We very rarely eat out on a weekday, and when we do eat out, it is usually a quick and dirty takeaway, KFC or fish & chips. I both enjoy cooking and eating out, but as bacon don’t get home till after 7 usually, it just makes more sense for me to cook on weekdays and we can eat out on weekends. However, on a rare occassion where I run out of ideas of what to cook and there’s not much left in the fridge, we try to make and effort to eat out.

Like many people, I get trapped with a handful of restaurants that I go to. I make an effort to discover new places, but I do tend to repeat a few places, i.e. Sundays are buffet days, the same old thai, indian or chinese. Delicious, but seriously lacking in creativity. As for italian, we had been going to the same old restaurant for years now – I never try anywhere new because I love it, but it was seriously time for a change. I go past Viva in my bus out of town, but never stepped in before. After changing our minds about 10 times whilst heading into town, we ended up in Viva at last.

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The gregarious owner greeted us at the door and shook both our hands in welcome – a big change, I don’t actually remember the last time I’ve been greeted by the owner of a restaurant. All the staff spoke italian inside the cozy restaurant, peppered with some choice English phrases like oki doki. I found this very charming . We were in time for the Early bird deal (up to 7.30pm on weekdays) , which came with any pizza or pasta, choice of starters and desserts. For just over £10, this was an absolute bargain.

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For some reason bacon mistook this for the starter we actually ordered. No idea why!

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We both went for the deep fried brie. Coated with breadcrumbs, deep fried and drizzled with a balsamic sauce, this was heavenly. It did leave me quite full, but the melty cheese contrasted beautifully with the drizzle of sauce and the salad garnish.

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Bacon had the double pepperoni pizza. Unfortunately it was only sparsely populated with pepperoni. Bacon was not entirely impressed. Everything else tasted ok -lovely base, thick with cheese; just not enough pepperoni (I counted 8 slices) to be classified as a double pepperoni pizza.

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I had the chicken and spinach calzone. This was better than the pizza, filled with oozing cheese, lovely tomato concasse and enough spinach & chicken in the calzone. Yumms. We could not finish either the calzone nor the pizza, but they were more than happy to wrap it up for us to take away.

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However, there is ALWAYS space for desserts! I had the tiramisu, which was seriously one of the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I raved about Jamie Olivers’ tiramisu, but it doesn’t compare to this. Well-soaked sponge contrasts beautifully with just the right amount of mascarpone. Mm Mm good.

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Bacon had the creme brulee, which was lovely as well. We very rarely order the creme brulee, but this was so perfectly faultless. Creamy and sweet, topped with a crunchy layer of burnt sugar.

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Even the coffees have that personal touch. Call me a pushover, but a little latte art pleases me to no end

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Cheap, cheerful, friendly and yummy, I guess Viva will be finding its way to our growing handful of go-to restauraunts:)

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Viva Ristorante
9 Bridge End Leeds,
West Yorkshire LS1 7HG
Tel: 0113 242 0185

Second in my copycat baking series is the Famous Amos cookies! I am intensely addicted to the crispy texture and magical smells of these little buggers, but not only are they insanely expensive, they are super hard to find – in fact, I don’t think they even exist in the UK. Obviously this makes it harder to indulge in my addiction, and I only indulge in this whenever I’m back in Malaysia.

This issue have been left untreated for way too long, so it is with no suprise that it is the second recipe of my copycat baking session. After long hours of googling, I ended up using the recipe below. Unfortunately I cannot seem to identify where this recipe came from; so if it is yours, please let me know so I can credit you!

