Finally Some Good Food 2.9: It's Gonna Be May
The good, the bad and the deeply cursed
May was a strange month, I’m not going to lie. I went to the BAFTAS but on minimal sleep because I had one of the most stressful days of my life in Nottingham the day before. I’ve got lots of cool writing ideas but I have been struggling with the same few paragraphs forever. I was ill for a week but then I got a new job. I’ve got no money but I’m going on holiday next week. I’m incredibly lucky in many ways. But in the last month I realise I am dealing with a lot of anxiety which I have been kicking down the road for a while and is becoming harder and harder to ignore. I am insanely grateful for all the cool things that are happening but also there are parts I am really struggling with and have told almost no one. I have been embarrassed to admit these parts to others, because it is far easier to present this cool version of my life than the extremely uneven reality of trying to be a writer with no inherited wealth and a litany of mental issues.
If this sounds ungrateful, I don’t mean for it to be; but I think sometimes there is a tendency to not want to talk about our problems, even when good things happen to us, because we don’t want to seem like we are ‘looking for pity’, which is strange when you think about it. What is wrong about wanting pity? I remember growing up and a lot of teenage girls my age being slagged off by their peers for being ‘attention seekers’; it is this notion that the act of wanting attention is an inherently bad thing. We must be self-sufficient, we mustn’t need each other. Our attention is just another commodity we now trade in, something that can be both hoarded or wasted.
But in the busy and isolating lives we have to lead, I think it is perfectly natural to look for an audience, to provide comfort, reassurance or even just the act of listening so we know we are not alone in our feelings. It is why non-fiction and memoir continues to be such a popular genre. For me, the only problem occurs when you believe you are entitled to a certain level of response, even though if you are going through it, it is safe to assume that everyone is going through their own circus too. I think of all those vulnerable teenage girls and their outfits and their scars stretching out towards us and I remember it’s not a crime to want to be seen.
Anyway, perhaps a self-indulgent tangent that maybe I’ll expand into something more fully-fledged when I have the time (oh, the irony!). But to everyone out there also struggling, I see you. But for now, back to work.
Firstly I will be launching my next paid newsletter, about what it’s really like to go to the BAFTAS as a normie on the 20th of June once I’m back on English soil, so if you’re interested in some one-off reportage of the glamorous world of celebrity, you can become a paid subscriber beforehand here:
Also I’ve just relaunched my Ko-Fi, so if you want to give a one-off contribution to my snack review budget/ stop my impacted wisdom tooth flaring up from stress, you can do so here:
Now, onto the food.
Potato and mushroom hash - Station South, Levenshulme
While most of my exploits at the moment tend to be based in central Manchester, I am endeavouring to explore what’s outside a bit more. Station South is a lovely cafe/bike repair shop in Levenshulme that serves a great array of breakfast and brunch items. For one of my writing sessions, I happened to stay for lunch and couldn’t resisted ordering the potato mushroom hash, which is essentially a pasta bowl full of cooked crispy baby potatoes, mushrooms, poached eggs and chutney. It was unsurprisingly nice and filling and I can always recommend a big bowl of potatoes for lunch.
KitKat cereal
I saw this cereal a couple of months back in a supermarket and thought ‘that looks super cursed, I wonder how long it will last”. I then forgot about it for a couple of months until the other week I happened to wonder whether it got discontinued and then it popped up in Sainsburys the very next day. Of course I had to try it, for ‘science’, and found it was not as overly sweet as I thought it might be. It reminds me of a specific sort of chocolate Krave with a white chocolate centre they used to sell in my first year of university, which I used to buy as a delayed rebellion against my parents who (probably rightfully) decided that chocolate cereal for children was probably not a great idea. I wouldn’t recommend it as a regular breakfast but good as a treat.
Vegetarian ramen - Umami
I had this as part of their lunch deal and while I still prefer the monks broth, it’s a tasty and healthy-feeling lunch option if you happen to be on Oxford Road.
Lemsip Lemon soluble solution
As someone with a very sensitive gag reflex (don’t even think about it) I hate taking tablets when I’m unwell, especially if I’ve got a sore throat. However when I got some sort of bad cold/flu earlier this month I rediscovered Lemsip’s dissolvable solutions. Last time I tried to take it I was 17 and could only take about two sips without wretching, so either the recipe has vastly improved or I’m less fussy. Either way, I meant I could vaguely become functioning again, so truly the MVP of this month.
