This is just the quirky type of event I wanted to flag up when I started writing this blog. Gorton Monastery, which has just seen a massive restoration campaign, has just started offering a new twist to a relaxing Sunday walk.
Once a month, as part of the St Francis Sundays open days, visitors can now take part in a meditation walk on a full size canvas replica of the famous stone labyrinth set into the nave at Chartres Cathedral in France.
by Carolyn Hughes
Oklahoma is a quirky little place that makes the Northern Quarter exactly what it is. Hiding behind big wooden doors on High Street, this is a colourful treasure trove of kitsch gifts, notebooks, light shades, greetings cards, retro sweets, as well as a cafe.
The cafe intermingles with the shop section with tables overflowing, and there is even a DVD section on the far wall. An art gallery promises to be downstairs but I’ve never been down because you have to ask someone to unlock it for you, which is a bit of a turn off.
After a late night with too much wine and then a 6.30am early start to finish off a project, I needed rescuing to make it through the rest of today. A hungover craving for food that involved not cooking or washing up propelled me, via the magic of the 192, down to Manchester’s Farmers’ and Producers’ Market at Piccadilly Gardens.
I’ve not been there for a while, so it was all brand new to me. I started off at the Orchard Pigs stall, who breed lovely happy pigs in Wrexham and then make them into pork pies for us Manchester people to eat. I’ve just nibbled a bit of the pork and cider pie that was recommended to me and it’s pretty good. There was none of that nasty jelly you usually get surrounding a pork pie. I think it cost £2.50.
Yes more pies. In a nod of respect to British Pie Week
which has just concluded, I’ve written another pie-based blog post.
And after that I will stop eating pies because I can’t afford all this
food blogging AND a larger pair of jeans.
Whatever anyone says about British cuisine, you really can’t beat a
large creamy chicken pie or tender steak pie with thick gravy on a
wintery day. It’s comfort food at its best, and if made from scratch it
isn’t as unhealthy as a store-bought second rate effort.
Nexus on Dale Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter serves Pieminister’s
offering, as does Cup round the corner, which is not a bad thing but if
more places in the Northern Quarter hop aboard this pie train there
won’t be much variation. There is a really good article from the Telegraph
from January 2008, charting the success of this small company from
touting their wares at Glastonbury to supplying pubs and cafes all over
the UK. Like any forward-thinking food company, they use only quality
ingredients such as free-range meat and no hydrogenated fats.
Do you find a surprising number of people proclaim themselves to be
‘savoury’ people? I suppose it’s expected for women to go mad about
chocolate, probably after shoe shopping and a bit of moaning about men.
But actually most girls would choose a bag of Kettle Chips and some
nice crusty bread over a bar of Dairy Milk most days.
I’m not
really big on cakes or desserts (although naturally I don’t say no),
but I think this is the first review I’ve done where I’ve thought about
the dessert more than the main course afterwards. So let’s do a
backwards review, why not?
The cakes at Nui at the Trafford Centre
are a little piece of heaven – well actually they’re a little piece of
Sicily flown over once a month. And I can say they’re damn fine with
some authority because I went to Sicily for my honeymoon and sampled
rather a lot of these confectionery. Sicilian cakes often look very
brightly coloured and sickly but in fact are truly delicious.
Manchester’s Northern Quarter welcomes a new bar this year, and there is indeed room for such a newcomer. Noho is situated on Stevenson Square, just opposite Soup Kitchen.
The name is a twist on New York’s Soho district, and the owners are trying to bring a touch of the Big Apple to their little corner of Manchester. The building used to be one of the many large wholesale clothing places that are round here, so is ideal for transforming into a bar.
The huge floor-to-ceiling were all steamed up when I was there on Saturday evening, and from when we arrived it quickly filled up with the usual cool NQ crowd. There was a good atmosphere, no ponciness, no idiots – just loads of people enjoying a drink. We quickly slumped on the big leather Chesterfield to enjoy the grooves.
Over the weekend of Friday, February 6 and Saturday, February 7, a new Indian restaurant opened in Manchester. So what’s new about that, I hear you ask, when Manchester is full of curry houses? Well, a good question indeed, especially after my last two blog posts which noted THREE curry restaurants on the curry mile that have been fined for a truly disgusting lack of food hygiene.
Firstly, Zouk Tea Bar and Grill is in a great location with no other curry restaurants around. Secondly, it’s a sleek and sharp modern curry restaurant – and there aren’t many of these in Manchester. And thirdly, there is an open kitchen and I can tell you it looked absolutely spotless.
So are you on board now?
Rice has long been one of the best things about that communist-era square called Piccadilly Gardens, along with Barburrito. Its handy boxes of rice-based snacks have seen me through many a lunch and teatime. And they also come in those white cardboard boxes, like Chinese food does in America, so you can pretend to be in an American soap (if you want?).
Now another Rice has opened, just off Oxford Road, to bring freshly made rice and noodle dishes to all those starving students and professionals too, if they can be bothered walking a tiny bit down Oxford Road.
We moved on to The Grinch, over by Cross Street as I know they have a happy hour between 5-7pm EVERY DAY – even Saturday! Cocktails at The Grinch aren’t as special as the Great John Street Hotel but by ‘eck they still go down a treat. The cocktails are £3.50, down from £6 normally. Also on offer for the happy hour are any stone baked pizza for £6 and bottles of house wines are £9.95.
There’s a really wide selection of cocktails, and they do waiter service even when you’re only there for drinks, so sit back and lap it up.
Went out the other night hunting for cocktails, which is my new
favourite thing ever. Favourite all-round so far is The Modern, which
is a nice chilled bar, away from all the riff-raff. But anyway we
decided to go somewhere a bit different for a few beverages. Will
review The Modern next time I go.
First stop was the Great John
Street Hotel, right near Granada.
I’ve not been there for about three
years, and had forgot just how impressive the interiors are. Lots of
sumptuous rich red colours, grey walls and big comfy sofas. There was
also a stack of that day’s papers, which is a nice touch.
