Finally Some Good Food 2.8: The Garden of Time

please bröther may I have a vitamin

As you may remember from last month’s newsletter, April was my birthday month and I don’t know if it is something about turning 29 that makes you inherently more sensible, but I have found myself craving vegetables. While this is not an alien sensation to me (normally experienced post-hangover), normally it doesn’t last for an entire month. I can only assume this is a warning flare from my internal organs to get my shit together nutritionally before I turn 30.

Don’t worry of course; this is not some new bullshit ‘clean eating’ era and I am still eating a range of ultra-processed snacks and desserts (as our first listing will prove) which I will always review for you, my adoring fans. Turns out vegetables can taste good too (when cooked/prepared properly). But first, sweets!

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• The bakery crawl!

As you may have seen, I went on a birthday bakery crawl which I wrote about for my very first paid newsletter; the thing is reviewing all the latest restaurants and snacks on a monthly basis for you guys does cost money so if you love what we do here, want to keep it going and also want to read my more in-depth cultural and historical food investigations, you can do so for a couple of quid a month here.

• Fenix 

I was very lucky that my friend Emma took me for a lovely birthday meal at Fenix, a new Greek inspired restaurant which was well-reviewed in the Guardian by Jay Rayne not that long ago. The food is good, although not sure it is good or memorable enough to warrant the price point. However, what I can recommend is the cocktails, which come in all sorts of fun glasses (my favourite was the Medusa, which did come with glass tentacles) and the hummus and pitta to start with, which was lovely and warm and fresh and creamy. I would perhaps recommend more as a fancy cocktail spot then worth splashing for a full meal. 

• Food Writing at the Portico

It’s always a difficult choice deciding what to do on the actual day of your birthday, but a couple of weeks prior I was sent the link to a food writing workshop being held at The Portico Library by the lovely Joe Fenn, who is a writer and manager of the Portico Library kitchen (a great hidden lunch spot by the way!) In the end me and my friend Tim got to spend about three hours nibbling lots of tasty snacks and dishes while doing all manner of fun writing exercises and I loved every moment of it. Joe was a great host and teacher, and I got to have a delicious garlic mushroom tostini. If you love food and food writing, I would definitely keep an eye on the Portico Library as I know Joe is planning some really exciting stuff coming up soon!

• Tres Leches Cake

The joy of a birthday is being able to request whatever cake you want (within reason). This year I requested Cherelle’s Tres Leches cake, which I had over a year prior and haven’t been able to stop thinking about since. Tres Leches Cake is traditionally a sponge soaked with three kinds of milk, whole milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk and second time round, it is still lovely moist goodness, especially with fresh strawberries on top.

• Raspberry orange blossom TRIPS

Recently, with my weekends starting to fill with consecutive parties and social occasions, I’ve taken to bringing only soft drinks to house parties for the sake of my mental/physical health. I was honoured to be invited a house party in Stockport on one Saturday by a new friend of mine who I was keen to impress, so after scouring the Piccadilly co-op I was delighted to find a new flavour of TRIP, Raspberry and Orange Blossom. I hope this gets rolled out to more places, because it tastes like a more sophisticated version of the raspberry yogurts you used to get as a kid. 

• inari tacos, Yo Sushi! 

In my search for more vegetables, I happened to be passing the Arndale one lunchtime and remembered I had a cashback offer for Yo Sushi. I used to go quite regularly in my lunch breaks pre-Covid because they used to have good vegetarian deals on a Wednesday, but haven’t been back since the deal went. So I was pleasantly surprised with this new addition of tofu pockets which are filled with rice, avocado, ponzu salsa & vegan sriracha mayo. A tasty light bite, and went well with avocado maki, the pumpkin katsu and of course, lots of helpings of the free pickled ginger. 

• Yutaka pickled ginger 

Of course, after my visit I had to buy my own jar of pickled ginger for the house from the world food section of Sainsburys and have spent the week since constantly munching some at home. I even introduced it to my mum who also now loves it. Weirdly, it satisfies the same savoury snacking urge of crisps, but I’m not sure why.

• S&B Katsu curry blocks  

I think part of my trip to Yo Sushi came after I read The Philosophy of Curry by Sejal Sukhadwala, which is a great little read that gives a brief history of curry and how it made it’s way to the UK, as well as other parts of the world. It’s a must-read for all foodies as well as curry fans. For example, a lot of the curries in the UK we know and love come from Muslim communities because the British colonisers preferred the meat-based curries.

In the book however, they also detail how katsu curry exists as Japan’s take on the Indian curry, and used an image of S&B curry blocks, which I recognised as they also sell them now in the Sainsbury’s world food section. I was inspired to try and make my own at home, which I made with roasted aubergine, sweet potato and carrot, microwaveable sticky rice and some pickled ginger on top, because I can’t help myself.

