OUT AND ABOUT | MEAT BOARD AND WINE AT OUTLAWS YACHT CLUB

Last week myself and friend Diane went to go and check out an offer that we had been meaning to snap up for quite some time. Every Tuesday from 5pm, Outlaws Yacht Club have a offer of a meat or cheese board and a bottle of house wine for a mere £15 - perfect for sharing!

We went for the meat board option and for their house red. The house red was a Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 40 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. Served at the right temperature this was pretty damn good for a house wine! 

Settling nicely into our bottle of wine, the Meat Board arrived about 10 minutes latter on a wooden platter with a plate of sourdough on the side.

A wooden board was ladened with Lonzino, Chorizo, Salami and a thinly sliced Pancetta - although I am not 100% sure if this is correct as the meats were not listed anywhere and did not match the description in the menu. Three little pots also accompanied the meat which were local producer Made by Jim's ale chutney, a red wine jam and olive oil.

The sourdough bread was served warm and slightly toasted. I would have prefered it to have been left un-toasted but the bread itself was delicious with a subtle flavour of aniseed drawing through - it was very good bread indeed.

The meats were served at room temperature. We tucked in and started working our way through the different cured meats. The chorizo was served in chunky slices, it was quite subtle for a chorizo and was slightly underwhelming in flavour for me. I prefer chorizo when it is strong and smokey.

The other meats were all tasty enough but were personally not a selection I would have gone for if I had been able to choose. Some of the cuts were extremely fatty... as most cured meat is, but I prefer leaner cured meats (or at least without strips of fat) over these.

Working our way through the board this was great food to share and to talk over. We were offered more bread and chutney as we'd some how managed to demolish the plater of sourdough that came with the board and devour the very more-ish chutney.

The staff and service was great and the atmosphere was an overall pleasant one. For £15 this is a great option to go for if you want to share some food over a drink with a friend and want to enjoy a nice relaxed evening in nice surroundings. There is something about this place which I really like - it's not pompous or over hip and makes for a nice escape from some of the busier Leeds bars. I will be back to try out more of their menu soon.

OUT AND ABOUT | PIZZA AT TAPPED BREWING CO. LEEDS

Always on the look out for a bargain eat that is fresh and of good quality, the other night I could not help but be intrigued by the buy one get one free offer on pizza at Tapped Leeds. Out with a friend for a post-work drink it was a temptation we couldn't resist and won us hook, line and sinker.

Whilst Tapped might be better known as the relatively new American-style bar to Leeds serving an extensive selection of craft beers,cask ales and bottles from all over the shop... they also happen to have a corner of their bar designated to a pizza station.

In comes Big Dan's Pizzas! Hand made on site, they use imported Italian ingredients and even use beer brewed on site to add to their pizza dough.

Pizzas come in three sizes at 7", 12" and 18". When I was there the BOGOF offer was only available with the 7" pizzas so with a friend (yes it's Diane!) we thought we'd buddy up. The cheapest 7" pizza is £3.50 and the most expensive was £4.50. We went for 'The Truffle Shuffle' and 'The Hammy One'. The most expensive pizza was used for the BOGOF offer so it came to grand total of £2.25 each.

With lots of competition on the Leeds pizza scene as of late there were high expectations. Two of my favourites of small pizza/slice offerings are Kitschen, which sell mini pizza's at £3 a pop and Dough Boys, with their most expensive slice at around £2.80 (that's if you're not counting the extremely generous half price slice offer they've got going on).

The pizza arrived at the table, it took a good 15 minutes to arrive but we could see it being made by 'Big Dan' in the corner. How can you grumble when a pizza is made from scratch before your eyes?

Splitting both pizza's in half, I first started on the The Truffle Shuffle. The pizza, small and wee as a 7", was loaded with cheese and toppings. Perhaps too many toppings for this little'n as it made the base quite soggy and difficult to take a singular bite from... a singular bite that is without having the whole piece of pizza slop off very attractively on your chin (A very serious fear of mine due to a pizza cheese burn on my chin from my younger years!). The pizza was hot, but luckily not burn-worthy so my chin and I were alright there!

The toppings were a delight and a nice surprise. Good quality and well matched flavours with the buffalo mozzarella white truffle salami, grilled fennel and capers. It had a great bittersweet taste to it and all the flavours came through sharply. I am however a little bit fussy when it came to the cheese, with the cheese being rather clumpy and heavy, making it overall too much for the small pizza.

