Closures, Closures, Closures....

I noticed a worrying trend in our cities’ food news the last couple of weeks – despite it being a very ‘Leeds is now’ time for the city, two long-standing establishments have had to close this month.
Firstly, a simple change of location cost Beano Wholefoods dearly. Beano had been around for nearly 30 years – which makes it all the more shocking when you consider the power the whole ‘Organic’ ethos has these days. However, Beano did not fit in the council’s plans for the fast-developing Briggate and moved it down the road. And that’s it – a move of only 300 yards results in such a drop in trade that Beano simply no longer exists. As you would imagine, a void is now present for those wanting vegan or more ehtically-produced foodstuffs. it would seem people are happy to buy 'Fairtrade' - as long as they can get it from a supermarket.

Also, Dino’s – the Italian under the Railway Station on Bishopsgate, have thrown in the towel after another long 15 years in the Leeds food scene. The manager is blaming the explosion in restaurants in Leeds in the last few years as being so detrimental to the trade that he can no longer go on. Telling ,perhaps, but one has to wonder what other long-standing restaurants in the area such as Bibi’s, Da Marios and Salvo’s are doing in order to survive. I’m of the belief that Leeds is big enough for all these places, but the closure of Beano’s is a real shame.

Leeds Food & Drink Festival 2007 - Preview

After a lost weekend in Dublin courtesy of a Stag I know, I return to Leeds to find the Food & Drink Festival preparations in full swing. Again, it starts on a weekday but I’m sure during it’s five day run there will be at least once chance to take a mosey on down. So what’s going on?

A quick flick through the brochure gives me an idea of some highlights. The always affable and almost-so-Yorkshire-you-can-taste-it pairing of Brian Turner and James Martin will have a large crowd, not least among the mothers of Leeds. For those with Gallic leanings, Raymond Blanc will be appearing on the 10th, ahead of the opening of much anticipated ‘Brassiere Blanc’ in Leeds later this year. No doubt that one will have food writers up and down Yorkshire in a cold sweat for at least, ooh - the opening weekend.

Apart from the celebs – who really need no introduction – personally I’ll be looking forward to demonstrations from two establishments close to my heart; Thomas Danby College, one of the unsung heroes of Leeds of providing training and vocations for chefs, bakers and butchers-to-be are putting in a couple of appearances. Thomas Danby work hard; very hard. Go see them. Also, a paella cook-off (gotta love a cook-off!) courtesy of La Tasca sounds good, as does the tapas and wine tasting event held by Sandinista – another bona fide ‘The Good Stuff’ hero when it comes to smart, affordable tapas with no pretension. Shepherd’s Purse Cheeses are also helping out the ubiquitous Olive Tree demo so make sure to pick up some of their wares.

Finally, some excellent ideas – Kirkgate Market will be offering various food tastings throughout Saturday, and a string of restaurants in Headingley will be offering ‘Menus for £10’ – great idea, especially when you consider Headingley is home to the peerless Salvos and Brett’s fish and chips – amongst others.
So that’s my rundown of the highlights – there’s more to the Leeds Food Festival than Harvey Nichols, you know. Shame there’s nothing highlighting the excellent pubs Leeds has to offer – an ale trail, perhaps next year? One can hope, eh?

The Leeds Festival of Food & Drink,
8-12 August,
Briggate and surrounding environs, Leeds.
http://www.leedsfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk/

Leeds Brewery

Although Leeds has no shortage of beer lovers, you'd think that a company called 'The Leeds Brewery' would have popped up by now - and only recently, it has.
I've not had a chance to sample any of thier frankly delicious-sounding brews yet, but rest assured i'll be keeping an eye out. Thier website is fresh, smart and displays an obvious love of the beer - despite the fact that they are a young company. and that is refreshing to see.
When there's not much happiness about the word 'Leeds' at the moment (I'm referring to my beloved Leeds Utd), it does wonders to see a pump clip with the words "Leeds Best' on it.

And as Morrisey sang, "Now my heart is full..."

