The Moorcock Inn, Sowerby Bridge

We went to the Moorcock Inn following a glowing review on the Guardian website; when Jay Rayner waxes lyrical about a place we tend to listen, especially when it is localish. And I would definitely agree that this little gastropub is worth a visit if you ever happen to find yourself a few miles outside of Halifax.

I have few pictures to share because we were seated in a dark corner of the dining room, rendering all the shots even worse than usual. And you people have seen the standard of photography on this blog: I do not have high standards. So here’s a picture of a gin, enjoyed in the pub garden pre dinner:

And some butter (very light, whipped texture, very salty, very good) and, er, a jug. That’s your lot I’m afraid.

The not-very-Unique-but-instead-rather-Ubiquitous-SP of the Moorcock is an emphasis on locally sourced and foraged food. Indeed, the waiter was almost apologetic about the fact that the sardines came from Cornwall (but apparently Cornish sardines are only in season for a short period and delicious enough to make it worth shipping them up to Yorkshire from the South coast). This is a trend that is not going away but, when handled well, makes for interesting and delicious combinations, so no complaints from me. Some of the dishes we ate for very lovely indeed: the aforementioned sardines with leeks and a redcurrant seed miso were a particular highlight. We also very much enjoyed a main course of confit chicken and lobster served with sweetcorn and a bread porridge.

My one issue was that the kitchen seemed to have something against texture. That chicken dish, for example, while incredibly tasty (the lobster, in particular, was handled brilliantly well) was crying out for something crunchy. As was the otherwise delicious dessert of raw milk ice cream with fig leaf and plums. The flavours were all balanced so well - I particularly loved the chef’s use of sour notes to make food sing - but there was nothing for my teeth to get in to. Except the crust on the sourdough bread which was excellent with the aforementioned butter.

Could just have been the particular selection of dishes we had on the day though - the menu changes, I believe, daily so perhaps someone was just in a particularly soft mood the night we were there. We both agreed that we would happily go back - not only was the food good but the whole meal was excellent value. We might need to investigate local taxi services next time though, so D can partake of the very interesting little wine flight.

The Moorcock Inn
Moorbottom Lane, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX6 3RP
01422 823103

Full Disclosure

Friday night, for the first time, the wagon teetered. And the culprit was my old Nemesis, wine.

I’m a little disappointed in myself, of course - after two and a half weeks of exemplary behaviour and smug attendant blog posts, I shouldn’t have succumbed to the thrall of crisp, chilled Sauvignon Blanc. Aside from anything else, the Smart Points value of a glass would make your eyes water.

But I’m going to look at the positive side of things. I got up on Saturday, with a slight headache, and got on the treadmill before breakfast to do a Couch to 5k session and earn back some of those points. And, I did not use it as an excuse to write off the entire weekend; last night, while out with my in laws, I stuck to Diet Coke and slimline tonic and my preplanned menu choices, tracking everything. So that is good, that is progress. It remains to be seen how the Mean Girl Scales will react.

A pre weigh-in post

So, first week nearly over and in a few hours it will be time to hop up on the scales.  Whether they are the Scales of Doom or the Scales of Joy remains to be seen. 

I wanted to make sure that this post was written and up before the weigh in, so that I can look back on it regardless of the result.  Because, whatever the scores on the doors, this has been a successful week.

As I hoped, operating within a structure has been really good for me.  I have been eating properly for the first time in a while and my fruit and veg consumption has rocketed as I embrace zero point snacks.  This has had a knock on effect on my mental health – I feel much calmer and more in control.  And physically, my stomach has been OK.  Not perfect, but OK. 

I have had a lovely weekend with friends and managed to enjoy myself without going ridiculously overboard, without adopting a “Screw it, I can’t point so I’m going to eat and drink everything in sight,” attitude and, hugely, without having a drink.  I am a girl who loves her alcoholic beverages: to get through an entire sociable weekend watching other people tuck into large glasses of Pimms while sticking to water is a pretty big deal.  But I made the decision that it wasn’t worth the points and it wasn’t worth the potentially catastrophic effects on my beleaguered digestive system and I stuck to it.

So whatever the scales have to throw at me today (and I’m genuinely in the dark) I’m going to try and remember that, by any other measure, this has been a GOOD WEEK.

Rusty Shears, Whitby (my new happy place)

We took ourselves off to Whitby for a couple of days this last weekend. We booked it months ago to mark the date on which we first met (fourteen!!! years ago) but we never need very much excuse to travel across. It's the perfect place to relax, take deep breaths of chip-scented sea air and be a wee bit indulgent.

And if it is indulgence that you are after, alongside a side of whimsy and a good, stiff gin then look no further than Rusty Shears - a tea shop come House of Gin. Was there ever a more appealing combination?

