MPM: 20th November 2017

I wrote this post yesterday and scheduled it to magically appear today. Or, at least, I thought that I did. The fact that it has not appeared and that literally no one knows what I am planning to eat this week (EMERGENCY KLAXON!) means I obviously failed. Bah.

It has been a tired, grumpy day so apologies in advance for a tired, grumpy post. In fact, do you know what? I'm just going to post a list of meals and then retreat back to bring tired and grumpy on the sofa. No reason for anyone else to have to deal with me.

Monday: chicken Xacutti with basmati rice - a freezer dive. We were originally supposed to be out this evening, so planned something quick and easy.

Tuesday: out

Wednesday: potatoes baked with cream and smoked cheese, fennel salad

Thursday: the only fast day of the week, soup

Friday: some sort of fish - to be decided on the day depending on what looks good at the fishmonger

Saturday: burgers

Sunday: roast chicken

MPM: 31st July 2017

Pay day!  Hurrah!  The meal plan last week was abandoned to a certain extent when we realised that we had more food in the fridge / freezer than we had money in the bank (an exaggeration, but you get my drift).  Hence it may seem slightly repetitious this week since dishes got bumped into that glorious hinterland where wallets are full again.  Not that our wallets are ever that full seeing as how we are civil servants and the Government hates us and wants us and our children and pets to suffer.  Again, I exaggerate and again, I digress.

It's hard to believe, especially given the appalling weather that we have had recently, that we are now entering into the last gasps of Summer.  Here's hoping that August decides to be kind to us and brings some sunshine.

We're fasting on Monday and Thursday this week, so that will be soup, as per.  On Wednesday, we are going to Shears Yard for a five course tasting menu paired with Sipsmith gin cocktails.  The menu looks fantastic - check it out here; the only concern being that I hate being out on a school night.  To atone, the weekend will be a model of restraint and decorum and will probably involve quite a lot of doing stuff in the garden if the weather would be so kind as to stay dry.  Elsewhere:

Tuesday: Crab tart with a side dish of spiced courgette couscous.  Leftovers of both will do us for lunch on Wednesday and Friday.

Friday:  Chicken Caesar burgers.  However, we're taking the original recipe and, er, messing with it a bit to make it more exciting.

Saturday:  Pepper and lime crusted tuna with mustard cucumber "spaghetti".  I think that I've blogged this one before...yes, here it is.  Gorgeous.

Sunday:  We're trialling a couple of dishes for a forthcoming dinner party with my parents so I don't want to go into any detail in case they're awful and we have to rethink the menu, but courgettes and lamb will be involved in some shape or form.

Have a lovely week folks!

MPM: 24th July 2017

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon, so I haven't yet had my Official Weigh In and don't yet know whether my renewed commitment to the 5:2 plan has paid dividends on the scales.  Daily scale hops have seen a definite downwards movement, which is tentatively pleasing.

The fast days themselves, as expected, were not that pleasant.  Thursday, in particular, I was extremely grumpy in the evening and took myself off to bed to sulk behind a book at around eight o clock.  Hopefully, this week will be a bit better.  However, I've stuck to keeping my food diary, and observed the rule about no cheeky glasses of wine on school nights, so that's progress. We also adhered to the meal plan and ate well all week - although both agreed that veggie haggis isn't a patch on actual, y'know, haggis.

Next weekend will be a busy one for us - we're off to the Roosters brewery open day on the Saturday with my parents and then on Sunday we have tickets for a local restaurant's take on Scandi food.  So, no meal planning required at the weekend.  Monday and Thursday will be fast days - that just leaves us with...

Tuesday: Caesar salad burgers from this month's Good Food magazine

Wednesday: Crab tart

Friday:  Homemade fish fingers - D has yet to decide whether he's going spicy or classic

All good, summery fare - which is not quite in keeping with the greyness and rain that I see before me through the study window but you never know - perhaps our diet can tempt the sunshine back out.  Have a great week all!

