The Rutland Arms, Sheffield

This is going to be a very brief post, for the simple reason that it's boiling hot and I can't really be bothered. The sooner I finish the sooner I can return to lolling around drinking ice cold stubbies of cheap French lager with my tongue hanging out like an overheated labrador. Just the latter bit like a labrador by the way, you shouldn't give your dog lager, not even in this weather.

Anyhow I'm just about bothering because I've been meaning to rave about the Rutland Arms for a while now. It's a rare gem of a pub, a pleasing mish-mash of traditional and modern melded together to form something a bit special. Old school pub decor and layout, beer choices to keep both the trad cask crowd and craft nerds happy, a mixed clientele and a lively atmosphere.

The food is an interesting proposition too, managing to do classic pub grub alongside something a bit different but with absolutely no nods to current fads or fashions. There are pies, sausages and carb-fest booze soaking chip butties in various guises, but also keenly priced and creative sounding vegetarian and fish dishes that pop up on the specials boards. Salads that sound worth the effort too, now that the heat is upon us.

I was last there a couple of weeks ago when it was still a bit fresh out, so I had the pie; chicken, mushroom and stilton. I'll excuse the china bowl with a pastry lid format, 'cos it was very nice. Lovely crumbly pastry and a soupy, cheesy filling rammed full of actual proper chicken pieces, you know like thigh meat and stuff. Great work. Nice chips too, but the veg was a bit pointless.

About seven quid for the pie, and good beer at normal pub prices. A damn fine pub this, you really should go. I've only been in chilly weather, but I'm pretty sure there's a beer garden.

9/10 for the pub, and what the hell let's call it an 8/10 for the food.

Rutland Arms
86 Brown Street
Sheffield
S1 2BS

http://www.rutlandarmspeople.co.uk

Northern Food on tour: Munchin' in München

Firstly an apology: I know the title of this post is atrocious, but I couldn't resist it. Sorry.

Munich, in common with every other German city I've had the pleasure of visiting, is great. Sausages, beer, attractive parks and squares, a super-efficient transport system with a kiosk selling Jägermeister in every station, friendly locals, and generally pleasant weather. What more could you want from a weekend break?

I was lying about one of the above. The weather. Rarely have I seen so much rain. It chucked it down almost constantly from our arrival on Thursday afternoon to our departure on Sunday night. I'm not talking drizzle here, but genuine soaked through in minutes pissing rain. So a stag weekend of loafing around in biergarten swiftly became a stag weekend loafing around in bierhallen. Not a great deal of difference really, and the news pictures of major flooding in cities less than an hour away made us realise that the persistent damp was little more than a minor inconvenience to our weekend of boozing.

This was my fifth visit to Germany, and let's just say it wasn't the first to have a rather beery focus. As a consequence I haven't got the slightest clue about more refined dining in the country, but I can tell you a thing or two about cheap eats, booze and fast food. Before I waffle on about Munich for a bit, here are my top five tips for cheap eats in Germany:

1) Eat in pubs (or beer gardens, halls or cellars). Entirely stereotypical I know, but you can't beat a good sausage and sauerkraut-fest. The quality is generally high and the prices low.

2) Go Turkish. There are at least 2.5 million people of Turkish origin in Germany, meaning that Turkish is by far the most prevalent non-native cuisine. Turkish food is everywhere, and usually good.

3) If you've risen too late our your lodgings don't provide one, look out for bars or cafes specialising in breakfast. Many of them serve set breakfasts of some generosity. If you go for the works you could be looking at juice, coffee and a colossal basket full of ham, salami, cheeses, bread rolls, pastries, jam, fruit, honey, yoghurt, smoked salmon, rye bread and whatever the hell else they can shoehorn in there.

4) Drink beer on the go. There's no stigma attached to drinking beer anywhere and everywhere in Germany. On the tube, in the streets, at the swimming baths (I kid ye not). May as well get a round in then. Just remember there's probably no stigma attached to it as people tend to behave themselves. High spirits and good cheer are fine. Fighting and puking are not.

5) Of other foreign foodstuffs commonly found, south-east Asian is worth a look (I've had decent Thai and Vietnamese) as is African (Ethiopian seems quite popular). As for Indian, if my sole experience is anything to go by, don't do it. Wait until you get home.

So what of Munich? It generally holds true to the five tips above, though there are clearly some local differences. Beer and sausages are even more popular here than in northern Germany.

The whole Bavarian oompah bands, litres of beer and lederhosen thing isn't just tourist schtick, the locals really seem to love this stuff too. On the weekend that Bayern sealed the treble the city's traditional boozers were heaving, so we kicked things off in true style with bratwurst, sauerkraut (around 7 euros) and a few litres of finest. 

As an aside, don't expect Munich to be full of currywurst, that's more of a Berlin thing, and is certainly more popular in other northern cities than down south. This very closed stall in the Olympic park was the only evidence I saw of the infamous dish.

With your sausages, you'll be needing beer, served here by the half or full litre (6-8 euros for the full, known as ein mass). A litre seems like far too much at first, but you soon get into the swing of things. These were snapped in the Hofbrauhaus, tourist central for all things Bavarian, and home to probably my least favourite of the local beers we tried. My vote goes to Augustiner, whose classic pale lager (Helles) is a thing of crisp, clean beauty.