• White hot chocolate, Ditto 

It’s been a while since I worked in Ditto but I happened to pop in there the other day before a dance class; after getting caught in a bit of wind and rain I huddled inside and noticed they had white hot chocolate on their specials. Just before the beginnings of Manchester’s summer may be starting to show, this hot chocolate was just what I needed; not just for its delicious, toasted marshmallow flavour, but also holding it brought the feeling back into my hands.

• Will’s Sticky Toffee Cake

It was my friend Will’s birthday and as the system goes, he requested a sticky toffee pudding cake. To be honest I wasn’t sure what that entailed but I found this recipe on Jane’s Patisserie for Sticky Toffee Loaf Cake and gave it a go, making it into a traybake.  FYI, in a wider dish it takes much less time to bake. If you have a sticky toffee lover in your life, this cake is perfect as it tastes exactly like the sticky toffee pudding you would order in your local pub. 

• Hash brown bun, Pollen

After attending a disappointing vintage fair where the only thing I liked was £15 and had a broken zip, we were a little hungry. After some wandering, we found ourselves retracing our bakery crawl route and stopped at Pollen, where I ordered the hash brown bun. I’m a big fan of a breakfast sandwich and have often been left a little cold by vegetarian versions before, so was pleasantly surprised when this bun showed up. The hash brown was ludicrously thick, like a proper burger patty, and the combo of melted cheese, fried egg, pickled onion and chutney all worked together beautifully to make a substantially tasty breakfast. The only thing I will say is that if you have small hands like me, you will need to cut in half for ease. 

• White chocolate and hazelnut pie, Idle Hands 

Following this delicious bun, I needed to do some actual writing so decided to find a cafe to write in. Unfortunately, on the way back, it turns out there was a seat in Idle Hands so I just had to have a slice of pie while I got to work. I chose the white chocolate and hazelnut pie and this was definitely the right choice. It was gluten free, so had some sort of chocolate biscuit crumb base, but topped with a featherlight, sweet but not too sweet, mousse and the occasional chunks of hazelnut for crunch. A perfect afternoon pick me up without being too heavy.

• That’s-a Swedish meatball!

As an alternative to our usual Sunday DND sessions, our group decided to do a potluck dinner and games night. While we may all look at each other differently following a tense game of Articulate, amicable relations were kept up thanks to the food. I got to try my first jalapeno popper, homemade by Connor and not as spicy as I feared (I don’t need to be humbled in that way) which came with a very moreish sour cream and chive dip. Also, Team Jucie (Josh and Lucie) made veggie balls with a creamy gravy and mash. Truly the only substitute for IKEA I will accept.

I attempted my first smacked cucumber (swapping normal chilli for Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli) and also made these peanut noodles a la Tasty, which is a summer staple of mine, but with blanched tenderstem broccoli and raw shavings of carrot for extra veg content. Both good hits of vegetable if you are more veggie-averse.

Before I go, I do have to mention our cursed snack of the month:

• Aero Neapolitan Melts 

These are sort of Aero chocolate buttons, but with strawberry, vanilla and chocolate flavours. However, the overwhelming flavour is synthetic. At first I thought it was just the strawberry flavouring that was the problem but after I tried the chocolate and vanilla I found they all had a weirdly fake accent to them. Feels akin to licking plastic, would not recommend.

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That’s all for this month, join us next time for May’s roundup, which will be full of birthdays, sunshine and perhaps one of the most insane weekends of my life.

As always, please comment, share if you enjoyed and send me any requests - I’m always looking for new stuff to try! If you’ve used any recommendations or recipes from this newsletter and want to show me some financial appreciation in time for my birthday you can do so here.

Otherwise you can subscribe if you haven’t already.

That’s all for now, but I will see you all very soon!

Finally Some Good Food 2.7: March (Potato) Madness

time to worship our true-ber saviour

Happy Easter Monday everyone! Hope you have enjoyed a lovely long weekend filled with chocolate and not doing any work. Personally, the problem of being unemployed a freelance writer is that you have no idea what day it is anymore and bank holidays don’t feel the same; your work never ends and you have less money to get drunk for four days straight. 

But I’m not a Debbie Downer this weekend because I come bearing gifts. For St Patrick’s Day my friend Emma hosted a potato potluck - she is Irish, so it’s technically not a hate crime. It was perhaps the best dinner party I have attended on the sheer quality of everything cooked, and I have managed to obtain almost all the recipes to share with all of you who may be hungover and in need of carbs these holy Monday. 

But first, all the other, non-potato based food I ate this month.

• Eat Natural Blueberry and Cashew Yogurt bars

The problem with becoming someone who exercises on a regular basis and is definitely iron deficient, is that I have to start considering my nutrition a bit more.  Doing evening classes means I have to delay dinner (don’t try going upside down on a full stomach), so I’ve started looking for healthy(ish) snacks that will allow me to keep doing what I love without my body crumpling like a wet paper bag. I’m not a protein bar girlie but my mum introduced me to the Eat Natural bars during a long drive, and unfortunately the best flavour, the yogurt, blueberry and cashew, is the hardest to find. I still recommend it though because if enough of us band together, maybe we can get all the supermarkets to stock it.

