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!
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.
So you want to do a bakery crawl?
If you had asked me how I was going to spend my last day of being 28, I wouldn’t have guessed trying all of Manchester’s bakeries. Admittedly, I probably wouldn’t have guessed anything, because turning 29 is not culturally significant in the same way as other birthdays, but still. Here I was, sitting around the table, one year and one day from thirty, about to eat perhaps the most pastries I had ever attempted in my life.
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.
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.
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That’s all for now, but I will see you all very soon!
S&B curry blocks are amazing, and trip (rosemary is my gal). Glad I was eating lunch when I ate this as it made me v hungry.