Anise

Another weekend, another chocolate shop. Anyone reading this blog would think I am obsessed with chocolate.

This week we paid a visit to Anise on Glossop Road in Broomhill, Sheffield. From the outside, the shop looks fairly ordinary, even a little shabby, although the troughs of spring flowers outside the window do give a hint of what's to come.

Once you go inside everything is exceptionally pretty, with glass shelves and counters used to display beautifully presented chocolates and greetings cards. The shop's main speciality are Belgian chocolates, sold either loose in a bag or packed into a posh box. At the moment Anise also has amazing displays of Easter eggs in every colour imaginable, but these aren't branded eggs; think marbled colours on white chocolate or vivid coloured foils wrapped round milk or dark chocolate eggs.

Of course, being full of chocolate means the shop smells fantastic, another incentive to start buying the goods!

Mr TLC and myself are not particularly compatible where chocolate is concerned, he prefers milk or white chocolate, but I'm definitely a fan of dark chocolate. Of course he can also eat a lot more of the stuff than I can, or at least he can do so without piling on the pounds. What does this mean? It means we bought twice as much as we needed to, on the pretext of each choosing something.

The real triumph was one of Mr TLC's choices, raspberry ganache: a thin shell of white chocolate around a dark chocolate filling, flavoured with raspberry. They were gorgeous. I know what I'll be buying next Saturday!

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Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
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Cocoa, Sugar and Spice

Tucked away on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield is the kind of magical little shop that normally only exists in either fairy tales or Disney films: Cocoa are purveyors of "quaint and quirky chocolates and confectionery for all sorts."

From the outside, Cocoa looks like a pretty little sweet shop, or perhaps that should be spice shop. (Native Sheffielders generally refer to sweets as spice - at least Mr TLC always does.)

Inside, the shop reminds me somewhat of the tiny shops that I loved as a child: a long counter behind which are rows and rows of jars of every type of sweet imaginable. You can choose from aniseed balls, vanilla fudge, chocolate raisins, rainbow drops, wine gums, licorice roots or pretty much any other type of confectionery you can imagine. If that's not enough, then you can choose from the many beautiful chocolates on display.

Of course the sweet shops I visited as a child weren't quite like this: they had long wooden counters, not sparkling glass display cases. Neither did they have beautiful wallpaper or a gorgeous back room filled with people sipping cups of tea and eating chocolates, but it's these things that help to give Cocoa it's slightly enchanted atmosphere.

I may not be a child any more, but I still find a little bit of magic in visiting a sweet shop on a Saturday morning.

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Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
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Henderson’s Relish

"If you slice any Sheffield man in two, you’ll see
“Henderson’s” running through him like a stick of rock."

(Overheard in my local pub)

I’m not sure I like the idea of cutting people in two (although on second thoughts maybe I could be tempted to think of one or two potential candidates...), but I have to agree about the Henderson’s. Its status in Sheffield is legendary.

So what exactly is it? Like most people attempting to describe Sheffield’s version of the elixir of life, I’m reduced to the following somewhat underwhelming description: it’s a bit like Worcester sauce, but the flavour is different and somewhat sweeter.

According to the label on the bottle, the “spicy Yorkshire sauce” will add extra flavour to meat, fish, soups, pies, casseroles and vegetables. The flavour isn’t what I would describe as spicy, but of course in this area, “spice” means “sweets”, so the label may well be referring to the slightly sweet flavour. It is made with vinegar, sugar, caramel, salt, tamarinds, cayenne pepper, cloves, garlic oil and (oddly) saccharine. It also contains water; in fact some people claim that Sheffield’s water contributes to the distinctive taste of the relish.

Henderson’s is also approved by the Vegetarian Society (unlike Worcester sauce, which contains anchovies), which has helped it find favour with some of Sheffield’s temporary student residents.

Invented over 100 years ago by Henry Henderson and made in Sheffield pretty much ever since, Henderson’s has somehow become more than just a condiment in the eyes of its many fans. Why? Well probably because most native Sheffielders were brought up on the stuff. Whether added during cooking, or sprinkled liberally over food, just about every meal cooked in post-war Sheffield seems to have included Henderson’s Relish. The result is that Sheffielders, particularly the men, just can’t seem to get enough of it.

