We’re usually away for Christmas, so it was refreshing this year that we decided to stay home. This meant that the cat have the pleasure of our company (hehe), I was able to have an actual Christmas dinner on Christmas day, and got actual presents to open up! I got some speakers, a new sewing machine and other assorted knick knacks – Your Shape Wii game for one, chocolates, books ect ect…yay!

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Not to mention the magnificent snowfall! My first White Christmas – but thinking about it..I have not actually spent that many Christmases in countries that actually snow, so one in five is not too bad! Yep, I made the above on Christmas morning…

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And bacon made this, which is supposed to be a snow-cat

Unlike alot of people, I do not tend to get stressed out with making Christmas dinner. In fact, I quite enjoy it. It’s really not that difficult as well….and I do love making Christmas dinner with all the trimmings..

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My beautifully golden brown turkey. Yumm. My secret recipe is to brine it, let it swim in salt water for 24hours ; it makes the turkey wonderfully moist and flavourful. And NEVER follow the cooking time on the packaging. I cooked this for less than 2 hours (4.2kg bird), whilst the packaging reccomended about a 3 hour + cooking time. Of course, ALWAYS check the thickest part of the bird is not bloody before taking it out of the oven. To be honest, my bird could’ve done with only 1 hr & 30 mins, as I let it brown (without the bacon) for about 30 mins at 220deg before wrapping bacon all over the turkey for the remaining time at 180 deg. This browns up the turkey beautifully, whilst the bacon wrapping keeps it wonderfully moist. Lovely.

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I also made my fave festive red cabbage; with port, red wine vineger, cranberries, orange juice & rind, onions, cinnamon, nutmeg & star anise.

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And of course, the lovely trimmings – roast potatoes & parsnips, stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, sprouts with chipped bacon and assorted roast vegetables. I do love the trimmings.

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My piece de resistance – traditional American candied yam. This is the first time ever that I’m making it, but it is a very traditional American dish not to be missed with Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners. Fairly unknown outside of the US, this came from the 3 Thanksgiving that I spent in California. I have not had a full American Thanksgiving dinner for so long….and sorely missed the candied yams. Slightly misleading name – this is not a candy nor is it made out of what the rest of the world call yam. It is sweet potato, cooked in a lovely sauce of butter, maple syrup, spices and orange juice, it is then topped with marshmallows (yes, MARSHMALLOWS!) and baked till the marshmallows starts to toast – about 15 mins.

Serve immediately – the marshmallow crust looks deceptively hard, but its all soft and gooey inside, perfect mixed in with the sauce. I added some crushed walnuts to my sauce, and it tastes absolutely magnificent. Delicious. I like. Suprisingly enough, so did bacon – he had been apprehensive ever since I bought the sweet potato (sweet potato with my Christmas dinner??!! Never!!) . He was won over by this wonderful dish, the marshmallows just melting perfectly into the sauce. Bliss. Definately something that I will be repeating, with bacon’s seal of approval.

The whole spread – with homemade giblet gravy…. yummz.

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Until next year!!

Thanks to the girls at The Culture Vulture ,I blagged myself a free goodie bag from tonight’s event at my local Urban Outfitters!! Love it, love it! Urban Outfitters had been one of my very favourite brand since I first stumbled across it in Santa Monica in 2000. I remember the day when I spotted this guy overloaded with Urban Outfitters bags in central Leeds…if I did not spot the shop ten meters down the road, I would’ve chased after him to ask where did the bags come from! The edgy fashions, the quirky household stuff, lomography cameras and mad bags (remember my speakers clutch?).

Tonight was their christmas special – with 20% discounts throughout the whole store, the place was HEAVING. I couldn’t even buy anything…as I could hardly move to the queue. Sigh. Anyway – as promised, here’s my goodies!

From left-right: leopard print linen scarf, Levis’ 501 cutoffs, set of 3 headbands, two pairs of pseudo Raybans, patchwork dress, purple thighs, LEE 120 years anniversary bag and salt-and-pepper shakers

Sooooo fab! The only glitch is that the cutoffs are way too tiny, and the thighs are definately not my size – I am not very tall, but it’s made to fit girls up to 5ft 3! So I’m going to have to figure out what to do with them – I see a giveaway coming up! I squeezed into the pretty patchwork dress that only came in one size….loved the salt&pepper shaker. Incidentally, I purchased the exact same salt and pepper shaker in Sydney back in 2006 as a gift . The pseudo-Raybans are cute – not something that I would ordinarily purhcase for myself, but I do think its cute. So is the scarf – I so really needed something like this but had just not gotten around to buying one.

Definately very random – but I love it nonetheless!

@LadyRach was kind enough to send a me an invite for the press launch of Sesame; Leeds’ premier Urban Farm Deli. If you’ve been reading this blog for a few years, you would know that I had sadly but correctly predicted the demise of a few sushi/noodle places in Leeds…like Nooshi . I have a take-no-prisoners view on badly made sushi and imitation ingreddients, and nooshi was so far off the bat – so it was risky in my view to invite me to the press launch of Sesame! I decided that I would just not write about Sesame if it was as dissapointing as the others .So the fact that you are actually reading this now should give you an idea of things to come in this post.

Located in the haven of blood suckers lawyers in Leeds at St Paul’s Street, Sesame is an unassuming place from the outside. If you are looking for it and get kinda lost, it is not precisely opposite of Starbucks, but fairly close. Nothing showy or loud, high ceillings, airy and light, this is definately my sort of place. Just like one of the delis in Little Italy that I used to frequent in San Francisco…I like.

