York | Tender Lamb Leg to the Rescue for Meat Lovers in Winter
Come winter, it’s hard to resist indulging in red meat. As the UK enters December, it turns into a foggy city, and I couldn’t help but venture out in the gloomy weather to find some food. I checked out the Shambles in York with a friend and found this Turkish restaurant nearby. The tender, milky lamb leg we tried was a bite of wonder. This place specializes in Turkish 🇹🇷 cuisine, offering a variety of kebabs, stews, and fried dishes. Eating a hot, steaming lamb leg stew in the Shambles, where every restaurant has a queue, is the ultimate winter satisfaction. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 For starters, we chose the fried calamari. As someone who enjoys Japanese cuisine and has a high demand for crispiness in fried food, this calamari scores four stars. The batter thickness was just right, the squid was fresh and bouncy, and a squeeze of lemon balanced the greasiness perfectly, making it deliciously straightforward. 🌟🌟🌟 The restaurant also adjusts their soup of the day based on availability. I chose a slightly acidic, spice-rich soup made with Jerusalem artichokes, a root vegetable medley. Haha, the acidity was a bit too high for my taste due to hunger that day. However, as the main course arrived, this soup had its moment of glory – the rich, acidic flavor of the soup blended beautifully with the salty lamb leg sauce, a rollercoaster ride for the taste buds with every spoonful. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 The main dish, the stewed lamb leg, was a lighter preparation than the French style, bringing out the tenderness and milky flavor of the meat. I’m quite sensitive to the gamey taste of lamb, but this leg had no odd flavors, juicy and not dry, complemented by the sauce and freshly baked bread, embodying the essence of winter. Special mention goes to the house-made chili sauce, wow, it’s a match made in heaven with lamb. It has a moist texture, different from the chili oil in China, with a smoky flavor in addition to the spiciness, offering a rich layering. This chili sauce is truly unique and deserves a shoutout. (The spice level in the UK is also friendly to someone like me who can’t handle too much heat.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟 For dessert, the ice cream came with homemade strawberry sauce. Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors were all delicious! The chocolate had a slightly bitter but rich taste, the strawberry was tart, and the vanilla had bits of vanilla bean. The only improvement would be if the strawberry sauce were a bit more acidic. Lastly, the owner of the restaurant was quite interesting. Haha, they’ve probably hosted many enthusiastic guests and smiled throughout our visit. 🥳 Meeting smiling people in the cold UK significantly boosts the winter happiness quotient. #YorkUK #YorkFood #YorkRestaurant #YorkTurkishRestaurant #WhatToEatInYork #TheShamblesYork #YorkshireShambles