The proliferation bandwagon jumpers, of street food and ‘dirty cuisine’ has been gathering pace in Liverpool for some time now and the most recent addition to the fold is Hopskotch; located in the unlikely environs of Mathew Street along with the Hoax hostel and in a penchant for alliteration the downstairs live music venue inside Hopskotch, Hatch. Although the trend is getting a bit tiresome in terms of new restaurants being quite similar in style of cuisine on offer, I’ll be fair and rate things purely on merit here. Hopskotch, alongside Almost Famous and Motel, has been indulging in some social media ‘moistening’ of palates for a while, posting pictures of their experiments to drum up interest in their launch a few weeks ago. Initially, the food (admittedly, looking very tasty from the photography on display) looked pretty similar to offerings from established restaurants in a similar vein throughout the city, albeit without a fixation on entering the current fashion for the burger ‘arms race’ (though there are burgers on the menu, I hasten to add). So, is it actually any good? Well, in response to my own poser, it is very competent if unspectacular. The restaurant itself has a modern diner feel to it, wooden floors and brushed steel along with vintage squirrel cage Edison bulbs hanging from the ceiling; comfortable, functional and up to date. An excellent painting of John Lennon adorns an outward looking wall onto Stanley Street, a nod to Hopskotch’s location. The live music venue downstairs is intimate and comfortable, suitable for the set up which has precipitated open microphone nights in the basement venue, however, upstairs is where the food is at… The food on offer as you may have guessed from the posturing is in the vein of tapas style sharing plates, with an offer on of 3 dishes for £10 from this part of the menu. There are main dishes on offer in the form of burgers, salads, ribs, hotdogs and some vegetarian options and a good selection of drinks with some Brewdog amongst other craft beer offerings. The range of the international stylings are quite refreshing, with oriental style squid (not battered and deep fried – ‘under a brick’, no less), tacos, ribs and quesadilla style pastry parcels featuring on the sharing dishes, although the erratic portion size is questionable even by tapas standards. At just under £5 on average per dish, having the odd dish outside the 3-4-£10 can be pretty underwhelming in terms of value; if one has a hunger, the best idea might be to round your courses off to a multiple of 3. The standard of the dishes was nothing exceptional, as the squid was a little over cooked and floundering in soy and sugar and the pastry parcels nicknamed ‘the little fat one’ was not nearly full enough of pork and cheese making them look rather more anorexic than burgeoning. The chilli cheese fries were a touch burnt around the edges in an effort to ensure a spread of melted cheese, not to mention the ‘chilli’ was remarkably similar to the pulled pork on another dish we had ordered. The ‘little oranges’ arancini (so good they named it twice?) were crisp, well presented and seasoned enough with the mayonnaise, herb and mustard sauce thankfully placed in a separate dish; if the stuff had been drizzled over the arancini there might have been an issue – however used sparingly, the mayonnaise complimented the risotto balls perfectly in the context of the meal. The beef tacos were probably the strongest dish placed in front of us on the occasion; juicy, cooked and shredded perfectly making them tasty and very messy. The overall feel of the place is friendly and enthusiastic and the service polite, no cause for concern at all in their opening salvo of the first few weeks on the scene. Would I go again? Certainly, there is enough potential here to suggest something worth revisiting. To date, Hopskotch can be considered a solid if occasionally erratic performer offering a viable option for dinner; however, it does feel they need some more time to get to grips with their menu. Pedro. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hopskotch Website: http://hopskotchliverpool.com/ Address: Hopskotch Kitchen, Mathew Street, Liverpool. L1 6AU Twitter: https://twitter.com/HopskotchLvpl