It doesn't open in the evening, but the sign reassures customers that gin is served from 11am, and there is nothing guaranteed to make one feel more hedonistic than ordering gin and tonic with lunch (we waited till one o clock because spirits before noon does feel wrong). There is an absolutely massive selection - we managed to try five different ones across the course of two visits and still had barely scratched the menu's surface. Amongst them - a local gin brewed in someone's garage just up the road and a Scottish gin with a mere two botanicals (juniper and rosehip should you be interested). It was total ginvana.

But obviously sustenance is needed alongside and the menu of sandwiches, light bites and the most delicious homemade cake hit the spot perfectly. I jumped at the chance to order a Reuben on rye, a great personal favourite, and D opted for wild mushrooms on toast. Then we committed the grave error of treating ourselves to a piece of cake apiece. I say error; the cake was fantastic, sublime. My Guinness cake with a thick layer of lighter-than-air-and-sweeter-than-a-kitten's-purr frosting was perfect. D's maple pecan cheesecake was a delight. But all that sugar occasioned, unsurprisingly, quite the slump and we ended up staggering back to our room for a much needed post-cake nap. Still, that's what holidays are for, no?

There was nothing that I did not like about this place from the eccentrically nostalgic decor (Miss Marple after she'd hit the gin selection) to the enthusiastic and charming staff. Oh, actually. I'm sad about the fact that it isn't open in the evenings - we could absolutely have whiled away an entire evening and an awful lot of money there - and that it is in Whitby rather than Leeds. But perhaps, given how much I both gin and cake, it is all for the best.

In which I re-commit to 5:2

I've been thinking about what I did at the start of the year that worked so successfully.  And what I can add to those techniques in order to be even more successful.  Here's my list so far...

1) A food diary.  Practically every day in January, I carefully recorded what I had eaten.  It might sound a little obsessive but it never took long, and I kind of enjoyed it.  It focuses you; even though no one else was reading it, I wanted the food that I recorded to look good...let's be honest, who wants to actually have to write that they've scoffed half a pack of Hobnobs?

2) Alcohol.  I've mentioned this before, I'm sure.  I love a drink.  But my weight loss noticeably speeds up when I cut it out.  I'm not going to promise to cut if out altogether, but for "5:2 2.0" there will be absolutely none on school nights (unless for a very particular reason) and I will limit consumption at the weekends by focusing on higher quality, low volume.

3) Meal planning.  Whatever diet you're doing, meal planning is pretty key.  I also need to make sure that I'm planning lunches and breakfasts as well - I'd like to limit snacks and treats and a surefire way to do that is to make sure that I'm eating properly at meal times.

4) Ah, yes, snacks and treats.  The odd biscuit or packet or crisps or piece of chocolate is absolutely fine, but I need to keep an eye on consumption levels.  I'd like to limit myself to one "treat" a day, maybe relaxing slightly at the weekends. So that could be a biscuit with an afternoon cup or tea OR a packet of cheeky cheese and onion when I get home OR a few Maltesers after dinner.  Not all three.

5) Exercise.  Yes, this again.  Lesley has nagged me about it before and with good reason - I need to make time for this and commit to a proper programme of activity.  There's a hotel across the road from my office with a proper pool - I'd love to treat myself to monthly membership so that I could fit in some swimming.  I'd also quite like to try some yoga classes, as I think this would help with my anxiety issues as well as being good, gentle exercise,  but I'm not going to shell out a penny until I've proved to myself that I can make exercise part of my schedule.  We have a treadmill in the garage, I have the couch to 5k app on my phone - it's free, it's easy, it's effective there is NO EXCUSE.

I reckon if I can stick to all these edicts, as well as two fast days a week, I can get things moving again in six weeks.  Game face on!

MPM - and a progress update

I’ve been following the 5:2 plan for 10 weeks now and things are going well. Strictly speaking, I had one week of 4:3 (which was bloody awful) and one week of 7:0 (that was the week that we went to Brighton and entered “holiday mode” a bit too early). In that time, I’ve lost 20.6lbs, which is nearly a stone and a half (yay!) and an average rate of just over 2lbs a week which is double what I was expecting (more yay!)

But if you look at the chart you can see that there was a period when things started to move in the wrong direction – basically, most of February. I had three weeks of gains on the trot – one, after an indulgent weekend away, was expected the other two, not so much. The thing that seems to make the big difference for me is alcohol. If I don’t drink anything, I can eat with relative abandon on non-fast days and lose weight. As soon as I start trying to factor in some wine at the weekends or a sneaky couple of midweek pints, it slows right down. It’s a shame as I adore a tipple, but for now, I am putting my beloved g&ts to one side while I concentrate on shifting some poundage. Drinking is going to have to be an occasional treat rather than a regular occurrence.

