Saturday 16 July 2016

TWTWTW: out and about in Leeds

This week I learned a very important life lesson. Kale and vodka are not happy bedfellows.

Before I get to that though, a couple of Leeds eateries were sampled over the course of the week - it's almost like I'm in danger of having a social life! On Monday, D and I headed out for Thai food at a venue that we've been meaning to try for ages called Zaap. The menu read like an absolute dream with a good mix of small "street" dishes and larger classics like the ubiquitous green curry. The restaurant was bright and buzzy and packed out despite it being the beginning of the working week, but the food left us slightly underwhelmed. Nothing I could put my finger on but it was all just a little greasy, a little lacking in rounded flavours. The minced chicken salad (Larb Gai) was too perfumed for our palates with insufficient salt and heat to balance out the heavy handed application of lemongrass. We both agreed that the slightly more muted venue across the road, Thai A Roy Dee is superior if you're more interested in food than neon signs.

And then on Friday, a posse of ladies who lunch treated ourselves to a tapas and bitch session at the (I think) relatively recent opened Leeds branch of Iberica. Lots and lots to like here - my particular favourite dish being the chorizo lollipops that zinged with paprika heat. At £30 per head for more tapas than we could eat, a bottle of wine, two mocktails and two coffees, it was pretty decent value too.

It was during post tapas cocktails at another new venue on me, Be At One, that I made the unsurprising discovery vis a vis leafy greens and lemon vodka. I don't know whether it is supposed to be tongue and cheek or genuinely try to appeal to the clean eating brigade but the detox cocktail made with lemon vodka, lime juice, spinach, kale and pineapple was actually nasty. There wasn't enough fruit or acidity to balance the taste of iron. I adore kale, but this was just wrong. Fortunately, a porn star martini, made with passion fruit and vanilla vodka, restored my equilibrium and immediately leapt to the top of my favourite cocktails list.



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