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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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).
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
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
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.
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).
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.
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.