on some of our favourite things - a breakfast muffin! Macaroni cheese! A fish finger sandwich! Fried chicken! The dishes read extremely well.

Not quite sure, then, what went wrong. Well, I say wrong and that is probably unfair. There was nothing wrong wrong with the food. It was just...underwhelming. The wine was...OK. We left feeling vaguely disappointed without quite being able to express why. Perhaps we had pitched our hopes slightly too high.

Every single dish was well presented, elegant and modern looking, with the requisite splodges and smears that denote fayne dayning. But also, in every single dish, the balance of flavours was just slightly off. Maybe there were just too many elements vying for attention. Maybe the seasoning wasn't quite on point. I'm just not sure.

Highlights - well, I enjoyed the macaroni cheese which came with cauliflower couscous, jalapeno gherkin ketchup and pickled golden raisins. Strip away the gubbins and the macaroni cheese itself was exactly what you want from a macaroni cheese - cheesy, a little stodgy and with some crispness on top for contrasting texture. 

We both also agreed that the crispy chicken thigh with NFC crumb was very tasty - here, the seasoning was just right and the crumb delivered a good punch of flavour. The accompaniments were fine, but really, just a bucket of the chicken would have probably perfectly acceptable!

The other thing we found was that the service felt...well, needy. All the staff were lovely and friendly and obviously wanted us to have a nice time, but we constantly felt required to reassure them that yes, we were enjoying the food and yes, the wine was lovely and no, we definitely didn't want any water. We were brought an iPad along with the bill to provide feedback (OK...) and then D was emailed a day or so later to provide more feedback. At which stage he pointed out that the constant need for validation came across as needy and then they emailed back to apologise! 

I can't say I'd rush back to SBN much as I actually like the concept a lot. The food is not quite as good as it thinks it is, and there are better places to eat in Leeds.  However, it would possibly be a good place to go with a larger group - it was bright and loud and buzzy and fun and seemed more set up for that kind of audience than a slightly grumpy middle aged couple who like to be left alone to eat their meal in peace. 

Recent eats (Leeds edition)

I couldn’t bear to have that last post sitting there at the top of the blog for ever. Even though Minx’s absence is still felt every day. 

Back to food! And we’ve been to a couple of new Leeds venues recently that are well worth a mention.

First up, I think this ricotta and tomato on toast from Eat Your Greens is one of the prettiest lunches that I have had in a while.

I’m not sure that I quite understand the concept of the place - if, indeed, it has such a thing (and perhaps the question is, why does it need one?) There is a light lunch menu which was predominantly veggie when we were there; dinner is more substantial and with a few more options for the carnivores, although still definitely somewhere you could quite comfortably go with a vegetarian friend. There is also a small grocery area, selling some fresh produce and some interesting looking pantry items. Service was friendly, but leisurely. 

Then the other week we got to Empire Cafe which attracted quite a lot of local attention when it got a glowing write up from renowned food critic (and Masterchef stalwart) Jay Rayner. Reader, we loved it so much we are already booked to go back. If you like rotisserie chicken then you must make a pilgrimage - these birds, lathered and crumbed and cooked on a wall of flame, produced some of the most delicious, tender chicken that either of us have ever eaten. 

NB: in addition, an intriguing array of starters or small plates listed, so be sure and go hungry enough that you can squeeze in a few nibbles. D was most taken with his duck parfait éclair (although it was rich - one between two would have been fine). 

Leeds has popped up on the tellybox as well. Rick Stein paid a visit to the very wonderful Bundobust while recently doing a food tour of Britain - so far, so predictable (with the number of travelogues Stein has done over the years he must surely have been to pretty much everywhere by now?) But somewhat more intriguingly, Adam Richman of Man vs Food fame, visited Leeds as part of a show in which he drives around eating traditional British dishes in the places from whence they take their name. So, in Leeds, he was in YORKSHIRE so he ate a YORKSHIRE pudding, he had a SCONE in SCONE. You get the drift. He seemed genuinely interested in the food culture of the city and genuinely appreciative of the dishes he got to try in venues that varied from the market food hall to the somewhat-posher-than-a-market The Owl.* Which was nice as sometimes it is easy to take the place that you live for granted, especially Leeds which can be a bit grey and appears to have been entirely subsumed under scaffolding for the last ten thousand years.

(*Although it should be noted that The Owl's very first iteration was actually based in Kirkgate Market.)

