This Is Camden
"I'll explain how the process works as I prepare your order" shouts Ahrash over the buzz of the crowds and the whirrrrr of the industrial food mixers. And donning a thick gauntlet, and dropping plastic safety glasses, he turns to the cannister containing nitrogen oxide and casually turns the latch, releasing a gushing of colder-than-ice-cold steam into the pureed ice cream mixture. This is Camden. This is England. Eating nitro ice cream in the 2010's and drinking ...
Build A Rocket Boys! by Elbow & Robinsons
Elbow are the kings of soaring melancholy, masters of poetic northern introspection. Let Elbow's albums flow over you and you can be mesmerised by their beauty alone. Put in the time to listen, to soak up the poignancy, the humour, the extraordinary manifestations of the ordinary and their albums become life affirming tributes to the everyday. Conversely, it's quite easy to stick an Elbow album on and realise thirty lethargic minutes later that time - and ...
The humble pint
So the pint is done with we're told! Well what would they say in Prague, where refreshing pilsners stand proud in tall half litre glasses, quenching thirsts almost with their looks and frothy gusto alone. Tell the football fans sinking a pint of bitter before the well trodden march to the ground that their beer will be served in flutes or tulips or whisky tumblers. "Like hell" they cry! The ugliness of a nonik pint glass aside (does ...
York Tap
It's a drinking hole essentially, underneath it all. For all the domed skylights and stained glass, people come here to let off steam, to pass the time, to forget the day. To drink. But to say that is to do York Tap a disservice as it stands resplendent next to the revived station complex. Like its Sheffield counterpart it was born in an old resting room, and the 104 year old building suits its new life ...
Meantime Union Vienna Style Lager
Deep in a basement bar not far from Bohemia, the cerny pilsners of the brewery up the road changed my perception of lager. Sweet and rich but surprisingly light, they distributed refreshment and nutrition as if feeding me and five thousand other thirsty drinkers. Meantime Union shares a similar contradiction. Broody and brown, this is is no pale bodied pushover. Lagered it is, and a tad metallic to boot, coupled with a dark caramel composition and ...
Roosters Pumpkin Beer
Roosters Brewery, whose beers are the staple diet of many a Yorkshire pub, marked this Hallowe'en with a pumpkin beer. No ordinary pumpkin beer though, a pumpkin beer served in nothing less than a giant pumpkin. A really, really giant pumpkin. Pumpkin 5 Spice Ale was tapped at North Bar in Leeds, in front of Calendar news and a small selection of excitable beer lovers. Arguably a more delicate task than tapping a cask, the job ...
Killer jerk chicken with killer ginger beer
Jerk chicken isn't just tasty to eat, it's a joy to make. The honey and coriander marinade is messy and sticky, the chicken succulent with a crispy skin - lots of kitchen mess and fun. Juices of bird and salad mean this a meal best served sans cutlery but with plenty of, well, Plenty. For a ginger beer Robinson's Ginger (brewed for M&S) is a dark and syrupy affair, quite different from a can of Barr's ...
House of the Trembling Madness
The goofy moose head gazes down aloofly from his lofty perch below the rafters, and we sit cradling a kriek and a pilsner in a building that has almost a millenniums worth of years on us. House of the Trembling Madness sits above the cobbled shopping street of Stonegate, York. The city walls skirt their circular path near here, the famous minster is but a Viking throw away. Students from the continent order coffee and thirds of ...
North By North Orval
Orval is the sort of beer spoken about with reverence. I like to think the same goes for North Bar. It should have been me and my friend Tom sat there, dissecting Leeds United's yo-yoing fortunes, laughing at the Howson Is Now blog and deliberating the creaminess of the Orval cheese whilst sat on the classroom chairs and the well leaned on tables. But it's my brother partnering this trip due to Tom's tight schedule as a relatively ...
Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew
From Pendle Hill you've more chance of seeing Ian Holloway celebrating at Bloomfield Road than coming across any broomsticks or clandestine hurlyburly. And that's on a cloudy day. The sandstone plateau does have a slightly spooky aura about it though. Standing proud from the undulating hillside you can imagine a cackling coven of witches peering over the landscape and plotting the demise of their rivals. Especially if you visit during thunder and lightning... Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew is inherently ...
Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2011
Over the last few months the Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt has been taking place providing a welcome opportunity to try some different beers from the familiar supermarket shelves. And in October Bad King John from Ridgeside Brewing was crowned winner of a six month national listing in 300 Sainsbury's stores. Bad King John beat beers from around the UK to the throne via four regional heats (120 beers), a three week stint in Sainsbury's stores (16 ...
M&S London Porter
Smoky as hell to smell and like a burnt caramel bar to taste, M&S's London Porter is a sweet beer to devour with masses of chocolate or marshmallows over a camp fire. If you don't fancy the great outdoors then no worries, the lingering smoky presence hangs around for a long time in your mouth and may invoke daydreams of sitting under the stars and gazing at the heavens. It's packed with malt variety: you can settle ...
