To Trinity Leeds and an invitation to lunch at the Pink Shed to launch the Leeds Loves Food & Drink Festival that runs 23rd May-9th June.
What’s the Pink Shed I hear you ask? Nothing more than a shocking pink shipping container that becomes a tiny pop up restaurant with lunch or dinner prepared by a mystery chef for the two weeks of the festival.
Bastilla and salad in the Pink Shed © Steph Hargreaves
It seats just eight and is sited in Trinity Kitchen, the ‘street food’ court at the top of Trinity. If you haven’t been to Trinity Kitchen yet, take a look. Richard Johnson the street food guru put it together with permanent food counters supplemented by a changing roll call of real street food caravans such as Fish & or Manjit’s Kitchen, that are winched into Trinity every month. It makes it more authentic than most food courts and gives the small food producers a bigger audience, but I’m not entirely convinced that I really want to eat my lunch out of a cardboard box inside a shopping mall, but full tables at lunchtime tell me I’m wrong.
Back at the Pink Shed, our mystery chef turned out to be the charming Kada Bendaha who cooks Middle Eastern and north African food at Café Moor in Leeds’ Kirkgate Market.
We began with khobz, a crispy Lebanese bread, smeared with harissa and topped with hummus and a good fresh tabouleh. Our main was bastilla, the famous Moroccan pie, traditionally filled with pigeon but here deliciously filled with chicken, saffron, cinnamon and raisins. A salad of beetroot, cucumber, tomato and blackberries added freshness. To finish, what else but sweetly delicious pistachio filled baklava.
It was a delightful feast, cleverly prepared within the constraints of a shipping container which has served it’s purpose of persuading me to go down to Kirkgate Market and sample Café Moor and more of Kada’s middle eastern food.
Other restaurants guesting at the Pink Shed include Friends of Ham, Sunshine Bakery and others. To book a table call 0113 322 6377 [email protected]
Café Moor, Unit B 1904, Kirkgate Market, 34 George Street Leeds