On to this week’s meal plan and, continuing our plan in March to cook our books, the basis of this comes from Valentine Warner’s “The Good Table”. I have yet to identify any particular theme to this book, unless that theme is “delicious things that I want to eat”. We’ll be fasting on Monday and Wednesday, and D is out on Friday for a team lunch, so four evenings to plan:

Monday: Soup

Tuesday: Mussels on toast

Wednesday: Soup

Thursday: Valentine Warner’s Dad’s prawn curry

Saturday: Moussaka

Sunday: Slow cooked beef cheeks with baby turnips

YUM. That’s the third week in the row where I think we’ve had some absolute treasures to look forward to – and, this may be the fasting speaking, but I can’t wait to get stuck in to that little lot.

The BBC Good Food Spring Show - more news!

The sun is shining today and there is definitely more than a touch of Spring in the air so I can officially start to get even more excited about the forthcoming Good Food show. And what could be more exciting than a whole host of amazing producers from the good county of Yorkshire trying to sell us all food.

Now confirmed as having stalls are:

York & Dulgent fudge - prizes for the clever reader who manages to guess a) where they are based and b) what they make. I love fudge and am intrigued by some of the flavours mentioned on the website.  Raspberry and prosecco are two of my favourite things and united in the medium of fudge - this I need to try.  I'm rather taken with the notion of limoncello fudge as well.

Amos and Tom's popcorn - now, oooooh! I do love popcorn and, as everybody knows, it is practically health food.  Even when it is sea salted caramel flavour...

Sloemotion - top marks for the punning name here. I believe that D and I have tried their sloe gin in the past to decided nods of approval but I hadn't appreciated that they do a range of other products, so will definitely be having a good sniff around their stall. Bramble whisky sounds very interesting indeed.

Patrick Macarons and Patisserie - an entirely new brand to me, but, Patrick, you had me at macaron.  And then you had me still further at "Forced rhubarb and ginger". I do like a macaron and they strike me as the kind of thing that one should never attempt to bake oneself but to leave safely in the hands of the experts. Like Patrick. It's my father in law's 70th birthday during the weekend of the show and I reckon a box of macarons would be a very classy way to mark the occasion.

Will bring you more news as I get it (that phrase makes me feel like a roving reporter!) and if you are planning to attend the show then let me know - I'll meet you by the macarons.

Bloggers do Christmas

I am intrigued by the increasing number of bloggers (and I follow a lot of people – foodie, beauty, random…) who have been posting Christmas present guides.  This is obviously now a Thing and so I wondered if I should do something similar.

But then I drafted a post and I realised that it was basically my Christmas list re-written to make it sound slightly generic.

Does your Uncle Jo like reading?  Here are the books that I have enjoyed in 2015!  Or even the ones that I want to read in 2016!

For the foodies in your life, what about these products that I really like scoffing?  Or how about some new Le Creuset?  Everyone (I) loves Le Creuset.

Enjoy a bit of a tipple?  I went to this distillery in the summer and really liked the whisky!

You can't blame the bloggers.  Newspapers and magazines do it every year, and blogging is just a natural extention of the print medium.  It's just that I’ve always thought, if you know your nearest and dearest so little that you have to resort to a Guardian journalist telling you that all the well dressed men this year will be wearing cashmere striped socks, then…well, maybe consider giving them the gift of your time and attention this Christmas.  The very best presents are the ones that mean something.  Either because they are an item genuinely coveted or because the giver feels it has resonance.

Having said all that, just in case you are interested…

This year, my favourite books have been “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell (apart from the ending – oh, the ending!), the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman (Harry Potter goes to university) and “A Prayer for Owen Meaney” by John Irving  (I think Owen himself might be one of my all time favourite characters).  Ooooh, and “The Paying Guests” (because Sarah Waters is all kinds of wonderful).

I adore Amelia Rope chocolate and am beyond excited to see that she has started doing the pale lemon and sea salt as a truffle.

Grey’s Fine Foods sent me free stuff, so it only seems fair to mention them again, but they genuinely have a lovely selection of Spanish goodies and I really rated the quality of both their meat and sherry.

For entry level whisky drinking, my absolute favourite is Penderyn.  My favourite splurgier purchase this year was Ardbeg Auriverdes.

And, having recently become vaguely obsessed with this blog, I am desperate (desperate!) to own an Hermès scarf.

Happy Christmas shopping everybody!