Let's hope this local firm is a resounding success.

www.leedsbrewery.co.uk

I's Pies

My partner likes to bake, and so the household is generally filled to the rafters with all sorts of baked treats. I’m not complaining – although it does no good for my expanding waistline, it’s good to have home-cooked flapjack at any time of the day. So, we don’t buy sweets often; but we had to make an exception when we came across an I’s Pies stall at the Leyburn Festival Of Food and Drink.

Everything looked so good, but we opted for the Blueberry Crème Brulee Tart - and we were glad we did. Light, crumbly base, a smooth, vanilla-loaded crème brulee topping shot through with big, purple-bleeding blueberries. Washed down with a cuppa, the pie didn’t last long at all. Perfection – we should have bought cratefuls of the things.

A quick look at the company’s website has all the tell-tale signs of a great producer - local ingredients, passion for food, and a simplicity to the approach that we should all be taking for granted. When was the last time you saw ‘Roasted Beef Bones’ on a list of stock ingredients for a Beef pie? It should be everytime; but it’s not. Hand-chopped meat - not processed? Surely not!
Independent Foods are sure to become bigger with quality produce like this; give them a try.

www.independentfoods.co.uk

Spanish Pork & Beans

This is a recipe that just hit the spot on a sunday morning late lunch. Hearty and really tasty, I came upon a version of this recipe years ago on a Keith Floyd program - he cooked it at the side of the road in Spain, so from then on its simply been 'Spanish Pork and Beans' for me.

Be sure to use good quality sausage and black pudding though. It will make a difference - I used plain pork links from The Yorkshire Dales Meat Company.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Butter Beans (tinned)
Tinned Tomatoes
Some Chorizo or Bacon
6 Pork Sausages
1 Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
1 marinated Pepper.
Some good black pudding (a few slices)


1.Heat the oil in a large pan or stockpot, and soften the onion. Add the Garlic, and then the sausages. Continue to heat slowly until the sausages have slightly browned.

2.Add Chorizo or bacon, and again cook gently until cooked through. Add the Black pudding and gently fry through.

3.Finally, slice up your marinated pepper and add. If using fresh, then add at stage one and soften with the onions.

4.Pour in your tomatoes and beans. Add salt (pinch) and a good grind of black pepper. Stir and then leave to simmer until the sausages are cooked through. 30 mins should be good.

If, like me, you like the black pudding a little crispier, then fry separately and add at the end, almost like croutons! The black pudding really adds a savoury edge to this tomatoey dish so don't be tempted to omit it. If you want things a litte spicier, douse with tabasco.

Spotlight on...Yorkshire Deli

Two blogs have been really catching my attention recently - Stonch's homebrewing adventures over at Stonch's Beerblog - and the ongoing birth of Yorkshire Deli in Ilkley. Ian Taylor is starting out on that road that many of us desk-bound foodwriters daydream of - taking the plunge and opening a business of our own.
Remarkably, Ian has managed to find time to answer a few questions for The Good Stuff.

The Good Stuff: Yorkshire Deli has obviously been on the horizon for some time – do you recall the exact moment when it turned from a dream into a living venture?

Ian Taylor We (my wife and I) had been looking for a business to buy for some time so that I could escape my previous employment which had become a nightmare. I guess the moment that Yorkshire Deli the concept was born was about a year ago when we went to look at a local deli which was for sale. While we waited for the accounts to come through after the viewing we created the Yorkshire theme in our minds, given the growing demand for local produce it just made sense.

Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately! - that business was not making any money so we dropped it, but realising how disappointed we were to have to do so, the Yorkshire Deli idea became the dream and we then sought a suitable business to adapt it to. I guess the point that that became a living venture was last November when we viewed and had an offer accepted on the tea-room business we eventually bought to turn into the Yorkshire Deli Cafe.

How did ‘giving up the day job’ feel at the time?
Wonderful. I had been effectively in the same job for 17 years and a series of mergers had meant that I went from being a number two in an organisation to a virtual nobody, with complete idiots being parachuted in over my head just because they were in the correct, tiny, extreme political faction with absolutely no grip on reality. When this happened again a couple of years ago to the point that I was constantly having to train and cover up for the mistakes and inadequacies of the imbecile who was supposed to be my boss, I vowed to get out, and to finally achieve that was an immense relief.