Munich sells itself as the beer capital of the world (amongst other claimants including Prague and Huddersfield), which may be fair if we're talking in terms of volumes of the stuff drunk, but is rubbish if you're into variety and innovation. There are six breweries in the city, all of whom have been brewing the same four beers (in accordance with the purity laws, the Reinheitsgebot) for the last thousand years, and who between them control the entire drinking market in the city. 

I may have some of the detail wrong there, but you get the gist of it. The ethos is very much 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', so don't come here expecting to drink third pints of super-hopped black IPA. Order up a litre of top quality lager and go with the flow. 

Beer snacks of a non-sausage variety are also available; I'd go for a platter of meats, cheeses and a few giant dough pretzels (around 9 euros a platter, 90 cents a pretzel). If you're lucky the meat platter will include something I can only describe as black pudding haslet. The pretzels are possibly the saltiest thing you'll ever eat, but don't worry you'll have a litre of beer at hand to refresh the palate.

On Friday night we dined at the also touristy but surprisingly good Ratskeller, a huge warren of a place under the Town Hall. This being the full blown traditional German meal of the trip, it had to be Schweinshaxe, or pork knuckle, an enormous great hunk of slow roasted pig, replete with tender meat and crackling (around 18 euros). 

Meat and gravy were splendid, separately served kraut cut the fat a little, but the potato dumplings were the most pointless food stuff ever. Why you'd take some nice mash-able potatoes and work them into something more suited to a round of golf I have no idea.

Fast food time! The döner kebabs in Germany are really quite nice. Honest! Usually served on thicker Turkish bread rather than pitta, and with actual shreds of meat rather than foot long strands of processed elephant leg, you could almost eat one sober. Almost. 3 or 4 euros a pop in Munich.

A pizza and pasta place fifty yards from our hotel proved to be a lifesaver, being near enough to obtain sustenance without getting wet again if you legged it. The quality was genuinely high for the ridiculously low prices. This mushroom stuffed calzone, with a proper chew and char to the dough, cost a mere 3 euros.

Sunday afternoon, almost time for home and the excess is starting to bite. Is there a cuisine better suited to soothing sore heads than Vietnamese? Salty broths, herbs, chilli heat; it's all pure tonic. This little place down the road from the Hauptbahnhof did us proud. Pots of jasmine tea all round.

Vietnamese spring rolls and a couple of salads to start. This shrimp salad was the pick of the bunch, bright and balanced.

Noodle soups to follow. Bun bo was absolutely unbeatable hangover fodder. Savoury broth with some depth, springy noodles, herbal notes. A platter of herbs wouldn't have gone amiss, but at less than 15 euros each for tea, noodles and a bunch of shared starters this was great.

That was Munich, a successful send off for Mr Farrar who weds in July. In summary, the historic beer places are well worth a visit. Go to the Hofbrauhaus once for the experience then head elsewhere. I liked the Augustiner places best. The pubs close early, after which time it's clubs and bars (mostly quite dodgy sports bars on the face of it). The area around Hauptbahnhof (central station) is where most of the cheap hotels are, and is where you'll find good fast food and ethnic eats. I've heard that the parks, squares and beer gardens are delightful, but can't verify this as it never stopped raining. If you suffer the same fate and all else fails you can always go drink Jägermeister on the tube. Prost!

Good things to eat [volume 15]: Bakewell farmers' market

Bakewell has one of the best farmers' markets I've been to anywhere. It's big, with over seventy stalls selling pretty much anything you could wish for, so much so that you could realistically do a big shop there.

That's not something you could say about many of its competitors which although worthwhile can tend to have too narrow a focus (usually sausages, mediocre cheese and ostrich burgers galore, all of which you'll find at Bakewell too if that's what tickles your fancy). Another plus point is that the prices here don't seem as inflated as at some others.

We bought a big bag full of goodies there yesterday, proof of the variety on offer is the fact that I bought no pies, no meat and only one piece of cheese! Next time around I'll be having some Stichelton (which has its very own dedicated stall), a pie or two from one of several good looking options and perhaps something smoked from the gorgeous smelling everything-you-could-possibly imagine bunging in the smoker stall.

Here's what we bought: pink fir potatoes, a rye loaf, beers from Staffordshire Brewery and Thornbridge, flour from a working windmill, potted beef, rhubarb, radishes, Lincolnshire poacher cheese, an assortment of mushrooms and a black pudding pickled scotch egg.

If what I've eaten so far is anything to go by there's some damn fine stuff on sale at Bakewell, everything has been excellent.

Lunch yesterday was the scotch egg from a Staffordshire based company alongside a handful of radishes (peppery! Yes they taste of something) and tomatoes, with a thick slice of rye spread with potted beef.

The egg was a revelation. Make a scotch egg with a pickled egg and it's like putting the acidity you need from sauce or relish INSIDE THE EGG. Oh yes. It just works, especially with the iron-y richness of some good black pud. Well worth two of your pounds.

I knew the potted beef was good, as I'd already eaten about three free samples while we were still at the market. It's just everything it should be; well-seasoned, great texture (mix of meaty shreds and smoother bits) and actually tastes of beef. Good work Granny Mary. They're pushing it a bit charging three quid for a small jar though.

Finally, the rye bread (£1.95) was from the Loaf, a bakery based in Crich with a second outlet in Matlock. It's an open textured loaf with a proper bit of heft and chew to the crust. I've also tried their fruit teacakes, which were excellent; dense, soft and chewy in a good way, the exact opposite of the rye loaf. These guys can bake.