Friends of Ham, Leeds

I don’t think that I have ever mentioned Friends of Ham on here and that is very remiss of me because if you were to find yourself in Leeds it is a venue that is well worth checking out.   And it is ideally situated within easy staggering distance of the station, making it the perfect place to both start and end an evening of revelry.  Although I warn you that if you start there you may never wish to leave.  No less a critic than Jay Rayner noted its quality back in 2013.  And the business has expanded since then so that it has a larger upstairs space and bar area and a food selection that extends (although not distractingly so) beyond charcuterie and cheese.  Many of the slightly more substantial options appear on a regularly changing specials’ board adding a bit of amplitude to the basic menu.

I say basic menu – but (may I refer to Mr Rayner again) when a place is serving meat and cheese of such quality, in generous portions with plenty of well-priced, interesting beverages on the side, basic isn’t quite the right word.  Sleek, perhaps.  Uncomplicated.  TASTY.

It was in Friends of Ham that I first began my love affair with ‘nduja, a spreadable, fiery Calabresian sausage that is desperately addictive.  I buy mine online from the Ham and Cheese Company, because that is where Friends of Ham acquire theirs.  So when we went to check out the breakfast menu last Sunday, the choice of ‘nduja toast topped with avocado, coriander and lime was an absolute no brainer, and very good it was too.

The breakfast / brunch market is definitely becoming a thing - which I quite like, especially when you get places like Friends of Ham offering something a bit different from a bacon sarnie on sliced white.  D had a Chorizo Monsieur, a pleasing fusion of Spanish spice with French indulgence.  Other offerings included smoked mackerel and cream cheese and Portobello mushrooms with poached eggs, spinach and béarnaise – which actually sounded like a really nice dish rather than a tacked on, obligatory veggie option.  They don’t have a lot of kitchen space at Friends of Ham, so it’s mostly a variation of things on toast, but it is nice things on excellent, nutty toast, washed down with good coffee.

One very small thing – I do NOT understand why you would serve hot coffee in a glass with no handle.  It is unnecessary and impractical.  Since I am generally drinking good local ales or wine when I’m in there, I’m not going to let it bother me too much.  Any place that sources and serves such consistently yummy things is one worth treasuring.  Not to mention that any place that is good enough for Jay Rayner is surely good enough for me.

Sugar tax - really?

I like Jamie Oliver, and I like the fact that he is keen to use his celebrity status to make a difference to peoples’ lives.  But some of the aspects of his latest campaign (to add a “sugar tax” to fizzy drinks and to ring fence the proceeds for use in tackling childhood obesity) niggle at me a little bit.

Firstly, I work in tax.  Tax is complicated.  Logistically, the tax department is not set up to be able to “ring fence” profits.  And, really, can you imagine if it was?  The public pay tax and they have to be able to trust the authorities to use the pot of money in the best possible way – that’s the way that our current democratic system works.  We don’t ring fence cigarette tax to treat smoking related diseases, nor the tax on alcohol to provide support for alcoholics, and I don’t think that we should.  It sounds to me (and maybe I am scaremongering) like a step down the road to where we only offer health services to those who have “paid” for them.  

The second point about tax is that it is very difficult to draft legislation that will do exactly what you want it to do.  So, in order to tax fizzy drinks, we have to define fizzy drinks in law.  And then, the fizzy drink manufacturers will no doubt try to find ways to ensure that their products do not meet the legal definition.  Will it be done on proportion of sugar?  Level of carbonation?  Fruit flavour?  If recipes can be tweaked so that they fall outside the definition, you can bet your life that they will be in order to be more competitively priced on the shelves.

And tax issues aside, this feels like the thin end of a very unwieldy wedge.  First fizzy drinks, then will we target sweets, chocolate, cakes, biscuits…any foodstuff with a proportion of sugar that someone (Jamie?) has deemed too high?   Will this include sliced bread and bottled sauces and soups and baked beans?   

Look, obesity is a serious problem.  We all know that.  And we also know that dieting is not the answer – the dieting industry is worth billions and more of us are fat than ever before.  Prevention is way, way better than a cure – and prevention at an early age is paramount.  We, as a nation, should be protecting our children from all of the health issues associated with obesity.  But punitive taxes don’t feel like the answer to me.  It’s one thing to tax cigarettes and alcohol – and I say that as someone who has been known to indulge in both.  As an adult, if I choose to exercise my right to engage in a habit that impacts detrimentally on my health, than I pay for it.  Tax on sugar though?  What about all the people who are not obese, who exercise sufficient control over their calorie intake, who exercise, who live a balanced lifestyle and want to indulge in some confectionery as part of that balanced lifestyle?  Why punish them?  And, actually, is it the state's job to dissuade children from drinking cola?  I mean, I hate to be one of those people, but when I was a child I simply wasn't allowed to have fizzy drinks unless it was the weekend - and even then, it was to be regarded as a treat rather than an everyday staple.