Coming out

Two momentous happenings last week: I got a haircut (much, much needed) and we went out for lunch. Yes, the world is opening up again and I am taking baby steps out into it. It doesn’t feel comfortable yet; I’ve said all along that, as a natural hibernator, lockdown was not particularly difficult for me, but coming out of it is slightly painful. Still, a lot of my feelings of unease dissipated, or perhaps were squished down, by a vast quantity of delicious food.

I’ve written about The Reliance before, and really am posting again for no other reason than to try and get back in the habit of blogging. I have nothing more intelligent to say other than yum. And, oof. Overcome by the novelty of eating out (someone else cooking! And bringing food! And doing all the washing up!) we vastly over ordered and did not so much walk as waddle out at the end.

Behold:

Snacks and ciccheti to start: deep fried aubergine with honey and ricotta, breakfast radishes with aioli and garlic crumb, jagerwurst, hummus and bread.

Courgette three ways (purée, roast, spiralised) all zingy with lemon and dill and garnished with feta and seeds.

Spiced lambs liver with labneh. Offal and yoghurt might not sound like an obvious match but this was surprisingly lovely.

Sea bass, asparagus and a golden pool of buttery tarragon sauce.

Pork T-bone and potato terrine drenched in a richly sweet and sticky cider jus.

Chocolate and malt parfait - a cool, velvety dream of a Malteser.

Streusel topped apple pie with creme fraiche to cut through the sweetness.

What a lunch! Unsurprisingly, the scales crept up this week for the first time in a while but every single ounce was worth it. Not just for the lovely food but for the fact that things felt almost (almost) back to normal for a couple of hours.

Recent Eats - the Out and About Edition

My brother told me earlier that he was upset not to have been mentioned on the blog recently. So - hello D2. If I had got round to talking about the rather splendid meal we had at The General Tarleton for my parent’s anniversary then his name might have come up (given that he was there. As were my lovely sister in law and nephew and niece. I was slightly worried that little D and little S would be bored silly going out to eat but they, as befits the next generation of foodies, were fab. Better table manners than their uncle 😉).

Anyway, not only have I neglected to write about the GT but quite a few recent foodie adventures have gone unchronicled, so I thought that I would do a couple of quick round up posts, one for eating out and one for cooking at home. Let’s start with the eating out, shall we? And maybe throw in a few characteristically appalling photos?

Firstly, Whitby. I mentioned, at length, how much I loved Rusty Shears but we also took the opportunity to check out the latest venture by chef Andrew Pern, The Star Inn the Harbour. Our verdict - nice. It is not, nor is it attempting to be, The Star Inn, and is unlikely to earn Whitby its first Michelin star. But Whitby was crying out for a slightly more upmarket establishment and this fits the bill. Emphasis on fish and seafood, just as it should be given the location. Slightly twee decor, but I like twee. My mackerel escabeche with caviar creme fraiche and salted hazelnuts was a particular highlight.

We also went to The Moon and Sixpence for lunch, a rare beast for Whitby, in that it is unashamedly modern in design. There was sriracha on the menu, for goodness sake, mixed with mayo and drizzled over some very yummy crispy squid. Happiness is.

D’s main course was underwhelming to say the least (it takes a certain level of incompetence to make a gumbo bland) but all was forgiven when dessert arrived - the most amazing warm cookie pot. I think that I probably made some inappropriate noises.

Talking of cookies - they appear to be having something of a moment. We went along to one of the first Eat Norths of the year, and forced ourselves to share a pot of raw cookie dough because we got given a sample while we queued for beer and...well. More inappropriate noises. It was sold by The Baking Biker and oh, sweet Cheezus, I’ve just seen that you can buy it online.

Finally, and bringing us bang up to date, I got around to visiting Mommy Thai last night. It’s a tiny little venue in Leeds city centre serving, unsurprisingly, Thai food, and very nice it was too, not to mention exceedingly good value - under £30 for one starter, two mains and two bottles of beer. I have a rather annoying tendency to always order Pad Thai when confronted with a new menu and this was a fine example of the genre.

But I think D’s main course of five spice pork pipped it to the post flavour wise.

They offer a special lunchtime deal and I am very tempted to head back soon and avail myself of it given that it is walking distance from the office. Although I doubt that I would achieve much by way of work in the afternoon with a tummy full of noodles.

Home and Away

Hurrah for the weekend!  Especially hurrah for this coming weekend which will see D and I head for the beautiful Lake District to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary.

Six years!  Yes, I know, I'm surprised too.  Of course, a year of that we spent apart so perhaps it doesn't really count (although given that we were the least separated separated couple ever I think there's probably an argument to be had either way).  But still, it's a good run and very deserving of a bit of a bash.