I should say that there were a few people who I was sad to leave behind and that I hope I'll keep in touch with, but not many, and they know who they are.

Now that you’re up and running, what are you enjoying the most about being the owner of a deli?
It's immensely satisfying when you are complemented over something you have created yourself - the homemade cakes, scones and daily lunch dishes that I cook all seem to go down very well. I also love being an insider in the catering world, learning constantly from other producers and business-people, and I had better say that I enjoy being part of a team with our excellent staff who are great fun to be around!

If we had £5 to spend in Yorkshire Deli, what would you recommend we spend it on?
If you were there for lunch, I would say spend an extra 75p and go for my dish of the day, which this week could have been a Lamb, Orange and Fennel Spring Stew, or Chicken with Tarragon and Spring Vegetables, for example, served in a giant Yorkshire Pudding.

If you are there for a snack, for just £2.95 you can get one of our Yorkshire Cream Teas - a pot of Yorkshire Tea, homemade scone, Organic Yorkshire Clotted Cream and local farm produced pure fruit jam and butter - we deliberately kept the price low to try - a little cheekily - to compete with a rather more famous tea shop nearby! You'd need more than your fiver for a cream tea there!

Or if you are in our retail area - a bottle of Wharfe Valley Rapeseed Oil perhaps, or some Angel Chocolate - handmade in Swaledale, or a couple of bottles of Copper Dragon Golden Pippin Ale (we have just got our alcohol licence by the way!).
5. What’s in the pipeline for the upcoming year at Yorkshire Deli?
More and more home made food, and more local produce on the menu and for retail sale. Later in the year there'll be wine tastings and other themed events.

We may also expand the cafe seating area into our mezzanine floor, and we also open our online shop on our website http://www.yorkshiredeli.co.uk/ very soon.

Who are your ‘Food Heroes’?
Keith Floyd, Anthony Bourdain, Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay are my favourite chefs, and I have a soft spot for Nigella too! But the true and in many cases unsung heroes are the armies of local producers out there who devote themselves to quality food and drink, and who I want to help support through my endeavours.

...And you personal favourite places to eat and drink?
Locally, the Angel at Hetton takes some beating, along with The Far Syde in Ilkley. Our regular haunt is The Fleece in Addingham, which as well as being one of our local pubs, serves top quality food with a menu to cater for all appetites and budgets.

If I could do it all again, the only thing I would do differently is….
Do it sooner!

Food, Drink and Sex...

One phrase I am probably over-using at the moment is Food Porn. It’s even appearing in Good Food and I love it. I love it! It’s the perfect example of how obsessive we foodies can be.

Hell, even one glance around the bookshelves of your highstreet booksellers, groaning with fat, glossy, cookbooks can tell you that food has gone a bit, well, porny. If the Moro cookbooks are not a thing of beauty then I don’t know what is. And the shrink-wrapped, limited edition, heavier-than-the-Rosetta Stone French Laundry cookbook?

Well, that just takes it one step further. That’s hardcore.
Does this make us all perverts? Does this make UKTV and The Food Network our Playboy and Spice channels? Does this make Gordon Ramsay (he who is everywhere) Hugh Hefner –and if so, what does that make Nigella Lawson? Does a cooking break in Tuscany now have the same snigger-inducing credentials as residential Tantric Sex Camp?
Next, we’ll be needing credit card info to log onto the Good Food website, and food photographers will be moonlighting for Escort Magazine.

I guess it could explain the ramblings that erupt from my mouth upon entering food festivals, and those fevered, panic-induced buys (Honey – Look! Olives soaked in honey and vinegar with parmesan cheese – gotta have it, gotta have it…), whilst elbowing other greasy -fingered, foodporn-glazed zombies like myself out of the way. Come on, we've all sunk to this level.

We’re all addicts, and we love it. Now excuse me while I tend to my ‘secret stash’...

