Yorkshire foodie guide: an A-Z of events, delicacies and eateries

With Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival just around the corner, we've decided to venture on an alphabet adventure of Yorkshire's best food and drink - from traditional delicacies to festivals, eateries and more.

There's more to Yorkshire cuisine than our famous puddings - and food festivals and other tasty events are popping up across the county.

And on top of that, there's some cracking places to eat in God's own county, from classic tea rooms to fine dining.

Here's our A-Z foodie guide to Yorkshire:

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A-Z foodie guide to Yorkshire - pictures

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A is for Ale - real ales, more specifically! The nation's most popular ale, John Smith's, is brewed in Yorkshire, and we've also got the award-winning Black Sheep and Sam Smiths breweries on our doorstep. There's also some cracking beer festivals in the Yorkshire calendar, including events in Leeds, Mirfield and Huddersfield (the Huddersfield CAMRA branch just held its annual summer beer festival) and of course the food and drink festival in St George's Square (August 7-10) will have some of the region's finest ales on offer.
Huddersfield is also one of the stops on the infamous Transpennine Real Ale Trail - and Huddersfield town centre will host its own real ale and cider trail from July 19-August 10, sponsored by the Rat and Ratchet pub in Chapel Hill and Ossett Brewery.

B is forBradford, Curry Capital of Britain - officially the best city for foodies that like it spicy! Bradford's ever-popular curry houses came together last year to help Bradford bag the Curry Capital crown for the third year in a row last October, and chefs will be hoping to retain the honour this year. Mughals, in Leeds Road, Bradford, is the highest ranked curry house according to Tripadvisor.

C is for cider - and you can sample a refreshing pint made via traditional cider press in Holmfirth. The Pure North Cider Press and accompanying orchard boasts a beautiful rural setting in Deanhouse, Netherthong, and its café serves hot meals and snacks made using the ciders produced on site. And Lindley cider maker David Kendall-Smith, pictured, produceS award-winning Udders Orchard real cider and perry.

D is for dusk - or rather, Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival at Dusk . The festival's bars and food stalls stay open til 10pm on the Friday and Saturday of the four-day festival alongside live entertainment from local bands, artists and DJs. This year The Voice quarter-finalist Georgia Harrup, from Lepton, Huddersfield, will headline the festival on the Friday night - click here for the full line-up .

E is for Emley Show - one of the biggest and best agricultural shows in Yorkshire, held at Factory Farm on Emley Moor. As well as showing off some of Yorkshire's finest produce and livestock in its wide range of animal classes, the show also hosts a food marquee, with meats, pies, cheeses, olives, fudge, cakes, jams, bread, food outlets and locally-made Jersey ice cream. There's also a beer tent and cookery demonstrations - is your stomach rumbling yet? Emley Show takes place on Saturday August 2 and this year kids go free.

F is for Food Festivals - and Yorkshire's got plenty. Huddersfield's own four-day food and drink extravaganza will take over St George's Square August 7-10, and the sweet and savoury delights of Holmfirth Food and Drink Festival will return on September 27-28. Foodies flock to the Great Yorkshire Show for the best of the country's produce every year, and York Food Festival will return September 19-28. The Yum! Festival of Food and Drink will take place in Hull August 7-9, followed by the Wensleydale Agricultural Show on August 23. Leeds will be the place to be for real ale when its International Real Ale Festival returns September 4-7 - you really are spoilt for choice in Yorkshire, with a calendar of festivals and foodie events running from May onwards each year. Click here for a calendar of events.

G is for gourmet - did you know Yorkshire has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other county outside of London? The Box Tree in Ilkley, The Old Vicarage in Sheffield, the Yorke Arms near Harrogate, The Pipe and Glass in South Dalton and The Black Swan, at Oldstead.
Yorkshire's also got its fair share of celebrity chefs: Marco Pierre-White was born in Leeds, former Masterchef judge John Benson-Smith is a Yorkshire lad, James Martin was born in Malton, and Brian Turner, of Ready Steady Cook and Daily Cooks Challenge fame, was also born in Yorkshire.

H is for Henderson's Relish - the pride of Sheffield and what local legend Sean Bean puts on his chips, apparently. Henderson's Relish, or Hendo's, as some folk call it, is a must-have condiment for South Yorkshire kitchen cupboards. There's been some brilliant limited edition bottles produced too - Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday designs for the 1993 FA Cup semi-final, and a gold version to celebrate Jessica Ennis winning gold in the heptathlon in the 2012 Olympics.

H is for Henderson's Relish, Sheffield's finest (Image: Phil Sangwell/Flickr)

I is for ice-cream - which can be enjoyed at some of Yorkshire's fabulous ice cream parlours. Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream in Denby Dale, Huddersfield, makes artisan ices from locally-sourced ingredients and milk from its own Holstein herd. Charlotte's Jersey Ice Cream in The Meadows, Whitley (near Dewsbury) doesn't just have sundaes - it's also got peacocks, goats, donkeys and Jersey cows! Billy Bob's Parlour at the Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream farm near Bolton Abbey offers classic flavours in its 1950's-style diner, or if you fancy a trip to the seaside, the The Harbour Bar in Scarborough is the perfect spot for a Knickerbocker Glory. The bar is run by the Alonzi family, who have been making ice cream in Scarborough since the turn of the 20th century.

J is for James Martin - who has returned to his Malton, North Yorkshire roots to take the post of executive chef at the Talbot Hotel. The hotel has recently undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment and the James Martin Restaurant promises the best of Yorkshire produce showcased in contemporary British cuisine. As well as lunch and evening menus, the hotel also serves afternoon tea (it better be Yorkshire Tea!).