• The Bulleid Buffet, Okehampton station 

As part of a writing project I’m working on, I got to spend a lovely week at a writing retreat in Devon; I had a great time with no phone signal and lovely organic vegetarian meals cooked every day.  While I can’t really recommend these dishes to everyone due to lack of access to rural houses in Devon etc. I would like to shout out Bee who was the lovely chef who helped us throughout the week - I know who’s getting the shout out in my next book acknowledgement.

However, if you do ever find yourself at Okehampton Train Station, which you may if you are taking the train to Dartmoor, I can highly recommend their station cafe. Not only did I get an insane hot chocolate, but I got a hot veggie sausage butty made quickly so I could take it on the train, along with a little gourmet ketchup sachet. It was just the nourishment I needed for a 6 hour+ train journey. 

• crispy gnocchi, mushroom and squash from the Green Roasting Tin

Recently I have found myself bored with all my usual recipes, so I decided to try to cook something new. I knew I wanted something easy with lots of vegetables; when I came across The Green Roasting Tin, which has been sitting on my shelves sadly unused for the last two or three years, I figured I’d give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this recipe, especially with it’s cheese-free pesto - turns out it’s entirely vegan! I also tossed the cooked gnocchi in a little flour and salt a la Josh’s roast potatoes (see underneath for ref) for extra crispness which worked well. 

I also baked polenta using one of the recipes from the book which was a low-effort gamechanger, so if anyone has got any good polenta recipes, hit me up.

• Cherelle’s chilli, tiramisu and frozen strawberry mojitos

After one of my classes I had a group dinner with my friend Cherelle, who had won an industrial sized blender in an Instagram giveaway. Not one to look a gift blender in the mouth, we decided to have a frozen margarita night; however it turns out that triple sec is harder to source than planned however, so we pivoted to mojitos instead. (luckily I don’t have a strong preference for either). Beforehand, we had a lovely chilli which had dark chocolate in it, and while I am often ambivalent about chilli, this one was phenomenal and I am awaiting the recipe any day now. 

drop the recipe queen

Following that, I had two servings of her classic tiramisu, because it had to be done, and then we finally used the blender to make the mojitos what turned out to be a delicious palate cleanser. To be honest, it was closer to a slightly boozy sorbet than an actual drink, but I’m not complaining.  If you’ve got a good blender and a bag of ice, I would recommend giving a go if you’re hosting an intimate shindig - the main tip is that you can add more booze than you think! 

• Joe’s Birthday Tart

While our friend Joe was away for his actual birthday, there was no way it could go uncelebrated, so I decided to make him The Barbary’s hashcake (no, it doesn’t have that sort of hash in it) upon his return because he is renowned for being a man of sophisticated tastes. This was the first time I had made it solo but was glad to make use of my egg yolk/white separator gifted to me by Mandy, Emma’s mum, around eight or nine months ago. I was very concerned but it turns out there was no need; as described by my friend Will, it was ‘scrum-diddly-umptious’. High praise indeed. For those who want to try it themselves, you can find the recipe right at the bottom of this article here.

The most important discovery of this was that after months of searching, it turns out you can make your own pistachio paste. Firstly buy unroasted shelled pistachios - you can get these in the world food section of the supermarket or Middle Eastern supermarkets. Then blanch the pistachios; this means putting in boiling hot water for 30 secs before putting in iced water. This softens the nuts sufficiently so they can go in the blender. I used this recipe for the paste, however you can ignore the bit where the writer says to peel all the brown skins off. My paste turned out pretty green and I gave up peeling about a fifth of the way through. This also made way more than I needed for the recipe, so stay tuned for next month’s newsletter to find out how I used it up.

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And now, for my potato-loving posse out there: a comprehensive guide to all things potato.

The Potato Party 

the staples

Ed - mash

What Emma calls “Ireland’s hummus” because it turns out mashed potato makes for a surprisingly versatile dip. There was no particular recipe used for this mash, except peel and boil potatoes, add lots of butter and cream if you have it and the most important tip - use a sieve! It may give you RSI but will guarantee that silky smooth texture you want.

Josh - roast potatoes

It is perhaps the most contentious debate in my household which is better, roasties or mash and I am firmly on the side of roasties (although I do love mash too). I especially appreciated Josh making both goose fat and vegetable oil roasties for us veggies. (I personally think you can make equally good ones without goose fat but that’s just me). For those of you uninitiated in the ways of the roast potato:

• Peel potatoes and chop.

• Heat fat in oven tray at 220 degrees.

• Boil potatoes - make sure the water starts cold, until they are soft enough for a knife to go through them.

• Drain and shake.

• Let them sit for 10 minutes to let the steam leave.

• Toss in a little flour and salt.

• Add to hot oil and spin - you can add cloves of garlic and rosemary to the oil as a nice optional extra.

• Put in oven and cook until golden brown and flip occasionally.

• Add nice flaky sea salt.

side pieces

Will - homemade potato smileys

It turns out you can use mash and an airfryer to make your own potato smileys - just use cornflour and flour and a straw for shaping. They tasted much better than this picture indicates, but it was too funny not to include.

