Street Cleaver Pop Up

I happened upon Street Cleaver by chance thanks to a leaflet in the window of Kiosk. I love the opportunity to try out pop ups so we went to Lucky Days and booked ourselves in.

Street Cleaver describe themselves as creating unique, fresh and exciting street food. I was interested to see how they would do this in a restaurant environment and was pleasantly surprised. The dishes stayed true to the street food style but the dishes were elevated through their presentation to suit a sit down meal. With most of the dishes I could picture how they could be served in a cardboard container or in a brioche bun and be the sort of food I wanted to eat.

The first course of ‘winter spiced or cheek’ braised and charred ox cheek, red pepper, spiced beetroot powder and braised gem was a great dish. I didn’t taste much charring and I think this would have enhanced the dish but the combinations worked well. Have it in a brioche bun and you’d be very happy but put it on a nice ceramic plate and it holds its own as a part of a tasting menu.

The next course of ‘salt baked organic beets’ , goats cheese, pickle, anchovy, dill and watercress purée was my favourite dish of the evening. The richness of the goats cheese married perfectly with the sharpness of the pickles.

We then had ‘Pigs and eggs’ tender ham hock smoked and deep fried, cured yolk, crispy yolk, pickle and aioli. This was a really interesting dish. The Ham hock had a great flavour and the egg accompanied it really well. This was a definite street food hit.

The final savoury dish of ‘Mackerel and radish’ sweet cured and pan fried mackerel, local grown radish, grapefruit, vinegar scraps was the dish that disappointed me. I love mackerel and it’s a great fish to play around with but the flavours on this were confused and competed with one another a bit too much.

The last dish was ‘Something sweet’ chocolate, rum, coffee, coconut
This was an interesting dessert. More coffee and rum and I think it would be a real winner.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Street Cleaver if they get their own place as part of the development on Piccadilly. It would be a great addition to York’s independent food scene.

Nigel Haworth at The Star Inn The City

Seven years ago Mr Frivolitea and I went to Northcote, where Nigel Haworth is the Chef Patron, for our 10th wedding anniversary. We still talk about it. The gourmet tasting menu we had was the stuff of dreams. Champagne and canapés then dish after dish of stunning food, I can still vividly remember the salad! I couldn’t believe a salad could taste so good so you can imagine when the opportunity arose to eat Nigel’s food again in our own city we leapt at the chance.

The opportunity to hear Nigel himself talking about the food at the start of the evening made the night even more special. Once seated in the dining room we started with canapés of sausage roll and ham hock arancini from the Star Inn the City team. The arancini were particularly good and I think Mr Frivolitea could have easily eaten a bowlful.

We then started on the five course menu designed by Nigel to reflect the flavours of Northcote, cooked by Nigel, his son and the Star Inn the City team.

First up was the Goosnargh chicken liver parfait with grape jelly. The parfait was wonderfully whipped and light in texture with the grape jelly adding a nice acidity to the dish.

Next was the treacle cured salmon, seared west coast scallop, pickled ginger and caviar. The salmon had been cured for 18 hours and I really loved the asian flavours in the dish. The simple presentation really allowed the salmon to be the star of the show.

We then had caramelised celeriac and chestnut ravioli, celeriac tea and trompettes that were topped with a little dashi caviar. This was a really clever dish. The chestnut ravioli had a particularly lovely flavour and consommé that melted when poured over the dish gave a real depth of flavour.

The main course of butter puff pastry wrapped lamb, spinach and crosne artichokes used lonk lamb, indigenous to Lancashire stuffed with a chicken and mushroom mousse. The lamb was cooked to perfection and the buttery puff pastry made this a real treat of a dish.

The final course of Bramley apple cheesecake with Northcote blackcurrants, liquorice, herbs and flowers was a particularly favourite of mine. The cheesecake was so beautiful I almost didn’t want to eat it. It had a wonderfully fresh flavour and was a lovely end to the meal. The skill that went into the dish and the use of seasonal fruit was a true showcase of everything Northcote is.

It was such a joy to eat Nigel’s food again and be reminded of why I loved it so much first time round. If there was any criticism of the evening it was that there was quite a gap between each course but the food was worth the wait. I think we will be looking for an opportunity to go back to Northcote (hint hint Mr Frivolitea)

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….