Now, right down to business. This cookie, although it does not look like the rounded lumps of the famous cookies, have the perfect airy crisp texture of the original. Maybe it’s because of the amount and quality of chocolate and nuts I put in, but it is INSANELY yummy and alike. Wow. It must be because of the large amount of baking powder, which made it very airy and crisp. Yum.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:

250g Butter
120g fine sugar + 100g brown sugar
2 lightly beaten eggs
320g flour
80g corn flour
1/4tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder – if you want double choc. I did not add any
100g nuts (I used chopped pecans, you can use almonds/walnuts ect)
250g chocolate chips – I used 300g accidentaly

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Combine flour, corn starch & baking soda in a small bowl & set aside
Beat butter and both sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and beat well.
Gradually mix in the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips & nuts.
Drop spoonfuls on baking tin
Bake for 10mins at 200 celcius until golden brown.

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And that was it! I kept mine in a tin to ensure it remained hidded away from me, but it helps in keeping it airtight as well to ensure the crispiness remains. I love a soft cookie like the next perosn, but I REALLY love the crispy crunchiness of the famous amos cookies. This is not 100% duplicate, but taste wise it is extremely close. Yum.

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I rarely post my lunches here as I’ve created a separate blog for it, but this creation of mine was way too good to miss

Cross posted from http://notabrownbag.wordpress.com

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Today I learnt a lesson on never giving up. I tried making the yellow bird from egg sheet the day before, but had stupidly mixed in the whites & yolks and added tumeric to bring out the yellow-ness. However, this just serve to turn it a dull brown dishwater color. Looking at the state of my eggsheet, I was very upset, and actually did not end up making a bento for myself that day.

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EVERYTHING about it was wrong. I was really excited about making it initially, and after an whole hour in the kitchen and producing this really sad bird, I was more than ready to throw in the towel. Gaah! After sleeping on it, I asked Lia, the queen of eggsheets, and she advised me that I should just separate the whites from the yolk and just use the yolk for the yellow eggsheet.

And success!!!!!

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Today’s bento is made for the bacon again, a giant bun filled with ham and crumbly onion chutney cheese. I covered the bun with another thin slice of ham to get the contrast. The box is filled with a mini salad, a whole nectarine, a small pot of pickles, a homegrown tomato (our first fruit from the plant!!!) and four wild blackberries.

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The speedy yellow bird is made from a base of yellow egg sheet and a half-moon of polony. I used two different cheeses for the eyewhites & eyebrow, a carrot beak and teensy nori eyeball, nori tail and hair.

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Here it is, warts and all! You can see I still need to work on my egg sheet.

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Just as proof that you don’t need cute boxes to start packing a bento, this sammie have been packed in a well-recycled ice cream container . Yeah I know, here is me saying that you don’t need a cute box for a bento whilst I have a large number stacked up in my kitchen cupboard.

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“I’d love to live in a city with a Red Bus tour. It shows that there is enough life going about in the city to attract tourists, and it demonstrates a city savvy enough to enrich the lives of its residents whilst preserving its heritage and culture” – my words to bacon a long, long time ago…

C’mon, even Great Yarmouth & Llandudno have one. That is definately reason enough for Leeds to have one, no?

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However, it was with much suprise when I saw the ubiquitious open-top red bus go past me on their trial run late in May. I thought it was a bus from York that was lost in Leeds. However, further investigations shows that Leeds had indeed received its very own open-top red bus tour! Oh my!!! Its only on during the summer months of June-August, but I was chuffed. There is nothing like being a tourist in the city you live in to appreciate the heritage of the place. I kept making excuses though – I can’t justify spending £7.50 going on a bus around the city that I go past every day – I’ve been to the Leeds City Museum, the Royal Armouries, the Town Hall. The bus even goes past my work place.

However, on a typically grey & rainy Saturday morning last weekend, I saw Leeds through the eyes of a tourist. Yep, I went on the bus. Leeds City Tours were offering free rides for residents on the bus, and I have no excuse not do go on it. A merry gathering of @Leedsgrub @gazpachodragon @BottegaMilanese and some others from the twitterland made this into an informal mini-tweetup on the rooftop of the bus.

