On bacon’s birthday a few weeks ago, we headed off to an unknown-pub somewhere in Halifax. Well, I was thinking about the one near York whilst bacon was thinking about the one in Halifax. With our wires crossed, it was no wonder we did not end up where ‘either’ of us wanted to be. As it was bacon’s birthday and I’m not allowed to point out his pigheadedness, we drove and we drove..and we drove. After more than 1 hour, we eventually ended up in bradford area – probably a good thing as well; it gave us a chance to head towards Ring O’ Bells

Bacon has been telling me about Ring O’ Bells’ prize winning pies for about 3 years now. We never actually went there together – bacon was under the impression that bookings were sorely needed and it was fairly expensive. It was quite untrue; most places in Leeds are actually more expensive than it, as we were to find out.

No bookings needed, even though it was 7.30pm on a Saturday.Excellent. I am not the type to make reservations; blame it on my can’t be arsed attitute.

We were presented with a mini-loaf of granary bread, complete with a pot of butter and a pot of garlic butter. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside…thinking of it is making me droolz…yumss.. Very delish. Love the presentation on the mini wooden chopping board as well. This item is on the menu for £2.95 for some reason; but they served it to us without us ordering anyway.

I chose the steak tartare for a starter that we could share. Yes, steak tartare makes it to one of my eew food list – raw beef??! Rest assured I have not fallen sick before with a steak tartare. Their version is different from the regular minced beef – this is actually well marinaded sirloin cubed into bite size pieces and shaped into a burger patty. It came with thin silvers of what is supposed to be melba toast – this has gotta be the yummiest melba toast that I’ve ever had before. Ever. It goes so well with the fresh and yummilicious steak tartare. Ooolala…suprisingly better than the ones I’ve had in Prague & Paris.

Yum yum to raw beef. Love the marinade, seems to be herbs with a generous dash of worcester sauce.

For mains, I went for the Duo of English Pork – slow cooked belly with roasted filet – complete with sage mash & apple gravy. The sage mash was superb, and the apple gravy had no noticable pieces of apples in it, only a slight tinge. The fillet was well cooked, but not overly cooked like most of the pork fillets I’ve tasted, therefore it remained moist instead of the dry, tough texture it usually adopts.

Just look at the absurd yumminess of the belly pork. It was extremely melt-in-your-mouth tender, topped with the yummiest piece of crispy crackling I have ever tasted..ahh I love crispy pork skin.

Bacon settled for the traditional Steak & Kidney, complete with suet pastry with herbs. It came with a full boat of gravy – I love it when the chef is not stingy with his gravy. The kidney was slightly too strong for me (I don’t usually mind it) but bacon throughly enjoyed it. The suet pastry was very filling – don’t be fooled by the size of the pie, it is very filling!

The inside of the pie is filled to the brim with steak and kidney pieces, leaving very little room for the gravy. Ah…now I understand the logic of a separate gravy boat.

The above comes with portions of steamed vegs and really really yummy hand cut chips. We were so filled at the end of it that we skipped dessert. I know, me, skipping dessert? We didn’t even order two starters! The service was excellent as well – I have an adversion to lazy bar staff, but the staff here were pleasant, helpful and friendly. What a huge change.

An ordinary looking pub, with exordinary good food. For the two of us it came up to just under £40 with beer. Bacon admitted that he might have been earning much, much less when he last visited Ring O bells – the period where going to McDonalds is a treat . They do a bargin price set price three course meals as well for £19, but as I couldn’t even fit a shared dessert in, am glad I didn’t get that.

The Ring O Bells
Hill Top Road
Thornton ,Bradford
West Yorkshire, BD13 3QL

You’re apparently not allowed to thorw missles at boats only, everything else is open season

This is how slow I am in posting – my guest have packed up and left about two weeks ago and I am still blogging! Really, it’s not my fault, blame it on the Twilight saga – I have been too busy reading up on all four books of the series AND watching and rewatching the dvd. Lame-o, I know.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, in the beginning of May we had a guest over from Malaysia, contributing to the endless eating out expeditions. We did not only feed (and ply her with drinks!) Mandy, we did some good ole traditional Yorkshire site seeing as well

On one her weekends here, we headed up towards the North Yorkshire Moors. No hiking involved – wind chill factor made it subzero temperatures up at the moors.

It always amuses me to see random signs like the above. It was only later that we realised there were signs before it saying PLEASE, DO NOT and STEP ON.

The whalebones at Whitby overlooking the Whitby Abbey…I love Whitby, one of my most favourite place in the UK. Actually, I love the sea in general so this is not suprising.

Lunch at the famous Magpie Cafe – takeaway of course, can’t be arsed lining up – just look at the queue! Crispy battered cod with a serving of chips – it doesn’t get more british seaside than this. Had to fight with the crazy amount of seagulls though..I don’t remember the last time I want to shoot down a bird. Oh yeah I do, hugeass piegons fly into Leeds Bus Station whilst I wait for my bus on a near-daily basis…all I can think of is yum yum deep fried piegon. How sick am I?

Seas in the UK are slightly different from what I’m used to….toe-curling chills in the North Sea! Probably the only place you’ll see me in jeans for a day out in the seaside. The water was suprisingly hovering around 10degrees, I was expecting much, much colder waters

Ahh. The traditional day-out by the sea, complete with moody grey skies, lighthouses and the promenade.

