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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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