A Change of Direction

Again, its been a while and the day to day running of the business as well as considerable domestic upheaval has meant that the blog has taken a back seat for many a month.

Thanks to all of you who continue to link here despite the lack of activity.

A change of direction is now on the horizon and a new blog covering all aspects of food and drink from Yorkshire will be appearing very soon. Watch this space for details.

Ian

Yorkshire Fizz for Christmas!

Hi folks - its been a while, but its time to dust down the old blog again - thanks for sticking with us through the quiet patches - and thanks for those of you who continue to link to us - much appreciated.

Our online shop has really taken off in the last few months and we've just taken delivery of a new product - a 2005 Sparkling Wine from the Leventhorpe Vineyard just outside Leeds, made in the traditional method.

At £16.99 a bottle, its a great addition to the Christmas shopping list and a talking point at any dinner table.

Limited stocks so don't hang about! Follow the link below to buy.

http://www.yorkshiredeli.co.uk/shop/wines-beers-and-spirits-c-20.html

A Break in The Sun

The Sun Inn, Kirkby Lonsdale, was the venue for a much awaited and hard-earned weekend break recently, and in stark contrast to a sadly predictable visit to The Fenwick Arms, this was one pub cum restaurant that had got it absolutely spot on in almost* every aspect.

Kirkby Lonsdale has long been a favourite destination for a day out but with days off being in such short supply recently it had been a while since I had sampled its delights in any meaningful way.

So I was very pleased to be able to secure a room at The Inn and also book a table in the restaurant for the Saturday night. As it turned out, the Dining Room was a tad formal so I opted for a table in the bustling bar. Very popular with locals it seems, and consequently with a great buzzing atmosphere, this was my sort of place to eat.

The seasonal menus are augmented by several specials and crammed with local produce. The menu screams fresh and prepared to order, and we were not disappointed. Starters of Butternut Squash Risotto and "Short Ribs of Beef in a mildly spiced sticky sauce" were superb, and my main dish of "Slow Roast Belly of Foragers Free Range Pork with Apple Jelly, Lyonnaise potato and red cabbage" was to die for. My companion's "Honey Roast Duck & Peach Sauce with Lyonnaise potatoes and braised leeks, pine nuts & apricots" was, reportedly, beautifully tender and moist.

I was too full to sample the local three counties cheeseboard - with the location near the borders of Yorkshire, Lancashire AND Cumbria, venues in this area have a vast range to choose from, but the next door deli "Churchmouse Cheeses" must be a help in sourcing the best examples from each.

Our wine choice from the impressive wine list sourced by two local companies - one specialising in organic wines - was the 2006 Puzzle Ridge Shiraz from Australia. I was very impressed with this wine especially at just £13.95 a bottle - packed with fruit and not too heavy.

All in all an excellent meal at good value prices in comfortable and welcoming surroundings. What more could we ask for? I will certainly be back.

*The only slightly disappointing aspect of the visit was the pretty dated bathroom facilities in the room which we since understand is the only one left to be modernised and scheduled for the new year, so I will forgive that. Otherwise, hosts Mark & Lucy Fuller have done a great job refurbishing this 17th Century inn since they took over a couple of years ago. Decor and design wise they have achieved an excellent mix of the contemporary and the traditional, creating a very welcoming place indeed.

The Sun Inn is on Market Street, Kirkby Lonsdale. I also ate well at the Snooty Fox, Kirkby Lonsdale (more 'pubby' but none the worse for that!) and The Highwayman - Ribble Valley Inns latest venture - excellent service and top quality pub food. I did not eat well at The Fenwick Arms, Claughton, but that's another story!

What a Nightmare!

I was lucky enough recently to have my first weekend off in six months, and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. I will post separately about the more positive foodie experiences of the weekend - and there were several - but as I found myself just a couple of miles from the scene of Gordon Ramsay's latest TV Kitchen Nightmare - The Fenwick Arms at Claughton, Lancashire - I just could not resist seeing for myself whether any of Ramsay's sound advice to the proprietors of the ailing eatery had rubbed off and resulted in what appeared to be much-needed improvements.

