The Greedy Pig, Leeds

On Saturday The Greedy Pig served me up a contender for fry-up of the year, so in the manner afforded transpennine rival The Koffee Pot, here's the lowdown:

1. Bacon
Thick cut, piggy, crisped fat. Highly unlikely to have exuded nasty white foam on the application of heat.

2. Sausage
Good quality. Well seasoned. No daft, inappropriate at breakfast time flavourings.

3. Black Pudding
Aaargh no black pudding. Strangely I've been craving black pudding for weeks. It doesn't come as standard on the Greedy Pig breakfast, but I think you can add it for an extra 40p. But I forgot. At the crucial moment the desire for blood-based goodness eluded me. Damn fool.

4. Egg
Fried accurately. No mistakes. No egg snot.

5. Beans
Certain purists will tell you that beans should not be included in a traditional full English breakfast. The proprietors of The Greedy Pig may even be among such people as their breakfast doesn't include beans as standard. Fortunately they can be added for thirty pence. No slip-ups a la black pudding here, beans duly added.

6. Hash Brown
As ever, welcome when fried properly, and this was.

7. Tomato
Prime tomato season has long gone, but they managed to serve a grilled tomato with some sort of taste, so full marks here.

8. Toast
Just the one slice. White sliced. Just the job.

9. Tea
Served in a mug, with the bag left in allowing the punter to choose the strength of their own brew. Good. And from Teapigs too! I've been to places that charge well over half the cost of this entire breakfast for a cup of Teapigs tea. Outstanding value.

10. Condiments
HP sauce readily available in industrial quantities. Speaking of HP sauce, what's all this fuss about them changing the recipe and making it horrid? I haven't noticed. Maybe I haven't had the new stuff yet, or maybe I just don't have the subtle and refined palate I've persuaded myself I'm in possession of.

11. A bonus category! There were mushrooms too. Grilled mushrooms that definitely tasted of mushroom. 

It's not the largest of breakfasts, but it costs just £3.50 including the tea. For such good quality ingredients, assembled with such obvious care and attention, that is an absolute bargain. If you're especially hungry extra meaty things are 40p each, extra veggie things 30p. Adding beans, black pudding, an extra rasher of bacon and an extra slice of toast would still bring this in under a fiver.

The people running the place are friendly, and the sandwiches looked good too. Highly recommended.

9/10

58 North Street
Leeds
LS2 7PN

http://www.the-greedy-pig.co.uk/

A year in Manchester

After an all too brief year I have just left Manchester and moved back to Leeds (well, Wakefield actually but most of my eating and drinking will be done in Leeds). I enjoyed my time in Manchester so thought I'd sum up my favourite things with a list. I like lists and this is the first opportunity I've had to write one on my fledgling blog.

I could have veered completely off topic here, and created a Manchester Top Ten of all the things I love about the place. But this is a food and drink blog, so you don't want to hear me banging on about industrial architecture or trams or cycle paths or whatever. Instead I've included some nice photos of sunny Manchester. Here are five food and drink things I love about Manchester:

1.  Pubs
There are absolutely loads of fantastic pubs in central Manchester (and Salford). The key things I look for in a pub are a good selection of beer and a convivial atmosphere. Add interesting buildings/interiors and good food into the mix and you're really on to a winner. In vaguely pub crawl related order here is my lucky 13: The Marble Arch; The Angel; Bar Fringe; Crown and Kettle; The Castle Hotel; Port Street Beer House; The Britons Protection; Peveril of the Peak; Knott Bar; The Lass O'Gowrie; The New Oxford; The Kings Arms; The Mark Addy.

2. Chinese restaurants
In my opinion Manchester has the best and most varied selection of Chinese restaurants in the UK outside London. I have barely started working my way through all of them, but I have eaten very well at the following: Red Chilli, Middle Kingdom (both Szechuan); Hunan (Hunanese); BBQ Handmade Noodles King (hand made noodles!).

