Too Good To Go? Stopping Food Waste in Liverpool.

Love food but hate the waste? Me too. I know ‘influencers’ get a bad rep for over-ordering food just for the ‘gram but I can assure you I always aim to ensure I’ve eaten every single bite. Whether that means me lying in back of the car with my jeans unzipped groaning or whether I get my leftovers wrapped up ready to eat for breakfast in the morning- I can’t think of anything that feels worse than letting good food go to waste. 

My own personal eating habits aside, the amount of food that goes to waste in the UK each year is, to be frank, no less than criminal and anything that aims to stop that wastage is worth a try in my book. That’s where the Too Good To Go app comes in. Whilst they did kindly send me a voucher for a free bag ages ago, this post isn’t at all sponsored by them at all- I just think it’s a fab idea and one I wanted to share.

5 Fab things I've eaten in Liverpool recently

Well, well well, it's been a while hasn't it! I won't bore you with the story of why I've been missing again as we all know it's part and parcel of the Eat Liverpool way of life by now. So, let's get stuck in: here's 5 fab things I've eaten recently that have reserved a special spot in my brain and in my stomach.

1. The fennel sausage pappardelle from The Buyers Club

Bringing Liverpool’s first bean-to-bar chocolate to the Table.

It would be all to easy for this post to quickly descend in to a gushing ode to one of Liverpool’s coolest cafès bars: Ropes & Twines, but it’s not their passion for great coffee or carefully curated wine list that we’re here to dissect today, rather something a little more unusual. For in the basement of the aforementioned cafè comes a chocolate workshop and production line that would make Wonka himself start to sweat. Meet Table Chocolate, Liverpool’s first (and only) bean-to-bar chocolatiers.

Like all great ideas, R&T owner Tian decided he was going to make his own chocolate after a few drinks too many. One phone call to his old friend Remy (a master pastry chef, as it happens) and a few months of waiting out the pandemic pandemic and Remy moves his entire family from Argentina to Liverpool to start bringing the idea to life.

Whilst making great tasting chocolate is the goal, it’s the underlying principals of ensuring fairness and equality at every step of the production process that makes this endeavour different. Table Chocolate is about traceability, ethics and sustainability starting from the farmers who produce the cacao beans right up to the customers in store. ‘That’s where the name comes from’, Tian explains, ‘We wanted the whole process to be transparent… like we’re laying it all out on the table’. 

Table currently have 4 different chocolate bars on sale, all produced in house including the grinding, tempering, pouring and packaging and the result is a super high- quality, luxury product. The current range of bars include two darker chocolate bars (Tanzania & Madagascar), a Haiti milk (my personal favourite, with hints of banana and toffee) and a Nicaraguan white. You can get them in store at Ropes & Twines as well as a few other select suppliers. 

Have a look on the website here if you want to know more and keep an eye out to see what’s next from Table Chocolate. If you’re lucky you might be able to go and see how it’s done & make your own bar at some point in the future & if their Easter egg selection was anything to go by, the Christmas collection will be nothing short of sensational. 

X 

5 Fab Things I ate in....September and October

As usual my good intentions to make this type of round-up up a monthly feature fell pitifully at the first hurdle, in other words: a busy few weeks at my day job. That means this months fab-food recommendations come 2 in 1: the highlights of two months worth of basic bitch, autumn themed, pumpkin-spiced deliciousness. In no particular order...

Beef Short Rib- Pen Factory

I'd need more than two hands to count the number of times I've popped into The Pen Factory for a drink but for some reason the opportunity to order from their menu has always eluded me. Their new, ever-evolving small plates menu is a sophisticated and original pick 'n' mix that suits their cool, academic clientele to a tee. Whilst their staple of hummus and chips is inexplicably delicious, their beef short rib stole the crown for me (and for Remy too by the looks of it).

5 Fab Places I Tried In... July

They may not be new to everyone but they’re certainly new to me! Here’s five new places I tried this July.

Tempest on Tithebarn Street

As the name might suggest this cafe-come-cocktail bar has recently opened inside the tempest building on Tithebarn Street and is the new venture from the people behind Ma Boyles (not too far down the road). It’s a cool building and they’ve managed to wrangle a street-side drinks terrace to open alongside their rooftop space. The menu is pretty small but good for breakfast and would make an excellent work space if you need somewhere chill to hang out for a few hours. 

5 Tips for taking food photos on your phone:

A few months ago I ran a series of picture on my Insta stories where I showed you some of the most awful pictures I've ever taken of food and you guys loved it. There was, of course, the one where I'd constructed some sort of wedding with the decapitated heads of some king prawns. The was a picture of some cake with last night's cold, soggy chips in the background. There was a half-eaten chicken burger...I won't go on but if you want to see more of that shit show then do let me know!

The Old School House, Lark Lane

 What's the scoop on Aigburth's newest arrival?

Dereks

A quick look at Liverpool's newest American-Italian sandwich bar. 