News Round Up 06/2007

The Leeds Food & Drink Festival 2007 is prety much organised now, see thier website for dates and events here...Market Town Tavern's website now lists all food nights at all thier pubs and bars across Yorkshire...Yorkshire Deli (see link) are now up and running - good luck!...check out North Yorkshire Local Food for excellent news of all farmer's markets across Yorkshire...and has anyone else visited the excellent Greek Gyro place in Kirkgate Market? Simple food but delicious - let me know your thoughts...

Market Town Taverns Global Press!

...Spotted an excellent article on Yorkshire's own Market Town Taverns in this month's excellent Beers Of The World Magazine.
About time, too. MTT are an outstanding company, putting the life back into the 'pub' experience in Yorkshire, and turning a new generation (ie, mine!) of people onto the joys or real ales from around the world.
It's in shops now, but you can read some of it here.

Prawn Saganaki

As I mentioned earlier on, this was the one meal that really captured my holiday. It’s a common Greek dish, usually served as a starter, although as soon as we returned we set about making it up ourselves as a main course with bread for mopping up all that sauce. It’s not an original recipe, but my version of one. All the ingredients were obtained from Leeds Kirkgate Market at a 9am raid!

Serves 2. You will need;
4 ripe tomatoes (bigger the better)
1 large onion
1 large pepper
2 dashes of Tabasco
A dash of Balsamic Vinegar
2/3 Garlic cloves (or as much as you want!)
Some Good Olive oil
2 bay leaves
Teaspoon of sugar
Black pepper/oregano/thyme
8 large, fresh Prawns.
1 block of feta cheese, cubed into roughly 8 or so cubes.

1.Make a basic tomato sauce – take out the tomato seeds and roughly chop. Chop onions and pepper and lightly fry in about 2 tbspns Olive Oil, in a deep pan, until slightly golden and softened. Add tomatoes, stir, add Balsamic Vinegar, Tabasco, Garlic, sugar, herbs and pepper and another couple of good glugs of Olive oil. Add bay leaves and simmer gently for anywhere from 15 mins to 30 mins.

2.Prepare prawns if you like them shelled

3.When sauce is to your liking, pour into large casserole or any other kind of baking dish. Place Prawns on top, with cubes of feta arranged throughout.

4.Bake at about 180 degrees for about 15 mins. The feta will crumble slightly and brown, and the prawns will be well done by then.

Serve with Bread for mopping up.

There you go. Easy. Variations; Any shellfish will do in place of prawns, or even a mixture for a ‘seafood’ version. You can make the sauce as hot as you like also, I guess.

One Small Step...

Inspired by my buddies over at An Endless Banquet (link on the left, link fans!), I am taking the unprecedented step of introducing some recipes to The Good Stuff. Although I’m no student of Escoffier, I can whip up a good supper or two.

Where this is ‘an original’ recipe then I will say so but usually I’ll just be offering my interpretation of something I have seen or tasted – much like my first one, Prawn Saganaki.

I’ve recently returned from a jaunt round the eastern Greek islands and was inspired by so much of the food there. Mediterranean cuisine is possibly my favourite in the world – it’s just good, wholesome food with no eye for trends or fads, presented ‘as is’, and usually is great for sharing with other people and a great big bottle of wine. What’s better than that?

If you do try any of these out let me know how they turned out.

Masham Sausages

Those of you who read this blog often will know I have a certain fondness the peaceful idyll of Masham. And why not? I’ve already mentioned chocolate supremos Joneva, and obviously the beer heritage is second to none with both the Black Sheep and Theakstons Breweries within walking distance of one another – but there is another supplier you must visit if you spend the day in this North Yorkshire foodies’ haven.

So simple, yet so easy to mess up...

The Masham Sausage Company and their outlet shop - Beavers Butchers - make, without a doubt, some of the best sausages I have tasted. I know what you’re thinking; It’s only a sausage; get a grip – but that’s my point. It’s not 'just' a sausage. Sausages, along with sandwiches, preserves, pies and any other ‘basic’ staples of our diet – are so simple to make, yet so many get it wrong. I wonder how many vegetarians made their decision to shun meat after an encounter with a poor, badly-made sausage?

