The Hummingbird Kitchen, Leeds, Chapel Allerton - Brunch Menu

Brunch, the latest culinary trend to come floating across the pond from the states.  I don’t think it’s quite the craze that the burger has been causing in London and Manchester but certain people, myself included are starting to dig brunch in a big way.

Breakfast is already my favourite meal of the day, and nothing makes me happier than a long relaxing breakfast of adventurous dishes served fashionably late at lunch time. Problem is there isn’t anything that exciting for Breakfast in Leeds at the moment, I’m obsessed with chilli’s, peppers and eggs there made for each other, as is Frank’s hot sauce on nearly any breakfast bap with an egg in. No one seems to be brave enough to step away from the bacon sandwich with brown sauce in Leeds when it comes to breakfast.

Hold the press! I’ve just been made a fool of by Giraffe. I don’t like this place at all having eaten an average burger there once, but their new breakfast and brunch menu is full of Mexican themed dishes. I will have to try it out then I guess (I bet its crap). Apologies for ranting about breakfast, I’ll move on.

The hummingbird kitchen in Chapel Allerton has been open a while now and recently launched its new brunch menu hooray. Well don’t get too excited the menu isn’t the most adventurous thing ever, how about a bacon sandwich? Or if that doesn’t take your fancy why not try the chef’s latest culinary creation, a shining example of how much breakfast in the U.K has come on leaps and bounds recently . . . . . egg on toast.

To be honest I’m being overly critical the menu isn’t that exciting but at least they use good quality stuff and sometimes less is more anyway.  So we turned up for brunch at about 2:30pm (granted this is a bit late), the upstairs was rowdy with a large group of ppl getting lairy already so we sat downstairs.

I opted for the poached duck egg on toast with wild mushrooms. On the whole it was pretty weak, good idea bad execution. Simple things were overlooked. Cheers for the dry toast with no butter and the over cooked egg; simple mistakes meant this could have been so much better. The mushrooms were great I appreciate the extra effort in serving up a variety of wild mushrooms and the little bit of shredded beef they were muddled with was a nice touch. I’m not convinced I actually got a duck egg as oppose to a chicken egg. It was the smallest duck egg I’ve ever seen and it didn’t have that richness in the yolk you would expect. The rapeseed oil they used to dress the plate was no substitute in my opinion for a slice of salted butter.

My partner opted for the French toast with fresh berries and syrup, which credit where credits due was pretty bloody good. Better than any French toast I’ve ever made, the berries left a little to be desired though.

To wrap things up then, the Hummingbird Kitchen had some good ideas if a little unadventurous and I like there obvious direction with an emphasis on quality of ingredients.

6.5/10

Stainbeck Corner,

Harrogate Rd,

Chapel Allerton,

LS7 3PG

http://hummingbirdkitchen.co.uk/menu/brunch-menu/

Beer Post – Local & Exotic

I’ve been getting into my beer recently, don’t know why? I just have. So I’ve got two beers for you from very different breweries.

First up we have the Raspberry Blonde pale ale from the Saltaire Brewery. The Brewery borders The World Heritage Site of Saltaire, famous for its Victorian industrial heritage and is situated in an old generating hall that once provided the electricity for the Bradford trams. It’s only 12 miles from my house so I definitely have time for this place.

 

The beer itself was a choice of my girl friends back on the roof top terrace at Angelica again. It came served in a glass with ice, bit weird but it was nice cold. The beer itself was good, definitely a proper beer as oppose to those weird fruity ones you can buy now. Refreshingly bitter and light, smacking with raspberry undertones that didn’t overpower the rest of the beer.

Its not bad this beer I’d have it again, but its not something to get overly excited about.

6.5/10

www.saltairebrewery.co.uk

Ok beer number two! This one I enjoyed at Fazenda recently and I’m sorry to say  I cant find anywhere to buy it in the UK to take home. The brewers website list of UK suppliers seems a bit outdated.

Anyway this one is Xingu black beer from Brazil. It was pretty confusing for my pallet this beer. It looks like a stout which is not what I usually go for but drinks like a complicated lager, very trippy. Apparently this beer is a Schwarzbier? (I’ve never heard of it either don’t worry).