TWTWTW: More of the same...with added bacon

I promise that as some point this blog will go back to being more than meal plans and the occasional bitch about how busy and crap everything is.  Promise.  I'm coming towards the end of a four year professional training course so, understandably, work is preying a lot on my mind at the moment.  The rewards at the end in terms of career progression (and money!) will be worth it, but I've become a bit of a one track record in the meantime.  I hate it, since I am not and never will be someone for whom their career is all consuming.  I mean, if writing about food was my career then perhaps things would be different but until someone pays me to sit at home in my pyjamas and blog (hopeful face), I am definitely a work to live type of person, whose level of ambition is simply being able to provide for a comfortable existence.  You can believe it when I say that no one is more bored by having to prioritise work and studying over everything else than me.

Except, possibly, Minx.

It's not all doom and gloom though!  On Monday, after a day stuck in a classroom with a load of similarly stressed out individuals, D decided that we needed to go and cheer ourselves up with some properly MESSY food.

Look at that, boys and girls!  Almost Famous caused a bit of controversy when it opened because it had some trying-to-be-cool-and-ironic-but-just-coming-across-as-misogynistic graffiti in their toilets but that is gone now and what is left are some seriously gooey burgers.  Yes, those are Doritos that you can see proudly poking their way out there.  And yes, that is a deep fried ball of mac and cheese pinioned to the top.  For all that there was a lot packed in to that burger, the bun stood up very well and the star of the show was undoubtedly the blushingly pink patty.

Oh, and we had to try the bacon bacon fries, for research purposes...

Yes, they're fries topped with bacon AND bacon mayonnaise.  Yes, it's ok to drool a little.

D, who has eaten a LOT of burgers in and around Leeds does NOT rate this one as highly as the offerings that can be found in Nation of Shopkeepers or Belgrave Music Hall.  And, if I'm really honest, some of the nicest burgers I've had recently have been ones we've cooked at home.  But still, sticky of finger and greasy of chin, it was a nice, albeit calorific, start to the week.

Right, now I'm off to stare at some computations and hope that D is the lucky UK winner of the £61 million Euro jackpot (he never checks his ticket until Monday morning so that we can dream for a little bit longer).  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friends, whatever you happen to be doing - unless you're revising for an exam too in which case - I share your pain.

Brewdog - beer for punks and Dirty Americana

 

 

I'm finally beginning to see the point of real ale and the game changer for me was Punk IPA by Brewdog.  An independent Scottish brewery, in business since 2007, Brewdog not only produce interesting, complex beers but they open bars that people like us (definitely not punks but with a slightly anarchic streak well concealed by our middle class jumpers and sensible shoes) really love to drink in.  It's a crying shame that the Leeds branch is so blooming small - it's very, very hard to get a table.  We've been drinking our way around the others though and can reveal that Birmingham might be the best one.  Or possible Shepherd's Bush.  Or Camden.  Or Glasgow.

 

Our local bar has had a Brewdog tasting which was exceptionally reasonably priced and a great introduction to the different products so it's worth keeping an eye out to see if somewhere near you is running something similar.  Punk IPA remains my favourite but I did enjoy tasting some of the others.  Like wine, these sorts of beers can have quite complex flavour profiles.  Brewdog are also slightly notorious for producing the some of the world's strongest ever beer; my brother actually shared a bottle of Sink the Bismark (41%) with us a couple of years back and it is really interesting stuff - much more akin to a whisky than a beer and definitely not one for downing by the pint.

 

The other thing that I have really enjoyed about the Brewdog bars is the food - for a well priced, tasty lunch they've proved a pretty safe bet.  We recently had pulled pork and cheesy fries in Shepherd's Bush:

 

 

 

And, just last weekend, beer battered Cajun chicken and a mushroom and halloumi burger in Manchester with seriously good sweet potato fries (apologies for the yellowness - I had a weird filter on.  The burgers were just the right amount of yellow in real life):

 

 

The menu appears to vary slightly from venue to venue but is all in the style that D called "Dirty Americana" - barbecue, lots of meat, judicious hits of spice, really scrummy stuff.

 

Whether you're a beer fan or more of a beer semi-virgin like me (although can one be a semi-virgin?  It's probably a bit of an all or nothing state of being) this is definitely a chain to check out. 

 

(NB:  On reading this back it came across a little bit like a sponsored post - and I almost wish that I could say that this was because then I would probably have a load of bottles of Punk in the fridge, but it isn't.  I just really, really like Brewdog and want to spread the love.)