We're actually going to be having dinner on the day at the Lake Road Kitchen and I can't wait to report back to you on that.  The reviews have been glowing, everything I've read or seen about the food there has got me salivating - I think that we are in for a real treat.

Not only that, but we are staying at The Drunken Duck which I'm sure that I have written about before.  It's a fabulous place and also happens to serve fabulous food so I'm going to be ensuring that I save room for an excellent breakfast.  We might need to get out and do some brisk walking to work up a bit of an appetite, but given the part of the world in which we will find ourselves, that will be no particular hardship.

Closer to home, we went for a meal at one of our local gems the other week.  Zucco serves kind of Italian tapas stuff - very much in the vein of Russell Norman's Polpo chain, and we are so lucky to have it on our doorstep.  The pictures are of two of our favourite dishes - a salt cod ravioli which came strewn with sage and glistening with buttery, winey juices and a whole baby Dover sole, cooked to perfection and drenched in a gorgeous caper butter.  It's not pushing any culinary boundaries but it is the kind of food that makes you grin broadly and use your finger to wipe the plate.

Have a gorgeous weekend, folks, and I look forward to providing a full account of our adventures next week.

Sipsmith Gin at Shears Yard

Just seven days in and I've already failed in the entirely arbitrary challenge to blog every day in September.  The truth is, I'm absolutely exhausted this week!  I had entirely underestimated how difficult I would find going back to work after a month of lying around recuperation.  I am feeling fine in pretty much all other respects so am assuming it is simply a case of getting back into routine but oh, the weekend can't come fast enough. 

Before I had the operation, I think I briefly mentioned on here a gin tasting evening that we attended at Shears Yard, which I never got around to telling you about.  There is no point providing a detailed review since it was a one off menu developed for a one off event, which seems to be something that Shears Yard goes in for fairly often.  The quality and value was top notch though - if you are local to Leeds, I would highly recommend signing up for their mailing list to stay apprised of all such happenings.

The one we attended, way back at the beginning of August, was in collaboration with Sipsmith Gin and consisted of a five course menu, with each dish accompanied by a specially developed gin cocktail.  Annoyingly, because I had to pay upfront on booking and that was quite a long time and a few drinks ago now, I can't now remember how much it cost - I think maybe £50, £60 per head? Whatever the exact details, we both commented on the value - the food was of a very high standard and the drinks were not only tasty but also potent enough to demonstrate that they weren't skimping on the key product.

As I said, the menu was specifically developed for the event so I won't bore you too much with details of dishes that will never appear on the standard menu.  But the juniper cured venison lion with duck liver parfait and fig bread deserves a special mention not least because I am very much into mini loaves at the moment...

I also really enjoyed the pink grapefruit posset, despite not being the biggest grapefruit fan in the world.  The addition of white chocolate, whose rich sweetness took some of the bitter sting from the citrus, and the genius textural element of puffed rice granola, made for a really well balanced, exciting and moreish pudding.  The accompanying cocktail, which combined Sipsmith London Dry with, among other things, lychee and blue curacao, went down pretty smoothly as well.

We have eaten at Shears Yard once before - a distressingly long time ago (February 2015 according to this review) and it is a crying shame that time, money and a desire to try new things mean that it will probably be another two and a half years before we go back.  But if you're looking for somewhere in Leeds which turns out bright, interesting, accomplished food at a reasonable price then it is definitely somewhere to bear in mind.  And look out for forthcoming events as well!  There's a Taste of New Zealand evening coming up at the end of September which sounds pretty interesting...

Shears Yard
11 - 15 Wharf Street, Leeds
LS2 7EH
0113 244 1444

TWTWTW: Lazy, hazy, crazy

Well, we haven't done a that was the week that was post for a while, which means that the blog has been lacking in cute cat pictures, which will never do.

La Minx remains as beautiful and capricious as ever, as is the way with felines.  She, at best, tolerates and, at worst, cordially dislikes D despite our ongoing efforts but he forgives her because she is beautiful and has the loudest purr ever to emanate from a little cat.

Now, tell me, where on Earth has the summer gone?  I'm sure we had a few nice days back there in what - May?  June?  But the last few weeks have been terrible!  As regular readers will know, I am not a fan of the heat but the lack of blue skies and the constant threat of rain is becoming slightly depressing.  I feel like I should be talking about barbecues and summer salads but it's really more weather for stews.

