Bacon Sandwich Quest: May

I don't know why I'm still bothering with this. I only ate one bacon sandwich in May, from a caff in Nottingham. Here's a photo of it:

Exciting huh? Don't let the uninspired appearance fool you though, it was a fairly good bacon sandwich. The increasingly uncommon use of sliced bread was welcome, and it was good bread too. Not the cheapest of plasticky loaves, but nothing too artisan either. Just right. Soft and accommodating.

The bacon was rough hewn and generously supplied. Maybe a little underdone, the fat could have done with a minute or so longer to crisp, but the flavour was mighty fine. Porcine.

It wasn't oversauced and service was swift. A good all rounder, it's done just enough to creep into the medal positions, like a competent heptathlete at the end of day one. Has it done enough to hold off stronger competitors as the tournament reaches its denouement? I doubt it. My money is on the Ennis of bacon sarnies storming through with a fine performance in the javelin (bread) and a personal best in the 800 metres (service). Or something. Only time will tell.

Leader board:

Sorry it's barely legible, I'm struggling with a better way to display it in Blogger. Suggestions anyone?

June will be more fun. We're only a week in and I've already eaten two bacon sandwiches!

Brown's, Leeds

FREEBIE ALERT

I'm not about to enter the debate about whether dining at chain restaurants is a good thing, or a bad thing, or morally despicable, or not-what-a-self-declared-food-obsessive should do, or whatever. I might enter that debate, but not right now, suffice to say the following:

Do I eat at chain restaurants? Yes, from time to time. Some are better than others. I enjoyed a meal at Brown's a few years ago so was happy to accept this freebie.

Don't I prefer worthier, independent restaurants? Yes, on the whole. On average they're better and worth supporting over some corporate behemoth. But there's no hard and fast rule. Some independently run restaurants are crap. Some chains have committed staff who care, and sometimes serve decent food. Move along.

Brown's, in the Light, is a big place. Both restaurant and bar, it was bustling on a Friday night. Noisy, but not so loud you couldn't hold a conversation in the dining area. The two of us sat in a comfy corner booth with a good view of the entire room.

The menu is fairly extensive, covering grills, fish, pasta dishes and various other bits and pieces. There's also a specials board which included plenty of seasonal produce, welcome in a chain restaurant as they don't often bother with that sort of thing.

The starters were both very good. I opted for the seasonal choice and had grilled asparagus with prosciutto, a poached egg and hollandaise. The asparagus was tender and not at all woody and the egg was accurately poached with a properly runny yolk.

Across the table the mushroom feuilleté proved popular. That would be a puff pastry mushroom pie in case you were wondering. The mushrooms had loads of savoury flavour which was offset nicely by some caramelised pickled onions that were dotted around the plate.

Next up I chose pasta from the specials board, tagliatelle with smoked haddock, peas and broad beans in a cream sauce. The portion was enormous so I couldn't finish it, but what I had I enjoyed. The pasta was cooked just right, the peas and beans both tasted fresh and bright and the haddock was undyed and not too salty.

A main of belly pork was also declared a success, the meat succulent as it should be. The crackling was poor though, as it was completely rock solid. I liked the accompanying sweet potato dauphinoise too.

We shared a tarte tatin for pudding, which came with good quality vanilla ice cream. The main problem with it was that it wasn't a tarte tatin. You can't cut corners with a tarte tatin by assembling a disc of pastry and some cooked apples then pouring caramel sauce over them. That's not a tarte tatin.

We drank a bottle of Sancerre, a bone dry, minerally, very quaffable white. That was one of the more expensive bottles on the list but there are plenty available for under twenty quid. Service throughout was excellent, efficient and friendly.

Would I return and spend my own money at Brown's? Yes, two of three courses were pretty good, and the service and atmosphere pleasant. With so many good independents on my 'to do' list I doubt I ever will though. Prices are maybe a little steep, with starters around £5-8 and mains £10-18.


Browns Bar & Brasserie Leeds
The Light
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 8EQ

http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/locations/leeds/

East One, Sheffield

East One is a noodle bar, very much in the Wagamama style. One bowl dishes, seating at long wooden benches and so on. The menu leans more towards Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai rather than Japanese, but the styling is similar. I like these places, and am always hopeful that independent ones will come up trumps with better food than the chains.

Sadly East One wasn't that great. Vegetarian spring rolls were crisp and greaseless, but otherwise boring. Probably straight from the freezer catering pack, but certainly no better than that if they were made in house.

