Kiosk, York

I’ve been walking past Kiosk for a couple of months, every time when they are closed, intrigued. I love food and I love ceramics so the window display and interior of Kiosk kept calling me in. Kiosk is another recent addition to Fossgate which has a growing collection of exciting and independent places to eat and drink. Finally I found a day when I was free and they were open and set about getting some brunch.

What a fabulous place! The menu is simple but incredibly exciting. I couldn’t decide what to have but as fortune would have it I discovered I was sharing a table with Becky, one of the three owners. A quick chat about food and the decision was made. I was going to have the asparagus wrapped in bacon with a lemon and herb dressing but at Becky’s suggestion adding a fried egg and a slice of sourdough. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better the chef popped his head out of the kitchen and said he’d just made some fresh pesto with sunflower seeds and did I want some of that drizzled on top. Why wouldn’t I?

The food was perfect. Fresh, simple and really tasty. The coffee was also really great. The knowledge and love of making excellent coffee shines through. I ended having two flat whites because the first was so good.

I love everything about this place and I’ll definitely be back. Chatting with them about their food and what they love to cook was a joy. During the conversation I discovered they do ‘cantinas’ one evening a month. I couldn’t book on the August one as it is full before it has even been advertised (doesn’t that speak volumes!) but my name is down for September even though they don’t know the date yet. I wasn’t taking the risk of missing out!

Oliver Rowe Pop Up at Norse

I’ve been a fan of Oliver Rowe for years. Mr Frivolitea and I first discovered him through the TV series Urban Chef and then ventured to London to try his food. Konstam at the Prince Albert was a real favourite. It’s where I really discovered the joy of eating out and trying new things. I can still vividly remember the first time I tried lambs heart, skirt steak and spätzle all at Konstam. I also loved the idea of being up close and personal with the food prep, Oliver cooked in front of diners. I loved it. So imagine my distress when it closed and I no longer had an opportunity to eat his food. Oliver has been busy doing residencies and pop ups around London but it’s never easy to go when it’s 200 miles away. So imagine my delight when a cheeky tweet and the bravery to follow it up led to Oliver coming up to Yorkshire and doing some pop ups in Leeds and Harrogate and the double joy of Oliver releasing a book. The most beautifully written book showing such a love for seasonal produce. You see that’s what I love about Oliver’s food. It’s honest. It allows the ingredients to speak for themselves and it tastes great every time.

The pop up at Norse had some of my favourite things: Mackerel, Skirt steak, almonds.

When we arrived Norse provided some beautiful verbena and coriander seed bread with artichoke purée and puffed wheat.

Then Oliver’s first course arrived. A selection of ‘snacks’: Radishes with anchovy butter, potato with smoked curd and leek ash and quails egg with kohlrabi. All delicious but especially the anchovy butter, which I could have happily eaten on its own.

Next course was courgette flower stuffed with Harrogate blue, goats curd and honey. Simply delicious.

Then came the mackerel with a beautifully jammy gooseberry compote, creme fraiche and buckwheat.

This dish was paired with an unusual and quite superb biodynamic wine that was 100% Sauvignon Blanc grape 2013 Puilly Fume, Alexandre Bain. I don’t even know how to describe it, it almost had a cider like quality to it.

Then came the skirt steak, bringing back memories of eating it at Konstam years ago. The steak was cooked on Norse’s Big Green Egg and accompanied by beetroot and onion. The steak just melted in the mouth.

The final course was heaven on a plate: blueberry and almond tart with artichoke creme fraiche ice cream (a particular triumph I thought) and fennel crumble. The flavours of almond and fennel with the artichoke ice cream were simply perfect.

What a wonderful evening. Particularly special for me to eat Oliver’s food again and chat to him about his plans and opportunities. Now to persuade him to come back up north again….

Manjit’s Kitchen

Tucked away in a newly developed part of Leeds Markets is Manjit’s Kitchen. The new bit of the market is still a bit sparse with lots of empty kiosks still waiting to be filled but Manjit’s Kitchen, recently opened, is definitely a highlight and worth the visit alone. This area of the market has real potential with the communal tables and music spaces too.

We chose to have the Thali plate. £5.95 for three curries, rice, chapati and salad. It was an absolute delight. The curries included daal, a chickpea and spinach masala and a curry with paneer ( I was enjoying my lunch so much I forgot to take a photo of the menu!)

This was an exciting and great value lunch and the option of trying three curries really appealed to me as it gives you the opportunity to try different flavours. It’s definitely worth a return visit!

Laynes Espresso

Laynes espresso is somewhere we visit anytime we go to Leeds. Situated just round the corner from the train station, it’s a great place to have coffee. Their regular espresso blend is Square Mile Red Brick and the coffee is always spot on. Usually we treat ourselves to one of their cakes too. We have been known to pop in our way back to the station and get cakes to take home!