 

Definition: “Schwarzbier ("shvahrts-beer"), is simply German for black beer. It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. Unlike other dark beers, like porters or stouts, they are not overly bitter with burnt and roasted malt characteristics that the others tend to depend on. Instead, hops are used for a good portion of the bitterness. Very refreshing and soul lifting beers, they also make a great alternative for the Winter. Especially when you are looking for a lighter beer, but one with depth of colour and taste.”

Apparently Brewdog’s Zeitgeist is also a Schwarszbeir and seeing as this is my new favourite tipple I’ll have to make a concerted effort to try it.

This beer was really good, so good I put it up there with some of the best I’ve had. Personally I think a lot of beer tasting is down to personal preference and what suits me will not necessarily suit you. Still you’ve got to try this one I loved it, It went so well with all the strong flavours of the steak I was eating at Fazenda, standing up well but not leaving me heavy and sleepy like I was drinking Guinness.

Someone obviously agrees with me because “Xingu Black Beer is a two-time winner of Beverage Tasting Institute’s Gold Medal as the best dark lager in the world. “

9/10

www.xingubeer.com

Fazenda – Unlimited steak!!

Monday night I went back to Fazenda for my second visit. If you haven’t been already it’s an Argentinean steak restaurant with a twist. To be fair to the owner when this place first opened in 2010 it was quite a novel idea which has become more widespread in recent years.

The restaurant is essentially a buffet, (I know  . . . .  Sigh), but it’s a posh one and its actually quite good. Once shown to your table you are given a double sided card, one side red the other green. If your card is green side up the men walking around with great big skewers of meat come over and pop some on your plate, turn it to red and they’ll leave you alone. Trust me you will need to turn it red at some point to stop the onslaught of beef overwhelming you.

Meats available include: Picanha (Cap of rump), Filet mignon (Fillet), Contra Filet (Sirloin), Bife Ancho (Rib Eye), Alcatra (Rump), Costela (Beef or Pork Ribs), Bife de Presunto (Gammon), Cordeiro (Lamb), Frango (Chicken), Coracao de frango (Chicken’s heart), Linguiça (Sausage) and finally Morcela (Black Pudding).

Apart from the meat on  a stick you could always hit the salad bar, I say salad bar it also serves hot and cold dishes to accompany the steaks, an aperitif is always served as you sit down we had deep fried cheesy balls and beef empanadas and each table gets a little basket of fries. The salad bar is actually very good, with everything from smoked salmon, mozzarella and tomato salad through to Mexican beans. There are also absolutely loads of different types of good quality olive oils and some exciting fruit based balsamic vinegars to dress your heap of salad with.

The staff are very attentative and have good knowledge of the produce on offer. Our waitress recommended a Xingu black beer to me which was bloody lovely, more on that one to come.

Some of the meat could have been cooked a little better, the belly pork in particular was very chewy as was the lamb but the rest of the steaks were good. The more adventurous offerings are definitely worth a try the little black puddings are bursting with flavour and easily better than the lamb or chicken. Speaking of chicken the odd chicken heart comes round on a skewer which I urge you to try I found it up there with some of the best offal I’ve eaten.

We paid £68.59 for 1 glass of wine, a beer and the buffet (£25.99 pp) including the tip. Its not cheap, I’ll give you that but ironically it does offer good value. This place wouldn’t make any money if they charged you any less. Its not often you have man repeatedly coming past your table asking if you would like any more fillet steak couple that with a pile of smoked salmon and your in the money. Oh and they gave us minty tipped tooth picks to finish the meal (Nice touch).   

Larger parties on a weekend can expect to book a month in advance, the first table we could get on Monday night for 2 was 9pm.

In conclusion this place falls down on quality just a touch to much to achieve an 8, but it is essentially a buffet and the staff are great and you get a lot for your money. I’ll be back in winter to fill up before I go into hibernation.

A word of warning if you do decide to go, you won’t sleep well and the meat sweats will find you!

7.5/10

Waterman’s Place
3 Wharf Approach
Granary Wharf
Leeds
LS1 4GL

http://www.fazenda.co.uk/