Connor - latkes

Sadly I have no recipe but instead have been instructed to shout out the great nation of Poland for the invention of this little deep fried snack; if you’re a fan of hash browns, you’ll probably like latkes. Also, as a Polish cuisine novice, if anyone has any good Polish vegetarian recipes they want to recommend, I’m always keen to hear them!

Jade - Aloo Tikki

In a similar vein, we also got a late addition of these little potato patties which brought spice to an otherwise very beige meal!

big boys

Emma - gruyere jackets with caramelised onions

Jacket potatoes are probably the kind of potato I eat the most on a day-to-day basis as I will often batch cook and put in the freezer. These are slightly fancier than my usual, but delicious (you will need quite a bit of time though).

• Cover your potatoes in olive oil and salt and prick with a fork. Bake the potatoes for between 1 and 1.5 hours; while they are in the oven, it is a good time to start your onions. Slice and caramelise the onions in a large stock pot with balsamic vinegar and sugar on a low heat for a long time, around 2 hours, using butter and oil.

• When the potatoes are done, scoop out the filling and leave the skins to the side.

• Mash the potato with cream, butter, pepper, salt and grated gruyere. If you want it very smooth, you can pulse with a hand blender. 

• Fill the skins with the gruyere mash, topped with caramelised onion, grill and serve. 

Ali - mini veggie cottage pies

Cottage pie is great comfort food, especially while waiting for spring to arrive, and this cute miniature veggie alternatives were delightful.

• Dice 3 red onions and fry in olive oil until softened. Add half a bulb of garlic, diced veggies of choice and quorn mince. Once these are cooked, add veggie stock and mush with a food processor. Leave the filling to cool overnight.

• Mash the potatoes, using the same method as Ed and Will but add some mashed garlic. Leave to the side.

• Line a cupcake tray with parchment paper and put a teaspoon of mince in each case, topped with the mash.

• Cook in the oven until the edges are golden brown.

Joe - tortilla

I actually had this on my second go as my first plate was full by the time I got to it, so I had this in a separate turn with some of Josh’s homemade slaw, which made for a lighter, refreshing second round. I don’t have the tortilla recipe, but like me if you are keen for a slaw that does not involve mayo, here you go:

• Mix together bit of orange zest, a splash of orange juice (squeezed fresh), apple cider vinegar, olive oil, lil squeeze of honey, salt and pepper.

• Julienne bramley apples and add to the liquids right away to stop it browning. Julienne some cabbage, add some pomegranate seeds and mix. 

Lucie - dauphinoise

This was one of two gratins we had that evening, and the more traditional style - it’s basically potatoes cream and cheese, what’s not to love?

• To make the sauce, add together slice shallot, garlic, fresh thyme, a pinch of nutmeg and a 1:2 mix of whole milk and double cream and strain.

• Use a mandolin to slice the potatoes- do not parboiling. 

• Layer half in your tin of choice, add the sauce then add the other half of the potatoes.

• Top with parmesan and thyme and cook until the potatoes are cooked through.

Ruby (me) - Sandbar Inspired Gratin

I ummed and ahhed for a long time what I was going to make and then, walking home from town I remembered Sandbar’s best and most unreliable pizza, which is topped with potato, taleggio (or some other kind of italian cheese) and sundried tomatoes. It has been on and off the menu so often I have (almost) learned to live without it. 

I didn’t want to bank on my pizza making skills however, and I wanted to experiment a little, so I wondered: could I make a sundried tomato and cheese potato gratin. IT turns out yes, yes I can.

Important notes:

1. I sourced some 12 month old comte and gruyere from Petit Paris Deli to use for my sauce and topping, which is a great French shop in the middle of Manchester that sells a good selection of cheese. 

2. If you go through a jar of sundried tomatoes, keep the leftover oil! You can cook with this, for that extra tomato-y flavour.

Method

• Peel and chop potatoes of your choosing. Unlike me, try to roughly cut them all the same size. Put in a bowl to rinse off starch and then boil until soft, where a knife can go easily through. Put to the side.

• Chop onions - if you are lazy like me, I use the food processor, which gets them as fine as possible. I fried in a mix of butter and the leftover sundried tomato oil. 

• When they are almost done, add in garlic and a crushed stock cube. You can use a splash of water or even white wine to deglaze.

• Add in double cream, cream cheese, and your cheeses of choice - for the sauce, I used the comte and some grana padano. Season to taste - I used salt, pepper and MSG.

• Add in the cooked potatoes and chopped sundried tomatoes (how much you add tomato wise is your preference) and stir until they are all covered. You can also add fresh basil at this stage but I forgot.

• Pour into your dish of choosing - I cooked this in an old Le Creuset dupe dish we found in my grandma’s basement, but any big dish will do.

• Grate cheese on top  - I used gruyere and more grana padano for this - and pop in the oven, bake for 20 mins or so, then grill the top until golden brown. If it is a little oily, you can pat down with a piece of kitchen roll.

