Leicester Lockdown Lunches

ROTHLEY WINE: While the rest of you are out, visiting your non-essential shops and supping pints in the pub, we in Leicester remain in lockdown. To add insult to injury, the (Tory voting) estate next to mine has been taken out of the lockdown zone, even though it is closer to the biggest concentration of infection than my (Labour voting) estate. So there is a lot of chuntering here in the city. Some local businesses are evening suing the government as we have all been left utterly high and dry by them until at least August. You can support them here.

English Sparkling Wine

Well of course the only pleasure we have left to us is getting takeout food and enjoying the very best of what our local producers have to offer. Rothley Wine is of course an old favourite of mine – next week will be my 5 year anniversary of volunteering there – so it seemed only fitting that since I can’t get along to tidy the vines and run the tastings I should crack open a bottle of ‘High Hopes’ and think positively about the future instead.

High Hopes is a lovely bit of English fizz. When it was first released it had a touch of the sherbert lemons about it, but that has softened off now. It is still citrussy and quite acidic but everything has softened over time and there are more subtle savoury autolytic notes. A very refined and satisying drop to enjoy in our locked down sunny garden.

Locally Produced Food

And what have I been eating? Well, a surprising variety it has to be said, considering we can’t go out!

Thanks to a delivery from Wigston Fields News & Deli, I got to try a banana and chocolate loaf from Hairy Coconut which I really enjoyed. The texture is quite dense, but that is nice as the dark chocolate ganache is even heavier so the whole thing feels quite rich and decadent. Everything Hairy Coconut makes is vegan friendly too.

Also from the News & Deli I got me a Noni’s scotch egg, who I have mentioned before. But I cannot stress enough, one of the black pudding ones (heated up) for a late breakfast is absolutely the bees knees!

Food To Go

Next up we had our regular James Cafe Bistro delivery – I REALLY enjoyed this chicken burger with bacon and cheese. The Cajun spicing on the chicken was absolutely magic – really tickling the tastebuds and an absolutely huge butterfly chicken breast meant I was stuffed for about two days after it. So, about two days later, I enjoyed the chocolate orange cheesecake they brought too. This is a new flavour that they’ve been experimenting with and the first time I’ve been able to try it as it always sells out before I get to it. Absolutely lush, and totally wicked. They have also started making vegan cheesecakes.

And finally, I got over my post-diabetes omelette aversion with a black pudding omelette the other day, owing to the wonderful women from Butcher’s Block Bromsgrove bringing us a delivery of absolutely stunning meat, including this gorgeous pudding. It has such great texture and the spicing is just so that it’s absolutely my favourite black pudding out there. Obviously they are based in Bromsgrove but drop them a line via Facebook if you are Leicester based as they have been doing ‘drops’ about once a month and the quality of everything we’ve tried has been awesome.

Which local foodie businesses are you supporting at the moment?