The Henderson’s factory itself is something of an enigma. If you stand directly outside you will notice that the smell of the relish is quite strong and the frontage of the building is in reasonable condition, but if you look at the ramshackle buildings behind it you’ll be left wondering how they are still standing. And who works there? Why is no one ever seen arriving or leaving?

No wonder then that the famous relish and its factory are often the subject of rumours claiming they are closing down. This often sparks panic buying among Henderson’s addicts; one friend told me how his Dad bought a lifetime’s supply of the stuff and stored crates of it in his garage, just in case.

Happily the rumours seem to be unfounded; Henderson’s Relish continues to be produced. If you live outside Sheffield, you’ll find it a challenge to get hold of the stuff, but it’s selling as fast as they can make it (and sometimes faster) in the supermarkets, grocers and chip shops of South Yorkshire.

Links:
The official Henderson’s site, with a guide to the company’s history, recipes and celebrity fans.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Henderson's!

An un-official fan club, with an interesting explanation as to how Henderson’s Relish is brewed.

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Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
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Continental Sheffield

An excellent surprise today, a routine trip to collect my new glasses turned into a mega shopping trip - the Continental Market was in town! (Well the Queen did tell us Sheffield was now closer to Paris when she opened St Pancras this week - I didn't realise how close!).

There were cheese stalls, bakers, creperies, traders selling hats and scarves, Morecambe Bay shrimps(!), sweets, gingerbread houses, German sausages, flowers, plants, Christmas trees (bit early!), olives, dried fruit, piles of garlic, fruit and vegetables, leather goods and a grumpy Yorkshireman complaining "They're tekin some reet money" every time his wife looked at anything. Fortunately for me, Mr TLC is not a grumpy Yorkshireman at times like these - he is much too busy buying all the cheese in the world. However the grumpy Yorkshireman is right - it is fairly pricey on the food stalls, but on the other hand the food is fantastic - and I can kid myself that I've been to one of those marvellous French markets without the expense of a ferry/train to France!

I got the chance to practise my awful French, although this did backfire when the very nice guy on one French bakery's stall failed to understand me before saying "I'm sorry I don't speak French". Which wasn't too surprising, because he was from Poland.

There were also buskers playing which added to the festive feel. I love this kind of shopping. The city centre is alive - the total opposite of the sanitised, chain store blandness of the out-of-town "shoppertunity" offered by Meadowhall (aka Meadowhell). The development and location of markets seems to be a contentious topic for our local council - I hope they take note of the popularity and success of the specialist markets on Fargate and reconsider relocating The Moor market there during the current redevolpment -after all the 'normal' and 'continental' markets operate on the same streets in Chesterfield without any major problems. Vive le marché!

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Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
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Friday Tea Thyme

It's Friday, it's five fifteen and it's Thyme to think about going out for tea! It's been a long week, so Mr Three Legged Cat & I set off to start the weekend at Thyme Cafe.

The name cafe could be considered a little misleading. To me the word "cafe" conjures up two images: somewhere that serves huge mugs of tea and enormous bacon sandwiches, or one of those fantastic bar meets restaurant places that seem to line every street in France. Thyme Cafe doesn't fit either of these, it is more like a very informal restaurant. You sit at chunky wooden tables on either pews or old wooden chairs. The menus are on huge chalk boards and you wander up to the bar to order your meal. There are no reservations, but they do run a list once it gets busy, so if they don't have a table you can call back later at a pre-arranged time. The unofficial pre-Thyme early evening bar is in the neighbouring Broomhill Tavern, which seems to do a pretty decent trade serving people that you end up sitting next to when you go back to eat.

The best thing is (of course) the food. Menus change fairly often, but usually feature a mixture of Thyme classics eg meat & potato pie, cheeseburger & fish cakes, as well as tapas, risotto, salads and dishes such as confit duck or seared salmon. They always use freshly cooked, good-quality ingredients, which make great tasting (& nicely presented) meals.

As usual, we had a relaxed and enjoyable meal. All in all, a very pleasant start to the weekend.

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Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
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