In this programme, Ramsay returned to the scene of a previous kitchen nightmare to see whether his suggestions were bearing fruit one year on. He had banned the obsessive plate collecting, quadruple heart by-pass surviving, debt-ridden landlord from the kitchen, only to despair as he wandered helplessly around his bar like a lost child, oblivious to the needs of his customers. Together they had launched the "Campaign for Real Gravy" in a desperate publicity stunt for the establishment, which was rooted in the 1960s in both decor and eating experience. I was very curious as to what it was really like.

Sadly, the result was probably one of the worst and certainly the most laughable pub 'dining' experiences in my life.

First of all, at 12.30pm on a Saturday lunchtime just days after having received reasonably positive national TV coverage, the dingy, cluttered pub was empty save for one lone drinker at the bar and our two hapless hosts. In the bar we ordered drinks, then food from the grubby sandwich menu, and were asked whether we "would like to be shown to our table now?". Ridiculously formal for what was to be a simple beer and sandwich lunch. We opted to sit at a table in the bar instead, but felt like naughty schoolchildren for insisting on doing so.

From this vantage point however, we witnessed the most appallingly unprofessional behaviour from the landlady who proceeded to regale the lone drinker with a breakdown of her staff, with a potted criticism of each one thrown in at such loud volume it was impossible to ignore. (Emma, I'm sorry but you are apparently seen as a continuing source of tension due to your RAF background and English degree! How could you!). Oblivious to her audience the landlady continued to opine that the TV coverage would more than likely result in people walking in and "treating the place like a pub"! Well pardon me for doing just that - perhaps it was the sign into the car park saying "real pub food" that confused me.

But then the "food" arrived.

My "Prawns with Marie Rose Sauce" Sandwich arrived naked and devoid of any sauce, and with a limp over-dressed salad and soggy chips; one of the most abysmal plates of food I have ever seen. My companion's cheese and pickle sandwich might have been of less interest to the Trades Descriptions police, but it was equally uninspiring. The breadboard crumbs stuck to the bread merely confirmed that they just weren't interested in encouraging our sort of walk-in trade.

I can only hope that the elaborate gourmet dining menu that the proprietor hold so dear offered more palatable fayre, but sadly there was little evidence of that either. Even the Gordon Ramsay gimmick "The Campaign for Real Gravy" was not in evidence in any inspiring way, save for the banner over the front door - a relic from the first TV show - and a logo on the dining menu, but no cabinet of merchandise etc, which surely anyone with a sliver of entrepreneurial get-up-and-go in them would have latched onto straight away. Certainly the hastily thrown together website seems to have lain dormant for some time.

I happen to live very close to one of Ramsay's early "Nightmare" venues (Bonapartes in Silsden, West Yorkshire) , which never survived the negative TV coverage and closed soon after the programme went out a few years ago. It is now reopened under another name and owner, and is apparently thriving. Sad though it is to see any business fail, one can't help feel that a new broom sweeping right through The Fenwick Arms is the only way forward for that place too.

Meet the Suppliers: No. 3 - Brazilian Flavours

I was interested in this article by Andrew Purvis in Sunday's Observer Food Magazine which looked at the various natural produce of Brazil and weighed up whether any change in the world's eating and drinking habits might help save the rainforests. One of the crops mentioned as a potential saviour was the highly sustainable acai fruit. The smoothie company Innocent have recently introduced the acai into its range, and as Purvis wrote:

Irrigated twice a day by the tidal waters of the Amazon, the açai tree requires little maintenance. Prune it occasionally and keep the grove free of weeds and disease, and it will keep producing fruit - eight to 12 baskets in two hours of picking, from a plot no bigger than a large suburban garden. If managed properly, an acre of rainforest will yield 14 tonnes of berries a year.

It is a high-income, low-impact crop for sure, but that is not the only reason it appears in Innocent's portfolio. Açai is also the ultimate superfruit, its reddish skin containing anthocyanins (plant chemicals that neutralise the 'free radicals' associated with disease and ageing) and other antioxidants. Weight for weight, açai contains 60 per cent more antioxidants than the acclaimed pomegranate, 2.7 times more than blueberries and over six times more than strawberries. Beneath its skin is a yellowish fat, making it rich in calories.

This was all particularly educational to me as recently, more out of a wish to celebrate the cultural diversity of Yorkshire than through any sound commercial decision, I had taken a supply of "Brazilian Flavours" jams which included Acai in two of its flavours, paired with both raspberry and banana respectively.