After saying hi to the lovely LadyRach and handed some champagne complete with pretty ribbons, I headed straight to…..what else, but the counter overflowing with these…

Cate’s Cupcakes are made by the lovely ‘cupcake fairy’ Cate…who suprisingly, is crazy about Tiffany jewelry as well. We had a natter over her delicious cupcakes and Tiffany’s suprisingly expensive enamel cupcakes.

Don’t you just love her cupcake tee!! She’s holding up a platter of her bite-size vanilla cupcakes in pink frosting, which I had a piece (would have just run off with the whole platter if she wasn’t there watching over her cake…very shrewd move indeed) . Very moist buttery sponge topped by the prettiest sparkly pink frosting. Yummz. Bacon even went as far as proclaiming this to be way better than @hummingbbakery’s (sorry, I can’t seem to stop using twitter speak) lovely cupcakes. Hmm. I shall reserve judgement until I try her version of red velvet…

The next person that I gravitated towards was this charming young lad who obliged my request for a photo

And just look at what he’s carrying!! Yay!! Salmon nigiri, New York Roto (smoked salmon, cream cheese & cucumber), California Roto (Whitby crab, avocado & cucumber), tuna maki….this is like my idea of heaven. The only thing I regret is not whipping out my own chopsticks (yes, I travel with chopsticks, so sue me) or the brains to ask for a disposable pair – eating sushi with fingers is a new experience for me.

Okay, now for the taste test. Fish is very fresh, no smelly fishmonger feel….rice has just the right amount of stickiness, and not too much rice to ‘pad it out’. All together very well made sushi – I had like 4 of these salmon nigiri in a space of 5 minutes…they were definately very delicious. I love the Whitby crab in the California roto as well, the sesame (obviously) were lightly toasted, giving it the extra nutty kick that most rotos need. I LIKE!

To be honest, I was relived to find that the sushi passed my taste test. I was dreading for another deluge of immitation wannabe sushi restaurant/store. Too many places sell pseudo sushi; instead of fresh fish, fried chicken & tuna sweetcorn ect are used. I guess it’s to cater to the British palate – I know of too many people who are terrified of raw fish. It’s nice enough, but just don’t try to pass it off as authentic sushi! I love the freshly made COLD rice (had salmon nigiri served on HOT rice before!). And the good folks at sesame are not afraid to flex their creative muscles as well….

No idea what this is called and it’s not on their takeaway menu, but it is smoked salmon and cream cheese rolled in thinly sliced cucumber,held together by a strip of nori. Okay, fine, this is not traditionally sushi, but bacon promptly declared this was his absolute fave. It was definately very delicious, a twist on the New York roto. Love it love it!

This wonderful platter wandered up to me as well – tuna pate atop a slice of cucumber topped with a spiral of mooli and sprig of mint. Definately more canapes than sushi, but this place is definately not proclaiming itself as a traditional Japanese deli – soups, pies, cupcakes, noodles, rice salads…..so they defiantely have earned the creative license to go crazy and create. Again, fabulously presented lovely fresh fish; it contrasts beautifully with the fresh crisp cucumber and sprig of mint & mooli spiral. Just what the doctor ordered. (PS: those were my fingers going in for the kill..hehe)

I let bacon loose with the camera whilst I chatted with the charming Louise who owns Sesame. Bacon naturally gravitated towards the other heartier options on sale – those that were not doing the rounds as canapes.

The seared local beef carpaccio on fresh salad and sushi rice. I absolutely love carpaccio…and this beef carpaccio looks so lovely in pink…can you tell I love undercooked/uncooked food? I feel hungry just looking at this. Wonder how it would taste like with wagyu beef?

Their selection of yummilicious noodles. Large cartons go for £4.90, small cartons start at £3.50. Beef wonton, salmon teriyaki, chargilled chicken, spicy vegetable & spicy chicken are the varieties available. Bacon’s been going on and on about them since we left…I think I might need to make a side trip to the deli to stock up on my way back from work.

i’s Pies, made in Ripon by Anthony. Like everything else in the deli, all fresh local ingredients, no preservatives and all that E-numbered variety stuff found in retail pies.

The collection of takeaway sushi boxes. All freshly made on the day. I can just imagine sitting there all day just picking on all of it…

The lovely LadyRach with Louise, the founder of Sesame.

We left with cute little takeaway bags, filled with discount cards, takeaway menus, a bag of matcha (will be turning that into matcha cupcakes this weekend!) and most importantly, a small sampling of the sushi selection and a pack of the yummiest wasabi peas..

I think my favourite is the California roto – fresh Whitby crabs is just so damned good in a sushi (did I already say that?). The good people of Sesame definately know what to do with their sesame – what lovely nutty flavours!!! (hmm…repeating myself again I think..)

Sigh. Now I have to go back and spend all my money before I go home tonight. Actually, that is not exactly true. Louise have priced the selection very well – and I told her that. Prices are extremely reasonable, with my favourite cream cheese stuffed pepper going for £1.50 a pot. It is about £2 at Tescos. Okay, Tesco vs Sesame….no prizes for guessing the winner. Miso soup goes for £1.50 for a pretty big carton – I would be happy to have one of these for lunch. Or a sushi pack for £4 for lunch – miles better than the hard-as-bricks variety stocked in supermarkets with ‘fake’ raw fish. Sounds too good to be true, there’s gotta be something wrong with Sesame right?

yep

IT IS TOO FAR FOR ME TO WALK THERE FOR LUNCH!!

Sesame Urban Farm Deli
Enterprise House
16 St Paul’s Street
Leeds, LS1 2LE
www.ilovesesame.co.uk

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!