For dessert, we had three options. Cherelle made sweet potato pie, Alienor made fifteens and I decided to combine Nigella’s Guinness cake and Easy Chocolate Mousse recipes, simply replacing the water for Guinness and putting the cream cheese icing on top of the mousse.

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If any of you recreate any of these recipes, please send me pics, I’d love to see it! Thanks again to all my lovely friends for their excellent cooking and their generosity with their time, their effort and their recipes. This newsletter wouldn’t be the same without you!

And on that soppy note, that is all for March. It is my birthday this weekend, so I’ve got some very exciting food content coming in April, including perhaps some very delicious buttery paid content 👀

As always, please comment, share if you enjoyed and send me any requests - I’m always looking for new stuff to try! If you’ve used any recommendations or recipes from this newsletter and want to show me some financial appreciation in time for my birthday you can do so here.

Otherwise you can subscribe if you haven’t already.

That’s all for now, but I will see you all very soon!

Finally Some Good Food 2.6: There's No Place Like Home

If food be the music of love, eat on

I’m not the biggest proponent of Valentine’s Day, as I much prefer Pancake Day which comes right beforehand, involves pancakes and due to its sharing nature I think it is a better celebration of love, romantic, platonic or otherwise. However this year, I’m not going to lie guys, Pancake Day was somewhat a disaster. In my previous newsletter, I had been so excited by the prospect. However, at the point of arrival, I had been away from home for over two weeks into a 21 day long stint away for various work and family reasons and I was so tired. I was getting very little work done because the puppy I was dogsitting, while very cute, was also very demanding. Stress simmered in the background as we lurched over the pan, desperately trying to prise the pancake off the pan, a needy toddler. still grasping on its steel mother’s leg

In the end, I made three successful pancakes out of an entire bowl of mix. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I had been entrusted with my friend Nathaniel’s grandma Eileen’s (otherwise known as ImpCom to her nearest and dearest for reasons I daren’t ask) recipe and as the days went on, I couldn’t help but feel I had done Eileen’s legacy a disservice.

When I eventually did return home, it was a few days until I finally had the flat to myself for one evening and I decided that before February was over, I had to give pancakes another go. It turns out having an oven you know how to use, and a pan you’re familiar with, and scales that actually worked and being able to put an audiobook and cook them by yourself with no small furry disturbances massively improved things. The first one came out so perfectly round I made Ed take a picture of it.

As we didn’t have much in the way of toppings, I decided to take inspiration from Benjamina Ebuehi’s newsletter

Sweet Things

where she described making different butters for her pancakes - I made her malted vanilla butter and salted honey. Admittedly I only had vanilla essence rather than bean paste and an instant horlicks packet, so while the malted vanilla wasn’t my fave, I feel that was on me. However, I was a big fan of the salted honey butter! Would make again, maybe adding a squeeze of orange too.

Sitting down to eat these pancakes, after all my travelling, I realised something. I have created a home. Of course, in the literal sense, because I have a flat I actively liked and wanted to come back to, the first place as an adult that wouldn’t cause me some sort of anxiety to come back to because of mould or temperature or unwanted animal flatmates. But beyond the physical sense, I have built a life here. I have friends I see every week, I have regular dance classes at a studio where I know all the teachers, I have a cinema membership and a hairdresser I actually trust with my hair. For all my years in London, my friends had been the only consistency as I was buffeted from shit rental to another shit rental, but here in Manchester I finally have roots. Of course, everything may change and Andy Burnham may deport me for gentrifying the North, but for now, I can make pancakes and I am happy and that’s something.

But my travels were enjoyable despite my whinging, and you’ll all be glad to know that with them I bring many recommendations.

Dublin

It’s a Trap

A cute little vegan cafe I stopped for lunch - had a nice pesto mushroom toastie and a surprisingly good vegan iced chocolate or ‘choccy milk’, as my friend Clare calls it.

Pastellaria Lisboa

Recommended by the queen of the pastel de nata, Cherelle, and of course it delivered - having gotten soaked in the rain, this warm gooey tart was a welcome treat and easily one of the best I’ve had.

Okky

Tasked with finding myself a solo dinner in Dublin before Bombay Bicycle Club (which were great btw), I decided I wanted to try something a little different. I found Okky, which is a little restaurant specialising in okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese pancake usually made with cabbage, dashi or whatever you have in your fridge. I ordered their okonomiyaki osaka which came topped with scallions, crispy onion, tonkatsu sauce, kewpie mayo and sesame seeds and I added a fried egg on top. This was the right decision for me as the sauces came together when with the egg for a particularly nice and nourishing savoury hit. It’s always fun to find a completely new vegetarian delicacy.

Tayto

Everytime I go to Ireland I like to try a different flavour of Tayto, and while I enjoyed Spicy Rings on my last visit, this time I got the sour cream and onion and like most sour cream and onion crisps, it did not fail to deliver. I don’t know what it is about Tayto, but they certainly have the crisp equivalent of je ne sais quoi (or however you say it in Irish).