 
3. Curry cafés
The curry cafés of Manchester appear to be a unique phenomenon. I've certainly never come across anything similar in this country (although strangely I do recall them having the same sort of thing in Australia, but with really rubbish curry). The premise is simple. The curries are pre-cooked and kept warm at the counter. You get to pick any three curries on rice for a fixed price, which is always under a fiver. The quality can be a bit hit and miss, the decor is invariably scruffy, but you are guaranteed to get a decent feed for a low price. Sometimes they really surprise you with a corker of a dish too, one of them does a lovely keema with whole hard boiled eggs in it. Great stuff.

There are loads of the places scattered around the Northern Quarter and various other parts of the city. I'm not going to bother listing them all here. Instead I shall refer you to the comprehensive and excellent Flavours of Manchester blog.

4. Traditional caffs
Manchester seems to be well stocked with places to get a good fry-up or some other home cooked and ridiculously cheap meal. Perhaps the same applies to most towns and cities in the UK, but I just seem to have noticed it more over the last year or so. In the city centre I like The Koffee Pot and Abergeldie Cafe.  In the suburbs my favourite spot is in the grotty precinct in Prestwich. Can't remember the name of it (not sure it has one), but they do a competent and comforting corned beef hash followed by crumble & custard for about £3.50.

 
5. Markets
This might seem a strange one, particularly for Manchester itself. Central Manchester hasn't even got a proper market, either indoor or outdoor. What impresses me is the way the council has made the most of its meagre resources. The only permanent central market of any size is the Arndale Market, which is essentially a small, spare corner of the shopping centre. About half of the space has been given over to traditional market stalls, and the other half turned into a thriving food hall. There are a good selection of stalls, including an ale bar and the excellent Pancho's Burritos. Glass of ale and a spicy, porky burrito for lunch. Don't mind if I do. In addition to this is a rapidly expanding number of street markets that are spreading all over the suburbs as well as the city centre.

A special mention is also due to some of the markets in other Greater Manchester towns. Bury and Ashton-under-Lyne have particularly good examples. If you'd heard rumours that the good folk of Bury like to eat entire black puddings, on their own, with a dab of relish, mustard or ketchup, they are true. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, it's actually rather delicious.

 

All Bar One, Leeds

I usually try to avoid eating at big chain restaurants or bars, because most of them are rubbish. That may be a sweeping generalisation, some are certainly better than others, but my experience at All Bar One on Sunday backed up the theory pretty well.

I wanted some brunch, I wanted to sit in the sun, I didn't want a meat fest (I was heading to a barbecue in the afternoon for burgers, sausages, steak, chicken, kebabs and beer) and All Bar One on Millenium Square met all the criteria. Bubble and squeak with fried eggs, spinach and salsa sounded great.

It looks ok too, but it wasn't. The egg on the left wasn't cooked, the yolk was surrounded by a thick layer of translucent raw white. The edible egg was very greasy. The bubble and squeak mix was fine, but as with the eggs whoever was manning the stove had completely cocked it up. What appears to be a nice crusty exterior was very thin and rapidly gave way to greasy, slimy, mushy innards. Hint: stuff doesn't fry properly if your oil isn't hot enough. The spinach somehow managed to stick to the greasy theme, seemingly having been wilted in warm oil rather than a drop or two of water. The salsa was inoffensive in a bland, tastes like the mild stuff you get in jars sort of way.

On being asked if everything was ok with my meal I complained about the state of the eggs. This brought a cursory apology but nothing further. The guy serving me was pleasant enough but clearly wishing he was anywhere but there on a sunny holiday weekend.

My meal was ordered from the £6 lunch menu. A cappuccino was £2.20. I had a nice time because I had the paper to read, it was sunny and I was about to go drink beer in my mates back garden. Nothing much to do with the All Bar One experience, which was rubbish. It might be worth noting that I've read a fairly positive review of this place on another blog that I read recently (can't remember which one), so perhaps I was just unlucky.

3/10

All Bar One Millenium Square
Unit D
Electric Press
Leeds
LS2 3AD

http://www.allbarone.co.uk/allbaronemillenniumsquare/