Foodie Abroad: Spuntino's

I was already fairly sure that I liked Russell Norman, media styled “King of Soho Dining”.  But then I saw him on the BBC series “The Restaurant Man”, dispensing advice to aspiring restaurateurs, and this became a certainty.  He was witty and wise, had a very snazzy line in cardigans and (most importantly) was often to be seen writing busily in an elegant little notebook – any man with a proper appreciation for good stationery is a man that I wish to know.

 

This would still not be enough to induce with me to part with hard earned cash to eat in one of his venues were it not for the fact that they are very good indeed.  Russell Norman has a habit of creating restaurants that you really, really want to eat in.  They are trendy but not painfully so, stylised but with the substance to back the style up and genuinely appetising sounding menus which of course is the most important aspect of any restaurant.  Concept alone will not fill one’s boots.

 

We had already been to the original Polpo and to Mishkin’s and on Saturday we went to sniff out Spuntino’s – perhaps still on the tail end of our New York kick (it describes itself as a Brooklyn diner).  Fabulous stuff.  Not being particularly trendy we were more than happy to skip the queue and take one of the seats away from the bar area which meant that, despite the no booking policy, we had very little wait.  And waiting, to be honest, would have been no great hardship considering the excellent cocktails that the cheery bar staff were quite happy to hand you while you stood gazing longingly over the shoulders of fellow diners.  Let me tell you, the rhubarb sour was a thing of absolute beauty (always assuming that you like rhubarb and sour drinks – which we do). 

 

Drinks!

Food wise – Spuntino’s serves little dishes for sharing (or not) ranging from a selection of sliders (we tried all four) to some fresh looking salad plates (which we did not get around to ordering – D curled his lip at the thought, but I want to go back and check some of them out).  The truffled egg toast, which seems to have become something of a signature dish, was so amazingly good that we had to order a second one.  Nutty cheese, thick, sweet toast, a pool of golden yolk quivering in the centre, and that unmistakeable whiff of forest floor – it was just fantastically good, and I’d love to have a go at recreating it at home.

 

Toast!

 

Sliders!



I don’t know whether I was still a bit full from the day before, but I found myself struggling earlier on than I would have liked and so a disturbingly large proportion of the menu remained unsampled (I even turned down the prospect of another drink after dinner in favour of heading home for a stomach soothing peppermint tea – unheard of!)  But we still found a corner for desserts and I am mightily glad we did.  The “peanut butter and jelly sandwich” was amazing – a blissfull combo of peanut butter parfait and raspberry compote, but the star (to my mind at least) was the brown sugar cheesecake.  This unassumingly beige dessert was sweet and creamy with a delicate hum of cinnamon spice – a perfect example of the cheesecake genre.  Worth the trip alone.

 

Cheesecake!

Mr Norman has recently opened a traditional pub which I will be sure to go and seek out next time I make it down South and, if I should happen to find him in there, perhaps doodling in a Moleskine, I will be sure to pull up a seat and explain to him in no uncertain terms why York would be the ideal location for a Northern branch of his empire.  In the meantime, Spuntino’s joins Polpo and Mishkin’s in the league of Restaurants I Wish Were Just Down The Road (but it is probably lucky, for the sake of my not inconsiderable waistline that they are not).

Burgers and lobsters in the big city

We had an absolutely lovely time in London this weekend with family, friends, culture and, of course, food. Not ideal for weight watching – although a peek at the scales suggests that I am holding steady at the moment which is pleasing.

Anyway, London. Growing up down there it always gives me a happy tingly feeling to visit, although I am unsure that I would ever want to live there again having settled in Yorkshire. It also gives D and I, wannabe gastronomic tourists both, a chance to try out a few of the places that we read about in them there townie papers and blogs. The press in this country – in all matters, not just those of the stomach – is rather London centric which I can understand, but it does mean that most of the restaurant reviews I read leave me feeling rather plaintive – like I’ve got my nose pressed up against the glass looking in.