Today, for the first time, we arrived at breakfast time and after one look at the menu decided it would be rude not to try some of the dishes.We decided to share two dishes. The first dish was Shakshuka (Arabiata, baked egg, dukkah and harissa buttered toast). This is the best Shakshuka I have had. The balance of spices was spot on, the homemade dukkah and the harissa butter were a real highlight.

We also ordered the buckwheat pancakes with fruit compote, vanilla mascarpone and crumble. This was another great dish. The balance was just right with not too much sweetness and the pancakes were lovely and light.

We will certainly plan timings of future visits to Leeds to include breakfast at Laynes.

The Barn Bistro at Burniston (again!)

I’ve written about the Barn before and how much I like it. This time we decided to go for breakfast before a long walk along the Cleveland Way. We were not disappointed! I had Hartlepool smoked haddock with poached eggs, hollaindaise sauce and fried sliced potatoes. The haddock was really superb and the hollandaise sauce really well made.

Mr Frivolitea had omelette Arnold Bennett with Hartlepool smoked haddock. Really light and really tasty.

I can’t stay away from great food so we also headed back the next day for Sunday lunch before heading home. The Barn provides such high quality and exciting food for such great value. Just £20.95 for three courses.

This time we both had the Thai crab and prawn cake, prank hen’s egg and tempura green beans for starter (absolutely delicious)

For main course Mr Frivolitea had the roast beef and I had pan fried wild sea trout with king prawns and garlic and herb butter

As on previous visits a highlight is the side dishes that come with the main course. This time we had roast potatoes, celeriac gratin, sweetcorn with Swiss rainbow chard, leeks and streaky bacon and a roasted squash, tomatoes and peppers with feta. I have not visited anywhere else that puts as much love and attention into the side dishes as to the main event. It’s one reason why we keep going back.

Cowshed

Another weekend in Scarborough and we thought we would try somewhere new to eat. I asked for ideas on Twitter and Yay Coffee suggested Cowshed for burgers. We just managed to get an early evening table as it was booked up for the rest of the night. A good sign that this is somewhere people want to eat. Cowshed has a bit of a street food look about it, almost as if they have parked their gourmet burger van next to a hipster coffee shop (by the way this is a good thing.) minimalist decor and a small but perfectly formed menu.

This is not a place for the health conscious, it’s about really tasty ‘fast’ food but using locally sourced high quality ingredients. Mr Frivolitea and I both went for the burgers. I had the ‘it ain’t easy being cheesy’, 2 beef patties, choice of cheese (I chose Gruyere), beef tomato and shed sauce (described before it arrived as a McDonald’s style burger sauce which was a spot on description, seriously tasty sauce). Mr Frivolitea had the ‘Bacon BBQ’, 2 beef patties, ‘trotters’ smoked streaky bacon, tangy BBQ sauce, American cheese. I chose to upgrade to he sweet potato fries as my side. Oh my these were the best sweet potato fries I have ever had. The seasoning was something else! It had Chinese five spice and a salt and pepper seasoning. Definitely trying that at home. Mr Frivolitea also chose to get some deep fried gherkins to go with his burger which he said were very moreish.

This place is brilliant value with great quality food. We had mains, sides, drinks and coffee for £30. It’s definitely worth a visit, I mean who doesn’t want really good burger and fries?!

Cave du Cochon

Mr Frivolitea and I have been waiting in anticipation for some time for Cave du Cochon to open, knowing that if it had even a fraction of the passion and flare Le Cochon Aveugle has then it was going to be a winner. Oh boy, we were not disappointed. We have been in the last few months to a couple of wine bars that offer wine flights, bar snacks and platters. Cave du Cochon offers the same idea but with unique flare. We really couldn’t fault it.

We decided to go for the wine flight each. This came as 5 X 75ml glasses of wine and we decided to let the barman choose a flight of white for me and a flight of red for Mr Frivolitea. In hindsight sitting in the window was not the best idea as those walking past I fear thought we had a serious drink problem and this looked much worse once the wine was consumed and here was a lot of empty glasses on our table!

I really enjoyed the selection of wines we had, they were all new to me and all interesting and challenging in their own ways. I really like the idea of wine flights and someone else choosing the wines, it’s a great way to try new wines and learn more about wine. The barman was really helpful at explaining the wine to us. Later on in the evening he encouraged us to sample a couple of other unusual wines, his love and knowledge of wine was clear to see and that’s what makes this place extra special.

Our flights consisted of

White :

Picpoul de Pinet, Domaine Morin-Langaran (Languedoc, France)

Costlier de Nimes Blanc, Chateau Vessiere. (Rhone, France)

Soave Castelcerino, Cantina Filippi (Veneto, Italy)

Gruner Veltliner Handcrafted, Ma Arndorfer. (Kamptal, Austria)

Screaming Betty, Delinquente (Riverland, Australia)

Red:

Ciello Rosso IGP (Sicily, Italy)

IGP Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert, Domaine Coston (Languedoc, France)

Castillon-Cotes-de-Bordeaux, Chateau Beynat (Bordeaux, France)

Beck Ink, Judith Beck (Burgenland, Austria)

Malbec Sin Sulfito, Bodega Cecchin (Mendoza, Argentina)

We chose a selection of bar snacks to accompany the wine including pork scratchings with apple sauce , curried peanuts and pig terrine with homemade piccalilli. The pig terrine was particularly wonderful and I was nearly tempted to order a second!

