Coffee of Note.

Good morning and a Happy Friday to you, food lovers!

I am afraid I am becomming a bit of a coffee addict. Tea has taken a backseat for the time being as I explore and learn about new types of coffee. It also makes it much easier to get going on the last day of the week when you know there is a gorgeous bank holiday waiting for you on the other side.

Yesterday I had a Flat White from POD (St Giles branch), which I really enjoyed and is better than a lot of usual high street chains. However this mornings coffee trumps even that. 

This mornings Flat White comes courtesy of Notes, from their St Giles Coffee Barrow Stall. 

They have their own roastery, where they process a gorgeous bean and they roast their beans slightly lighter than usual, ensuring a delicate flavour that really compliments the natural sweetness of the milk. With three shops - Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and Trinity Leeds, and a number of coffee barrows serving the same excellent product (St Giles, Borough Market and Fleet Street), there is no excuse not to get yourself a Notes coffee this weekend! Even you northerners. 

They even do a larger Flat White containing three shots of their delectable espresso. I am feeling so pumped right now!

Yorkshire Special: Salts Diner

I am currently having a mini holiday in Yorkshire, visiting my Mum and Stepdad and enjoying the fresh air of the Dales. So I wanted to give you a bit of a 'Yorkshire Special Edition' this weekend, starting with this post and a couple more to follow...

After picking me up from Leeds station at the crack of dawn yesterday, we travelled to Saltaire - a beautiful World Heritage village in West Yorkshire, somewhere that they've been looking at relocating to. Saltaire is a Victorian Industrial village that was founded by Sir Titus Salt, who began a huge textile mill in the area. He then gradually built up a village for his employees, providing them with schools, churches and accommodation. 

We visited Salts Mill, which is now a tourism site surrounding the history of Titus Salt and his legacy. They also have fantastic book shops, cook shops, housewares and an antique/vintage store. It was fab! We ate lunch at Salts Diner, which has a huge David Hockney connection (David Hockney lived in Bradford and Salts Mill holds a very large collection of his work). 

Salts Diner had some of the nicest restaurant design I'd seen in a while. Their logo is an illustration by David Hockney of one of his beloved Dachshunds and their menu was really innovative and interesting a beautiful. We didn't each a huge meal here, just having a light lunch. But I did further enhance my Arizona Green Tea with Honey addiction (in the US you can get a huge half litre can for about 60p). 

My mum and I shared one of the Pizza Specials, which was Butternut Squash, Goats Cheese, Beetroot Relish and Caramelised Onions and we had this was a seasonal salad. The pizza dough was delicious, really nicely flavoured and the toppings were perfectly balanced. There was a very subtle sweetness from the butternut squash and caramelised onions and these were matched beautifully with acidic goats cheese and earthy beetroot. One of the best pizza combinations I've tried for a while. The seasonal salad was more than just a handful of standard leaves, which I really appreciated. There were pickles, olives, radishes, peppers and the dressing was lovely. It definitely held it's own. 

So Salt's Diner was a winner! Tonight we're off to Shear's Yard in Central Leeds, which I am extremely excited about. I'm going to do some sort of stomach enhancing yoga stretches now to prepare.