Market Wraps review – the best pork ever pulled

Leeds Farmer and Craft Market happens on the first and third Sunday of every month, and is definitely the best place to be – meandering up and down, eating samples, and probably frequenting one too many stall, pretending that the two burgers, a wrap and a piece of cake that you’ve necked do not yet constitute a full and substantial meal (you were stood up, and wandering up and down, for heaven’s sake).

A new find for me was Market Wraps.  It was time to commit to some porky, wrappy goodness, and see if they met my already salivating expectations. It was time for a Market Wraps review.  The lovely Carl suggested a sweet and spicy pulled pork wrap, and from the smells emanating from his giant pan of softly fraying pork I thought I had better do what this guy says.  He was onto a winner.

I have to be honest, the explosion of popularity in pulled pork produce lately has less than impressed me. Pulled pork is like a burger – the best burgers satisfy in every which way, where the others leave you in the depths of a food-based hatred for the modern world (not to mention, sorry for the cow who gave up his life in vain).  Done badly, pulled pork can be completely unsatisfying; fatty, stringy and bland, smothered in synthetic sauces.  But done right? Oh my.

Well, all I can say is that Carl has only gone and done it right.

Filled to the brim throughout, the juicy, falling apart pork was beautifully flavoured with sweet and spicy sauciness without letting the sauce hide the pork in all its glory.  There was just enough coleslaw-y stuff to add the necessary crunch of texture, without interfering in the pork debauchery happening in your mouth.  There was a distinctly charcoaled crunch to some strands, which far from being unpleasant was perfection – adding that barbecue-y taste and a little crisp bite to a mouthful of sumptuously soft and saucey pork. Perfection in a wrap.

In short, I have been converted back to pulled pork. Too many poor-standard versions (sorry to The Pit in Chapel Allerton, but you are mainly the culprits for my animosity – every time I go to The Pit I die a little inside) had made me lose faith in pulled pork. But Carl’s wraps are enough to reignite the fire, and remind you just why this food became a ‘fashion’ in the first place.  Three cheers for Market Wraps!!

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