Whitby abbey from afar – £4 for entrance, we didn’t think it was worth it. Yeah, call me a cheapskate, but I needed to cap my day off with my favourite lemon-top sundae!

That’s me and drey. Totally insane.

the second book is slightly puffy due to me reading in the bath – I fell asleep and dropped it in. Such dedication

The past week have had us both furiously reading up on the Twilight saga. She started in March, whilst I only started last weekend. Hooked bait, line & sinker doesn’t even start to explain our crazy obsession with Edward..I am only glad that I did not discover Twilight on its’ first book; I would have gone totally insane waiting for the other books to come out! I am on book 3, and it’s not even been a week. Slightly stuck at book 3 though, getting annoyed at some of the characters. However, because we’re now having a daily book club discussion it encourages us both to continue reading book 3 and finish it, before we start with book 4. We hate werewolves….vampire love all round! I am getting so little sleep it is making me light headed, and when I’m at work I would be vocariously reading book 5 – probably a good thing it was incomplete and I have finished it today.

*swoons*

On a daily basis I am feeding drey with celeb scoop (and if you know me at all, you would know I don’t go celeb crazy – neither do I like love stories!) and other details from the author’s website. We are comparing which one of us is more obsessed – the conclusion is debatable. I am really going insane, reading up on all her outtakes & FAQ. I sent drey the pdf of the 5th book (which was leaked on the internet, therefore the author have decided to not continue writing) , and the poor girl couldn’t tear herself to leave the office after page 1- the book is just so gripping!

Girl meets vampire, girl falls irrevocably in love with vampire. Vampire meets girl, vampire totally attracted to the smell of girl’s blood. Vampire and girl falls totally in love.

If only that was the end. If only…

I don’t remember the last time I am so obsessed…probably when I was a teenager! I am actually angry at some of the characters in the books. Critics compared Twilight to the Harry Potter fame; I have always disliked Harry Potter.I dare you read the book. If you are lazy, I dare you watch the movie. See how long it lasts before you decide you have to HAVE the book too – and trust me, the book is 100 times better than the movie.

*swoons*

If there is only one book that you buy this year, make sure its’ twilight. And we’ll see if you get the rest of them.

ps: If you’re in doubt, click here for the rough draft of Midnight Sun (book 5), a retelling of Twilight(book 1) from the vampire’s prespective

I subscribe to Tiger Beer UK’s newsletter as they have competitions, coupons ect…below is part of the newsletter that I receive today:

SERIOUSLY….WTF!!! Nasi Lemak is as Thai as fondue or sauerkraut is English. For a beer brand that claims to be ASIAN, this is UNFORGIVABLE. Absolutely UNFORGIVABLE. I am so angry..how can the PR department be so IGNORANT? I won’t even be pissed off if they claim it to be Singaporean, but I have never ever ever ever seen Nasi Lemak being sold in Thailand before ever. Hey, even the name gives it away; in Malay Nasi=Rice Lemak=Cream. In Thai? kâa-wá-săan gà-tí (courtesy of thai-english translator)

I WILL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER TIGER BEER AGAIN. EVER.

hateu tiger!!

I need a beer now…

Everybody now:

Yes, its’ bacon’s birthday TODAY!!! I have therefore stole his recipe and make him something yummy. What he wants for his birthday is TO BE LEFT ALONE. Seriously, that’s not very nice for me and really, slightly insulting. So he’s spending the day watching SKY sports news…after bringing me to the debenhams sales, of course.

Inggredients:

3.5 ounces self raising flour
0.5 ounce cocoa powder
3 ounces butter
1 ounce oil
1 clementine, or other citrus fruit.
3 ounces caster sugar
2 free-range large eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp natural vanilla essence
125g milk chocolate

Slightly melt butter, and cream with sugar & oil. This needs to be beaten until the bright yellow color turns slightly pastel

Beat in eggs until fluffly, airy and light.

Add in sieved flour, baking soda & cocoa powder

Continue beating until fully mixed in

Meanwhile, heat oven at 180 c for 10 minutes

The cake mixture should be very thick now. Add in vanilla essence, zest from the clementine and juice from the clementine.

Continue beating untill light.

Chop chocolate (I use Cadbury’s dairy milk) into tiny chunks…I chop mine into four pieces per tablet. Fold it into cake mixture slowly

Scoop into individual cup cakes cups; bake for 12 minutes.

Poke a metal skewer in – if it doesn’t stick, it is cooked!

Icing:

1 clementine, juice & zest
icing sugar

Pour in about 100g of icing sugar
Mix in zest
Slowly mix in orange juice.
Texture needs to very very thick, bacon always says that icing sugar needs to be thicker than you think….otherwise it just won’t set properly!

I love it when I bite into it and get a suprise mouthful of the just-melting chocolate chunks. Mmmm mmm yumm.Thats what’s so special about this recipe…the lovely choc chunks. I love chocolate & orange, and 1 clementine has just enough juice to gently flavour the cake with orangey goodness. You can drop in some orange essence I guess….hmm, wonder if I can use orange essential oil? Is it essential oil even edible?