"Love means never having to say, 'Should we get dessert?'"
Anon
Monday, 30 July 2018
Quote of the Week - Week commencing Monday 30 July 2018
Tuesday, 24 July 2018
The Anthologist
One St Peter's Square, Manchester
The Anthologist is a new
restaurant by Drake & Morgan, the London group who recently brought a touch
of the capital to Spinningfields when they opened The Refinery.
Situated in the middle of St
Peter’s Square, opposite the central library, The Anthologist is a rustic,
botanical themed restaurant and cocktail bar and is the perfect place for
stylish all-day dining.
It delivers sumptuous
cocktails and a fusion menu, taking inspiration from all corners of the globe
and ‘pairing health with indulgence’. The Drake and Morgan group also pride
themselves on providing a wealth of vegan and vegetarian options.
The impressive cocktail menu
promises to take you on a journey through botanical mixology. All the beverages
have been hand-crafted by Fabrizio Cioffi, alias The Gardner, who mixes
together ingredients from the gardens around the world to create his fusion
creations. They’re all rather creatively named and split up into four families.
‘The Essence of the Garden’
features all your classic cocktails which you’d find in any good mixing house;
‘The Enchanted Garden’ sees the owners add their own little twists to some old
favourites, whilst ‘The Experimental Garden’ are brand new creations.
What really caught my eye was
the ‘Absolute Proofs’: super-skinny cocktails with no alcohol, some of which
contain less than 50 calories. I had the Apple Pie: a refreshing, long drink
made with cloudy apple, black pepper, maple syrup and ginger. My friend chose
the Ginger Mimosa: a mixture of orange juice and ginger ale with rosemary and
fresh ginger. I couldn’t have drunk this one; it was too savoury and slightly
heavy on the spicy ginger.
Food-wise, we dined off the
brunch menu. Be careful of this, for it’s a little complicated. They have both
a brunch menu and an all-day menu available during the day, but as I made a
lunchtime booking online (selecting lunch as the dining option), we were only
offered the brunch menu. With hindsight, I realised we should have asked for
the alternative menu. Still, there were plenty of tasty options.
To start, I had the Chorizo
Scotch Egg: a warm and meaty egg with a yolk on the right side of runny, served
with smoky chipotle mayonnaise and a heap of leaves. Erm, sorry, bistro salad. It
was absolutely delicious. I’ve never had a warm scotch egg before, and never
again will I want to experience a dry, rubbery version from a supermarket.
My friend’s avocado hummus,
served with toasted gluten-free flatbread, dukkah (an Egyptian spice made from
nuts, sesame seeds, cumin and coriander) and pomegranate was a very generous portion
for a starter, not to mention extremely healthy.
My main course was the D&M
Burger, which, as I write this, I now know stands for Drake & Morgan, but
at the time I was scratching my head pondering exactly where the name from. It
was a beef burger with smoked bacon and Applewood cheese served in a
deliciously earthy-looking beetroot brioche bun. It was a nice enough burger,
not the best one I’ve ever had, but the meat itself was huge and very well
cooked. The beetroot brioche was interesting, if a little claggy. The chips
were nothing special either and certainly needed some seasoning.
I’ll hold my hands up and
admit this was entirely my fault. I should have requested the other menu, which
has a wider selection of main courses and hot sandwiches on it.
Unusually for me, the king of
the cakes, I wasn’t inspired by the selection of desserts. It didn’t take me
long to decide that I was going for the chocolate brownie.
As brownies go, this was first
class. It was light and fluffy with a crunchy top. Refreshingly, it was milk
chocolate-based, rather than dark, which meant it wasn’t overly rich and heavy.
It was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a pot of molten chocolate
sauce, which naturally had to be poured over the entire thing for a true
chocolate feast.
I hereby conclude that, from
now on, every chocolate brownie should be served with a pot of molten
chocolate.
Overall, I was really
impressed with The Anthologist. It’s a welcome addition to one of my favourite
areas of the City Centre. With so many attractions nearby – The Palace Theatre,
The Opera House, The Ritz and Manchester Central are all within walking
distance – it shouldn’t be long before it’s doing a roaring trade. The soft
launch period, during which time they were offering discounts on all food
bills, has now come to an end, so I predict that an official launch will follow
soon.
Catering for breakfast, lunch,
a quick catch up or a delicious three course meal, The Anthologist brings the
outdoors indoors with its quirky garden themed decor.
There’s a sun terrace in St
Peter’s Square, where there are blankets draped over the chairs, meaning you
can continue to sup your cocktails long after the sun goes down without
becoming chilly.
They even do afternoon tea.
Something tells me I’ll be back here quite soon.
Monday, 23 July 2018
Quote of the Week - Week commencing Monday 23 July 2018
"What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow."
A.A. Milne
Monday, 16 July 2018
Quote of the Week - Week commencing Monday 16 July 2018
"Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better."
Robert Redford
Monday, 9 July 2018
Manchester Eats at Heaton Park
Sunday 8 July 2018
When I hear the word
‘festival’, it sends a shiver down my spine. I imagine cess pits of damp, muddy
fields littered with empty cans of cider and bottles of beer, dirty, dingy
tents, smelly toilets and thumping music that I wouldn’t recognise.