We also, thanks to the advice of the barman, opted for the ploughmans platter as this enabled us to sample some of the other bar snacks and a nice selection of the cheese and charcuterie. It was a thing of beauty and consisted of beetroot pickled pheasants egg, Scottish smoked salmon, pork rillette, breakfast radishes with aioli, Saucisson, Corsican lonzo, Mimolette cheese and another cheese that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of! All accompanied with their homemade sourdough and homemade butter.

The food offering was delicious, and recognisably Cochon. This is a great place to go whether you just want to pop in for a drink or linger longer. We really enjoyed our evening and will certainly be paying a return visit soon not least to have a glass of the La Amistad we sampled as we were leaving. More of that when I write up the next visit.

The Poacher’s Pocket

One important thing my dad and I share, well two things, is a love of food and particularly a love of seafood. Any visit home will include going out for lunch or dinner somewhere and trying something new. My dad is often telling me of somewhere he has tried on his weekly trips out for lunch with friends and so the list of places I want to try when I visit just gets longer and longer. Somewhere that has been on the list for a while is The Poacher’s Pocket at Lisbane. So on this flying visit (literally) mum and dad took me for lunch en route to the airport.

The main reason for wanting to come here is the pudding but more of that later…

The Poacher’s Pocket is one of a small group of restaurants that Danny Miller is involved in. The Parson’s Nose being one that I have written about already. Like the others in the group there is a real focus on local produce. Finnebrogue venison and local seafood make regular appearances. As you would expect from me (and my dad) we went for seafood. In fact dad and I chose exactly the same things! I am most definitely my father’s daughter.

For starter we had the crab cakes. These little cakes were so tasty. And the lightly pickled cucumber that accompanied it had a lovely sweetness.

For main course, we chose the special: Megrim and triple cooked chips. We both chose this as it is a fish neither of us had tried before. I particularly liked the very light ‘batter’ that coated the fish and the fresh tomato dressing that sat beautifully on the plate. This was a really impressive dish and I would certainly choose Megrim again.

And then came pudding… The main reason for coming here. We didn’t need the menu, we knew exactly what we wanted. Pannacotta. My dad calls it the best pannacotta in the world and I think he’s right. It is the most deliciously creamy pannacotta I have ever had. It came with lovely minted strawberries and crushed cookies but they could have just brought a simple plain pannacotta and we would have been happy….If I had not been so full and having to get on a plane I would have ordered another. In fact typing this I now have a pannacotta craving.

Next time I visit I will definitely be having pannacotta and I will also leave room in my suitcase for a visit to the Poacher’pantry adjacent to the restaurant and stock up on all the amazing local produce they sell!

The Ship Inn, Low Newton on Sea

Mr Frivolitea and I make an annual pilgrimage here for one simple reason (well two) a crab stottie (Mr Frivolitea usually has Swallow’s fish cakes) and a pint of Ship Inn beer. This is a short blog post as there’s not much to say. It’s perfect. A free house that doesn’t faff about. Short simple menu, beer brewed on site and a fantastic view. That’s all that we require and it’s why we keep coming back!

The view towards the beach

Crab Stottie

Swallow’s fish cakes

It’s worth saying that they do an occasional special and on this visit they had chocolate mousse cake with cardomom honeycomb. Wow! It was amazing. Mr Frivolitea has decided all honeycomb should be cardomom flavoured from now on.

The Old Boathouse, Amble

Northumberland has been generous to us this weekend both in terms of the weather the bounty of seafood on offer. We decided as a last adventure to head to Amble. Somewhere on my list but not yet visited. I had heard that the Old Boathouse was the place to eat and we got lucky. We called in. No table but they could give us a table in 45 minutes. Excellent! A wander around the lovely harbour pods that showcase local food and artists then we would eat. 20 minutes later they rang to say it was ready early. Even better. This service alone impressed me before we even got to the food.

We realised how fortunate we were when everyone else who arrived that afternoon without a reservation walked away disappointed. The great thing about this place is that it really focuses on local seafood. They have a regular menu but the excitement lies in the specials board based on local catch available that day.

We decided to share a portion of salt and chilli squid to start. Simple and delicious. The crumb on the squid was beautifully light.

When we had walked in earlier I had spotted a lady with a huge bowl of langoustines. I couldn’t get them out of my head so that’s what I ordered.

I was not disappointed. They were deliciously sweet and juicy. I made a mess but I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner!

Mr Frivolitea had whole wood roast seabass stuffed with orange, chilli and tarragon and served with an olive and sunblushed tomato salad. This was also really beautifully cooked and full of flavour.

One thing I do know is that on our next trip to Northumberland we will be booking a table here. What a discovery!