K is for Krispy Kreme - OK, so they're American, but the oh-so-naughty doughnuts have soared in popularity since their UK introduction and Yorkshire has its own hotlight store (where the doughnuts are made fresh daily) in Birstall. If you visit between 8pm-9pm, you can have a original glazed doughnut, hot off the line, for free, as part of Hotlight Happy Hour, which runs until August 30. Form an orderly queue, folks.

L is for liquorice - first created in Pontefract in the 1700s by George Dunhill, who mixed the liquorice plant with sugar. Pontefract hosts an annual Liquorice Festival in July, with stalls offering liquorice goodies, street entertainment from Lucy Liquorice and the Liquorice Ladies and even liquorice jewellery making.

M is for Matchmakers - those twiggy, chocolate-y sticks that magically appear on the coffee table at Christmas, usually after Christmas dinner. The sweet treats were first produced by Rowntree's, based in York, in 1968 and are still made by Nestle (who acquired Rowntree's in 1988) with 'Cool Mint' and 'Zingy Orange' flavours. You're welcome, Britain.

N is for Nidderdale lamb - said to be a Yorkshire delicacy. Sourced from the surrounding Dales, the succulent meat comes from Texel or Beltex Cross lambs - and producers claim the beautiful rolling hillsides in Pately Bridge and the surrounding areas make for the best lamb-rearing land around. Is your mouth watering yet?

O is for Otley Run - the famous Leeds pub crawl and the reason you might see a group of intoxicated Smurfs staggering through Headingley on a Saturday night. The 16-bar crawl begins at Woodies Ale House, far Headingley and ends at Dry Dock in the town centre - is a rite of passage for most Leeds students.

P is for parkin - a Bonfire Night favourite - but lets face it, yummy cake is yummy cake all year round. Made of oatmeal and black treacle, it has strong connections with Yorkshire, especially Leeds (Lancashire make a lot of it too, but we'll gloss over that). While traditional recipes produce a moist, sticky cake, in Hull and east Yorkshire it has a drier, more biscuit-like texture.

Bonus P - pikelets! Like crumpets, but thinner. Brilliant with lots of butter and a cup of tea. Yum.

Q is for quali-tea - excuse the terrible play on words, but it's true - Yorkshire is the home of a quality cuppa! Yorkshire Tea, produced in Harrogate, is the fastest growing mainstream tea brand - and counts among its fans One Direction's Louis Tomlinson. It even embraced the Tour de France earlier this month with its limited edition Yorkshire The - with boxes thrown to the crowds from the Yorkshire Tea vans that joined the publicity caravan.

TAYLOR'S OF HARROGATE YORKSHIRE TEA — A cup of Yorkshire Tea of course!

R is for rhubarb - found in the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle, a nine-square mile triangle between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell. Yorkshire is the home of forced rhubarb, grown in sheds and more tender than rhubarb grown outside in the sun. West Yorkshire once produced 90 per cent of the world's winter forced rhubarb from its forcing sheds.

S is for sweets - as it seems Yorkshire has a real sweet tooth! From Lion (now Tangerine Confectionery) to Rowntree's, Terry's and Thorntons, chocolate and sweet factories can be found all over Yorkshire. Yorkshire Mixture was created by Elland confectioner Joseph Dobson - and Joseph Dobson and Sons has grown from humble Victorian origins to one of the largest privately owned confectionery manufacturers in the county.

T is for Timothy Taylor's Championship Beers - synonymous with Yorkshire and ever-popular with real ale fans. Based in Keighley, West Yorkshire, the brewery operates almost 20 pubs across Yorkshire and recently produced a Tour de France-themed beer, Le Champion, to celebrate Le Grand Depart in Yorkshire.

U is for umami - Japanese for a 'pleasant savoury taste', many broths and stews - staple dishes in Yorkshire - have been found to be rich in umami, a long-lasting, pleasant aftertaste. You probably won't hear many people say "ooh, that's really umami" in these parts, however - more likely is "eee, that's reet grand, that is".

V is for venison - the healthy red meat can be sourced from farms across Yorkshire, including Round Green Farm in Barnsley, which has raised deer for 30 years. The farm has its own butchery and prepares free range deer to produce quality assured, high standard venison, available in roasting joints, steak and mince.

W is for Wensleydale cheese - named after the Yorkshire town in which it's made, there are five different types of Wensleydale - mild, matured, extra matured, blue or cold smoked. The cheese, much-loved by animated TV duo Wallace and Gromit, is offten eaten with fruit to compliment its hint of honey flavour and acidity. More cheese, Gromit?

W is for Wensleydale - Wallace and Gromit's favourite cheese (Image: Richard North/Flickr)

X is for X-rated - curry, that is! Challenges to try curries that seem designed to blow your head off are popping up everywhere, and at last year's World Curry Festival, Yorkshire chefs Matthew Benson-Smith and Mumtaz Khan (founder of the Mumtaz brand) used naga chillies from Bangladesh with ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander and tumeric to create an explosive chicken curry. Would you be brave enough to try it?

Y is for Yorkshire pudding - because what else could we possibly put under Y?! Yorkshire puddings are the epitome of Yorkshire cuisine, whether seved with Sunday lunch, as a starter with gravy or used to make a mouth-watering toad in the hole. Making perfect puds is a bit of an art form, with recipes and tips passed down the generations (ensuring the lard in your baking tin is hot enough seems to be key). If you use Aunt Bessie's, you're cheating and should be exiled to Lancashire immediately.

Z is for zebra meat - zebra burgers were on offer at Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival last year, and the Yorkshire Dales Meat Company also sells zebra meat, for those of you who fancy trying something a bit different on your barbecue!