Falmouth

Max’s Bagels

While I continue to be disappointed in the lack of interesting vegetarian pasty flavours, (you can literally stuff anything in them! please be more specific than ‘vegetable’!!) a pleasant surprise I did get was that Falmouth has a new bagel shop. I ordered The Greens, which has cream cheese, avocado, roasted fennel and leek, pickled cucumber and rocket and it was surprisingly good. Nice and fresh but also filling - a welcome addition to the Cornish food scene!

Bath

Chai Walla

I’m pretty sure I have recommended before, but Chai Walla is great for a nice lunch on the go, with two fresh samosas excellently fried and your choice of either mango or tamarind chutney.

Beckford Bottle Shop

Me and Ed went here as a little date to celebrate keeping the dog alive as it got a bib gourmand fairly recently and we can highly recommend. As a wine shop, we unsurprisingly had a really nice wine, a New Zealand Riesling which I hadn’t had before, as well as some delicious little anchovies on toast, a Bath blue rarebit, and a really nice chocolate and honeycomb mousse dessert which felt in the same vein as the Snickers dessert at The Alan in Manchester (if you know, you know).

The Dark Horse

An underground cocktail with perhaps some questionable decor but truly delicious cocktails. I had the Galveston Punch, which was milk washed and had that lovely creaminess without being too rich.

London

Gogo Pocha

In London I got to see the brilliant exhibition Unravel at the Barbican about textile sculpture and politics (do all go if you have the chance) and after a long hearty walk around some of London’s brutalist sights, I was very hungry. Luckily we ended up by Gogo Pocha, which was recommended by ‘expert ally’ Tim, upon finding out I haven’t had bibimbap before. I would highly recommend for the uninitiated! I had the tofu bibimbap, which is served in a hot stone bowl, so the egg cooks in the rice. It’s a highly tasty way of eating a lot of vegetables and they have bottles of gochujang and soy sauce on the table to apply liberally. 

Manchester

10 Tib Lane

I think I have recommended before but me and Ed went as an early Valentines and had the nicest mash I’ve ever had, which was smoked and super buttery and I could have eaten it by itself with a spoon. We also had lovely cheese beignets (which seem to be the veggie starter of choice for a lot of restaurants), great cocktails and a custard tart which were all delicious.

Exhibition

Ed’s mum was visiting, and while it’s almost impossible to get a dinner table in Manchester on a Saturday, Exhibition, which is a cocktail bar that hosts three different kitchens did have availability so we jumped on it. We have anchovies, whipped gorgonzola and chilli honey on toast and marinated olives to start (which even converted olive sceptic Kay) and while the rest had pasta, I had crispy new potatoes with chives and hollandaise, along with sheeps milk bustard bunuelos (basically little molten fried cheese balls). Both were, of course, delicious and the potatoes were particularly nice - it turns out to make me happy I just need a bowl of some form of potatoes.

Supermarket

The Gutsy Captain Kombucha Raspberry 

Ed and my friend Josh are obsessed with kombucha - they call it ‘the booch’ - and while I’m not the biggest fan - a lot of it tastes like vinegar to me and not in a good way - I have finally found one I like. I found it in Tescos, and was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted like a raspberry Petit Filous, not too sour but with just enough of a tang to make it not sickly. I’d recommend it for the booch beginners out there.

Trader Joes Umami/Everything Bagel Seasoning

Shout out to the MVP Emma, who on her travels to America brought me back these goodies from America. Having tried my first everything bagel at Max’s Bagels, I am now putting this seasoning on every piece of bread I have. I am also very excited to try cooking with the umami seasoning, having had a little taste; if any Americans read this and know what I am talking about, do give me your recipe ideas (also if you’re not American but just creative).

Bread and Butter Chardonnay

Emma got this on Ocado and it may be the most drinkable white wine I’ve ever had. It genuinely is so soft and just sweet enough it would go well with real bread and butter. It feels like the Jammy Red Roo of white wines, so if you aren’t necessarily a white wine person normally, I would recommend.

Coca Cola Popcorn

For my new recurring segment, Deeply Cursed Items which Ali is Keen for Me to Review (anyone else remember the cookies and cream bagels? I’d rather not), I tried this new novelty product and my thoughts? Not as bad as I suspected. It does just taste like Coca-Cola, so if you like cola it may be for you. However, I don’t drink coke and I don’t really like the taste, so would not probably recommend it to most people. At least I hope you’re happy now Ali.

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That’s it for food recs but one last point before I go - my friend Nathaniel, his dad and his brother are running the Manchester marathon in the great ImpCom’s memory so if you want to contribute something else to Eileen’s legacy bar sub-par pancakes, you can donate here.

That’s all for this month, but I will see you all again to find out everything I enjoyed in March!

As always if you have enjoyed this, please do share on whatever social platform you use and feel free to comment below any products or restaurants you want me to review, recommendations, proclamations of love etc etc.