Still, miserable weather notwithstanding, we managed to drag ourselves out this week when we went to a really fun Sipsmith gin event at Shear's Yard this week, which I will write about in more detail in another post; I was shocked to find that it has been two and a half years since we last went to that fine establishment (I wrote about it here).  Sadly, both time and money preclude us from visiting such local gems as often as we would both like - and given the continued pressures on independent establishments it's a real shame not to support them more.  Leeds recently lost The Black Swan which was an absolutely wonderful gastro-ish pub that is also mentioned in the above post which goes to show that even places that do everything right are at risk.

We had a few nights midweek where we were a bit lax about cooking for various reasons, but things have picked up this weekend, and for brunch this morning I finally got around to making shakshuka (pictured below with toasted, buttered brioche).

It's been on my "dishes I should really try" list for AGES and, guess what?  It really is worth trying!  I followed Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe, here because I liked the fact that it kept things pretty simple (I mean, in terms of additions to the stewed tomato and pepper mix.)  I can see how adding a garnish of feta, or herbed yoghurt or cooking some chorizo or something in with the vegetables would work well, but loved it just as it was.  It's great for brunch because you can make the sauce the day before (which probably improves the flavour anyway) and then just cook the eggs in the morning.  Although I have to say this: his recipe suggests that you make the sauce then divide it between four pans before cooking with the eggs.  This sounds like a lot of washing up to me.  I cooked the vegetables in a large, shallow, stove-top casserole dish and just broke the eggs into that.  Much simpler.

Eat North

Street food is definitely one modern trend that I can get on board with.  I'm an old fashioned girl in many ways - I don't have any tattoos and like my music to have an ACTUAL TUNE but yep, love the love for street food.  Of course, I don't actually like eating on the street.  We were always taught at school that it is common to eat while you're walking along, and that is one lesson that stuck fast so much so that I am almost physically incapable of eating and walking at the same time.  However, as long as there is a handy bench or, preferably, a table somewhere in the vicinity of the street food van then I am there.

There are already many reasons to love Leeds's North Bar, but this summer they've given us another, extra specially big one by running, in conjunction with Leeds Indie Food, weekly events at their tap room like mini festivals - of food! We've been meaning to go for a while and finally got around to it last weekend.

Different vendors attend every time - we happened to be presented by a choice of Indian food courtesy of Manjit's Kitchen, giant arancini by the girls of Golden Balls (like your style, ladies), and kebabs from The Middle Feast.  Both of us opted for kebabs - which seemed to be the most popular choice at 2pm on Saturday - D's with chicken, mine, blackened aubergine and halloumi.  Very tasty stuff and an absolute world away from the kind of kebabs that always seem like a good idea in the early hours of the morning after one two many cocktails.

We also decided that it would be rude not to take a couple of the Porterhouse Cake Company's wares home to try.  I am pleased to be able to confirm that tahini does work extremely well swirled through a brownie.  Who knew?

It was a really fun event and they've obviously been going down well with the good people of Leeds since a further six have just been announced.  I certainly hope to get to another one before the summer is out.  Further details can be found at the website here or the Leeds Indie Food twitter feed.

And no, this is not a sponsored post, although if North Bar would like to send me a T-shirt and a box of brownies they would be gratefully accepted.  I'm not proud.

A bad start to the week

Picture the scene. Six thirty in the morning, I was lying in bed pretending to be asleep when D comes in and says, in a voice teetering somewhere between incredulity and panic, "Where's the car? The car's gone."

A little further investigation revealed my purse lying in the middle of the drive and the back door lock hanging off the screws. Somebody or bodies had got into our house in the night, removed the car keys from D's jacket pocket, rifled through my handbag and made off with our car.

Now, there's an awful lot of shit going on in the world at the moment, as recent events in London and Manchester prove. And this incident, is, in the scheme of everything that is happening, tiny and incidental and means nothing to anyone except me and my husband and, possibly, our elderly neighbours. But it just serves as further proof to me that there are some complete and utter wankbadgers out there. People who actually think it is ok to break into someone's house while they are sleeping and just help themselves to a car and then, as if that is not cockwomblish enough, leave the back door open through which our cat could have escaped if she had any sort of nous.

I am trying quite hard to be angry because the alternative is to be frightened. I bet arsewipes like those who paid us a midnight visit, I bet that they get off on making people afraid. They probably find it amusing. Well, screw them and screw all the people like them that shake our faith in the basic goodness and decency of humanity. They are not worth our fear.

