News

Check out page 22. Thanks Martin - it was great to meet you. In other news - after a sixth month absence - we'll be moving back to Sheffield. Ecclesall Road - prepare yourself for the clocking of a lifetime. Can't wait to be back in grey, hilly sheffield. But in the meantime to whet your appetite I'll be updating soon on my birthday meal over in Thirsk.

No Posts

Apologies for the lack of posts – it is purely down to the fact we’ve not been anywhere for food lately for one reason or other. One being we’re totally skintolla thanks to a holiday in Spain, moving house and other tempting treats of the non-food variety. The food in Spain was as diverse in quality as it was limited in choice – does that make sense. Basically there was the choice of tapas or fish/seafood and we ate likes kings in some places and swines in others. I’ll not go into it too much but I’ll just say at one cheap and uncheerful place on the seafront we ordered asparagus and potatas bravas and were presented with soggy, pale, flaccid jarred asparagus, tinned boiled potatoes with Tabasco sauce. The fruits of the sea salad was fish sticks with mayonnaise and lettuce. I can honestly say I’ve never been served such a pile a crap in all my life. Disgusting. Along the same stretch of street I ate one of the best steaks of my life and that’s saying something as I’ve eaten Kobe beef in the Bellagio. It was so simple yet so perfect. It was flawlessly seasoned, cooked to perfection and served absolutely drenched in fresh lime juice. Seriously. It was amazing, it works so well and I emitted numerous sounds of pleasure as I devoured it. Since then we’ve tried to replicate the taste sensation and lime and steak works great even with a cheaper cut of meat. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmm.

Anyway back to Sheffield, more specifically Ecclesall Road and the Spice Market Café. Here the menu is a rather confusing state of affairs that boasts all of my favourite Asian cuisines with a Britishy kinda twist, I wasn’t expecting much to be honest, I’ve watched too many of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares to think that this would work out. We chose from the set menu £15 for three courses, there wasn’t much but just enough for me to choose from happily. I started off with sweet potato cake with chick pea relish and blue cheese sauce, he had ½ rack of bbq ribs. Once we’d ordered we decided to have another appetizer, duck croqettes with hiosin dressing and cucumber. It all arrived quickly and in large portions. My potato cake tasted great, though it was more like tepid sweet potato mash, the chickpea salsa was lovely, maybe too oily, and the blue cheese worked well. The ribs were massive, we shared and had about 4 large ribs each. The tender meat fell off the bone and was coated in a think black unctuous sauce more akin to black bean or hoisin than any bbq. Very nice. The duck croquettes worked surpsing well too, the duck had been shredded and looked more like tinned tuna, i had to finish this off as Steve was worried he'd fill himself up. I was starting to like this fusion of flavours. Next came our mains, Pork thai green curry and teriyaki veg noodles, my noodles were practically molten when they arrived and I literally had to sit there and wait for five minutes before I could even bring them to my lips. The noodles were great as was the sauce, which was deep but thin, the vegetables were sparse and those that I did find looked like they’d seen better days. This serving was massive and I barely consumed half. The thai curry was not great, it had spice but no depth of flavour and no creamy richness to it. Maybe I'm a thai curry snob but this was not great. When the dessert arrived I was already feeling quite full, maybe we shouldn’t have ordered the duck croqettes. In front of me was placed a generous serving of chocolate mousse with sorbet, he had sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream. Both were great. I sadly had to leave a lot of my half as I was totally full. All in all the food was good, especially the starters and desserts, if I was to venture here again this is what I’d go for. I’d choose a selection of the interesting starters and ensure I had enough space left to do full justice to the amazing desserts.

She Simmers

I've just found the most amazing blog, I already have a huge list of recipes that I want to do; amazing hints and tips with great images. Mostly thai food but an interesting mix of others as well, she even has me wanting another go at cheese peirogi.

Return to Siam Inter Thai

We returned to this London Road restaurant as the prospect of macaroni cheese from a box was unappealing to Steve, I’d have been quite happy to have this but as we were already in Steers Beers and in such close proximity it seemed almost rude not to. I was literally beaming with happiness when we entered; I’d had a pretty stressful day and was thoroughly chuffed about being treated to a meal, courtesy of my thoughtful and caring bf. I’d noticed as we walked up the ramp that the external signage has slightly changed and it now read Thai Cuisine rather than Siam Inter, inside too had been changed dramatically, gone was the fishy smell, instead the place had new décor and it looked great. We ordered curries this time, I had gaeng ge-ree gai, a delicate yellow curry with chicken and potaoes, he had red curry with chicken. We both ordered a portion of steamed rice and I ate the thai crackers as we waited.

