Harrogate Cheap Eats: Cafe M

Cafe M is located on the ground floor of the Victoria Shopping Centre. It seems a popular choice in Harrogate as it's often quite busy looking as you walk past but we've never been in before. JD and I went on a Friday lunchtime.

After looking at the menu we decided on Ciabatta Melts. I had the Spanish one with chorizo, chilli and brie. JD chose the English one with cheddar, ham and tomato. Both £6.95. We were a bit disappointed with the size of the melts but both agreed after tasting them that they were delicious. We also both had water to drink as usual.

Cafe M do a Hearty Breakfast which looks nice, at £7.50. Along with all the usual breakfast sandwiches, jacket potatoes, soup and other sandwiches all within our £7.50 budget.

The most noticeable thing about Cafe M is the amount of staff present. They line the bar area 4 in a row watching for any tables needing assistance or clearing. It makes for quick service but also gives the feeling of wanting you to leave quickly too.

The food was good, the service was speedy and Cafe M won't break the bank.


Previously on Harrogate Cheap Eats:

Harrogate Grill & Pizza

Nutrition Joe's

Tak Yan

Drakes Fish & Chips

I Am Doner

Cafe Rita

Palm Court Cafe

Harrogate Food & Drink Festival 2019

JD and I decided to give the Harrogate Food & Drink Festival a try and bought tickets for £6.98 per person. This includes entry into Ripley Castle Gardens (which usually costs £5 per person) and there is free parking. There are about 20 Street Food stalls, an Artisan Market, Bar Area, Live Music, Entertainment and a small Funfair.

The first food to catch my eye was a stall selling doughnuts filled with char sui pork and asian slaw. It was a really interesting flavour. Sweet doughnut with a sour sauce on the pork and a nice crunchy coleslaw to add to the mix. I really enjoyed it.

JD's first pick was this huge burrito stuffed full with marinated lamb, onion and salad. I had a bite and it was delicious! I was lucky to get that bite because JD quickly polished it off.

When we'd got our first food choices we looked around for somewhere to sit and eat. There were tons of deckchairs or tables and chairs but none of them were in the shade and it was a scorching hot day. We pinched some seating and managed to find the only bit of shade in the place! Heaven ^_^

Last year at Streat Food we had some chimney cakes filled with ice cream, fruit and whipped cream. They were amazing! Today there was a stall selling savoury chimney cakes. A cheesy chimney cake with Romanian skinless sausages, salad and a cucumber mint sauce. JD and I shared one and it was just as amazing but totally different. So versatile a creation!

Next we were tempted by a poutine like creation. Fries covered in cheese curds and halloumi then topped with gravy and fried onions. Another success! We were starting to get full then so we decided to have a short walk into Ripley to visit the Castle and have some of Ripley's Famous Ice Cream.

Ripley Castle

All in all a nice experience! Top tip for next year, get some sun shades for the seating please :D

Trying Dry Frying Had Me Crying!

Bit of an exaggeration for a snappy title but either way I wasn't that impressed with it!

In February I bought this dry fryer for £48 on Amazon and I was excited to see what it could do. After 6 months of using it I can tell you...not that much! I mean, it's great for the usual suspects of roast potatoes, chips, roast vegetables etc but it's nowhere near as versatile as they'd have you believe.

It makes lovely crispy roast potatoes and it saves space in the oven if you're making a Sunday dinner, which is really useful. For the first few weeks we had roast potatoes often along with roast parsnips, chips and sweet potato wedges. It's great that you can use a tiny amount of oil to cook them but you can also get the same effect by using spray oil in a regular oven.

Roast Parsnips.

Potato Wedges.

You can leave things roasting in the oven for a good 15 minutes, flip them and leave them another 15 minutes. With a dry fryer you have to attend to them more often, roast potatoes need jostling every 5 minutes to make sure they cook evenly. When you've got several other components of a meal to manage it's a bit of a hassle.

So, I'd tried all the basics but I wanted to get more from my dry fryer so I googled some recipes for alternative dry fryer ideas. I started off with Dry Fryer Churros.

They don't look too bad, if a little weird. But they were full of air instead of a solid thing. more like the texture of an eclair. Don't get me wrong, we ate them (we had chocolate sauce to dip them in afterall) but they weren't churros. This recipe had a thumbs down from me!

JD had some success making naan breads in the dry fryer. We usually make them in the oven but JD made some lovely, fluffy naans to go with our curry. They were nicer than our usual ones but because of the small size of the dry fryer basket they took a lot longer to make. We also had some dry fryer grilled corn on the cob which was lovely with an almost chargrilled flavour. It was easy to prepare and didn't have to be attended to much during the cooking process.

Overall I'm disappointed with the dry fryer. I don't think I'll be keeping it. It makes lovely roast potatoes but it doesn't do enough to earn counter space in my kitchen. I like appliances that make cooking easier and more varied rather than more difficult. I wish I'd tested more recipes with it but based on the outcome of a few I did try I just wasn't into it. It's sat on my counter gathering dust and so it has to go!

Harrogate Cheap Eats - Harrogate Grill & Pizza

Harrogate Grill & Pizza is situated on Skipton Road so it's just a 10 minute walk from our house. We decided to have our tea on the Stray since it was a sunny evening so walked up to Harrogate Grill & Pizza to order some food.

The menu is quite varied with everything you'd expect in Pizzas, Burgers, Kebabs and Chicken. They also sell Pasta dishes and Salad Bowls. There's something for £7.50 in every food type so there's plenty to choose from. We ordered our food (which came with a free garlic bread) and made our way to The Stray to set up the blankets.

We picked up the food 15 minutes later. I'd order the Harrogate Blue Burger which had Harrogate blue cheese on top and caramelised onion chutney underneath. It was delicious! And only £5.40 with chips and salad. A proper meaty burger too not one of those thin patties that some takeaways use.

JD had the Gourmet Burger which he also enjoyed. Leigh and Erin both had Pizzas and chips. We all enjoyed our food. I've got my eye on their Skewered Spicy Meatballs for next time! I can see us going there often for lunch or our evening meal. The menu looks great and it's all a good price. The staff are really friendly and the food was well cooked quickly. Lovely!


Previously on Harrogate Cheap Eats:

Nutrition Joe's

Tak Yan

Drakes Fish & Chips

I Am Doner

Cafe Rita

Palm Court Cafe

Burger It! 30: French Onion Burger

I'm hoping this French Onion burger is as tasty as the French Onion Soup I've previously made for my other blog.

Ingredients:

500g minced beef
salt and pepper
caramelised onion chutney
lettuce
brioche buns
comte cheese slices
mustard

Mix the minced beef with the salt and pepper then form into burger buns. Cook them in a frying pan as you usually would.

Make up your burger with a spread of mustard and lettuce on the brioche roll. Top with the burger and cheese then heap some onion chutney on top.

Ooh la la! These are delicious! The caramelised onion chutney does a great job of moistening up the whole thing making for a great burger. The cheese was nice too which is good because some French cheeses are way too strong. Brioche makes for a nice soft burger bun. Pretty nice all round.

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 4