A Platter On A Plate | Food Roundup

Hey! I love food and thanks to blogging, I get to review and talk about some amazing places that serve delicious food so I thought that today I would group them all together and tell you about three amazing food establishments. The first one is Friends Of Ham. Friends Of Ham opened up on New Station Street which is inbetween the Train Station and Trinity Leeds in July 2012. FOH started out as a tiny ground floor bar with a 'secret' basement which grew in 2014 as they bought next door and made the establishment bigger to serve more customers. FOH are based on serving you good meat,cheese, beer and wine to the people of Leeds. We were invited to an event that celebrated Leeds International Beer Festival which meant that we got to try some amazing beers that complimented dishes such as Marcella with Paprika Potatoes and a fried Quails Egg and Chocolate and Raspberry Brownie with Chantilly Cream which was delicious! Myself, Luke and Michelle had a blast of time enjoying the different drinks and food and I think that Friends Of Ham is a great place to go when you want somewhere to meet up with friends or for when you want to go on a casual date with someone! Definitely take someone there if they love cheese, meat, beer or wine! Michelle took the pictures for this event. Click on her name to go to her website to check out her other photos.

Chocolate & Raspberry Brownie with Chantilly Cream

 

 

A lot of beer. 

The second place isEpicure. Epicure is a bar near the University Of Huddersfield and serves dishes that contain local things such as Cheeses or Meat and are well known for their selections of Gin. They are also known for their quirky meal names and is definitely worth a visit if you live or visit Huddersfield regularly. I dragged myself and Luke there and sampled some of the food, I had a Grumpy Goat Burger with Sweet Potato Fries and Luke had a different burger with a similar quirky name. I loved the contrast of spice and sweet within the burger and I loved how crispy the Sweet Potato Fries were. We were going to get dessert but we were stuffed and we had to get the taxi to the station and then the train home but I would definitely take a good couple of friends there for a delicious dinner and a good natter.

Last stop on the food train is MOD Pizza. MOD Pizza is an American based company that set up in shop in England earlier this year. They are slowly creating more stores within England such as one within London. They create great tasting pizza's that you can create/customise to your liking. They also create amazing thick creamy milkshakes with mix ins such as Oreo'and Mint Choc Chip. This week, Mod are are celebrating Spreading MOD which is where they will be donating £1 from every pizza sold and giving it to charity which is an amazing concept in my opinion as it's nice to see brands giving back! The Leeds store are donating their funds to Cash For Kids so if you're from near Leeds then I urge you to go to MOD Pizza to try out their food and to help a good cause! Have you checked out these places? Let me know down below! I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post and I hope that you have drooled over some of the food photos in this post. Come back next time for another blog post about some amazing things! Thanks! Jamie x

Going To Some Of The Best Bars In Leeds With Michelle

Hey! I'm in Leeds a lot and being a blogger means that you go to quite a few bars and restaurants so I thought that I would drag Michelle along to a few of the best bars within Leeds (as you always need a friend to have a good natter to when it comes to bars) and write about it as I want to share the best bars with you just in case you haven't been to them so get some food, get a drink and be prepared to learn about Leeds' finest bars!

The first bar that I think is one of the best bars in Leeds is Turtle Bay. Why? I love the Caribbean vibe of the whole restaurant which is shown in ways such as the paintings on the walls, the music that is played within the restaurant, the food and drinks that are on offer and much more. The Caribbean vibe means that you feel like you can be relaxed instead of feeling stuffy and awkward like you would in a quite expensive eating establishment. I also love how they have a two for one offer which is 12-7 and 10pm until close which means that you can go in any day and get two drinks for the price of one during the day for a casual lunch or a good evening out.

 

We arrived and perused the menu which included things such as Run Down (v), Street Burger, Jamacian Browned Chicken and Rum Cake for several minutes until we both decided on what we wanted. Myself and Michelle decided to just stick to cocktails. We decided to take part in the 2 for 1 offer and ordered Beachcombers Zombie (4 Rums, Absinthe, Bitters and Tropical Fruits) and Vanilla and Passion Fruit Mojito (Cockspur Gold Rum, Vanilla, Fresh Passion Fruit, Lime and Mint.) The Zombie was fresh, fruity and naughty due to not being able to taste the alcohol so you could definitely have more than one and the Mojito tasted like the epitome of Summer due to all of the freshness thar was within the glass.