I was well chuffed to see the mushroom stall, I don't think I've seen such an extensive mushroom selection anywhere outside London, where the stall on Borough market is brilliant but stonkingly expensive. Here a 200g assortment was a very reasonable £2.50.

The 'shrooms showed up in last night's tea, a platter of superior stuff on toast to accompany beer and football. Mushrooms fried in olive oil with garlic and thyme; grilled asparagus and anchovy butter; and more of the potted beef with sliced radishes.

I've yet to open it, but I already know Lincolnshire poacher is a very good cheese. Think of a fine, nutty mature cheddar in flavour, maybe a little sweeter, but with a smoother texture. Excellent for toasting or to go with beer.

Next up: beer, cheese on toast and baking bread with my locally milled flour.

Bakewell farmers' market is held on the last Saturday of every month. Details here:
http://www.derbyshiredales.gov.uk/leisure-a-culture/markets/bakewell-farmers-market

The Stag's Head, Nether Edge, Sheffield

This is more an ode to spring than a review, but never mind. Is there any finer feeling than that of the onset of spring?

It felt like Spring on Saturday. There was a chill in the air, but just a hint of warmth in the sun. Enough to make you turn your face instinctively to soak up anything on offer. It was the light that really made the difference though. Full light rendering everything bright and fresh, not the fleeting, blinding light you get from a glancing winter sun.

So being outside felt right. And the pub felt right too. The Stag's Head, a recent Thornbridge takeover (was it not just The Stag until recently?) did the job admirably. Picnic tables in the sun, well kept, quality beer and traditional, ungussied pub grub.

I couldn't fault the pie, a proper full crust effort with a dark, almost marmitey steak filling. Great clods of homely mash and peas on the side, and a jug of onion gravy. Completely satisfying, and warming to the core, setting us up for one more pint outdoors.

So we drank another, then down the hill to warmer climes to drink some more. A perfect Saturday afternoon.

£6.50 for pie, mash, peas and gravy. Pint essential. Al fresco dining recommended.

8/10

15 Psalter Lane
Sheffield
S11 8YL

http://mystagshead.co.uk/home.html

Graze Inn, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield

Graze Inn is the most recent opening from the Thornbridge stable, who seem to be taking over pubs, bars and restaurants in the city with increasing frequency. To my mind this is generally a good thing, as my experiences so far suggest they run a quality operation.

It's not my favourite one of the bunch, the sleek modern styling isn't really my cup of tea and all the grey felt a bit cold and unwelcoming on a snowy January day. The menu is a bit of mish mash of current foodie trends, with a particular focus on rotisserie chicken and 'British flats', as in the same thing 'invented' by Jamie Oliver proto-chain Union Jack's a year or so ago. That thing being a pizza, basically.

Now that I've finished being snarky about the concept I should point out that this is another good quality operation. Who actually cares if I don't much like the menu or decor if the food is worth eating?

A basket of bread with oil and vinegar was an unexpected treat, not something you'd expect at a casual restaurant where main courses are under a tenner. Best of the three were the slices from a nutty granary loaf.

A half rotisserie chicken with a choice of any three sides is keenly priced at £9, the chicken not being of the very finest quality but cooked well with bronzed skin and moist flesh, even throughout the breast.

The sides were all good too, the pick of the bunch being more-ish sweet potato fries and a well dressed salad. It was nice to have a bowl of proper frites for the regular fries too, rather than the chunky irritations that are so hard to avoid these days.

Service was efficient and the bill just £26 for a whole chicken, six sides, a pint of well kept ale and a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc. To sum up, it's a bit like a new chain place opened by any of the usual corporate suspects, but with better food and better booze at prices that are more than reasonable. And that can only be a good thing.

7/10

315-319 Ecclesall Road
Sheffield
S11 8NX

http://www.grazeinn.co.uk

Vineataly, Leeds

I should start by pointing out that Vineataly, the Italian wine and food bar down at Granary Wharf, is a place that's really geared up for smaller groups, people paying a visit in twos and threes for a spot of lunch or post-work wine and nibbles, as opposed to a twenty strong party having a sit down meal in the middle of the afternoon.

That's what we did to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday, and although I wasn't sure at first if we'd chosen the right place things turned out pretty well in the end. The casual atmosphere and mix and match menu (sandwiches, snacks, pasta, salads, a few meaty grills) suited us just fine as people came and went and not everyone ordered at the same time.

Most importantly (to me at least) the food was good. I had the slow roasted porchetta which was beautifully tender, fragrant with herbs and had a fair bit of crackling. It was served simply with roast potatoes, gravy and salad. Everyone else seemed satisfied with their meals, I didn't try any of them but the bread used for the panini looked like quality stuff.

Desserts were also worth having. I tried a bit of a lovely, obviously made in-house tiramisu (that was slightly oddly served in a foil takeaway container) and had a decent affogato myself.

Strangely enough for an establishment priding themselves on serving fine wine, I really wasn't a fan of their own-branded red. It was certainly wasn't undrinkable but just seemed a bit rough for an eighteen quid bottle. I did like the white though, a smooth, fruity Trebbiano.

Having criticised the wine (though I'm sure others on the list are fantastic) I'll compliment them on giving proper consideration to beer. There are only a few beers to choose from, but they're interesting and a break from the norm. It's very refreshing to see an Italian place offering something other than Peroni.

