Category Archives: Food and Drink

Cornerhouse: loving the pizzas

August 1, 2009 – 12:59 pm

Cornerhouse

Cornerhouse -
where to start eh? I luckily used to work right near this centre of
arty-cultural goodness so its delights were ready available. But last week
I met an old work colleague for some Cornerhouse pizza action, and I
realised how much I missed it.

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Bread and Butter (or how piadinas changed my life)

June 9, 2009 – 1:00 pm

Bread&butter northern quarter
Two weeks ago I didn’t even know what a piadina was. Now I’d eat them for breakfast, lunch and tea if I could (yes really). After months of wanting to go and check out Bread and Butter in the Northern Quarter I finally got there. One lunchtime visit was thwarted because it was just too busy, but now I have finally cracked it. Get there before 12.30pm and you can lounge on the sofas while they make your lunch, and you get the pick of the cakes.

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Secret Garden in Northern Quarter’s Nexus

May 19, 2009 – 1:12 pm

Nexus art cafe gardening

Nexus cafe is creating a secret garden in the small courtyard at the back of its basement cafe – and it needs your help. I’m actually sitting in Nexus as I type looking out the back at the ladders and trellises, and can’t wait to see it finished. Over the past few weeks it’s been designed by volunteers and will have decking, gravel and lots of planters for flowers. By the looks of it it will be a real sun trap and if we ever see any sun this year, will be very pleasant.

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An Outlet

April 23, 2009 – 9:21 pm

As far as names go, it’s as far removed from its predecessor as it could be. An Outlet is stark and utilitarian, whereas Love Saves The Day was flimsy and romantic.

Love Saves The Day, owned by ex-Simply Red drummer Chris Joyce and his wife Beckie, had a chequered past with the original branches in the Northern Quarter and Deansgate going bust after a problem in 2005. The second coming with branches on Thomas Street, Deansgate and Piccadilly Basin all sadly went into administration in October 2008.

An Outlet food

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Take a trip to Oklahoma in the Northern Quarter

March 30, 2009 – 8:56 pm

Oklahoma Northern Quarter Manchester

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.

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Buy real food at Manchester Farmers’ Market

March 13, 2009 – 5:03 pm

Manchester farmers market

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.

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More pies at Nexus, Northern Quarter

March 11, 2009 – 4:59 pm

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.

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Pie and a pint at The Bay Horse

February 27, 2009 – 7:14 pm


Bay horse northern quarter

Manchester’s finest Twitterati met up to test out the Bay Horses’s pie and a pint deal this week. Except I didn’t have a pint, and there
was a discussion about whether the pie actually constituted a pie. But let’s start from the beginning.

Taste of Manchester is a new website run by Manchester Food and Drink Festival, which is absolutely full of news and reviews about eating, and you guessed it, drinking, in the rainy city.

They’ve also pulled together some of the best offers out there, and will even email them to you if you sign up to the mailing list. I spotted an offer for a pie and a pint at The Bay Horse in the Northern Quarter for £5.50, which seems like a tempting lunch time offer. You can buy the pie on its own for £3.95 if you don’t fancy a pint, and for £4.95 you can get a pie, peas and gravy.

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A co-operative for Levenshulme?

February 24, 2009 – 5:29 pm

Village Stores Levenshulme

Levenshulme
may soon be emulating that unbearably hip suburb of Manchester called
Chorlton. For a group of residents are looking into forming a
co-operative to run the local Village Stores.

Since
it was opened three years ago by Ibrahim al-Caddy, Village Stores on
Barlow Road has become a much loved resource for residents of
Levenshulme, like myself. As much as I have talked about kebabs on this
blog so far, I don’t really like living in an area where one in three
shops are takeaways. Good quality food stores are few and far between,
and Village Stores stocks locally grown fruit and veg, health food,
plants and other eco-friendly household stuff.

And as M19 isn’t
known for being full of people who are particularly well off, Ibrahim
has always managed to keep the prices very reasonable for the good
quality. With a good location right next to the leisure centre and
opposite the library, Village Stores has become an essential part of a
small community hub.

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Nui: from Sicily to the Trafford Centre

February 18, 2009 – 10:17 pm

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?
Nui cakes Sicily Trafford Centre

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.

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