Hearts, Hawaiians and hearty breakfasts
The summer months have got us all fruity with July's round-up of best dishes including pineapple, blueberries and raspberries. Only one of Team Confidentials went offal-theme just to be contrary.
Read on for a few tasty morsels we suggest you get down you in July.
BBQ Chicken Hearts – The Moorcock, Norland (£12)
I can’t really explain my obsession with chicken hearts over the years, other than that I love eating weird stuff and I am utterly addicted to the texture. When they’re cooked well, you bite into them and they resist giving way to begin with, teasing you that they’ll be chewy and disappointing. But then, well before the moment at which you’d pass them off as a load of old rubbish, they succumb to your gnashers and you get a hit of dark, almost irony meat. It’s a mild but rich, delicate yet succulent treat. So, when I saw them on the Moorcock menu I ordered them with terrifying enthusiasm. Barbecuing them works brilliantly, adding a smokiness that doesn’t overwhelm, and the addition of a pickled oyster mushroom ramped up the earthiness to a state of pure perfection. Simon Richardson @lunatic_on_the_grass
The Moorcock Inn, Moor Bottom Lane, Norland HX6 3RP
Italian in Hawaii, Knead (£12)
There’s a new pizza place in H-Town (that’s Halifax to me and thee), and I am well into its blistered disks of puffy dough. Bag of laughs that I am, my usual mantra is to keep things virtuously simple, channelling my inner Neapolitan to the point where even a smattering of salami is deemed as an excess. But the imported Italian lager here must be strong stuff, because on a recent visit, dear reader, I ham and pineapple’d.
And I make no apology for it. The double-header of salty pancetta and charred pineapple is a combination that works. You know it does. Bung both on a pizza base, top with melted cheese and that’s twelve quid very well spent. Richard Miller @eatingthenorth
Knead, 2 Crossley St, Halifax HX1 1UG
Blueberry Pancakes, Green Room (£10.50)
I ventured to Green Room for breakfast the other morning and fell in love with the venue. Sometimes I really want to go to a place where I can forget that I’m in my home city, and Green Room provided a much-needed slice of escapism. It’s rare to find vibrant green spaces in the city centre, and this spot really is a breath of fresh air. Raw industrial materials meet leafy green living architecture giving this place a laidback modern Bombay feel.
I ordered blueberry pancakes which were fluffy and stacked high. Tart blueberry compote oozed across the plate, swirling with yoghurt and fresh mint, and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and edible flowers finish the dish. If only every day could start like this.
Green Room, 36 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 2DE
Whipped vanilla rice pudding, Crafthouse (£9)
I’m not really a pudding girl. You can keep your sticky toffee and don’t come near me with a chocolate one, thanks. But one pudding I am bit of a sucker for is a rice pudding. I especially love one made with coconut milk and perfumed spices but it’s hard to improve on grandma’s old-school nutmeg-dusted recipe. Sometimes modern versions go too far with their tinkering.
A rice pudding I had my arm twisted by at the end of a meal at Crafthouse recently was a good example of playing with a classic without making a pig's ear of it. Topped with an abstract art disc of raspberry-smeared white chocolate, the pudding beneath was just sweet enough with sharp raspberry compote and fresh strawberries adding a bright contrast to the milkiness and surprising little bursts of fragrant space from pink peppercorns keeping things edgy. Go for the rooftop terrace, stay for the rice pud. Kelly Bishop @keliseating
Crafthouse, Level 5, Trinity, 70 Boar Ln, Leeds LS1 6HW
Read next: An Insider’s Guide to eating, drinking and shopping in Slaithwaite
Read again: Calories on menus: what does it achieve?
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