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 ...
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 ...
Goose Island India Pale Ale
Hoppy, vibrant, refreshing and tangy to finish, Goose Island is a mighty fine American IPA. The Chicago brewers bottled ales are a staple of many of the best bars in the UK, with both the IPA and Honker's Ale permanent fixtures at our work's regular, The Cross Keys in Leeds. American IPAs differ from their UK counterparts. I don't think it's all down to the fact I enjoy them quite a bit colder than I'd usually ...
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 ...
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 ...
Hare & Hounds, Bowland Bridge
It seems like a wild goose chase, this drive through tiny lanes, sloshy piles of orange and yellow leaves, under a canopy of browning greenery. Both wing mirrors brush through the amber walls of the wild hedges are pinning us to the road like tramlines of a vanishing point. The last weekend of October is an immeasurably beautiful one in the Lake District, and after two full days of trundling around Coniston, Ullswater, Bowness and Kirkstone ...
Plot 16: The Fermenting Room
When beer and art collide: Modern Art Oxford's limited edition green hop beer Down a dark and wet side street between the less historical buildings of the city's shopping district, the white washed walls of Modern Art Oxford are accustomed to the strange and gangly structures of modern sculpture. But to the strange and gangly structures of humulus lupulus they are not. Twisting, reaching, helixing, yearning upwards, the leaf-heavy green bines have designs on the famously spired ...
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 ...
Golden Pints 2011
We saw the New Year in with Asti, barley wine and a drop of whisky. And cheese. And board games. And in suitably reflective mood this morning, here's a little celebration of the year we've just waved adieu too. These are a small bunch of highlights of a 2011 that was action packed, even though it meant blogging was harder than ever. Rather than awards, these are people and places we'd like to buy a drink for, ...
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 ...
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...
...my true love gave to me a delicious homemade lasagne. It really was absolutely scrumptious, but not particularly in-keeping with the season. So to accompany this feast and herald a climax to the Yuletide festivities, I brought a centuries old recipe back to life in the form of wassail. This winter warmer is a heady concoction of dark ale and spices fortified with a splash of something a little stronger. It's a bit like mulled wine for ...
Desert Island Beers #26: Leigh Linley
This week we have a friend coming to stay on our desert island. Welcome Leigh Linley! Born and bred in Leeds, Leigh has been writing about beer and food on his blog, The Good Stuff, since 2005, which makes him one of the longest serving food and beer bloggers in Yorkshire. And he sure knows his stuff. In conjunction with Dough Bistro (and soon also the famous Beer Ritz beer shop in Leeds) Leigh hosts beer and ...
Ivanhoe English Pale Ale
The guy behind the counter looks as decrepit as the shop, and the shop doesn't even look open, it's grape-bordered window dressing might be confused for a long boarded up newsagents. It leans against Ladbrokes on the Dereham Road, just a short walk (and not very scenic walk) from the pot-holed streets of Norwich city centre. Ivanhoe jumps off the shelf, of all the local beers it looks the most promising (though in fairness surprisingly few ...
Spurn Point
Just like Mike Parker, the author of Map Addict, for years I've been mesmerised by the enigmatic Spurn Point, that strangely shaped strip of almost-land that stretches from the tip of the East Riding of Yorkshire and awkwardly attempts to reach back downstream towards the sands of the Humber estuary. Spurn Point (or Spurn Head for many) is a sand bar that has been precariously edging it's way westwards over the last millennium of geological time as the ...-
April 7th, 2010Beer and Food, Stout & Porter
Rhodesian seafood on the rooftops of Lindos
I love mussels almost as much as I love alliteration. Ever since my first taste I’ve wanted to try them in as many different guises as possible. The best dish I ever had was sat on a rooftop in Lindos on the Greek Island of Rhodes – cooked in a hot and spicy tomato sauce, and not those small shrimp-like examples you buy in Morrison’s, but large, juicy, succulent mullusca in giant iridescent shells harvested earlier that day.
Seafood isn’t something I find particularly easy to cook at home, and Monday through Thursday it’s all about ease of cooking in our household (it’s a different story at the weekend though!). Enter our nearest supermarket and ready prepared mussels: cardboard-packed and shrink-wrapped in a garlic and white wine sauce.
These are really easy in an evening. We boil some tagliatelle to our preferred softness whilst frying some large farmhouse mushrooms and onions, throwing the mussels and sauce in a pan, and stirring the lot together. Voila.
Martsons Oyster stout with mussels
If you’re lucky enough to have a better half who will cook for you (because, 1) you can only cook within geological time frames as opposed to minutes and 2) you have an instinctive need to dirty every last utensil and pan in creating gastronomic delights) then I’d recommend spending the 10 minute cooking time selecting a nice porterstout from your beer cupboard to accompany the tasty morsels.
Marston’s Oyster stout is a pretty typical partner for this meal – it’s easily available in supermarkets and tasty to boot. It’s dark with a thick, off-white head. It’s usually creamy yet dry to finish, with hints of burnt wood sitting next to (often) slightly spicy fruit and sometimes molasses. The finish makes me think of dirty tyres, at least when it washes down our bivalved fruits de mer. It’s not bursting with flavour, it’s far the blandest stout, it won’t break the bank. And it goes well with mussels (and I guess oysters too!)
Tags: marstons, mussels, oyster stout, pasta -
March 23rd, 2010Beer Reviews
Burton Porter and some mussels on the hob
Smelling this beer from Burton Bridge brewery as I wait for a plate of mussels and pasta, I think to myself I’ve made a mistake. Not about Burton Porter (it’s excellent) but on this pairing). It smells of treacle – sweet and sticky – and compared to Sarah’s white wine seems too thick and dominant for the creamy seafood dish. A quick taste an there’s chocolate, with a hint of fruit, perhaps from hops.
But on tasting I change my mind, it might just work. A long, hefty sip leaves me wanting more, it is dark in colour and flavour but not to the detriment of drinkability. This isn’t smooth like Guinness but it might as well be, the ease is such as it glides own your throat.
It isn’t as sweet to taste as it first smelt, it’s different, tobacco, charcoal and smoke coming to the fore. It’s heavy with the mussels, but I love dark stouts with this particular meal, it changes it from something light and fresh to something rich and earthy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: burton, mussels, porter -
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