The A-Z Liverpool Gift Guide 2020

It's one thing to have the intention of supporting small businesses at Christmas time but when the festive season rolls around and everything descends into madness it's all too easy to grab the first thing you come across in the Asda, stick a bow on it and call it a day (guilty and not sorry). 

Spooky Season at Spitroast Crosby

There's no denying that I enjoy these autumnal months the best. Aside from living in perpetual darkness, the sight of the leaves crisping up and turning 50 shades of red and then stomping through them like a 4 year old is the ultimate chicken-soup-for-the-soul activity. I like being able to see my own breath when I get up in the mornings. I like being able to wear pyjamas made entirely of fluff and I like lighting enough candles around my bath to look like I'm trying to have a séance with 'the other side'. That's not even to mention the food.

One Day in Liverpool

It's been a quiet few months in Liverpool but as the city slowly starts to wake up from it's Covid-induced slumber it's more important now than ever that we support local businesses and attractions in their first tentative steps back to normality. To help us with this, our very own tourist board Visit Liverpool have launched a new campaign which aims to remind locals how fabulous our city is and get them to fall in love with it all over again through visiting some of our best spots and seeing the city 'like a tourist' might do.

DIY Pizza with Fritto

I'll start with the obvious here: I'm no stranger to a pizza. After a teenage career spinning dough in Dominos, I've since tried my making my own at The Baltic Pizza Co and, more recently, spent a shameful number of hours putting together my A-Z list of Liverpool pizza joints.  

Incidentally, one of the places on that list is Fritto and no it's not under 'F',  it's under 'X'... because, let's face it, the list is a shambles. Usually based at the Kazimier gardens, Fritto are mostly known for their Italian street food including their signature panzerotto- deep-fried calzone pizza. I finally had one of these when I went away last year and it's every bit as filthy & delicious as it looks.

Liverpool Lockdown- An Update

Christ, what a year this week this has been. Before I get started with what is, I imagine, going to be an absolute essay of a post I want to reiterate this definitely isn’t going to be a ‘woe is me’ type of thing- I'm saying that to you as well as to remind myself since I tend to slip into whining before I've even realised. I’m not great at coping with things at the best of times and with what's going on at the minute my brain feels more like scrambled eggs than a functional, human organ so please forgive me if that's what it sounds like. I've been semi-absent from blogging for a lil' while now so I thought I'd better give you a bit of an update since the world appears to be coming to a stand still right now.

So, what's the plan for Eat Liverpool?

This whole blog came about after a long summer holidays of being restless in my house and, whilst I know it’s just me posting pictures of food on the internet,  it’s honestly done wonders for me and my mental health. It's kept me busy in my downtime, distracted me from stress at work, gave me a new outlet for my writing and pushed me to confront my social anxiety by meeting up with loads of strangers (other bloggers) some of whom I now love to bits and can thankfully call my friends. 

Smoke & Dough

There's one unit at the end of the Liverpool One restaurant strip that has been sitting empty for a suspiciously long time now. It's former occupant Red Hot World Buffet was, let's face it, pretty damn awful and for a long time it's remained empty despite the rest of the strip absolutely booming.

Not Going Home Thursday

When Danielle from Neighbourhood got in touch to see if me and some of my girlfriends wanted to come down for some drinks I was, I'll be honest, slightly wary. In my opinion NBHD is for gorgeous young gals who take a bangin' Insta mirror selfie, and sadly...that ain't me. However, with the promise of food and bottomless drinks on offer and some old school pals in Liverpool on that exact night (co-incidence or fate?) we decided to give it a shot and see what the craic was like at one of Castle Street's busiest bars.

Albert's Schenke in the Haus

Oh Ja! Albert's Shenke, the hotly anticipated younger brother to popular Manchester hang out Albert's Shloss, have finally arrived, bringing with them their own unique brand of Bavarian chaos, stein-sized pints and Alpine-themed snacks to Liverpool.

Bundobust

Whilst I can't help but find it mildly annoying that Liverpool always seem to get all the cool chains some time after London, Leeds and Manchester, in the case of our latest restaurant signing it was definitely worth the wait. Bundobust is a Leeds-born phenomenon that gained an equally fond reception when they opened their doors in Manchester and now, finally, we have one of our very own.

Free State Kitchen

The funny thing about running this blog is that, despite constantly reviewing new places, new menus and restaurants I've never been to before, I very rarely get the chance to sit down and write about my actual all-time favourites. The places I go to time and time again seem to unfairly slip out of the loop in favour of all the 'new' content and I really need to start making a more conscious effort to mention them more frequently.

Lane 7 Bowling

There's a whole load of glorious nostalgia in the sticky carpets, ancient arcades and terrible food at the Hollywood Bowl. I spent many a childhood party there, as well as a fair few of my teenage years when we couldn't get in anywhere in town without ID (still can't to be honest).

Bistro Franc

You may or may not recall in my review of Cote Bistro a few months ago I was lamenting the lack of French restaurants in Liverpool. One of the places that got an honourable mention was Bistro Franc, once a part of the Bistro group it's now completely independent of it's French siblings and is standing alone as it's own beacon of retro French joy on Hanover Street.