Finally Some Good Food 2.3: How to Age (Dis)gracefully
spoilers for bakeoff inside, don't say I didn't warn you
everybody’s got their shit/who’s got the guts to sit with it
Feist, Hiding Out in the Open
If Alison Hammond doesn’t get knighted for her services to Britain’s TV entertainment industry this year, I will be shocked. In a year where certain This Morning presenters have certainly had a fall from grace, it is so glad to see my second favourite Birmingham native (second only to my own mother) enjoy the limelight she deserves. I highly recommend watching YouTube compilations of her highlights, but the Hammond effect has most certainly been felt in this series of Bake Off. This series as usual was filled with very nice people, but unfortunately it suffered from losing all its interesting personalities before the finale, leaving us with a lineup of three men who were very much go girl giving us nothing.
But luckily for us, unlike some of the previous presenters, Alison has that naughty chaotic charm, that paired with mischievous goth goblin Noel, that gives us the bit of contrast the show needs. What astonished me the most recently however was finding out that Alison didn’t emerge fully formed in front of the Tate St Liverpool ready for memes, but she is a TV veteran of the last twenty years first emerging in Big Brother in 2002, which was known for its another little-known contestant, Jade Goody. Watching clips from back then, it's amazing to see Alison’s natural likability but also seeing how young and inexperienced and her appetite for chaos is a little more jagged.
I’ve been thinking about maturing lately. This year’s GBBO winner was not the most consistently brilliant competitor but the one who improved the most over the course of the show, managing to deliver a near-perfect showstopper despite being constantly surprised every week at his own baking skills (or sometimes lack thereof). I felt a strange joy at the finale; part of it was because how much his fiancee had clearly always believed in him, but I also realised that it was a rare celebration of people’s capacity to improve.
For years of my childhood I was obsessed with being a child prodigy. A weird one I know, but every good hero had their destiny to fulfil, and all narratives told me that my destiny was determined by a secret special gift inside me that should ideally emerge as young as possible. All the stories of the worlds heroes, real or fictional, started with a preternatural talent emerging in their early years, whether it was maths, physics, chess, singing, archery, karate, magic, or in Artemis' Fowl’s case, being rich; either way the best all started young.
Obviously as time whizzed by and I had to extend the deadline of being a ‘child’ it felt like my life was over before I started. What if I never found what it was I’m good at? I kept trying lots and lots of different things in the vain attempt that one may turn out to be the one, with absolutely none of them paying off. As you get older, you start quitting things if you’re not good at them right away, because you figure you don’t have enough time to invest in them if there is a possibility you’ll never be good at it. Life is short, and our free time even shorter, who can waste it on being humbled time and time again?
The thing is, earlier this year I listened to Feist’s latest album Multitudes that she released this year. Spoiler alert: It was great! It addresses grief of losing her father and having her first child and getting older and having to deal with everything that comes with it. In the lead single In Lightning, she directly addresses the sexism of the expectations on women in music especially now she’s older. You listen with the knowledge that she could have only created it now, at this point in her life with all the wisdom and skills and experience that life has brought her so far. It seems sad that the next pop superstar always has to be getting younger and younger in order to stay ‘relevant’, even though it’s these big emotions and experiences in life that connects us to each other.
Now I am well and truly past the label of ‘child’ and looking towards my 30s, I realise I needed to chill the fuck out. My life is not worth any more or less whether I am successful or not. The point of any craft is to not just the final product but the friends you make along the way the process and the joy of learning and doing and yes, being humbled on a regular basis. You couldn’t make the showstopper without a few botched technicals to teach you what not to do. This can take days or weeks or months or years, but with enough time in the right setting and company, you can make something you’re really proud of, even if it’s not perfect.
Speaking of things that aren’t perfect, let’s get on with this week roundup.
As an author’s note; I am genuinely always looking for recommendations so if you think of something you want to try but aren’t sure about, or know your own better alternative to my favourites, please let me know! I’m always on the hunt for new things to try.