Education must be a big part of the answer.  The more people cook from scratch, the more people understand what they are eating and what the impact of that will be on their waistline, and, quite frankly, the more emphasis placed on the many and varied health issues that are caused by obesity, hopefully, the more everyone will rethink their approach to food and nutrition.   We also need to be looking at the mental side of the coin – some people are overweight as a result of (at least in part) mental health issues.   Food and drink are coping mechanisms for a lot of people.  I don’t think that anyone would actively choose to be fat – so surely that begs the question why are so many of getting fatter?  And if the answer is that we are a nation of stressed, time poor people who rely on convenience foods and sugar rushes to get us through the day, then I don’t think that having to pay an additional 20p for a can of lemonade is going to make a discernible difference.

Heads and tales

"I sent you a really good picture of those heads," said D, "And you didn't use it in your Glasgow post."

"Well, no," I said, "Because it's a food blog and that wasn't a picture of food so much as...heads suspended from the ceiling."

He looked at me.  I could practically hear him thinking "We don't just eat."

Which is fair enough.  So here is a picture of some heads suspended from the ceiling of the Kelvingrove museum:

And, of course, it is true that we don't just eat.  We drink quite a lot as well.  This year was mostly about the whisky.  After we left Glasgow, we headed to Islay and managed to tour four distilleries in two days.  Although the process doesn't vary from place to place, each tour had it's own distinct personality and interesting snippets of information, not to mention each involved a dram or two of the good stuff.

Islay distillery

The Ugly Betty still at Bruichladdich

Islay does whisky very well.  We did not, however, discover anything particularly exciting in the foodie line during our brief visit.  Whether it exists and is well hidden or if it is just not the main priority of the island, I am not sure - further research required perhaps?

Shears Yard, Leeds (with cocktails to start)

I'll be the first to admit that I bitched about our move to Leeds when it occurred.  But there is absolutely no denying, not even from a reluctant resident like me, that the city has a far more exciting bar and restaurant scene than is found in many other Northern cities - including, I'll concede, my beloved York.  The thirty billion (figure only slightly exaggerated) students gives it a perpetually youthful feel but even when their loan cheques have run out, there are plenty of young professional types ready to don high heels, sharp suits and hit Call Lane for a cocktail.

Well, I say young professional people - but last Friday saw me hitting Call Lane for a cocktail and I am neither of those things.  But I put on about five times more make up than I normally wear and played willing.

Before I move on to the main event - dinner at the delectable Shears Yard - I first have to give a quick mention to the Black Swan bar/pub/restaurant type place that we visited for a pre dinner drink and that subsequently has leapt straight in to our favourites list.  The espresso martini would have made me weep with joy if it hadn't been for the fact that my mascara was not waterproof.  I am going back very soon to check out the pizzas that smelled, as they emerged from the beautiful bespoke pizza oven, like manna from Italian heaven.

Espresso martini!

So, Shears Yard. We've been meaning to go for a while and if you pop over to the website you will probably understand why - we figured that if the food ate half as well as it read it was bound to be amazing.  It sounded eclectic, slightly eccentric and with a tick list of ingredients designed to appeal.

The setting itself was gorgeous and bang on the current trend for exposed brick work and slight industrial aesthetic, but sufficiently full of  twinkly lights to make it a romantic setting on Valentine's Day Eve (NB: not a thing).  And the well sized bar, which allows patrons to relax with a drink both before and after the meal, was a lovely bonus - I am a big fan of having an area in which to linger in an establishment.

Twinkly!

But, as ever, the important thing was the food - and the food at Shears Yard gets a big thumbs up from me.  I think we knew that we were on to a winner when the bread turned up - black pudding brioche with beetroot butter - tasty and alliterative!  We were so fulsome in our praise that the waiter brought us over a second plate and while my usual policy is to avoid filling up on bread prior to a meal, this was way too good to resist.

An early review of the place found the dishes to be a little try hard, and while chatting with the owner after dinner, he mentioned that they had tried to dial it back.  That said, the kitchen seemed very keen on creating dishes with multiple component parts.  Often, this meant that the individual constituents were slightly muted in flavour - I'm thinking particularly now of a chicken liver parfait definitely situated at the lighter end of the offal spectrum - which nevertheless came to life when matched with the mini smoked chicken kiev and home made brown sauce.

I went veggie for my main course and absolutely loved my cauli cheese spring rolls with charred romesco and curly kale coleslaw.  Good vegetarian food is a thing of beauty and this was original, well thought out and sensitively treated.  D was not impressed (he is a committed carnivore) - preferring to get stuck in to a pressed pork belly dish which he deemed very tasty indeed.  A shared dessert of chocolate parfait with chocolate orange sorbet and a brownie was...well, as chocolatey as it sounds on the tin and beautifully made, even if it didn't push up against any flavour boundaries - quite frankly I don't want anyone to mess with my chocolate.