I could happily spend some more time at Vineataly, the upstairs room is a pleasant place to be, with wine case lined walls, a view out over the regenerated canal and the steady rumble of trains overhead. Food prices are fair, the porchetta is the most expensive item on the menu at £13.50, pasta dishes are mostly under nine quid and sandwiches under five. Service was slow at first but soon got going, and we certainly kept the staff busy with multiple orders for both drinks and food.

7/10

Granary Wharf
Leeds
LS1 4BR

http://www.vineataly.com/

 

Whitelock's, Leeds

It's getting a lot of attention at the moment is Whitelock's, and rightly so. I'll spare you the blather about it being a Leeds institution, the grand history of the place and so forth, plenty of others have and will do that better than me.

On a personal note I don't have any great memories of the place having been in there just a handful of times in the fifteen years since I first darkened the door of a Leeds pub. I do like a good pub though, and I like to see a pub with a hinterland thriving, so I was keen to pay a visit as soon as I heard the guys from London's Mason and Taylor had taken over.

On the face of it nothing much has changed. It looks the same, and pleasingly has retained a very mixed clientele. There were all sorts in there at teatime a week last Saturday, and there was a happy buzz about the place.

The aim is clearly evolution, not revolution. There's a new menu and an extended beer range, but much more in a traditional pub vein rather than the full on modern beer bar approach.

We drank pints of something local and pale, I can't remember what but it was well kept and quaffable. There was also an impressive rhubarb beer (Saison?) from Ilkley Brewery.

To eat, a burger was a bit of a monster, the highlight being a thick, juicy patty cooked to medium with properly melted cheese in a good quality bun.

I wasn't such a fan of everything else on the plank though, the fat chips being undercooked in parts, the salad limp and the onion rings a little greasy. I did like the blobs of slaw or remoulade or whatever the hell it was though. I shan't bang about the fact it all arrived on a plank, other than to say it irritated me as usual.

The burger was good value at under a tenner for a very substantial meal, and I enjoyed it even if the accompaniments needed some work. Whitelock's is very much a pub of course, and drinking remains centre stage. I'd say they've got the place back on track towards being a great drinker's pub where it's worth staying for dinner too. I'll definitely be returning to see how things progress.

7/10

Turks Head Yard
Leeds
LS1 6HB

http://www.whitelocksleeds.com/

Johnny Fontane's, Leeds

FREEBIE ALERT

On Friday night I headed down to Johnny Fontane's, a new American diner soon to be opening on Great George Street. I was surprised to find they've occupied the large corner unit that was formerly Brio's. It's a very big restaurant, an ambitious place for an independent just starting out, and rather pleasing to see that the site hasn't been taken on by one of the usual chain suspects.

The restaurant has been kitted out in what I've decided to call diner moderne. There are classic diner stylings (red leatherette booths, Coca-Cola trays, the condiments), but with the plastic chairs, picture windows and sleek bar the overall look is more contemporary. Not sure what I'm waffling on about here, interior design is not my thing so I'll shut up before I look foolish. Whatever it is I like it.

Burgers are the order of the day. The freebie offer was any single burger, any side and any drink which will usually set you back a very reasonable £9.99. The invitation said I'd been invited to share a table with other food and drink bloggers which gave the impression of everyone being seated together, getting a bit of a speech from the owner and so forth as is often the case with these things. In practice it was a bit of a free-for-all, I did sit with some other bloggers but only because we turned up at the same time.

It's a semi-self service ordering system. Order food and drinks at the bar, receive a pager, when it bleeps collect your food from the service point. Perfectly fine in theory but things did go a little awry when the server forgot to give me a pager and my order ended up attached to the next one.

Teething problems with the service system aside, was the food any good? Yes it was. The bacon cheeseburger was the equal (probably better actually) of any other I've eaten in Leeds. The patty had a pronounced beefy flavour that wasn't overwhelmed by the other ingredients and was cooked medium as stated on the menu. The meat was definitely good quality, I'd have no qualms about ordering the burger medium rare or rare in future.

Those other ingredients were all as they should be in a classic burger; - just lettuce, tomato, plasticky cheese and crisp, streaky bacon. The only improvement for me would be the addition of pickles as standard, I didn't notice until afterwards that the menu does say these can be added on request. I guess they've decided that more people don't want pickles in their burger than do. No pickles! What's wrong with you people?

The bun was also high quality and held up well, not falling to bits as the burger was eaten. If I had one criticism it's that the bun was a little too substantial for the filling, but I'd easily rectify that in future by ordering a double.

The fries were delicious in a slightly filthy way, being of the sort that manage to combine crusty, crunchy bits with a touch of grease, as opposed to dry, rustlier frites. As with the burger patty, you could tell they've done their homework sourcing ingredients, as they had a great potatoey flavour, tasting of much more than the frying fat alone. I also sampled one of the onion rings, which was even more delicious than the fries, the batter crunchy, herby, salty and very more-ish.

The drinks list is also worth a mention, there are a few good American bottled beers, some British draft options (which hadn't arrived on Friday, but which will include Ilkley Brewery) and some top quality spirits (bourbon in particular) at very reasonable prices. I drank a Brooklyn Brown Ale which tasted to me like a sort of turbo Newcastle Brown, malty and a good match for the fries.

