What is it about food that builds its reputation in your memory into a yearning? It’s pretty much possible to get most things English in Australia, where I now live – Marmite, McVities chocolate digestives, red Leicester cheese … But Yorkshire curd tarts, oven cakes (or soft oven bottoms as they are traditionally known) and Atora suet remain elusive. It’s not that the suet itself is the thing – it’s the fluffy, gooey dumplings that I love. And although I have not sourced it myself, I understand that it is available – when I get back I’ll have to seek it out, as it will be the depths of winter by then and I can curl up in front of my wood burning stove and eat thick, chewy stews on top of which suet dumplings ooze.
However, here I am back in Leeds and the hunt for the Yorkshire curd tart was on. (One has to be particularly careful not to accidentally fall into a spoonerism with its name …) The best tarts were always sold by Ainsley’s, so I walked to all the places where Ainsley’s used to be, to find that Ainsley’s was no longer there. It was the best local chain, but that doesn’t mean you can survive – quality it seems is not enough, business acumen is all.
Gregs was always second choice, but even they have stopped doing Yorkshire curd tarts – “Not the demand, love.” I should never have left, I could have kept up the demand single handedly.
Imagine my delight then, when an unplanned amble through Leeds Market turns up not only a Yorkshire curd tart, but that other delicacy, a soft oven bottom. How eagerly, you may imagine, did I purchase said items and carry them home. How I salivated as I laid them out to photograph them for this blog and waited for the kettle to boil for a cuppa.
Cut carefully into quarters, I sat down with my friend and with great anticipation raised the delicious morsel to my lips. Oh, the disappointment… Not enough nutmeg. What’s the point of a Yorkshire curd tart if you can’t taste the nutmeg? Come back Ainsley’s and show them the way!
I looked at the soft oven bottom. Really, it’s just a bread roll. A nice bread roll, but just a bread roll after all. Dare I have the dumplings when I get home…
Salatheel 
I had a similar experience when encountering 1. Ambrosia Rice Pudding in a tin and; 2. A Jacobs Orange Club chocolate biscuit. Both were loved as a child, but just didn’t have the same ‘fun’ in them as an adult 30 years later… happy hunting for more long lost experiences.
I can’t go with you on the Ambrosia Rice Pudding, I always hated the stuff. My mum made very good rice pudding from scratch. But Orange Club biscuits – now there you have me. Absolutely the best of the varieties, I had forgotten about them, but now you have reminded me …