Finally Some Good Food 2.5: New Year, Old Me

time to remember the positives about January

Bonjour my little choux nuts and welcome to our first newsletter of 2024! Sorry about the delay but January was a long, difficult birth from the comfort of Christmas into cold harsh New Year routines and bank balances. I learned years ago to abandon naive optimism in January, but more recently I’ve realised not to be completely nihilistic about it either. Change is less an instant makeover and more a painfully slow crawl into something resembling a life you may want. Even if it’s baby steps, after enough time you can walk a marathon.

I have two food aims - one, which is the same as every year, is to waste less food.  This is not to force myself to eat when I am full, but just to try and make sure not too much is left in the fridge until thrown away. I am definitely better at it than last year, but there is still work to be done, as always.

The second is to cook more vegetables. This is not for health or diet reasons, but after having quite a takeaway dense period before Christmas, I found myself emerging from the chocolate and booze actually craving vegetables. That’s right, I actually wanted to eat them. It started on New Years Eve, where I decided to do a food shop so I could be prepared for the aftermath of the evening’s celebrations, and happened to pick up some ripe nectarines which were reduced. I was slightly sceptical about soft fruits on the last day of December, but I was pleasantly surprised. As I walked back, rain pouring down in every direction, I took a perfectly soft and juicy bite and it was like sunshine being poured directly into my mouth. It was glorious. Like most sustainability-conscious foodies I’ve been trying to eat more seasonally but occasionally you need to eat a ripe Spanish fruit to feel joy again (and vitamins).

Now, speaking of joy, it’s time to get onto January’s roundup:

• halloumi melt bagel a la Bagel Factory

One of the most useful things I’ve learned as an adult is if you are buying drinks for a party, get your hangover breakfast at the same time. There is no better feeling than waking up feeling incredible fragile and remembering you’ve got a breakfast to revive you without having to take a step outside. For News Year's Day however, not only did I need my usual mix of carbohydrates, fats and salts, but decided to push the boat out to begin the year and recreate a childhood favourite, aka the halloumi melt.

Travelling was not something my family did very often except for the occasional family excursion but in my late teens I went to London with my Dad where he introduced me to perhaps the greatest cooked cheese of all, halloumi. In Paddington, we stopped by a little cart (which seemed independent but in fact was the popular chain The Bagel Factory) and my dad ordered a halloumi melt, one for him, one for me. It was great - soft, salty halloumi with intensely flavourful sundried tomato, peppery rocket and refreshing mint yogurt. For years after, every time I had to travel homeI would stop by and pick one up as a pick me up for the ensuing 4-5 hour journey home. Now they have swapped out the sundried tomato for fresh which is okay, but not the same (although I will still pick one up if I am ever caught in the hellscape of the the Arndale at lunchtime).

So January 1st comes around and using some yogurt and fresh mint, I stumble into the kitchen and while pouring myself a cup of ambition, I recreate it, serving alongside avocado in a sesame dressing and the leftover reduced nectarines. It was delicious and I think it’s always good to start the year on an unbearably smug note.

• Cauliflower noodles a la Ottolenghi (and six by nico)

While I tend to be much more open minded about most foods these days, there is still one vegetable that turns me into a cumudgeon and that’s cauliflower. It’s not that it is the worst vegetable out there, but what drives me mad is restaurant’s insistence that it is the perfect meat substitute. Fried cauliflower is nothing like fried chicken and it’s time we stopped pretending as such, especially when Quorn nuggets have been around for more than long enough. (See also cauliflower ‘steaks’ and the like).

For me personally, the issue is texture. Cauliflower feels like chewing a lot of wood for little flavour, no matter how much cheese you smother on it. But what little flavour it has isn’t bad, just easily drowned out, so I find it is best served as some form of puree or soup. The best cauliflower I had was at Six by Nico a couple of years ago, where we got to try a cauliflower veloute with crispy chilli oil; before then I had only seen veloute on Masterchef but for those not in the know - it’s basically a creamy soup.

So in my endeavour to try and eat more vegetables, I had been debating the idea of making this cauliflower soup but also fancied something more substantial when I realised - what if I could use it as a  sauce? I just needed a carb and the crispy chilli oil pointed me towards noodles. So after asking my resident cauliflower expert Tim, who has been known to consume several whole cauliflowers in one go, he recommended the ottolenghi method of roasting.

You parboil for six to ten minutes, then while the original recipe suggests basting in butter and olive oil, I made the slight adjustment of combining melted butter with sesame and crispy chilli oil. You then roast for between 1 hour and 1 hour 30, coating in your butter mixture, and once it has cooled a bit, you break apart and stick in the blender with double cream and any additional seasoning like salt, pepper and/or MSG. In a large pan or wok, cook whatever vegetables and protein you want to accompany in a mix of sesame and crispy oil, then add sauce and noodles. Once cooked, top with sesame seeds (ideally black) and serve.