The Masham Sausage Company’s secret, as far as I can tell, seems to simply be the use of the finest source meats and ingredients – coupled with a forward-thinking ethic not usually seen in ‘Traditional’ meat companies. That’s it. That’s all there needs to be. When their Chicken and Garlic sausage tastes as good as any Cumberland or simple Pork, you know they are onto a good thing. With up to twenty-odd varieties available, along with Black Puddings, Bacon and mail-order and delivery services to hand, there is really no excuse not to try this great, great shop out.

Oh, the inspiration for this post? A lazy sunday lunch of Masham Pork Sausages, thick onion gravy and golden, home-made yorkshire puddings - washed down with a pint of Black Sheep Yorkshire Square Ale. If that's not gorgeous simplicity, then i dont know what is.

www.mashamsausages.co.uk

News Round-Up, 05/2007

Good Stuff fave North have two pieces of great news this week – firstly, they are opening a sister bar, Further North, in Chapel Allerton – see website for more details; also, North are installing a new hand-pump which will mean a dedicated - rotating, mild, porter or stout…Salt’s Deli are now offering hampers filled with epicurean goodies for you to take to the cricket at Headingley - and have also announced they are going on the road by attending various farmer’s markets across Yorkshire; Leeds – 1st Sunday of the month, Sheffield – 4th Sunday of the month, Wentworth – 2nd Sunday of the month, Rotherham – Last Wednesday of the month, Selby – 1st Wednesday of the month, Headingley – 2nd Saturday of the month - Occasional – next appearance 9 June… Bolton Abbey Foods are now offering 2007 season Spring Lamb for sale – full details on their website…

Daleside Brewery - Ripon Jewel vs. Daleside Blonde

Daleside Brewery were the main sponsors of the Ale Tent at last weeks Dales Festival of Food and Drink, and seeing as though they were a brewery I was pretty unfamiliar with, I decided to do a little sampling myself!

First up, I was greatly impressed with their Ripon Jewel ale. I had heard good things about this before but I really didn’t know what to expect – it was a really refreshing, caramel-esque beer, which was very easy to drink despite its 5.8 abv. Fans of American micro- brew beers such as Sierra Nevada would love this. Unashamedly flavourful, I would recommend this with your heartier meat dishes, if you were into food pairing and all that…

On the other end of the scale, I feel the Daleside Blonde (4.3 abv) deserves a mention. Daleside decided to make a full-bodied cask ale, but then ‘lager’ the brew using cold-conditioning. The result? A beer that is pretty much a Lager, but with a really complex taste, not dissimilar to a high-end pilsner such as Jever. I took a crate of this stuff home and it really impressed, especially after a couple of days in the fridge. I plan to get more of this stuff for the summer, and it would go down a storm at a barbecue. Think lager has to be bland? Think again.

Daleside are pretty eponymous at the festival these days, but I think this is with good reason. Yet another highly recommended brewery to come out of North Yorkshire.

Daleside Brewery Ltd,

Camwal Road, Harrogate,

HG1 4PT

www.dalesidebrewery.co.uk

Wing Lee Hong Chinese Supermarket

Ok; bear with me – I’m going to get to the point soon enough.

You may be thinking “What is this guy doing putting a piece about a Chinese supermarket on his blog for? It’s neither independent nor local!’. You may be thinking "Does this place, huge as it is, need any further publicity?"

Well, I guess you’d be right on both counts; but, like I say, I have a point to make.

I didn’t even see it get built. It just popped up, a multicoloured, unashamedly modern chinese supermarket in the middle of grey old Leeds. But it changed me; it really did – the Chinese supermarket was no longer a place to fear – it was a place to indulge yourself, to find all those arcane ingredients that your Peter Gordon cookbooks had been blathering on about for years. Galangal. Nam Pla. Tamarind Paste (hang on – isn’t a tamarind a kind of monkey?! ). Yep, all those things are here, and in bountiful quantities – fresh veg and fruit with names you have never seen in print before are laid out before you the way Cox’s apples are at your local Blandermarket.