On to The Hammy One. This was topped with buffalo mozzarella (again, too clumpy and too much for me!), Italian gran cotto ham, mushrooms and garlic. I'm sure this pizza would have tasted a lot better if I hadn't still had the taste of the previous pizza still lingering in my mouth. As with the last pizza, the base on this one was also rather soggy and sloppy from the toppings. The flavours were there, but unfortunately they were no match compared to The Truffle Shuffle.

Overall, for the bargain offer that was available for FRESHLY made pizza one can't complain. I would be interested to try their pizza in a larger size to see if the base held up better. I definitely recommend trying The Truffle Shuffle if you like a good interesting pizza and to hit up their 2-4-1 offer (available every Monday and Tuesday) if you are down that end of town.

Tapped Leeds is obviously not a restaurant and it does not specialise in pizza, however 'Big Dan's Pizza' and their little pizza station in the corner are doing a great job of offering some good in-bar grub which is made to order and uses fresh, quality ingredients.

Have you tried pizza from Tapped Leeds? Or do you have a favourite pizza haunt in Leeds?

OUT AND ABOUT | LA TASCA BAR DE SANGRIA LAUNCH

A few weeks ago I was invited to La Tasca for the launch of their new Bar de Sangria in Leeds.

Basing their new menu on using only the finest quality fresh ingredients, head chef Antony sources ingredients from as many artisan suppliers across Spain as possible.

Specialising in sangria (of course), as well as paella and tapas, La Tasca have re-branded and returned with a new authentic take on traditional Spanish cuisine and drink.

Arriving at La Tasca, we walked through the restaurant and were guided to a spiral staircase which led down to the bar. Down we hopped and a busy bar welcoming us with lots of friendly greetings from bar and PR staff.

Awaiting us at the bar were multiple glasses of dark red sangria so we dived in. At first we were not sure what to expect about what the night ahead entailed, but we were soon informed that there would be a big paella cooked live by a chef with some tapas dishes on offer too.

As we took a seat, the chef set up to cook the paella and we watched in awe. A huge paella pan adorned the table with dozens of fresh ingredients being thrown in. Chorizo and chicken paella was being made and boy did it smell good as the wafts of smoked paprika spread the room.

Whilst watching the paella being made we went through a few sangria's, however every single glass we were given tasted completely different and ranged from a rose to a deep red. My only qualm about the quality.

The food was ready and we all dived in. As well as paella we were lucky enough to sample some delicious tapas, including chorizo, rustic bread, Spanish omelette, croquettes and meatballs.

Everything on offer was extremely tasty and it was nice to know it had all been freshly made and using good quality ingredients. I was also surprised at how 'healthy' the tapas felt as sometimes tapas dishes can be very oily and heavy.

We had a highly enjoyable evening and were extremely well looked after. The food was a nice treat, and we were sent home ladened with gift bags of Spanish ingredients.

Whilst La Tasca is not somewhere I would usually visit. I definitely consider heading back for tapas and sangria with friends in the future.

Photos: La Tasca 

REVIEW | FRIENDS OF HAM

Upon entering you are greeted by a busy bustling upstairs bar and will notice upon peering at the counter that you are instantly spoilt for choice.

 A fabulous selection of craft beers and ales from all round with several local breweries featuring on tap.

Not only does this place serve ham… (although the ham is pretty darn good!), they serve a fantastic selection of charcuterie, cheeses, breads, scotch eggs, nibbles etc.

 I happily munched my way through what I can say was a rather impeccably handmade scotch egg (complete with salad and spicy wholegrain mustard) and a half pint of cornichons whilst gazing upon a Wensleydale Blue cheeseboard (complete with olive oil drizzled bread and fresh olives) at a friend opposite.

As well as the upstairs bar there is a downstairs area (complete with board games and even a shuffleboard!) where you are greeted with long-end tables, the kind you can fit a good sized party around or at least feel unawkwardly obliged to talk to the group who perches next to you.

The staff (and their impressive confidence/passion/knowledge) were great. On both occasions I went to purchase beer I was helped  to choose the beer to suit me. I found myself provided with several tastings before even purchasing. I started off with the record store day special by the local West Yorkshire Revolutions Brewing Company, followed by the Amaro IPA.

I really enjoyed the passion and service of the staff, it really does make a difference in my book. Being a student and in my final year it is not ideal to go partying every night, but ideally it’s nice to know after a hard week of uni work and library study that I can spend what’s left of my student loan in the company of good friends with good beer and good food on offer. I’d much rather push my pennies towards this than a full on night out... but maybe that's the fact that being in my twenty-somethings is kicking in.

A friend of ham is a friend of mine. I will definitely be back.