 

 

 

 

The next stop on the best bar train after Turtle Bay was Cabana. I honestly think Cabana is one of the best bars/restaurants ever for several reasons. There's the friendly staff who make you feel welcome in the establishment, the great street food inspired cuisine thats on offer, the crisp drinks that they serve, the quirky furniture... I could go on! Just like Turtle Bay, they offer 2 for one on certain drinks but they also have many other offers such as a lunch deal where you can get your own Latin inspired lunchbox for £6.95, a 2 course set meal on weekdays for £9.95 which is on until 5pm and theres an early bird special meal which involves a main course, two sides and a drink for £9.95 which is on everyday from 5-6:30pm.

 

 

We arrived at Cabana, sat down and ordered two drinks just like before as they were on 2 for one. We decided to get an original Caipirihna and a Blueberry & Acai Caipirihna. Myself and Michelle also decided to get some Cheesy Baked Dough Balls and Chocolate Rainbow Doughnuts to share between ourselves. I love a good Caipirihna and I instantly think of warm nights in tropical Brazil when I sip one. The Blueberry and Acai one was really nice. Sweet but slightly tart. It reminded me of Blueberry Jam somehow! Myself and Michelle were somewhat hesitant of getting it as we both thought that it would flush us out but it didnt. The dough balls were so nice. Golden on the outside but melting and gooey on the inside but slightly salty. The Nutella Doughnuts were great. Bitesized but chocolatey. The crispy sugary exterior worked so well with the dark gooey interior and there was more Nutella on the side so great for Nutella lovers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last stop on the best bar adventure was Be At One. Be At One is a cocktail bar that is based within Millenium Square with the likes of Epernay and Revolution that are within Electric Press. BAO also have a Happy Hour on that is on every night which is around 4:30/5-8pm. We went on a Tuesday and the hours for Happy Hour were 4:30-8 which means Be At One is a great place for a student date! We started off by having a Reese's Pieces cocktail but sadly it's not on the site so I can't remember the name but it had Bourbon, Reese's Pieces and Vanilla ice cream in. We got it because I like Bourbon and Michelle loves Peanut Butter. I liked it but the Bourbon was quite strong and when mixed with ice cream it made it quite rich. I was expecting it to be heavily peanut butter but it wasn't. We then had a Maple Margarita and oh my god it was so good. I had never had a Margarita before but this was a good one to represent the whole Margarita clan with. Sweet but slightly tart. Myself and Michelle then finished off the best bar train by drinking our last drink at Be At One. This cocktail was called Stormier Seas and the salty seas never tasted any better. This contained Kraken Rum, Lime and Ginger Beer. It tasted like something that you would want to warm you up when youre on a cold English beach. (The only problem that we had here was that Michelle did see a bartender put a phone number into someone who looked like a customers phone but I was guessing that he was on his break or something?) I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post. Don't forget to check out Michelle's photography! I have also linked the restaurants in case you actually want to go and check them out as I really think that they are some of the best bars within Leeds. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog post. Have you ever been to any of these bars? Have you tried any of these drinks? Let me know down below! Thanks! Jamie x This post was in collaboration with Cabana and Be At One. I chose the bars that I wanted to feature within this post therefore all views and ramblings are my own. Myself and Michelle got 14 drinks for £14 in total due to 2 for one etc but do check the places out if you want to know more details of them. 

Celebrate Being 3 With Cake | Pastille Leeds

Hey!

A few weeks ago, I was invited to come and celebrate Pastille's third birthday by going to their stores to have a good old knees up so I went! I also dragged along Michelle and Luke because it's always fun to invite more people to the party!

We met Michelle at the train station and headed on an adventure to find Pastille and after 20 minutes of not realising that it was basically in front of us we ended up at Pastille. Pastille had invited a few other bloggers and businesses to help them celebrate their third birthday. The businesses that were at the event were Borrowed Couture who specialises in amazing dresses, Handmade Sweet Designs who make handmade jewellery and Sugar Crush who had brought some cakes with them to get us all in the party mood!

Myself, Michelle and Luke instantly saw Katie when we entered the beautiful store so we spent sometime just chatting about anything and everything such as blogging, photos and Lush. We kept talking for a while and then decided to wander around. We all checked out the wonderful jewellery from Handmade Sweet Designs and then myself and Michelle clocked eyes onto Lizi and had a good old blogger based natter. It's great when you catch up with bloggers at events.