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Something has been rumbling for a little while now in the Baltic Triangle area of Liverpool, located just a stone’s throw or three from Liverpool One the Camp and Furnace has gone modestly about garnering Liverpool with an impressive creativity. The creativity has seen the arrival of the Threshold Festival, Food Slam Events with new venues and ventures adding to the buzz including the Baltic Bakehouse, Unit 51 and Siren amongst others. It would possibly take another five articles or more to break the surface on each of the interesting aspects of the happenings at the end of Jamaica Street. Over the August Bank Holiday, the Camp and Furnace played host to the Summercamp event; a music and street food extravaganza featuring some pretty good bands and providing a contrast to the more mainstream pop on display down the road at the Pier Head and down at Sefton Park. Within the Summercamp itself, there were several pop up banquets alongside the music, cocktails, Craft Beers and street food vendors. These banquets have been orchestrated by the Camp and Furnace's very own Steven Burgess. Chef Steven Burgess has been heavily industrious of late, cultivating a reputation for inventiveness and impressive fastidious culinary skills. There have been a few events to date where Burgess has put forth banquets of his own for conceptual evenings both in praise of meat and vegetarian diets, so much so, the Treehugger's Banquet at August’s Summercamp event was to be followed by a visit by the yummy brummie himself, Glynn Purnell. The Treehugger's Banquet was a 10-course showcase of some relatively simple ingredients with touches of panache and the aforementioned inventiveness. Recently Marina O’Loughlin writing in the Guardian mused that anything beyond 11 was stretching not only the waistband a little too much, but also the attention span and capacity for enjoyment – more can be seen here on this interesting piece: [http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/aug/26/restaurant-pet-hates-ruin-my-appetite]. Thankfully, the ten courses fell below this bracket, although had it been more, I would have had no problem sitting for just a little longer to be both entertained and stimulated by flavour, excellent use of colour and presentation. The opening gambit of the banquet was a homemade cracker and cream cheese combination, decorated with fresh herbal sprigs and nasturtium flowers in a gentle and effective manner. Delicate flavours were paired with a sharp and grassy Sauvignon Blanc, with the dish itself balanced with great contrasts of texture. The second dish paired an egg yolk with potato cooked as a mousse and as small but crisply delicate puffs, punching in a surprisingly citrus flourish alongside a rich and creamy base to the dish. Possibly the most triumphant dish in the menu followed the potatoes, the use of a slow roasted garlic, duck egg and goat’s curd was magnificent. The heavy tang was frittered away from the garlic, leaving sweetness and a light pungency to sit with the rich duck egg and excellently accompanying curd. Here is where Burgess has and should continue to capitalise, simple and elegant flavours teased from excellently sourced produce. The Adobe Chardonnay accompanying the roasted garlic also paired well going forward into polenta, juicy gordal green olives and smoked tomatoes, allowing all the elements of the dish to work together giving a smoked sweet verdancy in the mouth. The Cauliflower dish was well thought-out, but possibly needed a stronger cheese in the flavour of the pannacotta to break up the velouté and caramelised cauliflower. The viognier wine pairing worked perfectly bridging the cauliflower dish and the course of sweet carrot, caraway and cumin dukkah; which gave an excellently worked earthiness under the sweet tones of the carrot and apricot. Tempting and competently baked beetroot macarons followed; deliciously crisp, creamy, sweet, earthy and chewy, they ticked all the boxes of expectation which precipitate from presentation of a macaron. The Rosé was possibly the weakest of the wines on display, yet it still found a suitable pairing with its dishes and paved the way for a Lancashire Cheese roller, rather heavier on flavour and texture than I would have expected, but not totally out of place. The ascorbic sweet and sour of the apple sherbet was a welcome touch on a doughy focal point and worked surprisingly well with a touch of the Branston pickle, secreted by the roller. Finally, the sorbet gave one last flourish from the banquet; resting atop a honey parfait, with the honey produced by local bees no less. The contrast in textures again, was well worked along with relatively safer flavours; safe possibly in context, but no less rewarding. The standard has now been set high by Burgess at the Camp and Furnace, with excellent diligence and competency from the front of house, the bar has been set refreshingly high in the most unusual of settings.
