Wakefield festival of food, drink and rhubarb

This weekend Wakefield celebrated one of its most important exports, with a festival dedicated to Rhubarb. As well as cookery demonstrations there was a large market featuring number of local food producers selling products such as cheeses, pies, pickles and meat.

There were also street entertainers and outside of the city centre, farm tours and special events at Nostell Priory. Tours of the rhubarb forcing sheds can still be booked until March. Details can be found on the Experience Wakefield Website.

As well as showing you what I bought on the market stalls, I also have for you another one of Leeds Grub's amazing celebrity interviews!

Following in the footsteps of Cheggers and James Martin, Sean Wilson (AKA Martin Platt in Coronation Street) begged me to be allowed on the blog, so here he is. (Note: I have no idea who he is as I don't watch Corrie, but my Dad sounded moderately impressed for a moment, before going off on a tangent about a cheese market on a narrow boat that he has seen).

(I didn't notice at the time but his mate looks a tad angry!)

Sean now is an artisan cheese producer and his company is called the Saddleworth Cheese Co. He told me that they only use milk from the postcode area around the cheese factory- the milk literally travels only yards from the milking sheds to their premises.

The curds are cut and processed by hand and in the traditional, and very careful way and then the cheese is passed through a milling machine twice to obtain the ultra crumbly texture.

I was impressed by the cheese, it was really light and fresh. As well as having a crumbly texture it was also creamy with a good level of acidity too. Sean explained that 'Muldoons Picnic' a traditional Lancashire Crumbly cheese is best eaten within 8 weeks of being made. I personally preferred the 'Mouth Almighty' as it had been left to mature and had a better flavour for it.

I also bought some Venison from Round Green Farm and I discovered a new company called 'The Yorkshire Forager' who make sauce from Hawthorn berries. I chose the slightly spicier variety as I felt it had a bit more flavour to it. The sauce is really fruity and so far I have tried it with cheese, but I think it could be used like HP sauce and put on meat/ eggs too. Delicious!

I also got to sample lots of rhubarb too! More photos here

Sandinista

I have been to Sandinista a few times for drinks and the odd bit of tapas but never for a sit down meal until this week.

Sarah and I decided to share a number of dishes between us and were really pleased when we were told that as it was Tuesday the tapas was buy one get one free!

The bar has a cool South American theme and a relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed a cocktail and the music while waiting for our food to arrive.

The food was maybe not the most exceptional but all certainly very good. We felt that many of the dishes lacked spice. The cheese stuffed jalapenos and jerk chicken that were really quite mild despite being marked as hot on the menu.

The cod cakes were probably my favourite dish of the meal along with the chorizo tortilla. With the discount, the meal with a cocktail came to less than £15 each so a real bargain.

Sandinista
*Cool bar
*Excellent cocktails
*Nice tapas

5/5a Cross Belgrave Street
LS2 8JP

0113 305 0372

Website

Distrikt Lunch Deal

A quick post about a quick lunch:

Ace basement bar Distrikt has been doing its £5 lunch deal for a while. For the price you get a sandwich and a soft drink.

The bar is a low lit, low ceilinged cavern and feels more like a night spot than somewhere for lunch but its pretty cool nevertheless.

The lunch menu was read from a notebook by the waitress so I can't recall what was on offer but they all sounded great.

Gev and I both chose the Mackerel sandwich which came with figs among other things and a little side order of fries. The bread was soft and fresh and although the filling sounded a little bizarre it worked. Hooray for the chefs continued boldness!

As usual for Distrikt we had attentive table service. Great.

Distrikt
*Cool basement bar
*Adventurous menu
*Reasonable £5 lunch deal

7 Duncan Street
Leeds
LS1 6DQ

Website

Dough

This is yet another place I have wanted to go to for ages but never had anyone to go with, until Gilly suggested that he wanted to try it too.

In the interests to being adventurous we opted for the 7 course tasting menu priced at £40 each. We brought our own wine as the restaurant allows BYO wine. They do sell some wine along with beers and spirits too.

Its a very small place split into two rooms and the tables are quite tightly packed in, which makes it feel cosy but sometimes a little intrusive as you do at times get swamped by the conversations of others.

He is what we ate:

The meal opened with an amuse bouche of Artichoke and cream cheese mousse served on charred flatbread with shaved black truffle. It was a bit tricky to eat- too big to eat in one go, too small to be cut up. Once dismantled and reconstructed into a manageable configuration, the balance of the flavours were lovely and delicate.

The fish course was Smoked haddock and crayfish chowder, served with potatoes, onion, garden peas and a creamy saffron, white wine and parsley sauce. There were huge chunks of fish in this and the dish was quite a generous size considering the amount of courses we were expecting. The sauce had a beautifully rich flavour.

Kiwi, lime, mint and cucumber sorbet was a simple but perfect palate cleanser.

Seared fillet of ostrich served on a bed of crunchy vegetables with balsamic syrup, caramelised
onion chutney, coriander oil and pea puree was sadly just a bit disappointing. The meat was rare but verged on being cold and the meat lacked any serious flavour and had a feeble texture. The accompanying vegetables and dressing were however fantastic. We wondered if the same dish would be better with duck or beef.

The overwhelming favorite dish was the Confit of Yorkshire lamb breast served in a filo basket on a bed of creamed leek with apple compote,Yorkshire blue cheese and crispy onion. The lamb was incredibly tender and every element stood up well on its own but combined perfectly with the others to create a fantastic dish.

Lemon and black pepper posset served with tarragon biscuit was perfectly nice, just a little tricky to eat from the champagne flute.

