Monday's Dinner - Tasted Better Than It Looked

We came home late from work and I was in charge of cooking. Dinner tasted better than it looked - just.

Beans - Jo

Curry egg and potato thing - Joe

Tuesday and a lonely baked potato

Joe has been ill for the last couple of days which means I have been a little bit lonely!  He went to bed straight from work on Tuesday, slept all the way through and barely stirred as I got up today as well.  Poor thing.

This meant that on Tuesday I was left on my lonesome, watching girl's TV (Don't Tell the Bride, Gypsy Weddings etc.) and reading the Rock My Wedding blog (a total necessity for anyone getting married).  I did at least pull off my nifty trick of a baked potato in forty minutes (chop it in half before you do the skewering) so I had some nice dinner to keep me company.  There really is nothing better than a baked potato with beans and a little cheese - its a classic for a reason!

Monday Sausages for girls and boys

Every now and again Joe makes pleading requests for childhood treats (egg and chips, sausages and chips and beans, fish fingers etc.) and I find myself losing all resistance.  I do at least try and find nice sausages, but the chips are straight from the freezer and the beans from a tin!  It's what seems to be a proper boys dinner and Joe runs long distances so he can eat what he wants.

Me, on the other hand, well I need my vegetables, but I'm not too much of a glutton for punishment so the chips are in and the beans are out in favour of some some tasty veg!  That's the girl's version.

Sausages, chips and beans (for boys)

Sausages, chips and vegetables (for girls)

Guest Post by Neil Walker - The Rib Shakk – Close but no Cigar

Neil Walker writes the food and beer blog www.eatingisntcheating.blogspot.com, and is based in Leeds.

Talented chef, and Leeds local, Anthony Flinn has built something of a foothold in his hometown over the years, with a seemingly endless empire of really rather good restaurants.

The simply named “Anthony’s” will always be his flagship eatery but it’s the beautiful setting of his Corn Exchange bistro Piazza which must be his crowning glory. If you haven’t been then I suggest you do so, it’s a great restaurant with a number of classy little independent shops skirting its border, in the beautifully presented arches which encircle the bottom floor of Leeds most beautiful building.

So it was with some surprise that I heard about a new restaurant, owned and run by Flynn, but which had a much more rough and ready menu of slow cooked ribs, fries and BBQ Sauce, and which seems at odds with the style of dining he has become synonymous with.

My initial impression upon arrival was a surprise at the lack of table service, and the slightly Nando’sesque dining experience of heading to the counter with your order and table number. Still, the menu is extremely good, with slow cooked brisket, full-on Flintstones sized beef ribs and a promise of expansive sides of succulent pork. Very promising.

We opted for a platter of pork baby back ribs, more BBQ pork ribs and a full beef rib, served with chips and chargrilled corn on the cob (£26). Oh and some extra sides of BBQ beans and ‘Slaw’ (£2ish each), along with a bottle of Chilean Cab Sav Merlot (£14.95).

Lets get the worst out of the way first. The pork ribs were way, way too cold. I didn’t send them back because we were starving and the fries and everything else were piping. Plus the actual flavour of the pork ribs was very good. Sweet, sticky, succulent and tender, but after a few minutes they were stone cold. In hindsight I should have sent them back.

The beef rib though was phenomenal. Charred, super tender, flavoursome beef in a smokey BBQ glaze that added to but didn’t swamp the lovely flavour of the brisket. Genuinely delicious and the highlight of the meal.

The chips and coleslaw were also excellent but the BBQ beans need a little work. I like the fact they were butter beans but they just tasted like butterbeans in a BBQ sauce, whereas the best I’ve tried are much more cooked down, and generally in a tomato based sauce with a BBQ edge.

Oh and the wine, it was pretty good and very reasonably priced. Though the reason I went for wine in the first place brings me nicely on to my final point – The beer menu is shockingly bad for such a good establishment. They’ve obviously opted for what they think are working class beers, with some misplaced nostalgia about the American South perhaps, but it’s a mistake. Blue Pabst? Please. Choose some brews that might actually compliment the food for Gods sake, or at least some beers with a modicum of flavour themselves.

To summarise, Rib Shakk has a lot of promise. The quality of the meat is very good throughout, the beef is fantastic and the idea is a good one. But a hell of a lot needs tweaking if this place is going to reach its full potential.

My advice is to give it a try while it’s 50% off for Twitter Followers and see what you think for yourself, maybe you’ll be more lucky than I was.

The platter

and the full thing - looks like a manly board of food!

Monday - Jo is the Debating Champ of Leeds!!!

On Mondays and Tuesdays I usually work late - in the recruitment world 5pm till 7pm is the best time to speak with the candidates that you want place into jobs and get juicy bits of information from! Jo was in the final of a debating competition as one half of team Ford and Warren (other half being Work David), against three other teams from high profile law firms in Leeds. The event took place in a very swish part of Malmaison and was hosted by James of Michelsberg Tailoring based in the very fancy Victoria Quarter - his blog and some background on the event can be found here.

As I said, Monday would normally be a late one but I decided that I would cut off a little early to go and see Jo in the debate, with no idea what to expect as a non legal eagle!

I am not going to go into a huge amount of detail as this is a light-hearted blog, but there were 4 teams of 2, split into 2 teams of 4 with the motion "this house believes East is better than West....." Jo was arguing against the motion. It was really fun to watch: I  was pretty impressed as they were only given a few minutes to get their points together and the hour debating was all free-styling!....see my tweets about Jo from during the event - look bottom up!;

After over an hour of heating debating, the judges went away to decide on the winning team, and the overall individual winner. The team award went to Pinsent Masons but they judges were all unanimous that......

JO WAS THE BEST INDIVIDUAL SPEAKER AND THE OVERALL WINNER!!!!!

Obviously I was very proud that she had done so well (and relieved that I had turned up!!).....below is a picture of Jo and the judges:

The best bit was the Jo won, but second best was that the prize is a bespoke suit from James Michelberg which will be my suit for our wedding - get in!!!!!!......Thanks baby!x

Oh yeah - here is dinner....beans on a bagel:

Wednesday & Thursday - with Joe moaning!!

For those who read this blog, you may know I get irrationally annoyed at 2 things.....

1. Finishing work late and then waiting for Jo to finish work even later!

2. Thinking (from my absolutely unimaginative point of view) that there is no food in the fridge and the only option is to eat out; otherwise I will starve!

The foul (but short lived) mood is usually when both these things are combined!....I rant and rave (sometimes with a little justification) but Jo knows that it is superficial and short lived and it leaves almost as quickly as it arrived....

Today we headed to work at 6.30am (me a finance recruiter to a networking event) and Jo (a trainee solicitor with a lot of work on her plate) and we got home together a 7.30pm - a long day! - luckily, as far as work goes, we enjoy what we do - most of the time anyway!

Tomorrow we are off to Jo's home town of Edinburgh and it will be great! Family to hang out with, lots of good food and relaxation. Jo is wedding dress shopping with her Mum so I get a free pass to go crazy in Edinburgh - woohooo!! At 32 and engaged to be married, my rock n roll plan is to grab a coffee and read the papers at Stag Espresso (on recommendation from Alex at La Bottega Milanese) followed by wandering about the place. We are also taking in a ghost tour which will be good craic.

Back to the food. I was home alone yesterday and this is what I knocked together. FISH FINGERS, BEANS AND TOAST;

Today Jo made a slightly better job of things with CHICKEN IN A RED WINE SAUCE, WITH BLACK PUDDING, EGG AND VEG.....