Danny Malin: 'I’d rather pay for a proper hog roast than a fancy loaded doughnut'
In his latest column, Danny Malin write about his favourite Christmas Market offerings
November marks the start of the Christmas market season. I’m excited to see what food vendors will have lined up.
I always love tasting some of the street food on offer, from classic hog roasts to crumble and custard. If it’s made fresh and done well, you can’t beat the simple things.
I’m not a fan of Yorkshire pudding wraps because they’re normally just shop-bought cheap wraps with a few trimmings chucked in. I’d rather have a homemade Yorkshire pudding with some proper gravy poured in as a dish instead of a ready-made roast in a wrap.
A twist on a roast dinner I enjoyed recently was a loaded sausage roll at Farmer Copleys in Pontefract. It had been freshly made in the farm kitchen using their own produce.
If I were to make a dish, it would be a roast dinner inside a Yorkshire pudding toastie. If everything had been made from scratch, this would be spot on for me.
I know smashed patties and loaded fries have also been popular for years, but I’d rather have a good quality juicy burger, a deli sandwich or some chip shop chips.
For this reason, I think you can find the best food at York Christmas Market.
The guys at Millers of Haxby, a chippy in York, executed the perfect Christmas market dish last year. They had people queuing around the block for their Irish spice bags.
I always check out what the Shambles Kitchen has on offer. They tend to do the big German sausages that I love rather than the cheap hot dogs.
Crumbl also do some proper custard and crumble rather than the shop-bought stuff.
York can get really busy around Christmas, so I always try to go on a weekday for the markets. It’s the same for most of the markets.
I like to try food from several stalls too, which can be hard on a Saturday. In Leeds, I love seeing the guys from Farsley Fire and Smoke with their barbecue train and their old Austrian wine cask serving traditional mulled wine.
That said, I’d rather have the delicious slow-cooked meat with a bottle of water as I’m not a big drinker.
I’ll definitely be heading to Manchester, Leeds and York for their markets this Christmas.
I know food and drink cost a lot at these places, but so do ingredients, staff, and other overheads such as the cost of the stalls, electricity, and equipment.
For me, it’s about value for money.
I’d rather pay for a good quality hog roast sandwich made with fresh bread and locally sourced meat than a fancy loaded doughnut bought from the wholesalers.