The first time I made just plain noodles and sauce, and served with some reduced veggie gyoza from the freezer and some deep fried tofu which was tossed in salt and pepper seasoning as a New Years Day dinner buffet of sorts - I can highly recommend, especially when the hangover hasn’t quite worn off yet. Later I remade with just pan-fried What the Cluck Fake Chicken so if you don’t have much in, this is also good, especially to showcase the delicate cauliflower 

On a side note, I would also recommend Golden Dragon’s Original Salt and Pepper Seasoning, which I picked up from Han Won Hong on a whim and is particularly good on potato smileys.

• Dellugo Pumpkin gnocchi

Technically I first came across this years ago back when I lived and worked in London, however it has taken me over four years to be reunited - to be fair, they have only been found in Waitrose, as I used to pick them up at the Waitrose near where I used to work on Finchley Road. However, when me and my mum were driving back from Norwich after Christmas, I spotted these in the Eaton Waitrose and in a calm and rational manner I picked up three bags lest I never see them again.

The first time I cooked them, we didn’t have much in the house so it was a simple sage and garlic butter sauce, topped with parmesan. The second and third time I decided to experiment after reading through my Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit which recommended blue cheese and butternut squash. So, firstly I fried tenderstem broccoli in butter and garlic before adding the gnocchi. Then, I melted some blue cheese into the leftover cream from the cauliflower sauce (you don’t need much) and drizzled over the top. Honestly, it might have been one of the best meals I’ve cooked and now I’m sad I can’t find pumpkin gnocchi in Manchester. However, I will try in the future with roast cubes of sweet potato or squash.

• Hash browns, Gooey

It’s taken months but I finally managed to go to Gooey when there wasn’t an insanely long queue outside. I had their egg sandwich, which was okay but the filling was entirely cold so it depends on your feeling on cold egg. However , I also had their hash browns, which were very good. Soft buttery mash insides with a perfectly crisp outside, served with their own homemade ketchup - just maybe avoid the queue.

• Rana green pesto

I bought this when it was on a Nectar card discount but can really recommend it as a shop-bought pesto as the basil comes through really nicely- I’ve mainly been using for cheese, tomato and pesto sandwiches. The best combo was with gouda, sundried tomatoes and ciabattas, the kind you get in the bakery section and go in the oven beforehand for around 8-10 minutes.

• tomato and aubergine risotto

I decided, considering the spirit of trying to cook more vegetables, I would move on to cooking vegetables for other people. This recipe is one I am continuously developing because there is more to vegetarian risottos than simply mushrooms, and am also prone to cooking the aubergine differently each time - this time I settled on roasting, which is much easier and probably the method I will stick to from now on. I also discovered you can make your own sundried tomato paste for the base by simply putting sundried tomatoes and a little bit of the jar oil in the blender.  I served it along my friend Joe’s salad - I hate how much I appreciate a good side salad these days, it makes me feel like I’ve finally become a ‘sensible adult’ - whichwas lovely and had fennel, pear, rocket, lemon and oil dressing and perhaps the most useful titbit - stale bread toasted into croutons. Definitely a good way to waste less bread and an accoutrement I want to use to jazz up salads in future.

When I made the risotto for the potluck, I used chunks of mozzarella, which was pretty popular and more cost effective considering there was at least eight of us, but the second time, when I made it for just me, my mum and Ed I took inspiration from a nice orzotto I had at my friend Ali’s where instead of mozzarella I served with torn up burrata on top. This was probably the nicest version we’ve had as it just added a little freshness for balance, but mozzarella is a good cheaper substitute if you have only just recovered from Christmas.

• Roasted hazelnut chocolatine, Marks and Spencers 

It’s rare you get something new in a supermarket bakery section and while the name may not be familiar, upon trying I can assure you that this is just a chocolate AND hazelnut pain au chocolat. It is very nice though, especially if you like Nutella or its more gourmet trappings.

• Dinner at Lucies

I put this broad title as I was invited to a lovely dinner to christen my friend Lucie’s new flat and all the food and drink was delicious. For one, the risotto reminded me how good the Richmond veggie bacon can be in the right context and I will definitely have to see what bacon heavy recipes I can try with it. Also, 19 Crimes does a very good chardonnay and wine in general, so if you’re in doubt like I often am in a wine section, you can’t go too far wrong with one of their bottles. Finally, we got a lovely pear and apple crumble from Cherelle - I could eat a bowl of the topping by itself, but the fruit and the custard were excellent additions. Also, shout out to Lucie who had never seen custard powder before and served it at the table like salt and pepper (no, we will not let you forget it). 

Also on the subject of lovely dinners which I had no part in, thanks again to Ali for her great post-hike chilli -I did not go for the aforementioned hike but still got to benefit from a great hearty dinner, which we can all agree is the best of both worlds. I have never actually cooked a chilli before but seems like a good way to eat more veg so stay tuned to hear how my attempts on that go.

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That’s all for January’s roundup but I will see you all again to celebrate the shortest month of the year and more importantly, pancake day.

As always if you have enjoyed this, please do share on whatever social platform you use and feel free to comment below any thoughts, recommendations, proclamations of love etc etc.