I'll happily return here and pay for food and drinks. As well as my own there were a few grumbles from others on Friday night (cold burgers, cold restaurant, burgers not consistently cooked and so on) but nothing that can't be ironed out through practice and experience. The food and drinks are all excellent quality, especially for the prices they are charging. I hope it's a big success.

For other perspectives (and better photos) from the same table check out what Neil and Ewan have to say.

Unit 1
40 Great George Street
Leeds
LS1 3DL

http://www.johnnyfontanes.co.uk/

Relish, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield

Relish is part of the mini empire run by the excellent Thornbridge Brewery. As a fan of their beer I had high hopes for the food and the experience in general. It's styled as a kitchen, bar and social which is probably about right. It's casual and lively but definitely not a pub, the emphasis being on the food with table service provided throughout.

The menu is fairly pubby though, sort of sturdy British in the modern style. There are pies and burgers, and things involving ham hock and scotching of eggs. Being greedy I opted for the Steak & Thornbridge ale pot pie, suet pastry of grain mustard/thyme/cheddar cheese, beef dripping potatoes, mushy peas and a jug of gravy (£12).

It was very good in every department save one. Sadly the suet crust pastry let the side down. If you get suet pastry right it can be a joy, and surprisingly light too (blowing of own trumpet alert - see this version). Unfortunately the Relish suet crust was thick, claggy, underdone and not much fun at all.

Back to the positives, everything else was great. Nice roasties, well-made proper gravy and excellent sloppy peas. The pie filling was packed with slow cooked tender meat and assorted vegetables bound in a very tasty gravy (perhaps seasoned with Sheffield's finest Henderson's relish?).

As an aside I can't help but complain about the lack of a plate. It seems like everywhere I go at the moment wants to serve me my dinner on a roof tile or a chopping board or a plank. I've said it before and I'll say it again: what is wrong with a plate? Why would I want to eat gravy from a chopping board? Why? Stop it. Rant over.

Across the table AS also declared her sausage, mash, Yorkshire pudding and gravy a success, the only criticism being a surfeit of gravy. AS is a Southerner though, so she obviously doesn't understand that there's no such thing as too much gravy, especially where sausages and mash are concerned. That's also the small portion (yes, small) costing just £6.

Good stuff overall, friendly service and reasonably priced at around £23 including drinks (Thornbridge Jaipur IPA - delicious). If they'd given me good pastry and put my dinner on a plate I'd have upped the rating a notch.

7/10


371-373 Ecclesall Road
Sheffield
S11 8PF

www.relishrelish.co.uk

Northern Food on tour: Brno, Czech Republic

Following on from last year's visit to Zadar, my mate Sav's penchant for weekends in random Eastern European budget flight destinations continues. This year the text arrived: Fancy going to Brno in March? Where's that then? Czech Republic. Yeah why not, I like Prague.

And so to Brno. In case you're wondering, it's the historic capital city of Moravia, the Eastern half of the Czech Republic (Prague is in Bohemia to the West). It's hardly on the mainstream tourist trail, but easily could be, as it's really rather lovely. There's plenty of solid central European architecture, a fine castle surrounded by parkland atop a hill, a soaring cathedral and lots of squares to hang about in.

The weather was unseasonably warm and the whole place had a stately, relaxed atmosphere. Busy but with people rather than traffic (probably thanks in part to the 13 tram lines in a city of 400,000 people. Imagine that citizens of Leeds!), it was a pleasure to stroll the streets. It's not exactly nightlife central, but there are loads of good pubs and bars and the locals were friendly and welcoming. Beware the lack of a smoking ban though, stinky clothes are inevitable.

That's my customary travelogue done and dusted, so what of the food? Well that was a pleasant surprise too. Sturdy and rib-sticking as expected, but far higher in quality than I experienced in Prague a few years back. To be fair to Prague, I think we were poorly advised and ended up dining on the most meagre budget possible.

Even more surprising was that both of the pubs we ate in were chains, part of the Pilsner Urquell and Staropramen empires, both themselves part of brewing multinationals. Despite this the food was pretty good, and would easily have put the depressing crap served in most UK chain pubs to shame. I've reviewed each of them in turn below.

The beer was as I expected, good but unremarkable. Good quality lager, cheap and served well is the norm. We paid from 80p up to around £1.40 for a pint.

I did try a couple of more unusual brews, a dark beer in Pivnice pegas and an unfiltered Staropramen in another pub. Both were enjoyable but nothing to shout about.

We had some cheap street food and late night eats too, and even they weren't half bad. A 4am kebab was made from slices of proper pork, far superior to the low grade elephant's leg we're accustomed to in Britain (or at least I think it was, it was 4am so my 'quality radar' may have been off kilter). Anyhow, even if it was crap I did have a pint of lager with it. In a kebab shop, at 4am, in a glass. I love you Czech Republic.

Last but certainly not least there was Smažený sýr, a Czech dish I certainly do know the name of. It means fried cheese, which is what it is. Get a thick slice of cheese, crumb it, deep fry it, eat it in a sandwich. Filthy but delicious.

Would I recommend a visit to Brno? Yes, definitely. Flights from Luton or Stansted. Or if money and time are no object why not take the train via Brussels, Cologne and Prague? Much more fun.

Here are those reviews.

Stopkova plzeňská pivnice

Friday night and we were ravenous. This pivnice (beerhouse) looked like a good option. Very busy, huge, wood floors, good looking plates of food arriving at tables. We'd not eaten since a late lunchtime sandwich at the airport and it was well after nine by the time we arrived here. That in combination with an assumption that 'snacks' meant something not very big caused us to order an obscene quantity of food.