Items from Handmade Sweet Designs

Michelle then decided to get her nails done a beautiful purpleish colour which screamed her whilst I had another wander around and grabbed a Mint Chocolate Brownie. They were fabulous. Dense with a bit of goo and deep with chocolate flavour. There was also a bit of cream on top of brownie which gave a tad bit of lightness compared to rich chocolate and then there was a crisp bit of chocolate coated mint which gave a bit of texture and flavour. Gorgeous. Michelle finished getting her nails done and we then decided to fully check out the beautiful bakes that Sugar Crush had brought to the event which included a gorgeous Rocky Road with Popcorn in, a quintessentially British Eton Mess with a nice glittery Cherry on top! Sugar Crush also create bakes for baby showers, weddings, tea parties and more!

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Myself and Luke both decided to get manicures. I got a mix of matte turquoise and sparkly turquoise nail polish which I absolutely loved! I always love a bit of sparkle. Luke got a more muted white/pastel pink colour. We chatted a bit more and just had a wonderful time. We decided that it was time to make the adventure back to the train station so we grabbed our bags, grabbed some wonderful food from Sugar Crush which included their marvellous brownies. I love brownies, got handed a goodie bag which included rainbow highlighter and headed back to Leeds Train Station.

I had a wonderful time at Pastille's birthday event and hope that they have more fabulous years within Leeds! I hope that you have enjoyed this little post.

Have you been to Pastille before? Let me know down below!

Thanks!
Jamie x 

Strutting The Stuff Locally | Joe Browns A/W16 Launch With Michelle

Hey,

I got invited to a bloggers event hosted by the wonderful guys over at Joe Browns and I thought that I would tell you guys all about it. I brought Michelle along so all of the images that are featured in this post were all shot by Michelle. She also has a website where all of her photos (blogger events and non blogger events) are all stored, click here to go have a look!

We ended up in Leeds a tad bit too early like usual so we (myself, Luke and Michelle) ended up mooching around Leeds city centre which meant entering all the usual shops such as Lush (where I picked up some new shaving cream which I may review soon), The Body Shop (where I found out and played with the new face mask range that is coming out soon) and many other places.

We arrived at the Joe Browns HQ after an adventurous Uber trip and made our way through to the foyer of the warehouse. We said hi to the male staff member who greeted us at the door. We made our way up the stairs to the rest of the warehouse and was handed a glass of Prosecco. (A good night always starts with Prosecco, right?) Myself, Michelle and Luke then all said hi to Emily who invited us to the amazing event.

I popped Luke down for a minute and perused all of the clothes that were on show. I started with the male section because well I wanted to see how much of the range I would want and I was pleased as I wanted it all! I instantly saw a checked thick shirt which grabbed my attention because it looked amazing and also because a good chunk of my wardrobe is checked thick shirts. I also loved a shirt that was on display which had leaves printed all over it. It screamed AW because leaves are a good representation of Autumn. In addition to the shirts, I loved a sort of military inspired coat which looked great for when the weather gets cold!

I then wandered onto the shoes and they all looked amazing! I loved how they all looked quite versatile as shoes. I loved the pair that had a couple of designs going on them via having a bow and then a pop of red on the inside. They looked very Autumnal. I also loved the massive boots as they looked like they would come in quite handy! They do some amazing brogues and male shoes as well!

After a good look at all of the footwear, I moseyed onto the wonderful dresses that Joe Browns had on offer at the event. One of the items that were on the racks was a dress that had foxes printed all over which I feel is quite quintessentially British as foxes are associated with rummaging around within the Autumn nights! There were also a lovely dress which had a great floral print all over it. It might not seem very Autumn/Winter-y but it will brighten up those dark days!

We then went on a tour of the warehouse and found a few little quirky rooms. We all kept wandering and ended up in the studio where all the pictures get taken for things such as the website. Michelle loved it as she loves studios! We then ended up in a room and watched a short video about the Quirky Pair's where the public could try and find £1000 of Joe Browns vouchers in Leeds City Centre (sadly it will have been and gone by the time this post goes up/hopefully it will be going on when this post is published!)

Myself, Luke and Michelle wandered around a bit more and ended up on beanbags and many other things. We went back to where the clothes were, had a bit more of a natter and just had fun. Myself and Michelle also found spacehoppers because why the hell not. We then found Emily and said thank you and goodbye and headed back to the train station!

Have you loved the look of any of the clothes that have been featured in this post? Let me know down below in the comments section!

Thanks to Emily and the staff at Joe Browns for putting on an awesome event! Thanks to Michelle for coming along, taking a good few photos and for being an awesome person! I hope that you check out Joe Browns as they sell amazing clothes! I hope that you've enjoyed this blog post and I hope that you come back and read the next post!

Thanks!
Jamie x