food and life
September is the month of new beginnings, isn’t it? There’s a seasonal shift and we look to fill our bellies and climb under the covers all cosy and covered in crumbs.
I miss the sunlight in September and start to stuff all kinds of things in my gob to compensate. Feed me. Feed me up on crouton laden soup, piles of toast, pizza, toasties, bread and butter pudding… ‘ALL THE CARBS’, is what my body craves as soon as the weather shifts and I get cold.
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Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending ‘Perfect Patisserie’ – one of John Whaite’s (winner of GBBO series 3) Kitchen Cookery School classes. Included in the Standard’s 10 best cookery schools in the UK, the school is Set in a barn in the rolling hills of Lancashire, on the family farm where John grew up, it’s an idyllic setting and the kitchen fit out is enviable.
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As you might know, all that she craves was originally a food blog but there’s more to what I crave in life than food alone. It’s food, and everything that goes with it: the people who cook and eat, the places it comes from and where we go to eat, the surroundings and objects in which food is served and it’s all of that that becomes part of the story. So, this has become a blog about those things, too – food and life.
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So, if you’re wondering where to go for coffee in Manchester, whatever your needs, I can probably help you out. Here are my top five coffee spots:
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Afternoon Tea Week (oh yes, apparently it’s a thing) runs from the 14th-20th of August, 2017, here in the UK. There’ll be deals to be had and tiny sandwiches filling up your insta feed and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll spend the week craving warm from the oven scones slathered in butter.
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Sam Buckley and his chefs prepare, cook and serve some of the best food we’ve ever eaten, the space is simple but beautifully, quietly, put together, the staff are warm, passionate and knowledgeable, each piece of crockery has a tactility that intensifies the pleasure of each dish, and even the hand wash makes me pant and sigh.
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The Northern Quarter has a new coffee lounge and lifestyle store that’s a long way from the grimy, unnamed, unbranded, shops and bars that used to pop-up here. Carefully curated, Porter + Cole is perhaps more Didsbury-esque than NQ in its approach, but it’s quite at home with its equally grown-up neighbours.
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I’ve developed an obsession with my blender. I don’t know why. It’s not new and it hasn’t suddenly developed the ability to do things it couldn’t do before. But, for some reason, the possibilities and creations I’ve made with it this week have felt endless.
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Absolutely delicious on their own, warm from the oven, financier are a classic French pastry. Sweet and nutty, these little almond cakes, with crisp exteriors and springy middles, are leavened with egg whites and flavoured with almonds and beurre noisette (browned butter).
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Welcome to Mayfield. Home to Manchester’s newest food market: Grub Food Fair! Set in the impressive, resurgent Mayfield depot, a short walk from Piccadilly, Grub’s arrived in style.
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The dishes we’ve selected for our ‘feast’ aren’t all strictly Catalan in origin, in fact, tapas as a way of eating, wasn’t always even part of Catalan culture having been imported, but they’re all certainly dishes you’ll find being served if you visit Barcelona today.
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When the skies go dark and the rain pours so heavily that it bounces and seems to be raining from the ground as well as the sky, when the biggest umbrella won’t even keep you dry, this is when I want these cookies.
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Quinoa and apple salad with wild garlic. The perfect accompaniment to BBQ pork.
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Situated on Tib Street, just up from North Tea Power, Evelyn’s is up off the street in the lush, open plan industrial setting in what used to be my hairdressers (anyone remember Hedonist? We ended up with one of their green Chesterfield couches after our popping our heads in during their clear out/moving day. They’re Hed Space now) and then after it, Superstore, before Zanna group, who are responsible for a number of other successful ventures, including Indian restaurant Mughli, and Railway Kitchen in Alderley Edge, opened Evelyn’s back in 2015.
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unday. Just as the rain started, we weaved our way through the backstreets of Manchester, to avoid the crowds of the St Patrick’s Day parade and in to The Midland, where Mr Cooper’s House and Garden is situated.
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A trip to New York isn’t complete without at least one visit to Momofuku Milkbar for their soft serve cereal milk ice cream. It tastes exactly as you’d expect: like the milk you lap up from the bottom of your cereal bowl: sweet, rich and deeply satisfying. I wanted a quick hit of that cereal milk flavour without going to the trouble of making (and waiting for) ice cream, so here’s my take on it in milkshake form.
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‘Hispi’, besides being a bugger to type without being autocorrected to ‘hips’, ‘hippo’, or ‘hippy’, is a cabbage more commonly known as a ‘sweetheart cabbage’, which, admittedly, is something I had to Google before we paid a visit (our first) to the mighty bistro that is Hispi, from Gary Usher, of the acclaimed Sticky Walnut and Burnt Truffle.
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Enjoy this breakfast plate of oranges, yoghurt and pistachios quick while the oranges are still as good as they’ll be all year.
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The Refuge in Manchester is jaw-droppingly glamorous and I already can’t wait to go back.
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I don’t know about you, but by 4.30 I’m absolutely ravenous and ready for tea. Heading in to teaching straight out of University meant I never got out of the habit of eating tea straight from school and so now, finishing work at 5 and getting home at 6, means I’m beyond hungry. I’m so hungry, I’ve […]
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There’s two reasons you have to bake ginger biscuits in December: first of all, they make the whole house smell of ginger and all things Christmassy.
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