Thursday 26 October 2017

We need you!

(It can’t only be us that pictures Lord Kitchener pointing at us every time we hear that?)

We’ve got a little favour to ask our wonderful customers… We’re delighted to have been nominated for the Farm Shop & Deli Awards 2018. But, we need some votes to help us win it! And we’re told it’s quality not quantity that counts… (same could be said for a lot of things in life).

There’s 13 categories, and we’re nominated in the delicatessen one (no surprise there you say!). There’s some tough competition, as you’d expect. God’s Own County isn’t short of some amazing food shops on its own, but Yorkshire is actually in with the wider North East region too, so there’s a whole host of favourites in there. We wouldn’t like to be the judges choosing between the 18… (although OBVIOUSLY if we were the judges we know who would win. Nudge nudge, wink wink).

The awards, which are in their fifth year, aim to draw attention to the many highly driven and passionate local businesses across the country. They focus on independent, specialty retailers who sell regional fresh/farm produce or have a delicatessen counter. They particularly celebrate the highest levels of service, product knowledge, initiative, innovation and community involvement in the sector. Much as we’re actually just very modest Yorkshire-folk and it sits a bit uneasy with us to blow our own trumpet (despite our new trumpet-featuring logo), we’d like to think we’re okay at some of those!

So…members of the public are being asked to vote for their favourite retailers to help them get through to the next stage of the competition. Regional winners will be chosen, who will then progress through to a national competition to have the chance of being crowned ‘Farm Shop & Deli Awards Retailer of the Year’. This will be announced at the Farm Shop & Deli Show, Monday 16th April 2018 at Birmingham’s NEC.

I’m sure it goes without saying that we would love to win one of these awards! As a small business owner you put your heart and soul into it, and we really are passionate about what we do. It’s always a fantastic boost for the whole team to receive a nomination for an award, and we thank everyone of you who votes for us and puts us forward for things. It means more than you can know!

So if you have a spare couple of minutes, and you feel like doing so, you can vote for us at: http://www.farmshopanddelishow.co.uk/fsda18entrants. Choose the North East region or search for us by name. Voting closes on Tuesday 31st October 2017 and one lucky voter will be entered into a draw to win a “foodie hamper” (which sounds quite mysterious – wonder what it includes??)

Thank you all – and let’s keep everything crossed!



Trick or treat – frogs’ legs or sushi?

It’s that time of the year again – the time when kids across the world are sent out to beg for sweets and then come home on a sugar high that will see them through until Santa delivers the selection boxes.

What’s not to love about a bit of trick or treating – and of course parents can maybe get away with ‘sharing’ a few of their offspring’s sweet treats (there’s got to be some perks to spending hours with the face paints creating the world’s cutest werewolf.

And, of course, the shops (ourselves included) are jam-packed full of chocolate and lollipops and jelly sweets in the shape of pumpkins, spiders and bats!

But, according to some research we spotted, maybe we’re underestimating exactly what constitutes a treat for youngsters nowadays...?

Restaurant chain Giraffe undertook some research into children’s eating habits which revealed some surprising results. A third of parents said their children are culinary adventurous and half said ‘they will try most things’. They obviously didn’t question me or my offspring.

As a result, most British kids have tried curry, crayfish and olives by 5; mussels and quinoa by 6; and sushi by 7 – along with tacos, oysters, squid and Japanese katsu - all at a much younger age than their parents would ever have done. I still know plenty of grown-ups who wouldn’t try an oyster!

The survey found that around one in five kids had tried paella and tapas when holidaying in Spain. One in 20 had apparently given frogs’ legs a go. Just over a quarter were competent with chopsticks (something I’m still not consistently able to do!)

How much of this is down to pushy parents is a matter of debate – one in five parents said there was competition with friends over whose kids were most adventurous with food. And, of course, many - 40 per cent - said they loved posting pictures of the exotic food their children had tried on social media. How Instagram-able is a Happy Meal? And it’s fair to say exotic ideas for your child’s lunchbox abound on Pinterest.

So, this Halloween, maybe put away the Haribo and fun size chocolate bars, and start handing out the mini tubs of Hummus, and snack packs of edamame beans or sushi. Sounds like they’d go down a treat!


Sunday 15 October 2017

Ramen – isn’t he one of the Egyptian Pharoes?

There was a news story came out this week about how many Brits don’t know their ramen from their enchilada, which made us laugh.

We’re not quite sure where these 1,500 people that Deliveroo polled have been, but apparently they think Wonton is Chelsea FC’s new signing, an enchilada is an animal found in South America, and a falafel is part of a jet engine (is anyone else hearing the Friends episode where Rachel empties an entire plane because Phoebe says there is something wrong with the left Phalange?) And, quite frankly, you don’t want to hear what people think ramen is.

We could understand a little more that the Vietnamese noodle soup Pho caused some confusion. One in seven thought it was an exotic type of fish, while one in 10 thought it was the name of a character from Game of Thrones. Well there are some odd names on the show – Hot Pie anyone? And we could kind of see where people were coming from with Frito Misto, the Venetian dish of lightly fried fish, with some declaring it was the Italian for “cold and foggy day.”

But surely everyone’s heard of Falafel? Nope, on top of the one in 33 who thought it was part of a jet engine, one in 25 said it was probably the name of a Russian poet. It’s not even from the right part of the world.

We actually laughed out loud at the fact one in ten people mistook the Thai hot and sour soup Tom Yum Goong for an up and coming snooker star from the Far East. Brilliant.

Despite those mistakes, a pretty high 86 per cent said they had international tastes when it comes to food, with the favourites being Chinese (58 per cent), Italian (56 per cent), Indian (50 per cent), American (35 per cent) and Mexican (34 per cent).

Apparently the average Brit spends £86 a month on take-aways. As much as we love the odd treat from one of the local takeaways, we also love to cook up a storm in the kitchen - as you’d guess really given our line of work! Whether it’s from scratch or from a jar, there’s some great ingredients out there to make a delicious international feast fit for a king (or Ramen, the Egyptian Pharo).

Of course, we’re passionate about great Yorkshire fayre, but we also appreciate the fantastic range of foods available from all over the world. We have a large variety of international foods from across the globe – Italy, India, Thailand, Malaysia, America, France, Spain, China, Africa - come and take a look at our Aladdin’s Cave second floor. You won’t find a genie in a lamp, but you may just find some edible treasures!