First up were a bowl of soup and two plates of those 'snacks', described as Czech tapas to accompany beer. I can't remember the Czech names for most of this stuff, so I'll stick to descriptions. This was a pan full of pork scratchings, croutons, spring onions and chilli served with half a loaf of bread and a tub of lard. Yes, an actual tub of lard. As I said, sturdy stuff but really quite delicious. The onions and chilli helped to cut through the fat and made the whole thing strangely reminiscent of salt and pepper ribs from the Chinese takeaway. In a good way.

I can verify that lard, chilli and pork scratching sandwiches are indeed a very good accompaniment to cold beer. In the background here you can see the soup; a bowl of chicken broth, also very good and bulked up with both pasta and potatoes.

As I was busying myself with lard butties and Sav was ploughing through what was in essence a massive bowl of chicken stew, the second 'snack' arrived. Three large potato rostis enriched with little nuggets of pork neck, garlicky mayo to dip them in, and some salad for good measure. They were a touch greasy but were good and crunchy and packed with flavour.

Onto the mains. Yes mains. Oops. We'd both chosen the Pilsen goulash. A generous portion of beautifully tender beef (possibly shin?) in a dark glossy, fairly spicy sauce. This was served with knedlicky, the ubiquitous Czech dumplings and some pointless lentil cake type things that were the only bad thing we ate all evening. I can't say I love knedlicky, but they do their job well. That is, to provide stodge and soak up rich, fatty sauces. Chinese food came to mind for the second time that evening, as the dumpling texture is not dissimilar (if a bit heavier) to baozi, the Northern Chinese steamed dough buns.

So yes, we could barely move after that lot, but we enjoyed it. Three pints in there was no more room for beer so we finished things off with large shots of slivovice, evil but strangely delicious damson brandy. Including a tip we paid around £28 for the lot: soup, starters, mains, three (or it might have been four) pints apiece and a round of shots. Fantastic value, good food, decent service and a lively (and not too smoky by Czech standards) atmosphere.

7/10

stopkovaplzenskapivnice.cz

Potrefená Husa

Saturday night brought us here, much more modern and glossy in style, this seemed to be where the beautiful people of Brno came to hang out. The food and drink were pretty much along the same lines though, we went down the beer snacks route again only this time waiting to see how enormous the snacks were before ordering anything else.

A jar of cheese marinated in herbs (mostly thyme) and oil. What's not to like? This was delicious scooped on to bread from a basket containing several varieties including some good rye. There were four different cheeses in the jar, including a particularly nice creamy blue.

To accompany our cheese, a spicy sausage with beans and fried onions. Another success this, the sausage was like a peppery chipolata and with the beans made another great beer snack.

We were still a bit peckish after that, but not quite to 'colossal beef stew with a kilo of boiled dough levels' so ordered the conveniently positioned beef goulash soup instead. Less beef, no dumplings, same taste. Sadly it was terribly oversalted rendering no other flavours discernable and resulting in us necking beer at a rapid rate. Disappointing as the snacks had been excellent.

Service here was friendly if a little slow, and the ventilation was also fairly good so it wasn't too smoky. The bill was around £20 for all the food, three pints each and another bracing round of slivovices.

6/10

http://www.staropramen.cz/husa/brno-zelny-trh/denni-menu

Good things to eat and drink [Volume 8]: a beer special

I'm finally taking the plunge and writing about beer. In over a year of blogging I've yet to write a post dedicated entirely to my favourite drink. Nothing else I consume so enthusiastically has been overlooked in this way (see posts passim about sandwiches, curry, pies, fish and chips, fry-ups and Sichuan food).

The truth is, I've been scared off by the beer bloggers. Until this time last year I was unaware of their existence, but slowly this merry band of enthusiasts began to seep into my consciousness. There are a lot of beer bloggers, many of whom are extremely knowledgeable, write very well, describe taste and aroma beautifully, and are utterly obsessed (some might say too obsessed) with beer.

Many of them are also based here on my home turf, in West Yorkshire. You'll find some of my favourites popping up on the sidebar on this blog, under the heading 'Some food and drink blogs'. Please do have a read, there's loads of entertaining and informative material out there.

This breadth of beery knowledge and dedication to the cause is something I'm never likely to match, so I thought I'd leave writing about beer to the experts. Or at least I did, until now. I've changed my mind, simply because I like beer too much not to write something about it. If my knowledge is lacking then so what, there are many others whose food expertise is far greater than mine too, and that's never stopped me.

I thought I'd compile a list of my favourite British breweries and my favourite beers from each one. Some of these I'm only recently acquainted with and some have been serving me well for years. The list is written more or less in chronological order from old favourite to recent discovery, so it's essentially a brief history of my beer drinking habits.

Hopefully there might be some you've never tried before.

Timothy Taylor

One word: Landlord. Timothy Taylor Landlord is a true classic as far as I'm concerned. Well kept pints of Landlord have kept me refreshed for over a dozen years now, and I still love it. It's a very smooth, quite sweet, moderately hoppy pale-ish ale. Best served in a Dales pub at the conclusion of a hike, or on a pub crawl round Keighley. Or maybe Skipton if you're feeling slightly less adventurous.