My Thai fried rice (chicken, onion, tomato, stir-fried with chilli paste, basil and fish sauce) was underseasoned in every way. Not enough chilli, basil or fish sauce. I asked for fish sauce and chillies so I could pep it up a bit, only for the waiter to explain that fish sauce wasn't used as a condiment as it was too salty. News to me. He brought me a tiny dish of chillies in vinegar instead.

AS had roast pork and duck on rice with greens. I tried the duck;- good flavour but a bit chewy. The sauce was too gloopy.

The chap, who to be fair was friendly, came back for another chat when we'd finished, and decided to explain the situation vis a vis appropriate use of fish sauce in more detail. I wouldn't have minded had I not known he was talking bollocks. Thais eat fish sauce laced with sliced chillies all the time. It's a condiment called nam pla prik (annoyingly I couldn't remember the name at the time).

Anyhow the food was ok, and was served quickly. Service was friendly but irritating. We paid around £23 in total, reasonable but not particularly cheap for this sort of thing.

5/10


13 The Plaza
West One
8 Fitzwilliam Street
Sheffield
S1 4JB

www.east1noodlebar.co.uk

Good things to eat [Volume 9]

It's been far too long since I've written about some of the great things I've eaten. For the most part this year, if it wasn't a restaurant, cafe or takeaway meal it hasn't had a look in. I'm going to try and redress the balance by writing more of these posts, and hopefully in the process big up some of the fantastic food producers and suppliers we have in the North.

Sheffield ice cream

Let's start off with some ice-cream. It's been very summery of late so the cold creamy stuff has been warranted. I've discovered that Sheffield is home to two very good ice cream makers, both of whom use local dairy products.

In the case of Our Cow Molly, dairy products from their own herd of cows. I'm not normally a fan of mint choc chip ice cream; - bright green, too sweet, artificial mint flavouring, cheap chocolate. Not good. Theirs was none of those things. It was mild and creamy with a delicate natural mint flavour and just a scattering of tiny dark chocolate chips. Lovely, and very refreshing.

Yee Kwan's ice creams are a little more exotic, with an emphasis on Asian flavours. The pistachio was excellent. Very smooth with an intense pistachio flavour. I could eat a lot of this stuff, and that's not the norm for me where ice cream is concerned. I'm keen to try the ginger and green tea flavours.

http://www.ourcowmolly.co.uk/

www.yeekwan.com


Uncle Riaz' corner shop samosas

I love samosas. I especially love dirt cheap home made back street Asian grocery store samosas. I'm sure there are plenty of places all over West Yorkshire where you can buy such delights, but the number one for me can be found on Brudenell Road, in the Hyde Park area of Leeds.

It's not and never was called Uncle Riaz' corner shop, it was run by a Mr Riaz but the shop appeared to be nameless. I lived about three doors down from it as a student, and Uncle Riaz was an affectionate term for the proprietor who kept us supplied with chipping potatoes, fizzy pop, budget loo roll and spicy deep-fried snacks morning, noon and night.

Nowadays it's been tarted up and goes by the name of Makkah Foods or somethingorother, but I know the same people are in charge because the samosas are still there. It's over a decade since I ate them several times a week, but if I'm in the vicinity I'll still pop in for a few.

The crust is substantial but crisp, light and yielding. I've no idea how it's made (gram flour?) but it's good. It cracks open to reveal a moderately spiced potato and pea filling. Not overly fiery with chilli, but gently warming with cumin and hints of fennel.

They cost 40p each now, or three for a pound. Outstanding value, and delicious. All those takeaways and restaurants who consider it acceptable to sell a filo pastry triangle filled with frozen mixed veg and call it a samosa should be ashamed. And should be forced to visit Uncle Riaz' and buy his samosas until they repent their sins.

Available on Brudenell Road, just by the Mosque.


Cheese - tome des bauges

It's been an age since I've talked about cheese. I had a cracking cheese board a few weeks ago (thanks Booth's). There were some fine British cheeses (Stichelton, Ticklemore, Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire) and a good Brie de Meaux, all of which I'd eaten before plus one new cheese, a rather splendid French effort by the name of tome des bauges.

It's an unpasteurised cow's cheese, and that depth of flavour you only seem to get from cheese made from unpasteurised milk is there in spades. It's rich, buttery, slightly salty with a sort of lingering vegetal taste, almost mushroomy. Lovely.

http://www.tome-des-bauges.com/

Available at: http://www.booths.co.uk/


Yorkshire curd tarts 

The pictured tart was ok, but I've had better. It was a little bit dry. This is more a plea for help than anything. I adore Yorkshire curd tarts but don't know where to find a really great one. I think it's probably quite tricky to get the balance right. The curds should remain moist with hints of cheesiness, but without transferring any sogginess to the pastry that should be short, sweet and crumbly. Suggestions please?

