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I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of food on offer.

Eating in the very popular Sanraku – I can never resist Japanese food!

Last month, our local blog contributor, Anne Greaves went on a trip around the US of A, here she shares with us some of the places she visited and her thoughts on their vibrant food scene. Here’s Anne eating her way to a size US – well, gives it a go!

I recently went on a three week trip around the USA visiting Las Vegas, LA, the California coast, San Francisco, Denver, New York and Boston. For me eating and drinking is a big part of any holiday and I’m always eager to sample local food and find out how the dining experience differs from what I’m used to in the UK.

When I went to America I had a few ideas about what I might find there including stereotypical opinions about junk food and huge portions, and I definitely wanted to try clam chowder and some good Californian wine. I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to eating in restaurants but I knew that I had to take plenty of spare dollars for tips!

The Market at Larimer Square is an iconic restaurant, bakery, coffee bar and deli

Portion sizes are pretty much the same as they are in the UK

Dispelling the myths
In general my experience of eating in America was great! I know that things vary widely across the different states, but in the ones I visited (Nevada, California, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts) I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of food on offer. Perhaps it was naïve of me, but I wasn’t expecting such an emphasis on local food. In many places I saw farmers markets and in restaurants, cafes, shops and takeaways, local (and often organic) food was standard, not just an expensive option or a special feature as it tends to be here. There certainly wasn’t an abundance of junk food and it was much easier to eat out healthily in the USA than it is in England.

I was also happy to discover that portion sizes are pretty much the same as they are here. Granted I do have a big appetite, but I never felt over full and on the occasions when there was some food left at the end of a meal, it was the norm to take it home in a box. The only meal that was a little on the large side was breakfast when scrambled eggs or an omelette would often come with a huge pile of hash brown, toast and fruit.

Dining out
Eating in restaurants in the USA was very similar to eating out in England but there were of course a couple of differences. Firstly there were a lot more staff in American restaurants with different people seating us, bringing wine, bringing bread, taking our order and clearing the plates. It was also standard to have free bread and water on the table – a very nice touch I thought! Something else I liked was the availability of takeaway boxes if you couldn’t finish your meal. Tips were generally 15-20% and the same applies as in England that in larger restaurants if you want to tip the staff rather than the business it’s better to leave cash.

Food Highlights
Generally speaking, the food I ate in the USA was similar to the kind of food I’d eat here. Italian was widely available and really good, and I particularly liked the Italian districts in San Francisco (North Beach) and Denver (North End). We also found a great little Italian called Tony’s DiNapoli just off Times Square on West 43rd Street, where you ordered one large dish to share.

In California in particular there is a lot of Mexican influenced food and plenty of good seafood. I tried clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl in Monterey which was creamy and delicious – I tried it in Boston too to compare but didn’t notice much difference! In San Francisco there’s a very strong Asian influence and although I was planning on trying Chinese food, I can never resist Japanese and ended up in the very popular Sanraku where we sat in front of the sushi chef as he worked – another great find.

A final favourite was The Market in Denver which was essentially a large deli and coffee bar where you could sit inside and eat your purchases. I’d love to see something like this open in Sheffield!

I can’t end without mentioning Californian wine. The trip really opened my eyes to Californian white wine. I’ve never been a fan of white but there was so much good local wine available it became my drink of choice for much of the trip. I’m no expert but if you want a recommendation, the Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier was pretty special!

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Anne Greaves posted in the Hungry Tourist.

{ Thanks Anne for sharing your most recent holiday eats with us! – super jealous!! :) }

A small selection of my snaps from the Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival

Great Saturday afternoon atmosphere – even the sun came out to play!

More 'snaps' from the Huddersfield Food Festival 2012

To those who missed out on the Food Festival, it was a scorcher!
Food festival season is definitely upon us. So, being a massive food fan and giving myself a day off away from the Mac. Last Saturday, I (along with many thousands) flocked to the Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival at St George’s Square to sample produce at more than 70 stalls ranging from speciality breads and cupcakes; exotic meats, vegetables, olives, preserves, chutneys, savoury and sweet pies; from farm shops to gastro pubs, local breweries to cheesemakers. There was A LOT of food choice!!

Food festivals are a great chance to sample bites from your favourite restaurants, food producers and also try new ones. The Huddersfield festival’s programme also featured master classes from award-winning chefs but whilst I was there (Saturday afternoon 2-6pm) I didn’t get the chance to catch any cooking demos. There were also many activities for the little ones too, including circus skills with Darkley Circus and a ‘how to make pizza dough’ workshop with Pizzatainment which I thought were all nice family-orientated touches.

