The North-East's cuisine is fed by green landscapes, watered by clean rivers and cultivated by thousands of years of tradition. Combining fantastic natural resources with age-old knowledge has led the North's produce to some of the finest tables in the world. Walk into Fortnum and Masons in London and you will be able to buy fine cheese from the Northumbrian Cheese Company - but of course you could just take a trip to their dairy in Blagdon, Northumberland instead.
 Northumbrian Larder, set up in the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, has done wonders for the cause of local producers now recognised world-wide for their quality. Exported worldwide are Craster Kippers, Lindisfarne Mead and luxury ice creams, including the Newcastle Brown Ale flavour, from Doddington Dairy near Wooler - farm retailer of the year 2004. Swallow Fish is a long-established family business which uses the last fully-operational 19th-Century smokehouse in Seahouses. The Fisherman's Kitchen, a shop on the premises offers a wide selection of locally caught shellfish, fresh fish and Swallow's smoked salmon and kippers - acclaimed on the Floyd Around Britain BBC TV series. Steve Ramshaw of Northumbrian Quality Meats won the title of top beef and sheep farm in the producers section of the 2004 UK Organic Food Awards ceremony and has been featured in celebrity chef Rick Stein's Food Heroes book. The Blagdon Farm Shop at The Milkhope Centre, Northumberland is a great source of all manner of Northumbrian goods. It also has an expanding range of Blagdon Farm produce, grown with no compromise between the environment, animal welfare and quality under the Leaf Scheme. Moorhouse Farm Shop offers a wide range of Northumbrian produce including pork, beef and lamb direct from the couple's family farm. Also whetting appetites are goods from the Northumberland Cheese Company, Beef from Wallington Hall fully traceable and of the highest quality, Herdwick Mutton, Cumberland sausages from Shaw Meats in Silloth, Cumbria and venison from the Alnwick Castle Estate. With such great produce on offer it is no surprise that in 2002 Hexham farmers' market was voted the best in the country. For details of local producers and farmers markets visit www.northumbria-larder.co.uk Restaurants
 The North-East's restaurants have truly come into their own over the past decade with one word giving the key to that success - and that's "local". A commitment to using the region's best and freshest available produce as headed the restaurant revolution. The North-East houses some fantastic eateries. In Newcastle there celebrity chef and author Terry Laybourne's Cafe 21, which heads up a chain which also includes; Cafe 21 in Ponteland, Cafe Live at Newcastle's Live Theatre and Bistro 21 in Durham. Terry's book Quest for Taste is a celebration of beautiful recipes of North-East produce. Restaurateur Bill Oldfield's 15-mile menu at his Durham and Jesmond Oldfield's Restaurants celebrate the region's food together with top-class cooking which means dishes are prepared using ingredients sourced from suppliers within 15 miles of Newcastle. In The Comfort Food Company restaurant in Pudding Chare, Newcastle, you will find nothing coming out of the kitchen which hasn't first lived on a local farm or harvested from the North Sea. Even Italian restaurant Secco Ristorante Salentino make sure they find the best fresh produce of local markets and suppliers. And with a myriad of other restaurants including The Pump House in Durham, Mal Maison, McCoys at Baltic celebrating the same ethic good food is easier and easier to come by. The best of international cuisine is also easily available in the region from as far-afield as the Canary Islands, Thailand, Spain and Italy and Mongolia. And let's not forget our fish and chips. Seahouses is renowned for having the country's best fish and chip shops although there are a good many others around the region including your local chippy. Brewers
 With real ale becoming the preserve of connoisseurs, the region has seen a burst of smaller brewers creating ever more spectacular brews. Jarrow Brewery's Rivet Catcher ale won the Newcastle Beer Festival this year and is now tipped to make a splash at the Great British Beer Festival in August with the chance of becoming Champion Beer of Britain. Font Valley Brewery in Northumberland won a bronze award with their Font Valley SB at the Newcastle Beer Festival. Other local brewers to be proud of include; Elderberry, the home-brew centre in Whitley Bay, High House Farm Brewery, Durham Brewery, Wylam Brewery, Hexhamshire Brewery and Mordues of Wallsend. | 
100 Great Reasons...
Brian Aitken, Editor, The Journal