As I looked around I noticed that every diner’s meal looked absolutely massive and when I was presented with by decidedly smaller meal I was very disappointed. This feeling did not last long though after I’d tasted my first mouthful, oooweee, it was delicious. A perfect thai curry, just the right amount of heat, sweetness and tang. I tasted the curry opposite and that was great too, a little too hot for me, after too much I wouldn’t have enjoyed it but it was great to taste. The portions were perfect too, just the right amount of each, as usual my eyes were bigger than my stomach.

This was a totally different dining experience from our first where we'd ordered a set menu, we had less choice but chose more for our own tastes and this served us well. The meal itself cost about £20 which I think was a great price for the quality of the food, surrounding and service, we both left extremely satisfied and slightly annoyed that we didn’t have enough change for a tip – not to worry we’ll make it up to them next time as we’re sure to return.

Cubana

We have a new dining out regime that I’m sure you’re all mad to hear about, basically instead of eating out all of the time we’re limiting ourselves to one meal out per month in a bid to save money. So on the first of every month we’ll be choosing a place to dine, and it better be good as we have to wait another thirty days till the next opportunity.

In another effort to not spend too much we ensured we got to Cubana during happy hour where you can order two tapas dishes for £5.95, which is practically half price depending on what choices you make. We ordered our food and drank San Miguel as we waited; the waiter commented that we must have been hungry as we’d ordered quite a lot. When the food arrived we had to manoeuvre plates around the table as there clearly wasn’t enough room for everything. The pollo y chorizo dish was delicious, heavily flavoured with the accompanying peppers, the chorizo looked more like pepperoni pizza slices than the massive chunks I’ve had there previously. The Cordero en vino tinto, was sublime, the lamb chunks were tender, the thick sauce was a savoury delight, so much so I was barely put off by its oily consistency.
Esparragos trigueros, the asparagus was lightly grilled, tasted fresh and well suited to the light and tangy cheese it was served with. Champinones con queso de cabra, button mushrooms served in a creamy white wine and goats cheese sauce, this was amazing too, the sauce specifically was excellent and once the mushrooms had been extracted served as dip for everything else. Mmmm. Jamon y queso de cabra was the next dish, the goats cheese wrapped in Serrano ham was devine, I love goats, especially when it’s been baked and it’s all gooey. We also had Pez espada con espinacas, this was from the cold tapas menu, the thinly sliced swordfish was pinky and almost transclucent, served on a bed of lemony spinach, which worked so well together, though this too was too oily. Also from the cold tapas menu we had Mozzarella y jamon, mozzarella sticks wrapped in parma ham, this was fine. Boquerones was the dish we were both looking forward to but were left slightly disappointed as the anchovy fillets marinated in vinegar just weren’t strong enough. We much prefer the version you can buy from the deli counter in Waitrose, we never buy enough of these and have usually devoured them by the time we get home! On top of all that we also ate the delicious Patatas bravas, the Spanish style potatos I always get, they were goooood! The food was great, if not overly greasy, the price was good too because of the deal. I’d recommend taking advantage of this as you can get twice as much food.

Eating in Krakow

Last month we travelled to Poland, touching down in Krakow. The guy from our hotel recommended a couple of places, one of which was two doors down from the hotel we stayed at, so this was our first point of call. We were handed menus in polish and perused them for way too long despite our inability to actually read them. Once this situation had been corrected we ordered Pierogi, mine stuffed with cheese, his stuffed with pork and beef. When they arrived they look identical to the Chinese dumplings we’ve been noshing of late. They looked like huge ravioli except without a sauce, though mine had a little melted butter to soak up with the dough. When I bit into my ‘cheese’ Pierogi I found the strangest combination of flavours, sweet and savoury at the same time. At first I thought the butter was a kind of syrup, but after further inspection of the contents of the dumpling I worked out that the cheese was in fact the sweet ingredient, and tasted like soft cheese mixed with icing sugar. I think I ate a couple of them while I was making up my mind and then eventually gave up and tried the pork and beef variety, mercifully savoury. The texture of the contents reminded me of really flaky tuna or beef spread and tasted like a mixture of the two.