I've always found the rest of the Timothy Taylor range to be reliably good too. Nothing spectacular, just solid tasty ales for regular drinking. I'm particularly partial to a pint of Golden Best.

Where to find them: Widely available, they have dozens of their own pubs mostly in West and North Yorkshire. The Town Hall Tavern is a good choice in Leeds. Landlord in particular is found in many other pubs too.

Badger Ales

I've got Morrison's to thank for this one. It's probably ten or twelve years since they began stocking decent quality beer, constantly on offer at what was then any four bottles for a fiver. Many's the camping trip I've had that's been lubricated by Golden Champion and Golden Glory, my favourites from the Badger offering. Both are pale, fruity (one peachy, one quite strongly flavoured with elderflower), quite sweet beers. I can't drink either without immediately thinking of the British summer.

Where to find them: Morrison's. Loads of pubs, all of which are down South. There's one below Charing Cross station in London.

Meantime Brewing Company

I lived in South-east London for three years, and Meantime were a godsend. My drinking locale was Greenwich, an area with many splendid historic pubs, not many of which served particularly splendid beer. The Greenwich Union was a notable exception, the Meantime brewery tap serving their full range, of which my particular favourites are the Helles beer and the London stout.

The Helles beer is a lovely crisp, dry German style lager; another perfect Summer afternoon drink. The stout is the polar opposite; dark, malty and complex. A beer to drink on a Winter's night. Happily I don't need to go to London for a fix, because the stout and their also very good IPA are available in Sainsbury's.

Where to find them: Sainsbury's. The Greenwich Union in Greenwich. Beer Ritz in Headingley might have some.

Fuller's

As with Timothy Taylor, Fullers are on my list because of one specific beer. That beer is London Pride. In London pubs, where no other good draft beer is available, you can almost guarantee there'll be a pint of Pride on offer. It's ubiquity is justified, because it's a lovely beer. Very balanced, noticeably malty and roasted tasting, but with hoppy bitterness too. It rarely lets you down, and if you drink in London, often comes to the rescue.

Fullers make a lot of other beers that are apparently very good, but I'm not familiar enough with any of them to comment. If you see them, try them.

Where to find them: Loads of pubs, mostly down South. Widely available in supermarkets.

Marble Brewery

The best beery discovery of my year in Manchester. The Marble Arch pub, about which I've already written, is a thing of wonder. The beer doesn't let the side down. They're all good in bottles, but the best place to drink them, without a shadow of a doubt, is in the Marble Arch itself.

My favourites are Dobber, an IPA, and Marble Ginger. The Ginger is absolutely delicious served on cask, the aeration brought about by the dispense seeming to give the beer a fullness of flavour that's somehow missing in the bottle. So rich, warming and err, gingery.

Where to find them: Three pubs in Manchester, the original, the Marble Arch, is the best. Guest appearances in other pubs. I'm sure I've seen some in Latitude Wine in Leeds.

The Kernel Brewery

Finally, the more recent discoveries, breweries about which I'd maybe never have known were it not for the beer bloggers. Thanks beer bloggers! The Kernel Brewery make bottle conditioned beers in very small batches, with a focus on individual hop varieties.

I'm not going to name specific favourites, mainly because I can't remember which ones I've tried. What I can remember is that every one I've tried has been lovely. They seem to be very skilled at this bottle conditioning business, producing beers that are beautifully gassy. I don't mean gassy like cooking lager (Carling or whatever), I mean gassy in that they don't go flat, that like a good sparkling wine they release a steady stream of fine, delect bubbles. That makes for a lovely mouth feel, which in combination with lots of fresh, hoppy flavours, makes for a fantastic drinking experience.

Where to find them: Plenty of places in London, especially around Borough Market. Beer Ritz in Leeds.

Ilkley Brewery

One of the best in the expanding firmament of West Yorkshire breweries. Every Ilkley brewery beer that I've tried I've enjoyed very much. I'd like to give a special mention to Ilkley Best, a classic Yorkshire bitter of some distinction.

I often overlook what you might term mid-range beers. Brown booze, bitter, 4% session beer, whatever you want to call it. In the rush to sample the latest exciting new India pale ale, stout or porter, the pleasure in a moderately alcoholic pint of bitter can sometimes be forgotten. I shouldn't do this, as I've already mentioned I'm a big fan of Landlord. Well I bought a bottle of Ilkley Best the other day, and absolutely loved it. I'm not going to elaborate further, just go buy some.

Where to find them: Now available in Morrison's. Beer Ritz in Leeds. Lots of pubs in the lower Wharfedale area.

Magic Rock Brewery

Huddersfield's Magic Rock, the newest Brewery on this list, only started production in 2011. They've not messed around, producing a whole sequence of stunning beers in short order. As a general rule they brew American influenced, very hoppy, often quite strong beers.

The ones I've enjoyed the most are High Wire, a US style pale ale, nicely bitter and packed with tropical fruit flavours, and Magic 8 Ball, some kind of bonkers black IPA type thing that I'm not even going to try and describe suffice to say it was a delight to drink.

Where to find them: Various pubs around West Yorkshire, Port Street Beer House in Manchester. Beer Ritz in Leeds. Mr Foley's in Leeds.

Mr Foley's Cask Ale House, Leeds (revisited)

FREEBIE ALERT

I wasn't going to blog about this, but then I thought that seemed a little unfair. I wrote about the handful of other free meals (declared as free of course) I was offered last year, so why not this one?