Chicken liver!

Chocolate!

All in all, a fantastic evening.  As ever, it is an absolute pleasure for me as a diner to come across an independent local restaurant doing exciting, tasty food and I look forward to a continued acquaintance with Shears Yard.  If Leeds keeps on yielding little gems like that, I may not ever be able to leave.

London weekend: a trip to the Ginstitute

If you like gin (and, let us face it, who doesn't) then I urge you most strongly to get yourself along to the Ginstitute on Portobello Road.

This is actually the home of Portobello Road gin that you may have come across in your cruises down the Waitrose gin aisle (oh, wait, is that just us?)  But the gin itself is a happy offshoot of the original intention which was to open a little place where people could learn about gin and create their own customised blend.  In the process of practising the distillation of the various botanicals to be used by the punters, the owner came up with a blend that he thought might be marketable and so Portobello Road gin was born.

The experience itself lasts about three hours and costs £100 per person which sounds steep until you realise what that gets you.  You initially spend an hour sipping gin cocktails in London's second smallest museum learning all about the history of the spirit.  It's fascinating stuff, and Jake, with his bone dry delivery, was a skilled storyteller - although I couldn't help thinking that cocktails in lectures could have made a huge difference in my attendance levels when I was at uni.

A very blurry view of the bar in the gin Lecture Room

From there, you are provided with another drink (gin and tonic - hurrah!) and taken upstairs to the blending room.  Gin is, essentially, a colourless, odourless spirit - all the flavour comes from the naturally derived ingredients that are added to the base for the second distillation.  The predominant flavour is juniper but the others can be as varied as you like.

Before we were allowed to decide on our final recipes, we had a session sampling some of the most important botanicals - in original and distilled form, and learned a bit about the different quadrants of flavour that needed to be hit to create a balanced gin.  Then we picked our ingredients - up to twelve was the recommendation, four of which were standardised to ensure that the gin had all the basic building blocks of what we recognise as...well, gin.

You eventually leave there (although not before a gin martini for good luck) with clinking bags - a bottle of your very own personalised blend (which, incidentally, is kept on record so that it can be reordered whenever you like) plus a bottle each of Portobello Road and a sample bottle of Jake's favourite tonic water.  You see now how the £100 begins to look pretty reasonable.

It was a truly unique experience and we adored it.

As an interesting footnote, the following day we did a double blind tasting of our personal gins, the Portobello Road and a fourth bottle of London Dry with my parents, brother and sister in law.  The two personal blends scored head and shoulders higher than the others (sorry Jake).  Although D beat me by 3 points damn him - and I mocked him for throwing everything bar the kitchen sink into his recipe while I was a model of restraint...We're definitely going to reorder the blends we made and I would love to go back and try and completely different combination of ingredients - perhaps something nice and spicy for Christmas.

The Ginstitute (above the Portobello Star Bar)
171 Portobello Road
London W11 2DY
020 3540 7781

Setting my agenda

Greetings, friends! I’m in Barcelona this week, where hopefully the sun will be shining and the tapas will be tapas-ing. Can’t wait to share my adventures with you when I get back! But, in the meantime – last week it struck me. In (less than) six months time, it will be Christmas. Scary, no? So, at the 2014 halfway point, I’ve been putting some real thought in to what I can do to ensure that my weight loss continues apace in the latter end of the year. I would love to have hit the six stone mark by the end of December, which is about thirty pounds away. That is an imminently achievable target as long as I work through this current funk (and hopefully the holiday will give me the boost I need to regain focus on my return).


So, what has gone well this year?

 I’m very good at not giving myself credit for my own achievements. I’m a Yesbut. I’ve lost nearly four stone…yesbut it has really slowed down lately, yesbut there is still more to lose, yesbut I shouldn’t have gained it in the first place. Yawn. I’ve done well, I should be pleased. My weekly average, since starting this latest campaign last September, is 1.4lbs. OK, 2 or even 3 would be lovely, but 1.4 is still a respectable figure.

 We’re in a really good routine of planning and cooking evening meals. D has got involved which is great, we eat a good variety of foods, we cook from scratch most nights and seldom fall into the takeaway or “popping out” trap.

 I haven’t gone backwards. I really haven’t felt 100% these last couple of months which, in the past, I would have used as an excuse to self indulge, but I’ve put in enough good days to counteract the bad. I’ve got maintenance down to a fine art!

 Swimming! I’ve joined a gym and have managed to get myself to the pool at least a couple of times a week.

And what’s not gone so well?

 My enthusiasm has waned and, with its passing, the rate of weight loss has slowed to a crawl.