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Katie & Bacon next to the big red bus

I’ve never really been given much leeway of where to live in the UK, with bacon semi-coercing me to this corner of his comfort zone. To be honest, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Leeds, there is so much potential, Leeds could be so much more. The fact that I love big-smog annoymous cities also did not do much good to the lovely gruff-yet-friendly northern city character of Leeds. The tour definately opened my eyes to the rich heritage that is Leeds. It was a lovely tour around Leeds, taking about an hour. AN HOUR?!? Yes, it can take a full hour to go around Leeds by stopping and waiting at various stops and going really slowly. I really didn’t mind though, it most definately did not feel like a full hour.

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Katie having a whale of a time

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Going past the old Tetley’s Brewery. Time is running out for this Yorkshire institution – the damned Carlsberg are closing down Tetley’s Brewery and moving Tetley’s operations to Wolverhampton. Like seriously. WHAT??! This most definately signifies the end of an era. I love Tetley’s – and incidentally, bacon’s maternal grandfather used to work for Tetley’s. Yep. Grandfather-in-law used to be an ale taster for Tetley’s. They send him all over the country to maintain the quality of the Tetley’s served in pubs. He drinks so much that he never drinks at home. I bet Skipps would’ve love to have that job .

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Weaving another tale, just to show you how ‘diverse’ bacon’s maternal family is, there is an old family tale that prohibits the family from ever shopping from Marks & Spencer’s . According to Grandma Bacon, many many moons ago, her grandfather had a stall in the Leeds Market in Kirkgate. Apparently Mr Marks opened a stall next to them, and his everything for a penny philosophy proved so damaging to the Bacons’ business that they went bust. They’ve held a grudge until now, and every generation of bacons were told this story and forbidden to buy anything from the giant that is now Marks & Spencer’s This lasted until bacon’s mom started working for Marks & Spencer, and the 20% staff discount proved too irresistable . So there, a little personal history for you:).

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Moving on, we went past the Time Ball, which used to house the famous clock-makers, John Dyson & Sons. This used to be where everyone in Leeds sets their clock to as it was synchronized to the time ball in Greenwich. Today it is part of the Marriot Leeds building, and it now houses an Indian restaurant.

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Briggate – the main shopping drag in Leeds. Unfortunately half of it is under renovation/expansion, and the left side of the road looks just a little fugly. I hate it when they call it the ‘Knightsbridge of the North’. Ugh and double Ugh.

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The River Aire. I love all bodies of water. Riverside real estate seemed to be perpetually under development as developers cottoned on to the great ‘River Living’.

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The ‘Rusty building’. This was part of the halls of residence for the massive number of students here in Leeds, and this building was designed to rust so there will be no need to paint it. Interesting.

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Leeds Civic hall

What was fabulous about this trip is that it includes a free ticket for the River Cruise. Unfortunately, the river cruise takes way too long for us impatient Leeds residents, but if you have the time and am visiting Leeds for the first time, I would highly recommend the tour. I took this whilst I was having lunch at the Calls Landing.

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And this was what I had for lunch – stew of Italian sausages & white bean with cheese for only £5, inclusive of crusty bread. Yums.

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All in all, a tres excellent day out in Leeds. Bacon validated most of the commentary as true and accurate, and even learnt a thing or two about this city that he loves so much. They made sure to mention all the important historical facts, for example, do you know the first ever moving picture was filmed right here in Leeds? Or that the Monopoly factory was right here in Leeds? Or that Grand Thef Auto was designed right here in Leeds? Hah!

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Alex & Bacon well happy with the tour

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There is room for improvement though. I would love to see the river cruise going all the way to Thwaite Mills, and the bus going all the way to Kirkstall Abbey, Chapel Allerton and Tropical World. Leeds is not only all about the compact city centre, it is much more than that..that little extra oomph. The tour was well worth the price of £7.50, especially if you took advantage of the river cruise. And I am not comparing this to the red bus tour anywhere else on earth and the fact that it’s cheaper. Leeds stand on its own legs, and £7.50 was a bargin for this very entertaining and informative tour.