Tickling my tyke tastebuds

YOU'VE heard of Asda Price, but what about the Asda Challenge?

In a spirit of regional patriotism to mark Yorkshire Day, the Leeds-based superstore group offered me this mission: to live off Yorkshire food for one week.

Impossible, was my first thought. How could anyone live off Yorkshire puddings and KitKats for seven whole days?

But my challengers at Asda were quick to allay my fears and faxed me a long list of foodstuffs from our region. It featured tea, cheese, burgers, sausages, bread, vegetables and ice cream - and suddenly my mission looked a lot more hopeful.

I accepted.

First stop was a trip to York's Asda store at Monks Cross to stock up for my challenge. Half an hour later, I left laden with gammon steaks, beefburgers, bacon, a side of beef, poultry, a bag of aubergines and two dozen eggs - all from local producers. Oh yes, and I had some giant Yorkshire puddings too.

Helpfully, staff had also compiled a list of recipe ideas to get me started.

Ravenous, I returned home and immediately grilled the burgers and enjoyed them on huge doorsteps of white Yorkshire bread.

For me lunch is normally a jacket potato or some soup, and I found this meaty sandwich filling enough to keep my appetite in check for the rest of the day.

Next day, I couldn't resist the pull of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and cooked up the full monty.

The menu for the following evenings consisted of chicken pie with locally-grown carrots and new potatoes, gammon steak and another big roast dinner, this time turkey.

It was filling stuff, and I did begin to worry about my waistline. Typical Yorkshire food isn't too far removed from the sort of fare I was fed as a child growing up in Scotland. Most nights, it was meat with tatties and another veg.

Today, appetites and attitudes have changed, and most of us eat a broader range of food, not least because the choice is so much wider.

The appeal of foreign cuisine is a big challenge to local producers. Today our tastebuds are more than familiar with Italian, Chinese and Indian cuisine. Indeed, it's chicken tikka massala, not roast beef and Yorkshire pudding or fish and chips which is the Brits' number one dish.

So when better to mount a fightback than on Yorkshire Day, when pride in the White Rose of God's Own County should be at its peak.

That's just what Asda seeks to do. It is currently promoting 40 different Yorkshire-based suppliers in a bid to encourage shoppers to show pride in their county and buy local.

"There is an amazing breadth and variety of produce made locally with everything from feta cheese and fresh fish to rhubarb and mince pies - as well as the county's traditional tastes such as Yorkshire puddings and well-known special brews. There's a feast to be had from Yorkshire," said Gwyn Burr of Asda.

North Yorkshire cookery expert Penny Abbey also believes there is a wealth of great Yorkshire produce out there, which we should try.

"We have everything here, but we are quite conservative. We are also proud people and don't like blowing our own trumpet.

"We should raise the profile of Yorkshire produce, people need to be more aware of it."

She is full of praise for farmer's markets and local markets, which sell Yorkshire goods.

"The food is fresh and people are making it to the highest quality. And when we buy it, it's helping the local economy at a time when things are hard."

Penny also helped to broaden my horizons on the subject of Yorkshire fare.

"We have the best rhubarb in the world. We produce plums, gooseberries - really wonderful soft fruit. Then there are the new potatoes, the flavour is superb. People forget we have a coastline and that we produce the most marvellous fish."

Asked to compose her perfect three-course Yorkshire meal, after some thought she plumped for a savoury curd tart with salad and tomatoes for starters, followed by Whitby cod lightly grilled with fresh lavender and mint, then Yorkshire pudding with a soft-fruit filling and honey and lemon sauce.

"We really have excellent produce - you just have to use your imagination."

Stallholders at York's Newgate market are also champions of the cause.

Londoner Gordon David has been running his greengrocers stall for 25 years, buying local as much as he can, something his customers like.

"They don't like foreign, don't like French. They are becoming more discerning and it does matter where it comes from," he says.

Cheese stallholder John Robinson stocks an impressive array of Yorkshire cheeses, cakes, honey and chutney, but would like to make it a Yorkshire-only zone. He's currently looking for a producer to supply Yorkshire jam and lemon curd.

"We're in York and it is a tourist place. People just prefer to buy homemade stuff."

At Swain's the butchers, almost everything on sale is local.

"We've got a St George's flag up," says Carl Webster. "But we probably don't do enough to tell people it's all from Yorkshire."

As for my challenge: could I live off Yorkshire food for a week? I think I might manage for longer than that.

PICTURE: David Swain at his meat stall in Newgate Market