A few good things to eat (volume 6)

Here's another round-up of things I've enjoyed eating in recent weeks.

Quiche, Blacker Hall Farm Shop, Wakefield

For reasons I won't go into here I'm not the biggest fan of Blacker Hall Farm Shop, but I do like their baked goods. I'm particularly partial to a fat slice of their quiche lorraine. Quiche lorraine is a bit of a misnomer really. As far as I know the classic version of this dish is made from white shortcrust pastry, with a wobbly, eggy filling and not even any cheese. The Blacker Hall version is made from wholemeal shortcrust pastry, with a filling that seems to be about 80% cheese to 20% egg, studded with fat, salty chunks of bacon. More of a cheese and bacon tart, it's savoury heaven. Whatever you want to call it, it makes a cracking good lunch washed down with a bottle of Fentiman's ginger beer.

http://www.blackerhall.com/

Liquorice ice-cream, Yummy Yorkshire

After your quiche, how about an ice-cream for afters? I'd heard about this stuff, and wasn't convinced that liquorice was a good idea for an ice-cream flavour. I was wrong, it was very nice. It wasn't the best textured ice-cream I've eaten, being a little grainy, but the flavour worked really well. The prominent taste was of sweet, dark caramel with just a subtle hint of the herbal, aniseedy notes of liquorice.

I bought mine at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.


http://www.yorkshiremilk.co.uk/ice_cream.php


Yorkshire chorizo, Paganum

Another product I've been meaning to try for a while. Chorizo made in the Yorkshire Dales, from Yorkshire pork.

I have a love-hate relationship with chorizo. Most of the time I love the stuff, but the quality of the pork is really important. At the top end of the scale, chorizo made from acorn fed iberico pigs is absolutely delicious. The deeply flavoured flesh and silken, creamy fat makes it very, very moreish. In a sausage with such a high fat content, I think it's actually the quality of this fat that's key.

At the bottom end of the scale, I actually find some cheap chorizo's quite offputting. Rather than silken and creamy, the fat is sickly and metallic tasting. It really does make all the difference. A prime example of the crap stuff is Tesco's cooking chorizo. I had it for breakfast and over half was left on the plate untouched.

I was really hoping that the Yorkshire chorizo would be in the moreish camp, and it was. Not quite up there with the finest Spain has to offer, but pretty damn good. I had it for breakfast with eggs, tomatoes and sourdough toast (pictured above). The plateful was wolfed down in no time.

I bought mine from the Paninoteca deli stall in Leeds Market. 


http://www.paganum.co.uk

Everything made by Tunnock's

Everything made by Tunnock's is delicious. This is a statement of fact. My favourite is the classic caramel wafer.

If you think they are low grade obesity fodder for pasty-faced Scotsmen who probably deep fry them, then think again. Firstly that's insulting to Scotsmen, and secondly the chocolate encasing the wafer contains 25% cocoa solids. That's 5% more than you'll find in Dairy Milk. And the website has a French version. They're obviously sending us macarons at two quid each, and we're sending them Tunnock's teacakes at six for two quid. They win.

http://www.tunnock.co.uk/

Raspberries

Give me a raspberry over a strawberry every time. The perfect summer berry as far as I'm concerned. Nothing compares to the dense, sweet perfumed fragrance of raspberries. If you think I'm talking nonsense, buy a punnet then leave it somewhere warm for an hour, then inhale. Wonderful. I like to eat them unsweetened with thick cream or vanilla ice cream, or scattered on top of thick yoghurt and muesli for breakfast.

Mocca Moocho, Wakefield

I was hoping for a late breakfast on Saturday, but everywhere in Wakefield city centre seems to stop serving them at 11.30am on a weekend morning. Too early if you ask me, I want bacon and eggs available until at least 2pm, and preferably all day.

I did like the look of Moocho though, the outside tables were inviting in the pleasant sunshine so I decided to make it an early lunch. Quiche was about the nearest thing available to breakfast (it's mostly eggs right? Sort of like a cheesy breakfast pie) so I ordered a cheese and tomato one with salad (£4.95).

The quiche was very generously proportioned with a nice thin crust and a wobbly, cheesy filling. Unfortunately I'd made the mistake of saying yes when asked if I'd like it warm. What they actually should have asked is 'would you like us to blast the shit out of it in the microwave for five minutes?' Limp, soggy pastry was the end result. As we all know, pastry and microwaves do not a happy marriage make. The filling was still nice though.

The salad was artfully arranged but flavourless given the complete lack of dressing or lubrication of any sort. I'll excuse them that because the clientele were mostly getting on a bit, and elderly Yorkshire folk seem to be suspicious of salad dressing. The honourable exception to this rule being salad cream, which I like, but which isn't really dressing at all, more a special category of matter all of its own. I should have requested a sachet but didn't.

A cappucino was ok (about £2). What looked delicious, but I didn't try (too full of quiche) were some scones jam-packed with whipped cream and strawberries. There were also plenty of other cakes available, all of which appeared to be good quality.

Despite the microwave mishap I liked it here. I'll go back for tea and cake at some point, it looks a better option for this than Costa next door.


6/10

Mocca Moocho
10 Cross Square
Wakefield
WF1 1PQ