 I don’t plan my breakfasts and lunches with anywhere near the same care as my evening meals, with the result that I rely too heavily on shop bought, high point, expensive sandwiches and snacks and often find myself getting very hungry. Hunger leads to poor decisions.

 Weekend drinking has increased again – and the occurrences of midweek pick me ups as well. Alcohol is high in points which means I have to compensate by cutting back on the amount of weeklies available for extra food. This makes me hungry. Hunger leads to….(you know the drill).

So what can I do to address this?

 I’ve tried to avoid setting time based goals because not reaching them can lead to disappointment and disappointment can lead me to end up face down in a bowl of Doritos. But, as long as I realise that the sky won’t fall in if I don’t reach my entirely arbitrary goal, they can be helpful. I’m hereby aiming for the six stone mark by my last weigh in before Christmas which, as I write this, is 30 pounds away (although it might be slightly more after a week of tapas). I have 24 weigh ins to do it in, between the 11th July and the 19th December. BRING. IT. ON.

 I need to start being more organised about ALL my meals. Meal planning, henceforth, needs to include lunch planning as well.

 Alcohol is not my friend. Special occasions aside, I probably need to just avoid it altogether. Note to self: a Friday is not a special occasion.

 I need to up the exercise, which will give me an activity point safety net. My daily points allowance has gone down from 39 to 31 since I started, which is a big difference and could be one of the reasons why I am struggling. I’m enjoying the swimming, but I need to throw a bit of running in there as well – I want to be a runner. Runners are cool. Like bow ties.

Right – there we have it in black and white. The countdown to Christmas starts on the 11th July, my first post holiday weigh in. I know I can do this, I want to do it, I’m even (as I type) feeling a glimmering of enthusiasm. Hurrah! Onwards and downwards!

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).

Moving on up (a bit)

Weeks 1-23: -45lbs
This week: +1.5lbs
Total loss: 43.5lbs

So, as expected, a gain this week and deserved to be quite honest. Four days out of seven well off track. At least I can take comfort in the fact that it would have been a lot worse had I not got my act together on Tuesday.

A gain always stings, even when you know the reason. I’ve had a relatively easy ride so far and a few weeks where I’ve achieved a loss where, really, it wasn’t warranted and so I suppose at the back of my mind I had hoped that I would always get away with it. This week has given me the salutary lesson that I won’t. It is ok to choose to have time “off” but I can’t then complain when the scales nudge their way up.

This next week is a quiet one which will (I nearly used the word “should”) give me the opportunity to turn things around. There is no doubt in my mind that I will – I want this far too much to allow a little slip up to derail me.

This, by the way, is one of the Saturday night cocktails that led me down the path to gaindom. It is in an OWL for gawdsake. How could I not?

Recipe corner: Hot and cold gin and tonic

This is the absolute perfect dish to serve as a palate cleansing pre dessert, if you are the type of person who likes to serve palate cleansing pre desserts.

 

You'll need one of those foamer canister things (we have an ISI Whip) but, given you're a person who is considering serving a palate cleansing pre dessert, you've probably got one.

 

Ingredients

 

150g sugar

150ml tonic water

 

4 egg whites

125ml lime juice

75ml gin

 

250ml lime juice

150ml gin

 

Serves 4, 8 pro points per portion

 

First make a sugar syrup by bringing the sugar and tonic water to the boil, and then allow to cool.

 

Mix 250ml fresh lime juice with 150ml gin and half of the cooled sugar syrup.  Transfer to the freezer, taking out to fork briskly now and then (obviously you will need to do this stage well in advance).

 

Loosen the egg whites with a whisk or a fork then add the rest of the lime juice and the gin and the other half of the sugar syrup.  Put all the ingredients into the canister.

 

Prior to serving, you want to warm the foam through; fill a large beaker with boiling water and sit the flask in it for 10 minutes or so.

 

To serve, put granita in the bottom of the glass (you may not need to use it all) and top with the warm foam.  You will need to move quickly as the granita will start to melt almost immediately.

Foodie Abroad: Third Avenue Alehouse

Given that we were going to be in New York for New Year, we initially pondered the possibility of going the whole hog and spending it in Times Square.  We were quickly disabused of this notion.  It’s horrible, we were told.  You arrive at five, you’re not allowed to carry liquids, you can’t leave to go to the loo, it’s cold, it’s crowded, it’s unpleasant.  I think that we were both secretly quite pleased to let go of the scheme and resolved to spend the evening in a warm bar instead, watching the ball drop on the TV.  And we went to see the spike that the ball would be on.  So that counts for something.