Our first port of call was a place called Burger and Lobster. This is apparently rather popular – we turned up at ten past twelve and swiped the last two seats at the bar, the tables having already been filled and a reservation system being totally twentieth century. At B&L menus are also a pretty outmoded concept – you can have a burger or a whole lobster. Oh, or a lobster roll. That’s it. Everything costs £20 which means the burgers are very expensive but the whole lobster is pretty good value and the lobster roll probably somewhere in the middle. Before we arrived, I was curious to know if anyone actually ordered a burger but having watched the orders come out of the kitchen for a while I did see quite a few go past – and very nice they looked too. Although for £20 I’d probably expect my burger to do a little song and dance when it arrived at the table. All three dishes are accompanied by skinny chips and a side salad. The side salad was covered in Parmesan cheese – this was obviously my sort of restaurant.

It’s a gimmick, sure, but a gimmick is fine if it is done well – and this was done very well indeed. D has the whole lobster which was boiled and then finished on the charcoal grill, and came with additional butter for dunking. He attacked it with relish – this is a man capable of extracted every last morsel of flesh from any crustacean and the plastic bibs provided by the waitress (a nice touch) really came into their own. The flesh was sweet and well cooked, the butter flavoured with lemon and garlic and the fries were excellent examples of the genre.

Lobster!

I went for the lobster roll. This was partly because I’d read that the brioche that constitued the roll part was a particular delight – and partly because a little bit of Yorkshire has crept into my soul and I wasn’t sure that I could bring myself to pay £20 for a burger. It was a good choice. The brioche was, indeed, excellent, buttery and sweet and – oh, so buttery. To be honest I’d have considered swapping the lobster filling for another one. The waitress informed me that it was baked on site – and also that it made an excellent bacon sandwich. I made a mental note to look up brioche recipes when I returned home. The lobster meat itself was, again, beautifully cooked, although its sweetness in conjunction with the sheer butteriness of the roll meant that it was an incredibly rich thing to eat. I manfully ploughed through the lot, and (I think) finished the fries as well but, ever watchful of my waistline, left some of the salad.

Lobster roll!

Burger and Lobster in not a place to linger over a long, luxurious meal. It was full and buzzy and obviously had a pretty quick turnaround judging by the number of people lingering by the bar eyeing plates of food as they waited for a table. But it is very good fun and probably the best value lobster in the capital. I’d go back for the brioche alone. But I’d probably arrive at half past eleven and loiter outside to ensure a booth next time.

Burger and Lobster
29 Clarges Street,
 London W1J 7EF
020 7409 1699

Learning to love Leeds: Bar Baby Jupiter

Temporarily setting the navel gazing aside now to talk burgers and bars. Both are things of which I am very fond.

I’ve worked in Leeds for…goodness, nearly seven years now, but I’ve never particularly warmed to it and have always been glad to escape back home to York. York feels much more me somehow. But now we are looking to move here, it is high time that I took more of an interest in the city, and by the city I mean primarily its hostelries and restaurants. If there are more around like Bar Baby Jupiter then perhaps Leeds and I will rub along alright.

BBJ!

BBJ is…cool. There is no other word for it. It’s in a basement so dark and a little bit murky, the soundtrack is kind of funky, the décor retrotastic. I doubt very much that I, prim in ballerina pumps and understated jewellery, am the type of clientele that they are looking to attract. I am not cool. I can’t carry cool off, I never have and I never will. The absolute height of my teenage rebellion was getting a second piercing in my left ear and to this day I’m surprised at myself. Anyway. BBJ. It’s cool. I’m not. But they let me sit there and pretend which is one compelling reason to like it.

Another is this: they do a frankly miraculous burger. I’m not kidding – this was the nicest burger I have had in ages. On D’s recommendation (this is a regular haunt of his and we were there at his post exam request) I opted for Cajun beef; to his slight chagrin I opted to add a slice of cheese (I think a burger is naked without one) and oh, my it was lovely. It was properly meaty – I’m no expert but I suspect that this is top quality beef, and the spicing was spot on: enough to leave your mouth humming slightly, not enough to detract from the burger itself. Chunky chips and a lovely, creamy coleslaw on the side and all for the bargainous price of £5 (well, mine was £5.50 because of my dairy product addiction). Oh my. It is not yet half nine in the morning as I type this and I am salivating at the thought of that burger.  They also serve a selection of rather tasty looking sandwiches, along with a good range (so D tells me) of draught beers.  Good news all round.

You MUST try this burger!

They only serve burgers on Thursday and Friday, although sandwiches are available all week. Perhaps they think that the good people of Leeds can only cope with so much beefy deliciousness.