Lakeland IPA
Tuesday night, two bottled bitters sunk and the quenches for thirst and flavour continue to itch away unabated. Cue Lakeland IPA, a beer that for one moment in time justifies the beatification of hops single-handedly. The perfect hiss released as metal hits glass and twists plastic; an aroma eager to reach a nose and knock on the door of the senses. Soft-fleshed fruit says hello - mangoes might not be typical of Cumbria unless visiting a certain kitchenware ...
Moor JJJ IPA
This not, I repeat NOT, an IPA. Punchy, citrus hops? Nil. Alcohol? Deep, stewed and sweet beyond believe. Apple skins & fruit pudding? Yes, yes, YES! None of which gives Moor JJJ IPA much credence as an IPA. But then again this isn't an IPA nor a double IPA. It's only a bleedin' triple IPA(!!!). This couldn't be further from Green King's bland and monotonous flagship brand of ale and is similar in nothing but colour. By their own admission Moor didn't ...-
January 11th, 2010Beer Recipes, Beer and Food
Potted Cheese with Toast
Like me, you are probably more familiar with the phrases Potted Beef or Potted Shrimp than Potted Cheese. ‘Potting’ ingredients is a traditional way of stretching ingredients with butter while adding flavours and it can be done with a good cheese in the same way as it can with meat or fish. These days it is a great way of doing something different with your cheeseboard and also linking the beer you’re drinking to the food you’re eating.
Ingredients
350g Yorkshire Blue cheese (Stilton or any other strong, crumbly cheese can be used)
Tags: Beer Recipes, beer with food, Food, Orval, Potted Cheese, Yorkshire Blue
75g unsalted butter (at room temperature and cut into cubes)
½ teaspoon ground mace
3 tablespoons Beer Read the rest of this entry » -
December 17th, 2009Beer and Food
On Sunday a bunch of friends in Leeds are having Christmas dinner. We’ll all be going our separate ways for the festive period so it’s a chance to catch up, eat and drink together, play some board games and enjoying finally admitting that we’re adults with houses now and not students still.
I’m in charge of beer and cheese, after picking some fancy samples at Lincoln Christmas Market earlier this month.
So I’m basically just looking for suggestions, as tomorrow I’m off to Beer Ritz to purchase the beers and on the way back stopping at Leeds Markets for the cheese.
Cheeses I have so far:
White Stilton Strawberries and cream – I’m thinking a strawberry Belgian beer
Yorkshire Black - a local Yorkshire beer?
Maplewood Smoked (just like Applewood smoked really) – a smoky porter or Rauchbier
Lancashire Apple, Raisin and Cinnamon – I’m stumped on this one!
I also have a bottle of aged Orval, but I’m greedily undecided as to whether I’m willing to share this with anyone!
Tags: beer, beer with food, black, cheese, christmas, Food, lancashire, maplewood, smoked, stilton, yorkshire
Cheese selection at Lincoln Christmas Market. The difficult bit will be finding beers to accompany all of these!
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August 16th, 2009Comment
The history of beer and brewing in this country is a rich and fascinating journey which, in these times of binge drinking and anti-social behavoir, is not always fully appreciated and respected.
Over recent years the population has generally become more environmentally aware and there has been a reversion to locally, even self, produced goods. Allotments and home brew, 20 years ago the reserve of only my Granddad, are now fashionable amoung younger portions of the population. This has in turn helped the resurgence of real ales for younger generations as well.
A little over 250 years ago in 1751 the artist William Hogarth released a pair of works titled Gin Lane and Beer Street. When viewed in conjunction with each other, the works sought to illustrate the advantages, to both the individual and society as a whole, of drinking British beer rather than imported Gin. Remember this was an age when water in London was unsafe and the brewing process provided some degree of sanitization. In an era when water could kill you, the benefits of drinking fluids that had been processed were obvious.
The link below take you to the British Museum’s page on Beer Street and Gin Lane so you can take a look for yourself if you are not familiar with the works…
British Museum – Gin Lane & Beer Street
So why do I bring this up here? The point I want to make is of course not that we should all be drinking beer rather than water in our day to day lives. Rather I want to highlight the potential of our own, British produced, drinks which could be used when entertaining in favour of foreign imports. I know that we regularly review non British beers and am not for one minute advocating a British only standpoint, this would surely only limit ones experience and I think everything should be tried so that people can find what they enjoy.
What I fear is often forgotten is the diversity of beers, ciders and lagers that are available, and how each these can compliment different circumstances and events. You will often see in my reviews that I state what I am drinking a beer with or the circumstances in which I feel it will be appropriate. I am therefore always on the lookout for recipes and suggestions of which beers are appropriate for certain meals. Is it possible that there will be a time when Real Ales are matched and drunk with meals in the same way as fine wines? I certainly hope so.
It is therefore always a great joy to me when I find an old recipe book with beer based recipes in a second hand bookshop or when I stumble across a datbase such as the one on the Hall and Woodhouse website, giving suggestions for food and recipes to enjoy with their different beers…
Hall and Woodhouse Recipes Database
I hope you enjoy these as much as I intend to.
Tags: Badger, beer with food, Hall and Woodhouse, recipes, Tanglefoot -
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