Lipton Green Mint and Lime tea
On one of my final commutes to work, I found myself craving an iced tea first thing in the morning - I think through a desire to be mildly caffeinated to be able to face another completely pointless day and needing some form of hydration as I forget to drink enough water on a daily basis.
However as I reached Piccadilly station I noticed a green bottle in the Lipton section which I have only seen once before, in the Lisbon airport departure lounge. I remember drinking it back then, but the stress of immediately going through passport control meant I couldn’t remember it properly, so I decided to try it again for the sake of science. (You’ll be amazed at how many novelty chocolate bars and similar snacks I have tried ‘for science’).
I can confirm it is still just as tasty and refreshing as I remembered. It would probably be best on a hot summer's day, but if you’re a fan of a mojito all year round, this is a great non-alcoholic version. The only downside is that it seems to be stocked absolutely nowhere; if anyone has any tips around Manchester or works at Lipton and fancies giving me the insider info, do get in touch.
tofu hotpot with tteokkbeokki, wagamamas
Now I’m not going to sit here and say this is high cuisine or at all authentic to how hotpot should taste. I am not an expert and I cannot verify Wagamama’s usage of terms but if you are someone like me who hasn’t had hotpot or tteokbokki, this is not the worst place to start. We went as a final work lunch in a retail park that only had your bog standard chain restaurants, so Wagamamas was the closest we were getting to an interesting dinner.
As someone who usually likes to play it safe spice wise, I decided, considering my new full-time writing endeavors, it was time to try something different. This was especially as I kept hearing about tteokkbokki, because of that book I want to die but also I want to eat tteokbokki which I had seen everywhere. To be honest, I do not want to die but I did want to try some rice cakes so here we were.
The verdict? This is a crowdpleaser for those who would usually order the katsu but want to branch out a little. The broth has a pleasing spice level as well as flavour which gives you a kick but isn’t going to blow anyone's head off, and the tteokbokki was a nice chewy substantial treat to search for in the broth. I will be keeping my eye pout for veggie hotpot and tteokbokki in future!
kimchi and cheese ramen, house of fu
Me and Ed have been long-term ramen fans since almost the beginning of our relationship, always looking for the newest ramen restaurant to try, and until recently, central Manchester hasn’t had that many that were widely advertised. But much like buses, we blinked and over the summer there were suddenly loads popping up on my Instagram feed. We now have Tokyo Ramen, Lucky, New Wave Ramen, Suki Suki, Umami, Maki and Ramen and perhaps the most recent addition House of Fu. Pretty much every veggie ramen I’ve had in Manchester is nice. However, good interesting ramen is harder to come by. I am looking for the dishes that will make me think about them long after they’re gone. So far, the only two I had that with so far is the Monk’s Broth at Umami and the tantanmen, which had a lovely sesame miso broth, at Cocktail, Beer, Ramen and Bun which closed earlier this year (RIP). We recently decided to visit one of these new haunts for a date night, so picked the House of Fu as it happened to have some early tables available. They have a menu of ramen options which is almost equally veggie to non-veggie, which is nice, and they have a ‘tofu’ tonkotsu, a spicy sesame tantanmen and the aforementioned kimchi and cheese which was certainly the most interesting, if unusual, option. But in my continued feeling of daring, I decided to order the latter, despite my reservations of using parmesan in ramen.
And against all the odds, it worked. Maybe it’s my deep love for parmesan, but it delivered the rich salty broth I love, with nice chunks of marinated tofu and the blobs of black garlic oil adding just that extra bit of depth. Overall, an unusual but exciting entry into my ramen leaderboard. If you’re worried about trying it, I would go for it. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.