Oh, and this is a huge pork pie shaped as Huddersfield's Castle Hill by Hinchliffe's Farm Shop. Mouth watering!

We know where it's at: Huddersfield's Food and Drink Festival

Meet Kitchen, producers of beautiful breads, pretty pastries and supa-dupa meringues.

Timothy Bilton at The Butchers Arms with his tasty team serving Yorkshire puds and braised beef.

This was my first visit to the Huddersfield’s Food Festival and they certainly filled me up with treats. I was welcomed and introduced to a feast of the the best regional and local producers, many of which I’d never heard so it was fantastic to sample their food offerings. A handful of stall names I saw and met included the likes of; handmade meat pies from Andrew Jones Pies, Tim Bilton ‏of the Butchers Arms serving a traditional Yorkshire pudding topped with braised Yorkshire beef (the queue was huge for their meals), Villa Farm Shop, Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream – I cooled off with a two scoop of refreshing mint choccy chip and dandelion and burdock (as pictured above in the tub. Yummy) – I couldn’t decide between their new sundaes or ice cream and I should’ve had both! There was also The Chilli Jam Man, Kitchen – whose stall offered beautiful own-made breads – being a huge artisan bread lover it was hard to ignore their freshly baked fayre, with pretty (too-good-looking to eat) pastries and supa-dupa meringues (as pictured above); Round Green Farm Venison Company also caught my lips with their humongous burgers, and just as I was about to leave, I couldn’t leave without tasting Just Jenny’s Ice Cream – I first came across Just Jenny’s creamy stuff from Blacker Hall Farm Shop; Lovely, creamy mint choc chip and banana flavoured ice creams (as pictured above in the cone), and finally I ended my day washing down the day’s cuisine with some coffee from the Grumpy Mule (how cool is their name!? it certainly made me laugh).

There were just so many interesting food and drink stalls to try, and when I got home, I felt one trip just wasn’t enough. A great atmosphere all round, the visitors were really friendly (I didn’t know my way around when I parked up and a lovely lady led me to the Square!), and it was great to see we had the sunshine booked in too! :)

The Sheffield Food Festival 2012
Let’s hope our own Sheffield Food Festival next month gets hungry visitors taste buds tingling and empty bellies filled. When our city’s tastiest food festival returns with a weekend-long menu of food-filled events of eating, cooking and growing on Friday 14 – 16th September. The sharing of good local food encourages me to want to share good feelings so without saying too much, look out for your Missie Cindz lurking around some of these tasty food stalls. Whatever your taste, you’ll be sure to find a food and drink event and stall to whet your appetite!

For more information on the Huddersfield’s Food and Drink Festival visit:
www.htcpl.org.uk/foodanddrinkfestival
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Facebook

For more information on the Sheffield Food Festival visit:
www.sheffieldfoodfestival.org

The building now contains several artist studios and hosts exhibitions and art projects

The Cattle Depot: When art meets real bread

In this sentimental post our new blog contributor, Gregoire Michaud shares with us his reflections and experience of bread making to bring art and cultural change.

The Cattle Depot: When art meets real bread

Built in 1908, the Ma Tau Kok Cattle Depot was originally designed as a slaughterhouse and it was used as one until 1999. The slaughtering activities were moved out of town and the superb red bricked house was renovated. In 2001 the site re-opened as an artist village where people from anywhere and everywhere would meet to share a common passion for art. The building now contains several artist studios and hosts exhibitions and art projects – a place displaying colourful painting, sculpture, painted glass art, writing, musicians, concert, movies, theatre and everything in between is represented and found here.

The art of baking
Everything except maybe baking; to me, baking and especially baking real bread is an art form unlike any other. Of course, I am not talking about pouring a bag of pre-mixed flour and water into one of these Gotham-City-like bread makers, but more about having bread with fully developed features, using noble flours, natural fermentation techniques and the proper know-how of good bread making skills.

Wing recycles aluminum cans and other materials to transform them into beautiful sculptures

I was invited by our good friend Wing, who happens to be the artist behind the art produced at House Nº1 in the village. Wing diligently recycles aluminum cans, glass bottles and other materials to transform them with a genius trait into beautiful pieces of art (see photo 3). For instance, he grounds different coloured glass and organises classes with children where he encourages them to create their own designs. He will then bake the ground glass in an incredibly hot oven where the powder melts and combines together as a beautiful glass tile (see photos 1 above). The children also learn about recycling; how it benefits them and society, as well as being creative in producing useful art. On this particular night, we didn’t do much of Wing’s traditional art. Instead we had a couple of friends playing the guitar, we sung songs and the young children created plaster moulds that would be later filled with melted recycled materials.