Home made basil oil
Inspired by the starter I had at the BAFTAS, I decided to make a breakfast of toasted bagel with cream cheese, chopped tomatoes and some sort of basil oil. Of course, it never occurred to me you could make a basil oil by simply blending fresh basil, olive oil and salt, but I’m never looking back. The freshness and the grassiness really brings the whole dish alive, and compliments most cheeses and tomato dishes.
Turkish eggs a la Sainsburys
As part of their summer dips collection, Sainsburys sells a whipped feta dip, which I have used recently to create my own sort of Turkish eggs. I toast brioche buns, spread the whipped feta on them and then fry eggs in a mix of melted butter and crispy chilli oil. Simple to assemble but a good fancy brunch to impress guests or cure that hangover in a more la-di-da way.
Broccoli orecchiette a la Eighth Day
For work reasons I’ve been near Oxford Road which means visiting my favourite vegetarian shop Eighth Day. As well as stocking the only brand of kombucha I’ll drink, it also sells perhaps my favourite veggie sausages on the market, which are the stupidly name VBites lincolmmmshire sausages as well as bags of orecchiette pasta. So, based on some reductions in Tescos and loosely skimming a recipe I found online, I sort of improvised a pasta dinner.
Made a stock with a veggie stock cube, boiling water, MSG, Worcestershire sauce and a parmesan rind and left in a bowl to sit on the side while I cooked.
Fried some onion in a pan and then added some chopped sausage and reduced broccoli florets I had blitzed into small pieces in the food processor (because I hate normal broccoli. Once cooked for a couple of moments, I then added the stock, simmered a little than added the orrecchiette in.
I then cooked in the broth until the pasta was cooked through, the broth reduced and had become thicker thanks to the pasta starch.
Cheap Tescos Pasta
Following on from my Tesco’s reductions, there happened to be a whole block of Jarlsberg reduced, as well as a Clubcard offer on their fancier dried pastas, so I made a gigli (flowery trumpets) pasta bake for my first day at my new job.
Firstly I made a sauce by melting together the jarlsberg with some leftover cream, cream cheese, some grana padano and some whole grain mustard and garlic the night before.
Then the next day I fried up some mushrooms and the remaining sausages in garlic and then added the sauce back in.
I cooked the pasta separately, saving some of the pasta water to add back into the sauce to thin it out before adding it all together to a baking dish, topped with more grana padano and bake until the top is golden brown.
aubergine and smoked cheese bagel
Now I need to get back into the habit of making work lunches again, after eating pasta for several days straight, while I had planned to make another pasta bake with aubergine and smoked cheese, I decided to experiment. Roasted aubergine is one of my favourite things and I’ve been debating how to put it in a sandwich for a while.
So firstly, I roasted the aubergine as usual with oil, salt and pepper.
Then I toasted the bagel and drizzled the leftover basil oil on it.
Then after topping the bread with the cooked aubergine, I put slices of smoked cheese on top (I just used the cheapest stuff you find in the co-op) and put back under the grill until the cheese had melted.
I did this in the morning and then put in my bag; I was sceptical for how well it would keep until lunchtime but turns out it is phenomenal when cooled. Would highly recommend as a veggie lunch option, especially as you can make all the components the day before or at the beginning of the week.
Black garlic bread - Jaan @ Exhibition
My middle sibling Lola finally got to visit Manchester this month and their one request was to eat some good food, so we decided to take them to Exhibition, where Another Hand is running a Persian bread inspired kitchen. We got lots of nice bits including whipped butter bean, smoked aubergine, scorched summer squash with an onion broth, pork belly, as well as the deep fried soft shell crab and the basque burnt cheesecake from baratxuri (which, according to Lola, is ‘just the good bit of the cheesecake’. My personal highlight however was definitely the black garlic bread that was soft, creamy, chewy and with a good topping of strong punchy cheddar. Perhaps the best version of garlic bread you can get.
Weird Snack Review of the Month:
Cheddar cheese and roasted tomato mini cheddars
A purchase made in the throes of illness, I would not recommend. Like the normal cheddars but with a strange sweet accent. In my opinion, they should just bring the stilton ones back.
That’s all for this month’s roundup - I hope you enjoyed and as always please feel free to share any bits you like or comment below.
As I try to use social media less, I’d love to connect with you guys on here as much as possible.