Krakow has a lot of fast food available to purchase on the street, practically on the corner of every street are pretzel vendors selling all sizes and shapes of lovely soft bread for about 40p. We also sampled the equally rife kebabs, in toasted pitta with hot sauce and oodles of cabbage. That was delish, though I managed to drip the yoghurty dressing all down myself leaving some worrying marks around my crotch.

In the evening we walked to a place near the Jewish Quarter that Steve had been to before, he was looking forward to the huge quantities of meat he’d been served last time. Once we were sat down one of the diners next to us told us we wouldn’t need two courses, only order one. Steve ordered the Officer’s Platter, which was a mixed grill and I ordered lamb sausages. His food was delivered on a wooden board with potatoes, all the meat was nice and there was quite pile a lot of it. Mine was also nice, with chips, we shared it and exchanged different meats and styles of potatoes romantically across the table. Accompanying the meal, accompanying most meals in Poland was the traditional polish salad of cabbage and beetroot in various guises, usually I’m not a massive cabbage fan, certainly not the traditional Yorkshire way of cooking it, where it’s boiled within an inch of it’s life and slopped onto the plate unseasoned as part of a Sunday roast, but I can usually manage pickled cabbage as I’m a huge fan of pickled everything (apart from eggs – that’s so wrong) but there was an undertone of something unfamiliar and unpleasant, I think it was mint. Not a fan of mint at all. All in all the meal was great and I was ravenous any way due to the epic fail of the meal earlier. All this was served up with large amounts of Polish beer, live polish music with an energetic atmosphere. Last time Steve was here for his cousins wedding the bride, a local, said it was the best place to eat in Krakow. We drank and ate too much and truly had a good night, I’ve just found their card in my wallet it was called Pod Wawelem on Gertrudy and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Krakow, just don’t order two courses, one course is more than enough.

On the last night we literally walked around for an hour trying to choose somewhere to eat, somewhere that served both borsch, a polish beetroot soup and bigos a rustic kind of stew, as Steve wanted to try them both before we left. Nowhere served bigos and our wanderings had made me hungry so we settled for somewhere else the hotel guy had recommended again, Miod i Vino, translated as Honey and Wine, he said it was lovely food just a little more expensive. Steve wanted to order a Dukes Taster Menu where you try a little bit of loads of different dishes, but unfortunately that was off the menu. Massive shame as we love our platter style food. We ordered starters, Steve had the borsch, served in a big mug and I ordered Krakow herring, served with sour cream and onions. I didn’t particularly like mine, the texture of the herring wasn’t nice, though I did like the sour cream and onion mixture on the top and spooned that onto the dark, dense bread we’d been given. Steve loved the herring so we swapped over and he hungrily shovelled my starter into his mouth while I hesitantly tasted the borsch. It was okay, but I didn’t want much of it, again there was a sweetness to it that I couldn’t come to terms with, I’d expected it to taste salty and acetous, so most of that was left untouched on the table. My main was pleat of pork tenderloin in a creamy sauce, and when it arrived on the table I realised that pleat meant plait and the meat had literally been plaited. There’s something either troubling or charming at the thought of a chef, hunched over the work surface, tongue out in concentration with slivers of meat between his fingers as he plaits my dinner for me. That, my friend is workmanship. It was great. Loved this meal, we got rice and polish style potatoes as well. Steve had stuffed pork with sheep cheese, this also was loverly, just not as good mine. Again the atmosphere in here was lively, the traditional band playing roused the diners.

We returned home with our favourite part of Poland, backpacks crammed with as much Zubrovka as we could afford/carry. This Polish Vodka, flavoured with bison grass, tastes great chilled or my favourite with apple juice. You can’t buy it in the UK and this is pretty much why we went to Poland.

The End?

As we’ve consumed our last morsel of food for London Road Clock, we’ve experienced some great meals and uncovered some true gems, there’s been highs and lows, laughter and tears! I’m not even over dramatising either, I feel I should say that this isn’t necessarily the end of my little musings on my little blog. We’re considering an Ecclessall Road Clock, so stay tuned for updates on that, and I’ll let you all know where’s good to eat in Krakow. We might have to wait a while for our purses and waistlines to return to normal as both have received some punishment over the last 6 months. While chowing down in Golden Lee and toasting to a successful clock (don’t stop until you clock) we wondered how much we’d actually spent, we could probably work it out as I’ve written a detailed account of everything we’d eaten. We decided it wasn’t the best idea as we’d feel horrible with guilty once we knew. So next Ecclessall Road, and who knows what after that possibly the world.