The children getting ready to bake wonderful Schiacciata breads

Secretly without them knowing, in my backpack I brought along with me a few kilos of bread flour, some eggs from my friend Garry who raises chickens in the New Hong Kong Territories, a few additional ingredients which included black olives, fresh garlic, roasted pine nuts and herbs to bake wonderful Schiacciata breads. We mixed and kneaded the dough by hand and after the intensive labour (those of you who know about bread making will understand how much kneading is required); we had to wait several hours before baking it (to allow for proving). The children had a blast kneading the dough and shaping their breads – of course it couldn’t have ended-up in any other way than covered with flour! Shaped as simple flat round breads, proofed and brushed lightly with rosemary olive oil. Our breads baking in the oven started to disperse their heavenly fumes all over the workshop…our eyes started rolling and stomach craved for slices of the freshly baked loaves. We were hungry. When it finally reached the golden brown crust it deserved, we sliced the long-awaited loaves and shared it with everyone; the bread literally disappeared within minutes!

Feelings of positivity and inspiration
Sharing and eating freshly baked bread, sharing music, sharing the passion for simple and beautiful art goes hand-in-hand together in my mind. I see something common when baking bread, when we were kneading the dough with the flour swirling, mixing with the ambience of the old rustic building around us along with the old wooden carpentry and seeing the children playfully smiling; I experienced something I seldom have done before in Hong Kong. Perhaps it’s a feeling more people should get to experience nowadays, especially when we live in a city where these sort of feelings seem to have been forgotten; beautiful art and real-life experiences has been too often replaced by an omnipresent and hypnotising digital world.

Let’s get the scales out and get baking!

Ma Tau Kok Cattle Depot
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
Kowloon
Hong Kong

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Gregoire Michaud in Our Local Eats. {Thank you Gregoire for sharing your most recent baking experiences with us! A very touching and a lovely read.}

Our local blog contributor, Anne Greaves talks about breakfasts…

I’m a big fan of cooked breakfasts. I like nothing better than fueling up with a full English on a Saturday morning to keep me going for the rest of the day. But it’s surprisingly hard to find a decent breakfast in Sheffield city centre at the weekend – often they’re only served for a few hours in the morning or they’re not on the menu at all. After a leisurely morning at home I don’t think it’s unreasonable to sit down for breakfast (brunch?) around midday, but on many occasions I’ve found myself wandering around town looking for somewhere to eat and ending up settling for a cheese sandwich.

After extensive research, I’ve compiled a mental list of options, each with its own pros and cons. Over the coming months I’d like to share some of my top breakfast tips with you and where better to start than with my number one all time favourite breakfast spot… the Cherry Tree Café in Nether Edge in Shefffield. A 30 minute walk through Sharrow from Sheffield city centre will take you to Nether Edge (The number 22 bus runs through the heart of Nether Edge).

It’s hard to define exactly why the breakfast is so tasty but I think it’s a combination of good quality, flavoursome ingredients and the fact that it isn’t at all greasy. A typical breakfast includes baked beans, sausage, fried egg, bacon, plum tomatoes, mushrooms and toast and sometimes a black pudding if you want one (which I always do). It’s very reasonable too with a full breakfast, tea and toast coming in just under £6.

The tiny cafe only seats around 16 and the kitchen is in the corner of the room so you can watch (and smell!) your breakfast being cooked. I’ve often had a fairly lengthy wait for my food in the Cherry Tree Café but it’s totally worth it and you can sip your tea, read the papers and listen to jazz while you wait. What more could you want on a lazy weekend morning?

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Anne Greaves in Our Local Eats.

{Thanks Anne for sharing your most recent eat with us!}

Snig Hill Gallery provides a commercial platform for artists who work in all media.

Snig Hill Gallery also encompasses the Café Galeria Arts Café where you can enjoy a tasty selection of freshly made food on the premises every day.

Our local blog contributor, Anne Greaves visits Cafe Galeria, Sheffield…

Thanks to yet another brilliant Twitter tip, I nipped up the road the other day to check out Café Galeria in the new Snig Hill Gallery (twitter: @SnigHillGallery), one of a growing number of independent art spaces in and around Sheffield city centre for well known and up and coming artists. Café Galeria is fairly central to the whole Snig Hill Gallery experience, a beautiful combination of art and food that I can see is going to be a favourite Saturday afternoon activity for many months.