The freezers ache and groan with fish, meats, dumplings, rolls, any kind of oriental treat you could think of. And did I mention the noodles? There’s a whole wall of them – every colour, shape, length and province you could imagine – and a few more besides. You wish your condiment larder looked like the aisles of this place – jars filled with crushed chillies, ginger, hot sauces, pickled things, small fiery things for sushi – everything you want, at super reasonable prices.

But that’s not all!

Oh no. it’s the only place I can think of in Leeds where you can pick up one of my personal faves – Kirin Ichiban Lager. This stuff goes down so well with Dim Sum it should be made compulsory drinking at every oriental-themed meal time. The next time you see a great recipe on tv using things like Pancake Rolls or Miso Stock – don’t sigh and turn the channel. Go here.

The point I’m trying to make is this; I want this place to exist. I’m glad it does. So, it’s going on the blog!! The more people that know about it, the better!

Oh, and the website has some pretty good recipes on it, too.

Wing Lee Hong Co.Ltd.
Hereford House,6 Edward Street
Leeds LS2 7NT
www.wingleehong.co.uk

The Beer Tent - Dales Festival pt 2!!!

…Judging by the already-heaving marquee at just after 11am. The Dales Festival of Food & Drink isn’t just about local suppliers and hog-roasts…no, it’s about beer too. Lots of it, from the county that regards itself as the best in the UK.
…And I intend to take full advantage of that.

Where to start, where to start….

Well, upon being faced with at least 50 kegs of beer I fought the urge to go for some of my favourite brews (Copper Dragon, Black Sheep and Rooster’s in particular) and heeded the advice of my partner to ‘go for something you haven’t tried before'; and therein lies the beauty of the Beer Festival. It’s about the tasting, not the boozing. Honest.
Anyway, this seemed like a good strategy and with an excellent pulled-pork and stuffing sandwich lining my stomach I began.

First to be tried was the Goose Eye Chinook Blonde. Goose Eye is a great micro-brewery from Keighley, and I had sampled their excellent beers before. The Chinook was very hoppy, pale in colour and with a fresh, grassy aroma and, to my palate, a really long flavour. Not a bad start!

Next up was the Old Moor Porter from Acorn in Wombwell. I’m a bit of a porter aficionado and this brew makes me wonder why more people, especially those who like stouts, don’t try porter. The Old Moor was dry but with subtle hints of chocolate and coffee; not as overpowering as some porters, this was really a really impressive tipple.

Finally, after a little more food and more shopping, I tried the Captain Oates Mild from Abbey Bells Brewery – seeing as though it’s 'Mild in May' month. Again, this was a darker mild, with a similar overall taste to the porter, with coffee notes on the nose. However, this was particularly refreshing and a beer I would happily try again.

The sight of all the kegs lined up truly was a sight to get the tastebuds tingling, and a good reminder of the number of excellent, truly independent brewers we have in the North. Abbey Bells, Bradfield, Cameron’s, Hambletons, Old Bear, Ossett and Suddaby’s all were represented among many, many others, and the only downside to the day was that I couldn’t try them all.

http://www.goose-eye-brewery.co.uk/
http://www.browncowbrewery.co.uk/
http://www.acornbrewery.net/

Men with A Mission - Stonch's Beer Blog/A Pint of Ale

You'll find a couple of news link over on the link bar - Stonch's Beer Blog. For all those interested, nay, obsessed with beer (like me!) then you'll love this blog.
Stonch is on a mission to visit and document every pub in London - and still finds time to try brewing his own, which, by the looks of it, won't be long in coming. His article on Sam Smiths pubs in London is excellent also.

Also, I stumbled across a local blog here in Leeds, run by two lads who simply love beer and the pubs and bars this region has to offer. Thier blog is called 'A Pint of Ale', and is an informative read.

This are great blogs written by Beer Lovers for Beer Lovers - and i am pleased to link them both. Drop by.