 The Third Avenue Alehouse did not look like anything special from the outside but it was a couple of blocks away from our hotel, and we popped in on the way back from a long day of museums not expecting anything in particular.  But by a very happy accident, as sometimes happens on holiday, it turned out to be one of our favourite locations and somewhere that we already talk of in wistful tones.  It may be the wrong city, but everyone secretly wants to find a Cheers when they go to America, don’t they?  You know, a bar where everybody knows your name?  Third Avenue Alehouse was ours. 

 

It wasn’t just the fact that it served an excellent range of artisan ales (D particularly enjoyed the coffee porter).  Or the fact that I spied one of my favourite wines, Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc, lurking in the fridge the first time I hopped up onto one of the comfy bar stools.  Or the range of whiskies that would put many a Scottish bar to shame.  Or the friendly staff who were happy to chat and laugh at the English girl who didn’t have a clue about American football (“But why do they throw it backwards?”).    Or the to die for, truffle and rosemary popcorn (I’m quite upset that I didn’t get round to sampling the mac and cheese pie).  It was all of these things in conjunction with the fact that it so quickly felt like a little bolthole in a bewilderingly large and frantic city. 

 

 

So, New Years Eve 2013 found us propping up in the bar in our home away from home, astonishing Louis the barman with our drinking “fortitude” (he was so impressed that he gave us a free drink when we rolled in the next evening!)  It may not be quite as iconic as Times Square, but I couldn’t have asked for a nicer corner of New York, nor better company, to enjoy it.

Messing about on the river (but only after lunch)

The sky over Leeds may be as grey as grey can be this morning, but at least, if last weekend proved to be the last of the summer proper, I'll be safe in the knowledge that I actually got out and did something in the sunshine.

Gherkin!

Friday saw me winging my way down to London to go to the open air theatre in Regent's Park to see a production of "Pride and Prejudice" which was absolutely fantastic.  The setting is utterly lovely as well though, the trees and trellises of the overpriced bar strung through with fairly lights, the fireflies zinging through the gathering dusk....oh, I came over all goosepimply.  Lovely stuff.  If you live down that way I heartily recommend it for an evening's entertainment.  One can dine there beforehand, or, you can do as we did and pop to M&S for a sandwich to enjoy on the grass outside the theatre.  That way you have more money for the overpriced bar.

On Saturday, boasting the kind of eye bags that can only be brought about by staying up drinking wine in a gay pub until four in the morning, we headed to York and Albany in Camden, with a view to nixing the hangover prior to a riverboat trip.  This is a Gordon Ramsay place that I can't say had been on my radar particularly but was very pleasant indeed.  We sat in the bar area which meant that the whole party had access to both the bar and restaurant menus - ideal if you are in a largeish group with varying tastes.  I, of course, got over excited at the sight of the a la carte and went ahead with that, but others opted for the stone baked pizzas (which looked gorgeous) and the bar burger, complete with a side of chips caused serious food envy when it arrived.

My choice of starter, after a restoratively spicy Bloody Mary, were some tasty but rather unphotogenic sweetbreads (top, right).  I was exceedingly happy that these arrived on toast (most things are improved this way) and loved the iron rich cream sauce.  Personally, if something on a menu is described as being served with broad beans and mint I would expect to a) taste mint and b) see more than three or four broad beans but hey ho. 

I followed that with a skate wing in burnt butter with capers and watercress (middle, right).  Such a simple dish but so delicious if done well, which this was, with no skimping on the butter or the punchy little capers.

Finally, it had to be done - profiteroles with elderflower cream.  Again, not the most photogenic of dishes, and  the elderflower taste was incredibly delicate and could have done with being taken up a notch so as to hold its own next to the rich chocolate.  Still, enjoyable stuff.

It was generally agreed that where York and Albany really excelled was its drink menu.  Between us we managed to sample a fair few cocktails including an amazing rhubarb and ginger mule that, as you can see from the picture, was served in a seriously cute little copper mug.  Cocktails were priced at £9.50 a pop for the most part, which is not ridiculously expensive for central London, and real care and attention was lavished on them by the bar staff.

Altogether a very enjoyable place to while away a Saturday lunchtime - and, I should add, that we took up residence on the largest bar table for a full three and a half hours with nary so much as an eyelid flicker from any of the lovely staff to indicate that they would quite like it back at some point - and then proceeded to split the bill across seven credit cards (differing amounts on each) which was met with smiles and cheeriness.  They earned their 12.5% I reckon.

Rolling, rather than walking, we arrived at Camden Lock.

Barges and bunting

The princely sum of £11.50 will get you a riverbus trip down to Little Venice and back which is an extremely pleasant way to digest a rather too big lunch.

So, as I said, this morning's grey skies are not going to get me down.  I've had a weekend of good times with good friends and there's a little boozy food baby to prove it.  Detox starts here...