Walking into the gallery you’re immediately in the café which comprises sturdy wooden tables, mismatched chairs and church pews. The room is flooded with light and the plain white walls are hung with a variety of colourful artworks which gives you plenty to look at as you enjoy your food.

This is moist and delicious with loads of banana flavour!

Now on to the food!…
Well I was tempted by the tabletop chalkboards advertising banana bread at £1.40 a slice and as it was lunch time I also ordered coffee and a mozzarella, sun dried tomato and rocket ciabatta. The tweet I mentioned earlier said that Café Galeria was their new favourite lunch time haunt, and after eating there myself, I can totally see why! The sandwich was delicious – light, airy bread with soft mozzarella and tangy sun dried tomatoes – while the banana bread was every bit as moist and banana-y as a really good banana bread should be. The price was a selling point too with orange juice, coffee, sandwich and cake costing a very reasonable £7.

Along with a few sandwiches and plenty of cake options, the café also has daily specials including risotto, pasta, fish and salad. When I visited the spaghetti carbonara had sold out so the café must be proving a hit with local workers.

Café Galeria is open Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm and Saturdays 9am-4pm.

Snig Hill Gallery
24-26 Snig Hill
Sheffield
S3 8NB

Visit www.snighillgallery.co.uk to find out more.

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Anne Greaves in Our Local Eats.

{Thanks Anne for sharing your most recent eat with us!}

Little Mesters Cafe & Bistro is situated within Kelham Island Museum.

Inside Little Mesters you'll find high ceilings and exposed brickwork

Our new blog contributor, Anne Greaves visits Little Mesters Cafe…

The cafe at Kelham Island Museum re-opened on Sunday 10 June as Little Mesters (twitter: @Littlemesters1), so I decided to call in for breakfast to check out the interior and sample the food.

My first impression upon entering the cafe was that it was empty. Not surprising I suppose given that it’s a little out of the way and this was its first day of business, but I expected to see a banner of some kind on Alma Street pointing people towards it. The interior has been spruced up and the walls suitably adorned with knives and bolts arranged into neat patterns. As you’d expect from an old industrial building it has pillars, high ceilings and exposed brickwork, but the room was fairly dark and could have done with some brighter lighting. Another little gripe was the noise from the kitchen which was separated from the dining area by an open doorway. I don’t mind a bit of atmospheric background noise but loud discussions about our order, crinkling foil and a crackly radio echoed through the room – I’m not convinced that this would make for a very relaxing experience on one of the planned bistro evenings.

Specialising in British food using ingredients sourced locally within Sheffield

Food for Thought
Moving on to the food, I was pleased to see that breakfast is served all day on Saturdays and Sundays – far too many places stop serving around 11am, much too early for a leisurely weekend brunch. The breakfast options included various hot sandwiches, a full English and a weekend special of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Ordinarily I’d have chosen a full English, but given that I had Sunday lunch planned for a few hours later I thought I’d better not! I opted instead for scrambled eggs on brown toast and a latte.

The coffee arrived promptly with a little wrapped biscotti on the side and was hot, smooth and milky, a really tasty latte just how I like it. The scrambled eggs came shortly afterwards and consisted of two slices of simple brown toast, buttered and cut into triangles, with a large portion of scrambled eggs in the middle. The eggs were perfect, soft and creamy and just the right amount – if there had been any more I’d have struggled to finish the plate given how rich they were.

My flatmate had a sausage and egg butty with a cup of tea – although she was unimpressed by the tea, she really enjoyed the sandwich which consisted of two sliced sausages and a runny fried egg on a white bap.

The whole meal cost a total of £10.40, not a bad price, although some of the items on the menu seemed a little steep – for instance some breakfast sandwiches cost around £3.75 and a full English is £6.50 without toast or a drink. If the food continues to be as delicious as it was on Sunday though I’ll be happy to pay for it.

Little Mesters also serves a variety of sandwiches, hot paninis, soup and cakes, plus a few hot specials and kids meals. Look out for bistro nights starting at the end of July serving British cuisine – I for one can’t wait to try it!

There are a few little teething problems, but nothing that a closed door and a few light bulbs can’t fix. Most importantly the food was good and I’m delighted by the addition of this new café/bistro to the Kelham Island scene.

Cafe Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday 8am – 4pm. Saturday and Sunday 9am – 5pm.
Bistro Opening Hours:
Friday and Saturday 7pm til midnight.

Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Anne Greaves in Our Local Eats.
{Thanks Anne for sharing your most recent eat with us!}