Anyway, I apologise for the rant and the fact that the only meal planning I will do today is working out which bits of these spineless lowlifes I would like to chop off and bake in a pie (with apologies to George R. R. Martin). Normal service to be resumed shortly.

Cheap Eats in Leeds - Thai Aroy Dee & Ecco Pizzeria

A few years ago, D and I instituted the practice of aiming for at least one “CNO” a month. Which, for the uninitiated (i.e. everyone apart from us) meant the two of us dining out for a total of £30 or less all in. We all know that it’s pretty easy to eat well if you’re happy to splash loads of cash but can it be done on a budget?

The answer, of course, is yes if you know where to look but we fell out of the habit or, at the very least, became less stringent about the rules. Having recently seen our outgoings increase though, we are on a mission to be more frugal and so have reinstituted the concept of the CNO. But, because, you know, inflation, we’ve raised the upper limit to £40.

Thai Aroy Dee

I may have mentioned TAD before, but if you live in Leeds and are a fan of Thai food I would always recommend you come here rather than the glitzier Sukkothai or the buzzier Zaap Thai. I hesitate to mention authenticity in reference to Asian cooking, as I’ve never travelled there myself, but I have been here with people who know and they tell me it’s probably the most authentic Thai food in the city. Certainly, it’s delicious. The flipside is that nothing here, neither the food nor the restaurant itself, is particularly glamourous which is by the by if you can get a good feed for under £20 a head.

D threw a potential spanner in the frugal works by letting himself get too hungry which meant that he wanted to order a starter, a salad and a main plus rice and a beer. In the end, he was persuaded to share a portion of the Thai prawn crackers (crunchier, spicier and infinitely more addictive than their Chinese counterparts) followed by a minced chicken salad, stir fried minced pork with fermented eggs and a sticky rice. And a beer. I had a red Thai curry with duck and steamed rice. And a sparkling water. Because I’m trying to stop drinking on school nights.

Crackers!

D found the minced chicken salad to be a little delicate, and would have preferred a bit more zing and punch such as was found in the stir fried dish, which he deemed delicious. I can confirm that the spiced mince was heavenly, but avoided sampling jellified eggs because I have issues with anything that looks like jelly and tastes of old egg.

Mince and eggs!

The duck curry was also good. I think the duck must have been poached which left the meat incredibly tender although, where I am used to eating it fried, I must admit missed the contrasting crackle of crispy skin. The sauce was thinner than I expected but packed full of flavour with that classic triumvirate of sweet, sour and hot all in perfect alignment.

Duck curry!

Final bill? The whole lot came to £34.35 which we rounded up to £38.00 with tip. Not far below our limit but we took away enough leftovers to do us both lunch the next day. This might be no frills dining but it is undoubtedly good and definitely somewhere to consider if you’re looking for cheap, cheerful and tasty.

Ecco

Ecco is located in Headingley, which, if you know Leeds at all you will be aware seems to be mainly populated by students. As such, it is a good place to head if you wish to avoid the city centre but find interesting and frugal places to dine out.

I had been wanting to visit (Ecco rather than Headingley) for ages, being a pizza fiend. It has quite the local reputation, always seems to be packed out and, impressively for such a small place, boasts an authentic wood burning oven. Apparently, to be considered true Neapolitan style pizza there are strict rules with regards the temperature of said oven and the length of time the pizza can cook (60-90 seconds) and Ecco are proud to advertise that they adhere to these standards.

I am not sure, however, that many residents of Naples would recognise some of the topping combinations that Ecco have adopted. D, ever the rebel, ordered an Istanbul “pizza” which was topped with tahini, rather than tomato, over which had been strewn liberal quantities of lamb mince, feta, pomegranate seeds and yoghurty salad. It was delicious, but it was not pizza.

Pizza!

I went for a slightly more pedestrian combination of pepperoni, ham, mushrooms and olives. The base was blistered and blackened which gave a pleasing hint of char, the sauce was good, the mozzarella plentiful and creamy. My personal preference would have been for a little less topping and a slightly thinner base, but I can’t say that I was complaining particularly. Chicken wings, ordered as a starter, and also cooked in the wood fired oven, were good if not exceptional.

Again, this was no frills dining. Tables are set very close together, service is efficient, food is served promptly with a minimum of ceremony. They do not sell alcohol which was not a particular issue for me but both D and the guy at the table next to us looked a little crestfallen at the prospect of pizza sans beer. However, with more pubs in Headingley than you can shake a drunken student at, locating a watering hole either side of your meal (and you will be in and out pretty quickly) is not hard.

