Hungarian Food Truck's Lángos
It might not be much to look at, but this traditional Hungarian bread made from deep-fried sourdough knocks the socks off your full English breakfast fried toast. The name comes from láng, the Hungarian word for flame, with lángos originally being cooked in communal brick ovens, but more modern versions are deep fried for that extra healthy kick, topped with anything from sausages to cheese to give your arteries that extra workout.
My advice would be to keep it simple and go for the soured cream and cheese topping and indulge in the lipid satisfaction of those crispy, salty fats that fill your guilty mouth, you’ll be asked if you’d like garlic with that; only a fool would refuse. Priced at around £3, you can find the Lángos truck outside HMV on weekends during the day - if they were around at 3am on Saturday mornings I suspect they’d be millionaires. Troy Gammon
Victoria Square, Leeds LS1 6JD
Zucco's Chicken Cotoletta
Serving up home-cooked Italian small plates that would make Carmela Soprano proud, Zucco is – and I say this absolute conviction – the centre of all happiness and joy in this world. Sexing up Meanwood in the way that Aldi has always dreamed, Zucco serves the kind of authentic, unexaggerated food that makes you question every spag bol you’ve ever eaten.
Enter the Chicken Cotoletta. My keen mind for foreign language/google translate tells me a Cotoletta is a ‘breaded cutlet’, and BOY WAS IT. Imagine the sexiest chicken nugget that you’ve ever eaten, then imagine that chicken nugget’s slutty older sister: wrapped in parmesan infused breadcrumbs (note to the Zucco head chef: can you do this to me?) and fried to buttery, crispy perfection, the Cotoletta arrives draped in a melted aged parmesan that will make you cry real tears. At £7.20 I’d probably pay double just for another sniff. Megan Jones
Zucco, 603 Meanwood Road, LS6 4AY
The Brunswick's Sunday Roast
Autumn isn’t just for slipping on wet leaves and bruising your botty, or trying to calm the dog down while friendly neighbourhood dickheads let fireworks off round the clock - it’s also the time of year that having a roast on Sundays is the rule rather than the exception. For my money, The Brunswick’s topside of beef could be the very best in the city -good enough to deter me from straying elsewhere to put the groundwork in to lend credence to that statement, anyway. Add a side of cheesy leeks and you’ll be singing more Sunday afternoon praises than Aled Jones.
They also do vegetarian and vegan versions which sell out pretty quickly, so maybe cut the lie-in short if you’re trying to eat with a clear conscience. Thom Archer
The Brunswick, 82 North Street, LS2 7PN
Pinche Pinche's Fish Tacos
Classified as ‘Mexican tapas’, over-ordering is essential at Pinche Pinche. That’s what led me to discover the Fish Tacos - gorgeous little fried mouthfuls comprising flaky cod in a crisp, light batter, served on crunchy hibiscus coleslaw and doused in punchy, golden chipotle aioli. It’s haddock and tartare sauce’s exotic cousin, served on a flavoursome black bean tortilla.
Share them with a friend alongside some other tapas plates (the sopes are excellent too) - everything’s really reasonably priced. Pinche Pinche is a gem. Kerry Griffiths
Pinche Pinche, 116 Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, LS7 4NY
Bundobust's Desi French Fries (RIP)
While okra fries are the cornerstone of any Bundo fest, occasionally all I want is some regular fries to stuff in my face. There's a reason potato has been no.1 choice of chip for many years - it's a comfortingly bland vehicle a variety of unedifying sauces
Of course, this isn't good enough for the high standards of the Bundobust kitchen, and their Desi French Fries were a cut above. Tossed in garlic and chilli before a liberal application of spicy ketchup, coriander mayo, and chopped onions - it might be the beer talking (a selection of juicy IPAs they had on as part of their USA tap-takeover) but these were possibly the best chips I've ever had. They need to be a regular on their menu, I don't think I can live without them. Gareth Pettman
Bundobust, 6 Mill Hill, LS1 5DQ
