Ugly Delicious: Christmas at Zion Community Kitchen

Zion Community Kitchen: The Bridle Lane Tavern has changed hands a few times in recent years. Now, during lockdown, we’ve seen another enterprising takeaway spring up. Until such time as they can open their doors again… They have found a permanent home in the BLT’s kitchen. The Zion Community Kitchen started out in a home kitchen with pub pop ups. Now they have completed their first a month running out of its new home.

Main Event

We were treated to their festive menu this week. The usual carefully curated list of meat and vegan friendly options has been given a very Christmassy twist this week! I’ll be honest, when it reaaches you it ain’t pretty, but it sure tastes good! We had the Porky Bun – a slow cider braised pulled pork in a brioche bun and served with sausage & sage stuffin, spiced apple chutney and caramelised onions.

It also comes with fries and a rich dipping gravy. It was certainly full of flavour although fractionally too thin for my liking. Being from the North West originally, I like gravy that coats the mouth with meaty glory and sticks to your ribs. But there was no denying the flavour of any element here. The pulled pork is beautifully executed – glistening and tender. The stuffing patty gives just a bit of much needed bite and crunch. The same complement is paid by the crispy fries. They were still hot and crunchy when our order was delivered.

Wrap me a dinner, I’ll be back for breakfast

Next up The Yorkshire Turkey – a Christmas dinner in what must have originally been a HUGE Yorkshire pudding wrap. Yorkie wraps have become a little bit on trend in recent years, particularly as a Christmas market treat, so this was a nice one to enjoy. It was huge and stuffed to the gills with turkey, shredded cabbage, honey carrots and more of that delightful stuffing. This really did taste just like takeaway Christmas dinner but was impossible to photograph well. It too was served with fries and gravy. Just what the doctor ordered and more than a meal – great value for a tenner.

Christmas Eh

On the side I had a festive poutine. The Canadian classic (another super on trend street food right now) is reimagined with turkey and bacon bits, brie and cranberry topped with gravy. This lost a little impact in the transporting, as you didn’t get those crispy edges of chips or on the bacon as everything had gone to mush during transport. It was lush but I only want that mushy melding of all the ingredients right at the end f my poutine experience, not all the way through. Still, I have enough of this, the wrap and the gravy left to make an enviable Sunday brunch tomorrow. I even have a bit of brie in the fridge I can throw on. I think the poutine will be even nicer tomorrow reheated in the oven and with fresh gravy added!

Thank you to Zion for gifting us this meal, delivered on time and on schedule, for the purposes of review. My post is an honest reflection of the food we tried.