Pizza for two (again, we had leftovers that we got boxed up to take away) with a starter and a soft drink came to £22.95 so even with tip we were well under the £30 mark, let alone £40. And I would quite happily go there again, although if you ask me, the best pizza in North Leeds is to be found a bit further up the road at Meanwood’s That’s Amore, where the menu is considerably smaller and the toppings are slightly less liberal.

Overall though, two excellent additions to the pantheon of Leeds CNO venues. But fear not, next month normal service will be restored as we head to Michelin starred (and priced) The Black Swan at Oldstead and pay the equivalent of ten Cheap Night Outs for a single meal. Huzzah!

Thai Aroy Dee
120 - 122 Vicar Lane, Leeds, LS2 7NL
0113 245 2174

Ecco
93 Otley Road, Leeds, LS6 3PS
0113 278 2828

Out and about - Pigs and Pyjamas

Let’s dispense with the diet chat for now and focus on something much more interesting – FOOD. Because the whole point of putting yourself through two (or three) fast days a week is so you can fill your boots with the good stuff throughout the other five.

We’ve been out for a couple of quick bites in and around Leeds recently, so here’s a quick round up.

The Cat’s Pyjama’s, Headingley

I was going to call this restaurant a relative newcomer, but since it has already managed to open a second branch in Leeds city centre in the last few months, that makes me sound quite patronising. Or, as if I have no grasp on the actual passage of time. Regardless, this has been on our radar to visit for a while. Its claim that it provides a celebration of Indian street food culture might be a cynical attempt to garner zeitgeist points, but the wonderful Bundobust has already proved that Leeds can take Indian food and take street food and make something amazing. We had high hopes.

I don’t think that it is quite as good as Bundobust, although, really, a like for like comparison is unfair given that CP has a much larger menu and encompasses main meal curries as well as street food sized snacks (not to mention the fact that it caters for meat and fish eaters). I did think that it was a cut above a bog-standard, high street British Indian restaurant, with a menu that resisted the tired old standards and clearly tried to do something a bit different.

Poppadoms and pickles were good. We shared a starter: Chicken 65, which is crispy fried chicken with chilli, garlic and a name with an obscure origin. The taste was good, the meat a little dry. Main courses were varied – the Saag Paneer, a great favourite of mine, was delicious (and tasted even better the next day) and the Goan Chicken Cafreal was a triumphant balance of spice and zing. However the Punjabi Chole, a pulse based curry, was slightly uninspiring.

For all that, I’d happily go back and sample the other options – the atmosphere was nice and buzzy, even on a Wednesday evening, the staff friendly and the food undoubtedly decent value, coming in at £30 a head for more than we can eat (they kindly packaged up our leftovers for us) and a bottle of wine.

If you find yourself in Leeds City Centre, I’d personally opt for Bundobust in the first instance, but wouldn’t have an issue with suggesting The Cat’s Pyjamas if they didn’t have any tables available.

The Cat's Pyjamas
53 Otley Road,
Headingley,
LS6 3AB

The Greedy Pig, Leeds

It has been a month of animal themed restaurants, as last Saturday we popped out for brunch at this, a veritable Leeds institution that recently popped up in a Guardian “Best UK Breakfast Spot” article, alongside Laynes which has recently had a refurbishment that I need to check out (note to self).

With regards the Pig - be warned; this is not a large venue and you may have to wait for a table. Also be warned, if you’re not lucky enough to nab one of the prime spots in the window you may well have said waiters looming over you while you eat your breakfast. I wasn’t particularly bothered, D found it disconcerting.

Having already stalked the place on Instagram, I decided that I couldn’t resist the pancake stack, which I ordered with bacon and maple syrup. The pancakes themselves were a triumph of the genre: thick but fluffy of texture and golden of crust. I did feel that two (smallish) rashers of (undeniably excellent) bacon was a tad disproportinate – perhaps one is meant to treat the bacon as seasoning but I did end up leaving the third pancake to ensure a decent bacon: syrup: pancake ratio throughout.

D went for a duck hash topped with a duck egg and kimchi. He was quite quiet while eating it which is generally a good sign, but I suspect that he suffered from slight food envy when he saw a pile of buttermilk chicken go past – to be fair, it did look amazing, and I think a return visit to confirm this analysis is inevitable.

Joint best breakfast spot in Leeds? I can’t speak for Laynes, but at the moment for me, I think Ox Club might just edge it. Further testing is most definitely required…

The Greedy Pig
58 North Street,
Leeds,
LS2 7PN