With House of Fu proving it’s chops early on, now the question is, which ramen is next?
cinnamon and orange morning bun, Holy Grain
In my fantasies, I’m the sort of person who gets up first thing in the morning and stops in the bakery before writing in some perfect little bijou cafe. So far, that is very far from the reality I have experienced, but there has been one (1) day where I did manage to get up and out of the house early enough to make it to the Holy Grain bakery down the road before everything was sold out. I was so pleased with myself, I got myself a little treat of their Cinnamon and Orange morning bun because we had to celebrate making it outside in the morning. While my plan was to eat it in the street like I’m just a charming Parisian heroine, thanks to Manchester weather instead I stood huddled under my umbrella in Deansgate Mews hoping I didn’t look like a drowned sewer rat eating leftover litter. But rest assured, this bun was the furthest thing from litter; a drop of sunshine in an otherwise dull morning. It was just sweet enough, with a lovely pillowy bread inside that I really made sure to take my time eating it, despite the rain. The orange was very subtle but added a nice bright accent to the cinnamon. Would recommend it if you can actually make it out of the house early enough in the morning.
10 Tib Lane, Manchester
My mum came to stay with us for the first time a little while back since helping us move all our shit and we agreed to take her out for dinner to say thanks, so after lots of um-ing and ah-ing we decided on 10 Tib Lane as we hadn’t been before. Would you believe it’s small plates? However, like most small plates restaurant it was annoyingly good. The highlights were some squash served with a delicious black sauce (I want to say seaweed but I’m not sure) and little cheese beignets. On a side note, beignets are clearly the new cool dish du jour, following the reign of burrata and anything with truffle. Also we had some lovely cremant, which almost nowhere serves by the glass, which is a shame for most restaurants, but a big plus for 10 Tib Lane. I would recommend going,
pan-fried vegetarian pho noodles, Pho Cue
As we’ve established, I’m a big fan of a good veggie broth. I’ve learnt over the years that I prefer my broth on the heavily savoury side, so while I have tried Pho a few times, it’s never completely won me over. Don’t get me wrong, much like the appeal of certain male celebrities, it seems nice, I’m just not obsessed. Perhaps, it is too delicate for me? However I was invited to Pho Cue for my friend Cherelle’s sister’s 16th birthday who, like a lot of teenagers, is very cool and intimidating, so I couldn’t say no despite my pho hesitations. This time, I noticed they did a pan-fried pho noodle so I decided to see if I would prefer its constituent parts sans broth.
Turns out, the answer is yes. It was so delicious and moreish that, even though the plate was massive and I was very full, I was still sad it ended. I don’t know what seasoning they use, but if all my vegetables could be cooked in it in future that would be greatly appreciated. I want to say that when I inevitably go back I will try something new, but I would be lying to myself.. I even shared on my Insta stories how much I loved the noodles and received a lovely message from the restaurant thanking me for ‘allowing us to cook for you’. No, YOU’RE crying. Thank you to Pho Cue for cooking for me, and to Reagan who is the sort of cool teenager who goes to nice restaurants for her birthday and inviting me.
(For anyone who eats fish, we ordered various appetisers as well, and I can highly recommend the salt and pepper soft shell crab too).
Hashcake, The Barbary
No, we’re not reviewing drugs (yet). It was mine and Ed’s seven month anniversary last month and we went to London and managed to recreate some of our early dates, one of which was going to The Barbary in Seven Dials, which is a restaurant inspired by the Barbary coast and also serving small plates much to no one’s surprise. I joke, but it is a very nice restaurant. We ordered a pretty good array of dishes, but my favourite of all the plates is their famous hashcake, which is modelled after Momofuku’s Crack Pie. It is essentially a treacle tart made with pistachios and I cannot recommend more highly - the first time I tried it, a sound slipped out of me that made me blush. I was wary after all these years whether something could still be that good, but it was. The German man next to us ordered three between him and his partner. Truly, hope for restaurants and relationships everywhere.
(You can find the recipe to make your own here, but be warned you need to find pistachio paste somewhere)
Emma’s chai cake
From one big birthday to another. When your bestie is turning 30, of course you have to make her whatever cake she asks for. Luckily for me, Emma didn’t ask for anything too complicated. She asked for a chai cake, and not any specific kind of chai cake, so it was up to me to design as I see fit. Instead of following any particular recipe, I decided to keep it fairly simple.