It hasn't exactly flown off the shelves of the cafe or our online store, but now that I know so much more about the provenance and nutritional and environmental benefits of this strange fruit, I will feel much more confident in recommending it to customers. Brazilian Flavours also assert that their Cashew Fruit jam is particularly good with Wensleydale cheese, so that could also be one unusual special sandwich on a future Yorkshire Deli Cafe menu.

Read more about the story of Brazilian Flavours here, or better still visit our online store and try the jams for yourself, and save your own little bit of rainforest into the bargain!

Angel Delight...

... or, Meet the Suppliers No. 2: Angel Chocolates

Over the six or so months that we had to prepare for the cafe opening, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the preparation was researching the range of producers and suppliers that would provide produce for the cafe menu. Apart from a considerable amount of desk-based research, we also spent time visiting Farmers' Markets and Food Fairs meeting with potential suppliers directly, which was very educational and great fun. During this period apart from firming up the cafe menu we also steadily built up the range of suppliers for the retail side of the operation, in particular having a mind to the online store that was to be our "Phase 2" project.

It was therefore a delight to find during one such visit to Settle's Sunday Farmers' Market that we had our very own small independent chocolate producer in Yorkshire. Angel Chocolates already supplied a number of independent retailers in the county, and they soon agreed to add Yorkshire Deli to that list.

Melanie and Leigh Torrance make their products by hand in beautiful Swaledale, importing the Valrhona chocolate from Madagascar, the Caribbean and South America.

Their five basic chocolates - three dark, a milk and a white - are supplemented by a huge range of variations including white with raspberry and blueberry, milk with peanut brittle and sea salt; dark with crystallised ginger.

Never having been a big fan of milk chocolate I was delighted to find that the 40% cocoa solid product from Angel Chocolates was a silky smooth dream. Even the white chocolate about which I'm afraid I just have a mental block (All those Milky Bar Easter Eggs I got as a kid maybe!) was more than palatable. But it was the three variations of dark chocolate that I was raring to taste. When the sample pack arrived it coincided with a dinner party I was hosting so I was able to garner general feedback on all the chocolates, but I have to admit to keeping some of the dark ones back for later! I kind of knew all along that I would find them irresistible, and I was not wrong.

Angel's own tasting notes do better justice than I can, so these are their descriptions:

Madagascan 64% cocoa solids: A beautiful and dynamic chocolate with strong notes of red fruits, acid/citrus notes and no bitterness;
Caribbean 66% cocoa solids: A a rounded and harmonious chocolate, mild in flavour for a dark, with delicate notes of almond and roasted coffee;
South American 70% cocoa solids: A powerful chocolate with cherry notes, acid/citrus overtones and a long finish.

For those of you near enough to Ilkley to get to the Cafe, Melanie and Leigh from Angel Chocolates will be visiting us on Saturday 24th November to conduct a tasting of their wares.

More details of the full range of products can be found in our online store. All the products make ideal and unique Christmas gifts but the Connoisseur Pack in particular is a superb gift as it comes with tasting notes and scoring chart enabling the recipient and guests to have their very own chocolate tasting party!

PS. For those of you outside the UK or for Brits too young to get the reference in the title to the popular 1970s powdered dessert, Angel Delight, here is an article about the stuff. Isn't the Internet wonderful?

Wines for Christmas

The next of our monthly wine-tasting events at the Yorkshire Deli Cafe is now confirmed for Thursday 6th December at 7.30pm. Entitled "Wines for Christmas", we will be looking at six fine wines from our local wine merchant partners Martinez, of The Grove, Ilkley, and offering a four-course bistro-style dinner to complement the wines.

Tickets for this event cost £24.50 and are available in the cafe or by emailing us with your booking request.

The wines and therefore the precise menu have yet to be confirmed, but will probably comprise one sparkling, two whites, two reds and a dessert wine or sherry. The menu will consist of assorted starters and canapes with the sparkling and whites, a main course with meat and vegetarian options for the reds, a pudding and cheese. Coffee and chocolates are also included.

All the wines will be available to order at heavily discounted prices on the night only.

Our tastings are entertainingly hosted by a local wine consultant Mike Wild, who ensures that the evenings run smoothly and with good humour. No previous knowledge of wine is necessary, just a sense of humour and the desire for a good night out!