Every year, when Heaton Park
stages its Parklife fiasco and I’m listening to the distant dim humming through
the streets in my local town, just a few miles down the road, I boldly proclaim
that, quite frankly, I couldn’t think of anything worse.
Well, this weekend, I attended
my very first festival. Alright, it was far from the same thing.
I am, of course, talking about
Manchester Eats. This inaugural festival was a celebration of the best in food
and drink that the North West has to offer. It was a foodie’s paradise. There
were local restaurants and bars, artisan markets, street food stalls,
cocktails, mocktails, craft beers and prosecco. There were also celebrity
chefs, activities for the kids and free-from food workshops, showing you how to
whip up some very tasty vegetarian and vegan food in this age where it’s
becoming all the more trendy to avoid meat.
 |
| Manchester Eats at Heaton Park |
With over 120 exhibitors,
there was so much choice and making a decision about what exactly to eat was
rather stressful. At least as a tee-totaller, the lack of interest in the prosecco
tent, the craft beer stalls and the ‘gin and spirits’ section gave me more time
to focus on the food.
Street food vendors included Grandad’s Sausages, Tandoori Naan Hut and Wildfire
Pizza Co, demonstrating the vast array of cuisines available to try and
proving that festival food has come a long way since the days of soggy chips
and Mr Whippy ice cream.
The market place featured an
eclectic conglomeration of traditional artisan stalls – cheese, fudge, olives,
garlic and hand baked goods all available.
Restaurants taking part from
across the region included Cottonpolis,
a Japanese-inspired Sushi restaurant in the Northern Quarter; Revolution, the popular restaurant and
cocktail bar, and one of my favourite local places, the Whitefield-based One88.
With street food, the clue is in the name, it’s designed to be eaten in the
great outdoors, but it’s mightily impressive that restaurants manage to pack up
their kitchens and cook in a tepee in the middle of a park, so credit to all of
them for taking part.
I was delighted to spot The York Roast Company, home to the
renowned Yorkshire pudding wrap. I’d previously lusted after one of these when
the company were at Manchester’s Christmas markets last year, but heavy rain
and endless queues couldn’t insight even this most passionate foodie to give it
a go. Who knew that my time would finally arrive on a scorching hot day in
July? Turkey, stuffing, vegetables, gravy and cranberry sauce – essentially a
little Christmas dinner – all wrapped inside a giant Yorkshire pudding is the
stuff dreams are made of. Luckily, this YorkyPud, as it’s called, didn’t
disappoint, proving once and for all that turkey certainly isn’t just for
Christmas. If it isn’t for you though, there are pork, ham and beef
alternatives available.
 |
| Turkey YorkyPud wrap, courtesy of The York Roast Company |
Whilst lunch may have been an
easy decision, dessert was a much tougher choice. There was certainly no
shortage of sweet treats, thanks to the likes of Mr Churros, Viva La Crepe,
Ridiculously Rich by Alana and Milky Stax.
Would you believe that the
answer to all my prayers was set up shop right next door to the York Roast Company. Treaty Pie, a dessert delivery company based in Liverpool, claims
to be ‘the home of dirty desserts’. Dirty and delicious. For just £5, they were
offering a brownie, a cheesecake or a slab of hot cookie dough with a choice of
sauce and a topping. The cookie dough was sensational; the best one I’ve ever
had. Warm and goey, I had mine drizzled in biscoff sauce and topped with M’n’Ms
for additional crunch. Settling down in the shade, I savoured every luscious
mouthful and I couldn’t have been happier.
 |
| Cookie dough with biscoff sauce and M'n'Ms, courtesy of Treaty Pie |
Whoever decided to pair up the
two stalls was a genius. Together, they provided a perfect, albeit calorific,
meal without having anywhere at all in the sweltering heat. Thank you, both of
you, for making my day.
The headliner on Sunday was
celebrity chef Matt Tebbutt, well-known as the regular host of the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen Live and Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped. The previous day, Marco
Pierre White and Ed Baines and Adam Reid had all performed demonstrations.
During his Q&A session,
Matt was relaxed and delightful, waxing lyrical about the not-so-glamorous life
of working in a kitchen, how much he learned during his time working for Marco
Pierre White and why he no longer has time for Twitter given that you can’t say
anything without upsetting somebody. Within minutes, he had the audience eating
out of the palm of his hand.
 |
| Matt Tebbutt conducting his Q&A session |
It was refreshing to see Matt
admit that he has no time for over-pretentious fine dining and proclaim that it’s
good to be greedy. Matt, I thank you, I’ve waited so long for somebody tell me
that.
 |
| Matt Tebbutt's Crispy Turkey in Bang Bang Sauce |
I managed to fill a good few hours
purely wandering, eating and watching a couple of the demonstrations, but for
those who wanted to be more hands-on, there were free kids cookery sessions and
free chocolate workshops on both days, as well as vegan and vegetarian cookery
schools in which you could learn how easy it is to prepare meat and dairy free
meals, meaning that you more than got your money’s worth.
Throw in some live music and a
few fairground attractions and it was the perfect day out for people of all
ages. The sun shone, the drinks flowed and the food was spectacular.
Manchester
Eats, please come back next year.
Full details on all the
stalls, demonstrations and activities are available at the website:
Monday, 2 July 2018
Quote of the Week - Week commencing Monday 2 July 2018
"The 12-step chocoholics program: never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate!"
Terry Moore
American actress
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