Tyler, the Chef at Mr Foley's, kindly invited me down to sample his fish and chips. He's been trying out different batter recipes and wanted an enthusiast to offer an opinion. So here it is.

Very good indeed. Crisp light batter, well browned on the exterior but encasing a nicely cooked piece of fish. Not the finest piece of haddock ever but the pub is restricted to certain suppliers by group management, so they can't just go down the market and choose what they like.

The chips, which are triple cooked, are fantastic. A good crunch giving way to lovely fluffy, creamy innards. They're extremely more-ish which is good as portions are generous. A lot of effort goes into triple cooked chips (slice, parboil, drain, cool, fry, drain, cool, fry again, all over the space of some hours) and I'd be surprised if you'll find them anywhere else in Leeds at this price point (this meal costs £7.50).

Also on the plate were garden peas and home-made tartare sauce. The sauce was spot on, delivering a good hit of acidity which is what you need to cut through the fattiness of the batter and chips. I often find home-made tartare sauces to be too creamy with not enough of the vinegary stuff, not so with this.

All in all this is really good pub food, priced reasonably, with all the key components made with care on the premises. You don't get that very often.

Good things to eat (volume 8): A Christmas Special

This is going to be mostly about cheese. I've written very little about cheese, not through a lack of love for the stuff, but rather because I don't actually eat it that often. The occasional block of mature cheddar for toasting purposes, the odd hunk of stilton with a glass of red, parmesan for pasta and that's about it.

For reasons I'm not quite sure about cheese has turned into a special occasion food for me, a celebratory treat rather than an everyday fridge staple. Christmas is inevitably the big one. Time to hit the cheese.

Continuing a recent theme of untraditional Christmases this year, for the second in succession (last year was curry) I avoided a roast dinner entirely, instead feasting on a sort of über-buffet at my Sister's house. My brother-in-law and I compiled a list of pretty much everything we like to eat and drink the most, and that were suitable for grazing and snacking, and made or bought the lot.

We ate jamon iberico, gordal olives and sherry. There was paté, and wonderful sourdough bread, and cured salmon.

We ate fat wedges of pork pie (my first ever pork pie - a success!) with cornichons. Fresh, sweet scallops were enjoyed au gratin and sautéed in herb butter, as were garlicky prawns. We ate buffalo wings and drank beer, rich, dark porter and also fragrant, fruity pale ale.

And we ate cheese. Lots of lovely cheese. It's the cheese that I want to talk about, because I haven't said much about cheese, and these are some of the finest cheeses I know, and I really would recommend that you seek any of them out if you want to assemble the ultimate cheeseboard. Cheese heaven. Really.

Montgomery's Cheddar

Photo credit: Forman and Field

The King of Cheddar as far as I'm concerned. It has a hard, craggy almost crystalline texture that breaks down into creaminess in the mouth. The flavour is almost parmesan-like in it's umami depth, intensely savoury but also with bursts of fruitiness. This is perfect on its own but when blended with Comté it makes the best Cheese on toast I think I've ever tasted. I had it for lunch two days running and now there is none left.

Comté

One of the wonders of cheese is its infinite variety. Comté is a hard cheese made with unpasteurised cow's milk, just like Montgomery's Cheddar. They also share some flavour characteristics, fruitiness and depth. But in other ways they're completely different. Comté has a smooth dense texture, and tastes rich and buttery with a lingering sweetness. Wonderful alone, or as I said before, blended to make the cheese-on-toast-of-the-gods. I'm salivating obscenely just thinking about it. There is also none of this left. Boo hoo.

Tunworth

Photo credit: Tasty Treats

A sweaty-French English cheese, Tunworth is reminiscent of a good Brie or Camembert. Ours was quite a ripe specimen, and oozed a rather cabbagey stench that was slightly too much for my nose. I can't always handle the riper of French cheeses. On tasting any reservations were waylaid. It's wonderful. The stronger, funkier notes rapidly give way to a long lasting sweet, nutty, slightly tangy taste as the soft paste dissolves in your mouth. I like this one with oatcakes.

Cardo

Photo Credit: Cartmel Cheeses

This was the curveball. The only cheese I'd never eaten before. It's a washed rind goats cheese. Deceptively subtle as the strong flavour of the rind gives way to quite a mild, herbal goaty interior. Really delicious and one I'd definitely try again. I think this would be best eaten entirely on its own to appreciate it fully.

Stichelton

Last but certainly not least, Stichelton. This is quite possibly my favourite cheese of all time. It's essentially a Stilton, but Stilton has protected designation of origin status, and must be made with pasteurised milk. Stichelton is the unpasteurised gatecrasher at the party. A welcome gatecrasher though, replete with fine wine and witty repartee, not a four pack of Carling and a tendency to vomit.

I still have some of this left, so I'm going to eat some now and write down the sensation immediately. I'll apologise now, it will probably be gibberish. Here goes: Smooth, sharp and salty. Saltiness rising into intensely savoury filling the whole mouth, metallic but with milkiness in the background. Slightly acidic. Fading into creamy, sweet, mellow as it dissolves and disappears.

Er yes, told you it might be gibberish. Detailed description of taste is not my strong point, but you get the idea. It's complex and delicious and beautiful. Personally I think you should bin the crackers and chutney and just eat this on its own, maybe with a glass of red wine. But not port which I find too sweet, the sugar killing the flavour of the cheese. In short, it's amazing. Get some.