The Dales Festival Of Food And Drink 2007

Well, it’s that time of the year again. The Dales Festival of Food & Drink is in full swing, and opening day was as manic as usual.
I’ve visited loads of food festivals, but this is easily my favourite. Stalls seem to grow in number and ambition each year, and the beer tent seems to offer more and more choice. In short, if the weather stays good, it’s a foodie’s paradise.

Over the coming weeks I will be bringing profiles on the suppliers that impressed me the most, as hard as that may be. The standard of this market is incredibly high – and a fantastic advert for local produce.

Raydale Preserves were in attendance as usual, and their excellent Jams and Jellies grow in range year on year. The Rushyford Game stall had a massive queue at lunchtime and their range of game and venison pies and sandwiches looked awesome.

Most impressive, however, were the sausages from The Yorkshire Dales Meat Company. Everything a sausage should be – porky, meaty and cooked to perfection. Their humble sausage sandwich was easily the hit of the weekend for us. Also impressing was the mackerel pate offered by Mackenzie’s Yorkshire Smokehouse. It lived up to the standard set by their bacon, which is outstanding. Smeared thickly on crisp toasts it made the perfect light supper on the return home.

The Pies and pastries on the North Country Lass stall looked absolutely perfect, and Loopy Lisa’s fudge proved that people still have sweet teeth when it comes to home-made fudge. Keep an eye out for profiles of these companies and many more over the forthcoming weeks on The Good Stuff, and a full run-down of the excellent beer festival.

Loopy Lisa’s
4 Loop Lane, Butterknowle, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham DL13 5JR
Tel - 01388718794
E-mail: loopylisasfudge@hotmail.con

Yorkshire Dales Meat Co.

Mill Close Farm, Patrick Brompton, Bedale DL8 1JY Tel. 01748 810042
E-mail: info@yorkshiredalesmeat.com

http://www.northcountrylass.co.uk/
http://www.mackenziesyorkshiresmokehouse.co.uk/
http://www.rushyfordgame.co.uk/
www.thedales.org.uk/RaydalePreserves

Feast.net

Those superstars over at Feast have sorted themselves out with a brand new website. For those who don't know, Feast work tirelessly supporting Farmer's Markets and Local Produce firms, organising events, training and publicity among other things. If your'e interested in supporting your local producers, from cheesemakers to brewers, then drop by. You'll find a permanent link here on The Good Stuff.

A Feast for The Eyes

Whilst browsing in Borders the other day, it occurred to me the cookery book section seemed to be growing. Fast. Cookbooks are getting bigger, more colourful, more specialised, more expensive – it occurred to me that in this current ‘foodie-friendly’ market, Cookbooks are big business.

And why not? After all, us amateurs love to write; even better to write about food. Call me picky; elitist even, but I think a really special cookbook should go above and beyond the mere nut-and-bolts (pots and pans?) of how to make a meal. I want humour, context, history – and, most of all – what makes this meal special.

So, to illustrate, I present to you my current faves. All should be pretty much available at your friendly high-street bookstore or internet site. Some are expensive, but again, as with food, sometimes you get what you pay for.

Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries; A Year in The Kitchen – Simply astounding; a captivating read as well as looking awesome and containing seasonal recipes, one for each day, that you actually would cook. The best cookbook I have seen since:
The Silver Spoon – To put it simply, you don’t need another Italian cookbook. It may be big, it may be rough, but it’s a godsend. Indispensable.
Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halle Cookbook – Not for vegetarians – if you like you meat and like it bistro style, this is for you. Everything is covered from basic knifework to planning a menu. All done in Anthony’s witty style.
Floyd’s American Pie – a great read and worth trawling the second-hand shops for. Some great stories and some great recipes, all classic American dishes from Po’Boys to Ceviche to Gumbo.

As for drinks, well, i'm yet to find a wine guide that isn't too dry (no pun intended) - but i can wholeheartedly reccommend 300 Beers To Try Before You Die!!! by Roger Protz. Colourful, info-packed and interesting. A vital reference.

Those are my main one at the moment. Keep your eyes out, especially in second hand stores. Let me know of any that are keeping you in the kitchen these days…