The last dish was Sticky toffee bread and butter pudding with Cointreau soaked fruit, crème Anglais and toffee ice cream. It nearly defeated me but I pretty much finished it. It was sticky and sweet and a delightful finale to the meal.

Because we follow Dough on Twitter we were given free coffees to finish the meal- mention you follow them on twitter to get a discount/ freebie.

The atmosphere was lovely, cozy and quite informal. The food was with the exception of the ostrich excellent and the service was attentive and relaxed. Our only irk was the fact that the CD was left to repeat about 4 times before the music was changed!

Dough Bistro
*Excellent food
*Bring your own wine
*Informal atmosphere

293 Spen Lane
West Park
LS16 5BD

0113 278 7255

Website

Giorgios Italian

I visited Giorgio's for lunch last summer and had a great meal- read about it here. Today I went with Gev to have the 3 course for £10 deal that you can get with a voucher from Gopher Deals.

The interior is modern and fresh with striking red accents. Tables are well spaced apart and there is plenty of light from the windows that run the length of the room.

The gopher deals menu has to be asked for separately and contains a good range of dishes, including salads, pate and soup for starter, pizza, pasta and fish dishes for main and home made desserts.

I had the chicken liver pate, which came in a huge portion with salad garnish. It had a lovely fresh flavour. Gev had the brushetta which was enormous and was dressed with what tasted like a home made pesto.

Main courses were a lasagna and peperoni pizza. Both huge portions, both pretty tasty, and we were also given mixed veg for the table.

We chose the puddings from the chiller cupboard. I had a classic tiramisu and Gev had a limoncello soaked, raspberry topped cake. I thought the puddings were delicious, and even Gev who is a self proclaimed tiramisu snob (due to having an Italian aunt who makes amazing tiramasu)  gave it 8/10.

Service was really friendly and efficient and the total bill with drinks and service was well under £15 a head!

For the £10 price tag you expect maybe to have to put up with slightly substandard food, but we were genuinely surprised at how good everything was. Portions were super generous bordering on being silly- we both had to reluctantly leave some pudding on our plates! All of the dishes were cooked to a good standard and were well presented.

The Gopher deals offer runs until the end of Feb but Giorgio's do a permanent lunch deal of £8.95 for 2 courses / £10.95 for 3. Great for a bargain lunch with friends or even a decent dinner date for students on a budget.

Giorgio's Italian
*Excellent value deals (with voucher)
*Great food and service
*Generous portions

72 Otley Road
Leeds
LS6 4BA

0113 278 2030
Website

Graze

Graze is a fairly new little sandwich shop that has opened up at the bottom of Call Lane. I popped in yesterday to check it out.

Inside it is fairly small, there is a small bench seat and coffee table to sit at, but mainly this place is a take away. The the decor has a modern but rustic feel about it, the walls are a fresh green and the furniture is chunky farmhouse style wooden stuff.

The range of sandwiches is fairly standard, with a few fancy variations. The main selling point however is this:

I am really pleased to see that Graze has seen the importance in sourcing decent, ethical ingredients for their products. A lot of restaurants do it already but I think it is something that really lacks in the cafe/ take away market.

Service was super quick. My sandwich was pre made from the fridge (bacon, avocado and Brie), but even the made to order sandwiches were done promptly. I watched probably 20 people come and go in the time it took me to sit and eat my lunch.

The sandwich was great, with generous amounts of filling and beautifully fresh bread. There were also some amazing looking homemade cake although I was well behaved this time and didn't try anything.

I also had a coffee which was nice but nothing special and everything was served in disposables even though I sat in to eat which disappointed me slightly.

I would definitely recommended Graze for good quality sandwiches if you want to take away, its just a shame that there is not more space for proper tables to sit in.

Graze
*Locally sourced free range ingredients
*Quick friendly service
*Only really a take away

43 Call Ln
Leeds,
LS1 7BT
0113 245 0295
Website

Blackhouse

Last week I got to try Blackhouse grill for the first time after having loads of recommendations made to me. I went with twitter friend @commodoredan (AKA Dan).

It was only a lunchtime but the restaurant still had a relaxed buzz and a luxurious feel. Our waiter was efficient and also had quite a lot of flare and personality.

I ordered the Calamari (£6) and Dan had the portobello mushroom with poached egg, asparagus and tarragon butter sauce (£5.75) for starters. We both had steak for main. (I had ribeye £14.25).

The calamari came including tentacles. They were light and crisp and came with a deliciously fresh lemon mayonnaise. Perfectly cooked and really enjoyable.

The steak was melt in the mouth tender, full of flavour and came with some really good chunky chips included with the price ( I hate when steak houses charge only for the steak and make you pay more for necessary sides).

We were by this time too stuffed for pudding, but we did enjoy some of the cocktails which were great, if a little pricey!

Price wise, Blackhouse is not cheap but we had a 50% discount voucher for the food which made it really good value. At full price I think it would still be worth the money as they food quality, serve and atmosphere were all spot on.

Blackhouse Grill

*Modern stylish restaurant
*Perfectly cooked steaks
*Great service

31-33 East Parade
Leeds
LS1 5PS

0113 246 0669
Website

Cutting Cake Patisserie and Prizes

My latest 'behind the scenes' feature can be found on Culture Vulture and this time I have been to visit Cutting Cake Patisserie. As well as seeing how the gorgeous chocolates are made you can have a chance of winning a Valentines gift box made by Cutting Cake, just by leaving a comment on the post! Find it here!