A Relatively Calm (Food) Weekend
The mania of the past few weeks is starting to give way, and I'm looking forward to not doing a lot at all next weekend.
However, while this past weekend was a flurry of social activity it didn't involve excessive eating and drinking (on my part).
Fri 17 March 2006
St Patrick's Day and associated green madness inhibited my usual start to the weekend (in the North Bar) and so I ended up in the Reform. The beer's not as exciting as at North but this is still one of my favourite bars, even if I did end up drinking (shock!) lager. After a bit we (this time not just Andy & me but also Harry & Jono - hello!) headed down to Red Chilli. Initially I thought we may have made a tactical blunder by not booking anywhere at all for dinner but it wasn't a problem. In a beer-inspired moment we opted for 6 starters to share (the dishes are generally huge) - my personal favourite was the salt and pepper spare ribs. Possibly this was because it's a dish I would never have personally ordered. Anyway, they were fantastic - they weren't greasy and there was just the right amount of chilli, AND, being ribs you can eat them with your fingers! Andy really enjoyed the cold beef in chilli dressing. The dumplings were ordered weren't as good as I remembered from last time. After demolishing all of this we decided we were still a bit peckish ordered two main courses and some rice. I really enjoyed the spicy chilli beef. I'm really sorry I can't be a bit more effusive about all of this - I had had a few beers, in addition to which I am not a huge fan of Chinese food, so I just don't have the vocabulary and experience to say anything too sensible.
After dinner we headed to Carpe Diem, just down the road. It was all a bit frenetic and student-y for old people like us so we headed home.
Sat 18 March 2006
I was entertaining one of my friends and kick started my afternoon with the sticky toffee pudding, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce in Art's Cafe. Although I wouldn't describe myself as having a sweet tooth I do seem to often feel that pudding along constitutes a legitimate meal. I was actually pretty impressed with the pudding - although more impressed with their ice-cream. Wherever they get it from - it's good (and perhaps Piccolino should take note!).
Again, with no restaurant booked for dinner it was all looking a bit suspect ... after sticking our noses in and out of a few places in Headingley we ended up, miraculously, in Citrus - having our order taken just seconds before the huge table next to us. We went for a bit of creative menu combining here too ... we started by sharing a mozzarella salad and I moved on to a Caesar salad, which, while it was very nice, bore next to no resemblance to a Caesar salad - last time I checked the dressing should have been a lot thicker and actually have tasted of something, while Christina opted for the creamy white onion risotto with lardons, which was actually a very competent risotto. Citrus do, however, need to get their house wines sorted out, as my glass of house white was pretty unimpressive. I guess they are catering to students and do offer BYO ...
Sun 19 March 2006
Apart from stuffing my face with a selection of pastries from M&S the only culinary activity of today was a visit to Wing Lee Hong. I have a slight issue in this shop in that I stop and touch almost everything in sight.
However, I am beginning my quest to find the perfect wasabi pea (dried green peas with a wasabi crust - truly, truly the ultimate beer snack). I can report that the Mansion wasabi peas are very tasty but are also loaded with crap (MSG etc).
I also invested in some pickled ginger (as yet untasted).
Stumble It!
However, while this past weekend was a flurry of social activity it didn't involve excessive eating and drinking (on my part).
Fri 17 March 2006
St Patrick's Day and associated green madness inhibited my usual start to the weekend (in the North Bar) and so I ended up in the Reform. The beer's not as exciting as at North but this is still one of my favourite bars, even if I did end up drinking (shock!) lager. After a bit we (this time not just Andy & me but also Harry & Jono - hello!) headed down to Red Chilli. Initially I thought we may have made a tactical blunder by not booking anywhere at all for dinner but it wasn't a problem. In a beer-inspired moment we opted for 6 starters to share (the dishes are generally huge) - my personal favourite was the salt and pepper spare ribs. Possibly this was because it's a dish I would never have personally ordered. Anyway, they were fantastic - they weren't greasy and there was just the right amount of chilli, AND, being ribs you can eat them with your fingers! Andy really enjoyed the cold beef in chilli dressing. The dumplings were ordered weren't as good as I remembered from last time. After demolishing all of this we decided we were still a bit peckish ordered two main courses and some rice. I really enjoyed the spicy chilli beef. I'm really sorry I can't be a bit more effusive about all of this - I had had a few beers, in addition to which I am not a huge fan of Chinese food, so I just don't have the vocabulary and experience to say anything too sensible.
After dinner we headed to Carpe Diem, just down the road. It was all a bit frenetic and student-y for old people like us so we headed home.
Sat 18 March 2006
I was entertaining one of my friends and kick started my afternoon with the sticky toffee pudding, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce in Art's Cafe. Although I wouldn't describe myself as having a sweet tooth I do seem to often feel that pudding along constitutes a legitimate meal. I was actually pretty impressed with the pudding - although more impressed with their ice-cream. Wherever they get it from - it's good (and perhaps Piccolino should take note!).
Again, with no restaurant booked for dinner it was all looking a bit suspect ... after sticking our noses in and out of a few places in Headingley we ended up, miraculously, in Citrus - having our order taken just seconds before the huge table next to us. We went for a bit of creative menu combining here too ... we started by sharing a mozzarella salad and I moved on to a Caesar salad, which, while it was very nice, bore next to no resemblance to a Caesar salad - last time I checked the dressing should have been a lot thicker and actually have tasted of something, while Christina opted for the creamy white onion risotto with lardons, which was actually a very competent risotto. Citrus do, however, need to get their house wines sorted out, as my glass of house white was pretty unimpressive. I guess they are catering to students and do offer BYO ...
Sun 19 March 2006
Apart from stuffing my face with a selection of pastries from M&S the only culinary activity of today was a visit to Wing Lee Hong. I have a slight issue in this shop in that I stop and touch almost everything in sight.
However, I am beginning my quest to find the perfect wasabi pea (dried green peas with a wasabi crust - truly, truly the ultimate beer snack). I can report that the Mansion wasabi peas are very tasty but are also loaded with crap (MSG etc).
I also invested in some pickled ginger (as yet untasted).
Stumble It!
posted by Alex at 1:07 pm
Stumble It!
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