Venture to the Baltic Triangle while you can, the talent on display here has brought Simon Rimmer and Glynn Purnell and will no doubt please you. I know it has pleased me. Pedro. ----------------------- Thanks to Lian Challis for the post-dinner tour and insights. Special thanks to Jon Young for the excellent Photographic contribution. Occasional Supper clubs and Food Slam Fridays (usually on every Friday evening at the Camp and Furnace) More information on the Camp and Furnace can be found here: http://www.campandfurnace.com/ To follow Steven Burgess on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhub_custard To follow Camp and Furnace on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CampandFurnace For 100 days, Can Cook Studio will be aiming to raise funds of £100,000 in order to teach people to cook, thus improving diet and in turn fight food poverty… This is probably by the most difficult article I have had to write since I started getting back into writing about food and drink, but I can also add that it is certainly the most important. The opening salvo from Robbie Davison on this matter was to paraphrase Michael Pollan (the American food writer) in that “Cooking is a Political Act”. The context of this was rather stark; do you choose something for dinner that is a ready-meal made by a large faceless corporation – handily packaged in plastic and card which you ‘cook’ for 5-6 minutes and then pour onto a plate, or do you buy some fresh ingredients, maybe some tins or dried packets of pulses, add your own spices and seasoning in order to forgo the worrying amounts of sugar and fat contained within convenience? You can read a little more on Michael’s thoughts here: [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/michael-pollan-cooking-is-a-political-act-8640805.html] My feelings on the matter are fairly obvious, I despise ready meals and avoid them and would never stock them in my fridge or freezer at home in favour of raiding the cupboards or local greengrocer. The problem is that a figure around 90% of all under 25 year olds simply cannot cook from scratch, not realising all it takes is the ability to chop, boil and fry a bit of experience learning timings and a modicum of imagination. It is of no surprise that many of our European cousins are much healthier as a nation, simply because they invest more time in food preparation than we do in Britain. This level of apathy towards our diet and cooking is quite, quite toxic and attitudes do really need to change. The recent depression, cuts and problems caused by banking collapses across the world has hit Britain fairly hard, although not as hard as some other countries, and this has certainly exacerbated problems at home for many people; commodity prices have risen, living costs have rocketed and ultimately the price of food has been hiked hitting many with a shock. There are a record number of people who are now reliant on the use of food banks and charity in order to just get by on a day-to-day basis; many of whom are working families – this is simply is not acceptable in Britain today I am sure you’ll agree. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/17/food-banks-inquiries-poverty-cuts-wages The guys at Can Cook believe that one of the answers to this issue is to teach people how to cook, thus getting more out of the food they have, avoiding processed foods and ready meals which do not represent good value or good nutrition and I am heavily in agreement with them. If Supermarkets (who supply foodbanks in the main) do not experience a demand for processed foods and ready meals, they will not stock these items; instead favouring foodstuffs that are driven in by market forces – i.e. the things that you and I buy from their shelves and fridges. These should include items such as fresh fruit and vegetables, pulses, lentils and beans will provide the bedrock for many different meals and represent better nutritional value to everyone who eats them, especially compared to say a microwave ‘burger’. To date, the ball has been rolling quite significantly metaphorically speaking, Can Cook has been running for over 5 years, offering a number of cookery classes for both corporate and individuals. There has been engagement by the studio on a number of levels, with Robbie Davison (the Director of Can Cook) stating that they have engaged with over 30 schools in the Liverpool area and this is seen as the bread and butter level of teaching people to cook by way of improving their options and eating habits. Over the forthcoming weeks, recipes for substantial meals will be published in the local Liverpool Echo newspaper, with a budget of £1 per meal per person. Recently, there has been a lot of attention turned to Jack Monroe, who has been living on the tightrope of the breadline, having to be incredibly inventive with the food available to her and young son. Her signature recipe of a carrot, kidney bean and cumin burger coming in at 45 pence is a tribute to her skill, but also as Robbie points out, a dangerous president to set as a benchmark. You can see a bit more on Jack Monroe’s blog and situation here: http://www.theguardian.com/business/video/2013/aug/12/jack-monroe-cooking-breadline-video http://agirlcalledjack.com/ It is possible that from something positive, those in power could take a restrictive government viewpoint in that they will point to Ms. Monroe as an example to follow in cooking on a severely limited budget and not provide the benefits and funds needed to improve the situation. This is why the recipes have been set at a more realistic budget in the press, with value and nutrition being the key issues, not price. Everyone can make a contribution towards fixing this situation, the pledge card given to people at the launch event last Tuesday can be seen here: [http://foodpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/cancook_pledgecard_inc-bleed_v2.pdf], so you can see what the aims exactly are and how you can contribute if you can. Cheers, Pedro. ------------------------------------------------- More information can be found here: Can Cook Studio: http://www.cancook.co.uk/teaching-liverpool-to-cook-campaign/ Food Poverty Blogs: http://foodpoverty.wordpress.com/ In order to follow Can Cook on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CanCookStudio and Food Poverty - https://twitter.com/foodpoverty If you have any questions or want to get involved just give them an email or call Rebecca on: Tel: 0151 650 6444 Email: [email protected] |
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