Using my favourite Victoria sponge recipe from BBC Good Food, I then flavoured the sponge with used my beloved Henny & Joe chai concentrate which was sent to me by my auntie. I can’t remember the exact amount I chucked in but I did just keep tasting until it tasted chai enough - I think maybe 2-3 tablespoons?
Once the sponges were baked I made the toppings; in the morning I made the crumble topping from Laura Goodman’s crumble cake from Snacks (I highly recommend this book as a present for the foodie in your life, although any crumble topping recipe will do, as long as it has some cinnamon in it) and then the butter cream, which I got from the victoria sponge recipe.
I made about three times as much buttercream as the recipe and added the chai mix again (I think maybe one tablespoon this time? I didn’t want to make it too wet) with about a teaspoon of allspice. Whatever you do, just keep tasting. This was just enough to fill the inside, the top and a just-about-there coating on the side, which was fine as that was going to be covered with crumble anyway. I saved the big chunks to circle around the edges of the top before sprinkling the remaining icing with just a dash of cinnamon like a real chai latte.
The moment of truth: luckily, the sponges were cooked through (always my biggest concern) and it was very nice with the main feedback being that it had just the right amount of chai in it, which makes me annoyed that I didn’t actually note down how much I used. Sorry about that. Overall it was nice, moist and well spiced, with the crunch of the cinnamon crumble pairing well with the soft creamy sponge. I think this means we get to stay friends now.
The Ivy birthday brunch
Post birthday party and cake success, Emma took me and our friend Jess to the Ivy for a celebratory brunch - it’s not often you get treated for someone else’s birthday but as an unemployed gal I appreciated it. It is maybe the first restaurant I’ve been in which has a doorman.
I decided to order the cheese souffle but also being slightly hungover, I got the truffle and parmesan chips. Fried potato carbs are always a good idea, and unsurprisingly the Ivy’s were pretty good. The souffle was light and very cheesy and the chips were well fried and filling with just enough flavour not to be overwhelming. We even got dessert, which was creme brulee served with a mixed christmas berry compote, which was a welcome acidic addition to the creaminess. Yes I ate everything on my plates and I thought I was going to be sick if I went up stairs, but it was worth it. Go for friends if you are richer than me, or you have richer friends.
Ali’s Chocolate
My friend Alienor invited me and Emma over for dinner one Friday where she made this really delicious tomato and aubergine orzo, with torn us burrata and basil infused oil drizzled over the top. It was really nice and I could have eaten a lot of it.
However, for the dessert course she brought out perhaps one of my favourite desserts I’ve ever been served. Just a bar of chocolate on a plate. I feel bad about how I immediately laughed because of the surprise reveal, because I may have seemed like I was laughing at her. This was not at all the case. To be honest, I couldn’t have been happier.
Now I don’t want to seem like the stereotype of a galaxy ad but there is an indulgent pleasure to eating chocolate. Maybe it’s the eight months I spent craving it while having my braces. Maybe it’s those innate cravings that emerge in those first few years of having a period that nobody questions. Or maybe years later during Covid when my mum insists on keeping it in the fridge and magically pulling it out when needed so it takes that little bit longer to melt on the tongue. Either way, I was delighted. overhearing women in my dance studio changing room talking about whether chocolate is best from the fridge made me long for that chocolate on a plate all over again. Thanks Ali, not only for a lovely dinner, but also for the freedom and the opportunity to indulge.
That’s all for this edition, I hope you enjoyed all my recs and non-food related ramblings. We’ll see you soon as we’ve got our first big bumper Spanish edition for our paid subscribers and one final roundup for the year - although we’ll be doing it a little differently, so stay tuned!
As always if you have enjoyed please do share on whatever social platform you use and feel free to comment below any thoughts, recommendations, proclamations of love etc etc.
Loved 1 tib lane too! I went there a couple of weeks ago for the first time and had a delicious cocktail with yoghurt washed something - delicious!