Slow food and lunch

Slow lunch, faster work

by rich on May 18, 2013

I’ve got a busy job.

It involves a lot of meetings, a lot of running around doing things, sorting things out, making – and sometimes stopping – things from happening.

Lately, work has stretched at the seams, slowly drifting into cracks it never reached before … those hours early in the very early morning when the lights flicker on for me as I stride alone, wearily, down the office, breaking the peace and waking a frozen PC, with nothing but coffee and silence for company. It’s attacked other parts of the day, too … that time in the middle formerly called ‘lunch’ is a recent casualty.

Lunch, or whatever you call that meal (often ‘dinner’ round here) has all but gone these days, reduced to simply eating something while working, instead of anything that could be described as a meal. Soup, a sandwich, or if I’m organised, the remains of last night’s dinner, most often  at my desk, occasionally hunched in a corridor between meetings, barely ever in the actual restaurant. Sometimes, there’s nothing at all.

This isn’t good. Not good at all.

There’ are clear benefits to taking a proper break at lunchtime, and the nutritional angle is the least of the rewards. There’s much to be said for removing yourself from the workplace for a while in the middle of the day, simply going somewhere different and just not working.

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Creative Bread's pop-up restaurant, Shipley

Creative Breads’ Pop-up Restaurant, Shipley

by Marisa Aitken on May 15, 2013

I first discovered Creative Breads, located at the back of Shipley Health Store on Westgate, last September.

I remember the day well. It was the first weekend of the Saltaire festival. We had returned from our holiday in France to find their flyer in our postbox and, keen to try something new, along with showing support for a new, local business, off we went to buy our lunch on a warm September morning.

And what a lunch it was.

We came away with a pork and herb sausage roll, a sausage sandwich, a three cheese toasties and a Portuguese egg roll. That I remember all four things, eight months later, shows what an impression they made. A tradition was born that day; if we are at home in Shipley on a Saturday we get our lunch from Creative Breads. That’s the rule. And it’s no exaggeration to say that in the subsequent months nothing has disappointed. And there’s not much we haven’t tried.

So there was no hesitation about booking a table when we heard about their new venture; a pop-up restaurant. Dining for twelve people, six courses, no choice and no advance warning of the menu. We had absolute faith. Knowing the delicate touch and fantastic flavour combinations of the two talented chefs, Jez and Lisa, we were prepared to be impressed.

And impressed we were.

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Rhubarb, ginger and chilli pickle

May 12, 2013
Rhubarb, ginger and chilli pickle

This time of year always brings the first glut of the season – rhubarb. One day, there’s none, but the next, there are vast parasols shading slender stems rocketing skywards, growing thicker and darker day by day. Rhubarb is the most hardy and forgiving of vegetables, and it is a vegetable and not a fruit, [...]

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OXO’s Good Grips Salad Spinner

May 8, 2013
OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner Review

What is it? It’s a salad spinner. Salad spinners are a waste of time. Why bother? I used to think that, too, and I’ve long been a fan of collecting wet salad leaves up in a tea towel and spinning them round like a banshee, stood outside the back door. The neighbour’s loved that. A [...]

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Jerusalem artichoke and chicken pie

April 26, 2013
Jerusalem artichoke and chicken pie

I was told that Jerusalem artichokes were so easy to grow that it’d be hard to get rid of them once they went into the ground. “They’ll spread like weeds”, they said. “you’ll never get rid of them”. I dug the tubers in early one morning, the ground wet and the mist clinging tightly to [...]

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How to preserve lemons

April 20, 2013
How to preserve lemons

I have this theory about people who cook. It involves their cupboards. I think that you can tell if somebody is serious about cooking, and I mean really serious, after a quick rummage through their kitchen cupboard. That might sound obvious, but it’s not the weird and the wonderful I’m looking for. Everybody has barely [...]

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How to bake French-style brioche bread

April 12, 2013
French brioche bread

Baking bread. It sneaks up on you. It starts slowly, just a little experiment, maybe a curious attempt at a simple loaf. Nothing out of the ordinary, just flour, salt, yeast, water and time. You find that it works. It works better than you could ever dare believe it’d work. Your bread tastes real, substantial, [...]

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Red’s True Barbecue, Leeds

April 4, 2013
Red's True Barbecue - slow cooked meat in the heart of Leeds.

When did slow-cooked barbecued ribs become the unofficial signature dish for the whole of Leeds? I don’t know, but I’m not complaining, and even though I exaggerate slightly, there do seem to be loads of rib joints springing up all over the city. This one, Red’s True Barbecue, is the current, undisputed leader of the [...]

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