Bolehill Fish and Chips, Crookes, Sheffield

I've been impressed with my first forays into the Sheffield food scene, but until last week I'd failed to tackle the all important question. What about the fish and chips?

This wasn't a bad introduction, but it was a little strange. I didn't have peas, but AS did, and they appeared to be full of food colouring. They tasted fine, but were a very peculiar shade of green, dark yet lurid. Almost blue tinged. I forgot to take a photo so you'll have to take my word for it, they really did look odd.

Is this normal behaviour in the Steel city? Is the dying of peas commonplace? Whether this was an isolated incident or not, it needs to stop. Don't dye the peas. Please don't. It's unnerving and unnecessary.

As I said, I didn't even have the peas, despite this their unusual appearance is the abiding memory of the meal. I had curry sauce, which I can't remember a thing about. It wasn't luminous orange of that I'm sure.

The fish was a decent enough specimen. Fresh, chunky and not overcooked. The batter was a little stodgy in parts though with rather too much residual grease. The chips were pleasant and plentiful (too plentiful really).

Good chips, fairly good fish, average batter, avoid the peas. I'll probably try elsewhere next time. No idea how much it cost because they were fetched for me.

6/10

249 Crookes
Sheffield
S10 1TF

Bagel Nash, White Rose Centre, Leeds

Until the other week I hadn't been to Bagel Nash in years. I had it in mind that it was crap. I can't recall why, but presumably I ate something rubbish from there. Either that or my confused brain mixed it up with somewhere else.

Whatever the reason for my assumptions, they were wrong. Sorry Bagel Nash, I was mistaken, you're not crap.

I had a salt beef bagel from the White Rose Centre branch and really enjoyed it. It wasn't legendary-American-diner-sandwich good, but it was certainly £2.95-in-a-shopping-centre-in-Leeds good. (For moaning about poor attempts at salt beef or pastrami sandwiches see here.)

The bagel was a pleasing combination of both light and chewy. The beef wasn't amazing, but there was plenty and it had a good beefy flavour. The mustard was hot but not overly so and there were loads of pickles. Delicious, crunchy, sour pickles.

A good lunch. I won't leave it so long before paying a return visit.

7/10

7 branches in Leeds, 2 in Manchester, 1 in Huddersfield and 1 in York.

www.bagelnash.com

Banana Leaf, Glasgow

Glasgow's West End is a great place to eat Indian food. There are several restaurants and cafes all within walking distance of one another (and also all owned by the same people) that have served me some really fantastic food over the last few years. This meal at the Wee Curry Shop was wonderful, and prior to starting the blog I dined well at two of the Mother India places.

Banana Leaf, a budget South Indian cafe and takeaway in the same part of town (but not under the same ownership), has had loads of great press so I was hoping it would live up to the high expectations.

First thing to note: go elsewhere if you want a nice restaurant. This is very much a caff and takeaway, and a bit on the grotty side at that. Don't let that put you off though, budget South Indian places always seem to be a bit scruffy and none of them have poisoned me yet (and they did have hygiene certificates on the wall).

The food is cheap, and the menu predictable for anyone familiar with cheap and cheerful South Indian food. There are dosai, vadai, idly's, sambar, loads of curries and dry-fried dishes.

Being greedy and having not had one in ages I ordered a plain dosa (£4) as well as a non-veg set meal (£7.50).

I couldn't fault the dosa, it was thin and light without being so thin it crumbled to nothing. Just the right texture for scooping up the chutney's and sambar which were all good. Fresh, bright tomato and coconut chutney's and a deeply savoury sambar tempered with loads of mustard seeds and curry leaves.

The set meal included (clockwise from top right) more sambar, raita, mixed veg curry, chicken curry, chapattis and rice. I could have eaten the chicken gravy, sambar and rice all day, lovely stuff. The chicken curry gravy matched the sambar for savoury deliciousness, having a stock base built up from bone-in chicken. The rice was fluffy loveliness.

The veg curry was a little too sweet and watery and the chapattis were rubbish (thick, doughy). Forget the breads here and stick to rice or pancakes.

I enjoyed this, the only thing missing was a bit of a chilli hit. Everything was very mild for South Indian food. I'm sure the Glaswegians can handle a bit of spice so I'm not sure why it was all so toned down. Having said that if I had somewhere like this anywhere near my house I'd be in there once a week.

Pretty good for £13 including a soft drink and tip. It's also handily positioned just round the corner for pre- or post-curry beers at Brewdog Glasgow. Worth a visit.

7/10

76 Old Dumbarton Road
Glasgow
G3 8RE

http://home.btconnect.com/glasgowproperty/bananaleaf/banana.html