Have been mad busy over the last week or so with a new community project I'm working on with Oblong Leeds - watch this space for more news about it. So I have unfortunately fallen behind with the blog and got a ton of things I need to write about...going to whack them all into a couple of extra long posts if that's ok. (Wlll give you all a nice long distraction from whatever work you should be doing right now- I should be cleaning the kitchen, heh.)
So here we go- Davaikoshka's Mini Reviews of Many Meals Out:
Meal 1- Siam House, York
Siam House is a small Thai restaurant hidden up a staircase on York's Goodramgate.(website) We've eaten here before and were very impressed with the service and food, so decided to have dinner there after a day at York's food festival.
For starter, we shared Golden Bags (minced chicken wrapped in pastry and fried) and Sweetcorn Fried Toast (like Prawn Toasts, but with sweetcorn). Both starters were wonderfully spiced and not at all greasy, and came with wonderful dips and a very pretty salad!
Main courses were a red curry with beef for D, and a stir fried pork dish with holy basil for me- both pretty unadventurous dishes, but nonetheless delicious. The mains were served with steamed rice.
Siam House do a very good value early bird special, which runs all night on Mondays and before 7pm Tues-Sat. We took advantage of this offer which meant a two course meal with steamed rice only cost £10.95 each, bargain for such good quality, authentic Thai food.
Obviously such a cheap meal meant I had to take advantage of the cocktails- this one with lychee liqueur and vodka was particularly delicious (and potent!)
Meal 2- Alley Cafe, Nottingham
Another day, another food festival, another meal out, and another 1lb gained :)
Me and D both went to uni in Nottingham, so when we found out there was a food festival on there (featuring the lovely (and fit!) Gino D'Acampo) we decided to go relive the old days and check out the best of Nottinghamshire produce. (A future blog post about food festivals is on its way, and includes a pic of me with Gino- excitement!!)
Anyway, Nottingham has a pretty decent independent restaurant scene, and after a day of sampling various unhealthy treats, I decided I wanted to go to Alley Cafe, which is a small vegetarian/vegan cafe down an alley (hence the name!) just off Nottingham's Market Square (website) I used to have a massive crush on a vegan boy, and in an attempt to woo him, I took him to this cafe several times, and was pleasantly surprised with how delicious vegan food could be. The cafe also has an almost European feel, with lots of art exhibitions and live music/DJs; we were there for acoustic night.
All the items on the menu are vegetarian and many are vegan- most veggie dishes can also be changed to make them vegan. The menu ranges from full english breakfast (including veggie sausages, and something called "Baconesque"!),to burgers, soups, sandwiches, snacks, puddings and pizzas.
D and I shared an antipasti platter to start- olives, tomatoes, artichokes, peppers and crostini. It was delicious, really full of flavour, and I didnt miss the parma ham!
For main course D had Black Bean and Mole Burritos, which were really tasty- tortilla wraps stuffed with flavoursome beans, topped with cheese, cocoa and nuts and served with salsa, sour cream and salad. Generous portion size as well!
I chose the "Tempting Tempeh Burger", despite not knowing exactly what tempeh was! The spicy tomato marinade and potato wedges on the side were what convinced me to brave the tempeh (which is apparently some kind of soy bean patty) and I'm really glad I did- despite being a burger and chips, it felt really wholesome and healthy; the tempeh was full of flavour and the potato wedges seemed to be baked instead of fried and were perfect- crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.
I'd definitely recommend this cafe to vegetarians/vegans, and would even persuade the most hardcore of meat eaters to check it out- the food may be both healthy (to some, that equals boring!) and lacking in meat, but it definitely isn't lacking in flavour- and the general ambience of the place is fantastic. Can we have a branch in Leeds please?!
Meal 3- The Wardrobe, Leeds
Despite living in Leeds for over two years, and hearing many wonderful things about the Wardrobe (website) I'd never actually checked it out. I decided to pop in for lunch a couple of weeks ago, as for once, me and D were on the east side of the city and very hungry (having just walked all the way from our house up in Oakwood to town- I was on an exercise kick haha)
I was surprised to see that half of the Wardrobe was an actual restaurant- I'd always assumed it was more cafe bar like. However, this wasnt a problem- I like waitress service, and our waitress was really friendly, explaining the menu, recommending particular dishes, and not minding when I asked for a "massive glass of tap water please, I've just walked here from MILES away!" (I like to exaggerate. Makes things sound more impressive!)
Anyway, the lunch menu is kind of modern British/French and has a lot of choice, from sandwiches to pasties, to salads and omelettes, and full on "proper meals"- for example, fish and chips and chicken casserole. I chose the celeriac, butternut squash and potato pasty. It came served on a wooden board (I love things like this, it makes things feel more rustic!) and was accompanied by a root vegetable slaw and a roast tomato and garlic salad. The pasty was wonderful- flaky, light, buttery pastry baked around a really tasty filling of perfectly cooked vegetables- the whole thing tasted of autumn and warmed me up inside. The tomato salad was amazing- roasted red and yellow tomatoes in garlicky oil. The slaw needed a bit more dressing I think, as the overall flavour was of cabbage, but nonetheless, the three components worked very well together and it was a really delicious, and interesting, meal.
D ordered the smoked haddock omelette, but unfortunately the kitchen was out of smoked haddock. The waitress offered normal haddock as an alternative, but D decided to go with the duck salad instead. This was a confit duck leg, on grapefruit, mandarin and pea shoots, with a ginger oil dressing. The duck was beautifully moist, although a little too salty on its own- however the saltiness worked perfectly with the mandarin and grapefruit- D thought it was a really good twist on the traditional duck a l'orange. The ginger oil was lovely- I'm a sucker for flavoured oils, and it really complimented the flavours of the salad.
All in all, the meal at the Wardrobe was very impressive, and I would definitely return. The highlight of the trip was a possible sighting of Evening Standard critic and Masterchef regular Charles Campion at the table near to ours- it looked just like him, but we were too aware of being caught out staring as the restaurant was fairly empty at the time! Maybe any Wardrobe staff/friends of Mr Campion could comment here to confirm if it was indeed him- if it was, then how exciting! (I love anything to do with Masterchef haha)
Part 2 of Davaikoshka's Many Restaurant Reviews coming up soon :) Salvos! Azucar! Casa Mia Coffee Shop! Plus a post on various food festivals and an update on the various escapades of my little beast of a kitten. And a review of the shiny new Waitrose. Phew. Bet you can't wait!
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