I was very lucky to get invited to an exclusive dinner at Ibérica Manchester showcasing their new spring menu. And even better Nacho Manzano, Executive Chef for the all the Ibérica restaurants would be cooking!
The man himself – Nacho Manzano (in the middle)
Clearly I didn’t read the invitation properly, I thought it would be a couple of hours of standing at a buffet nibbling on lovely tapas.
Nope, nope, nope. It was four hours long and a proper posh sit down dinner of five courses. Maybe the clue was in the description ‘exclusive dinner’?! Well, I certainly wasn’t complaining.
Dish after delicious dish came out accompanied with exquisite wine. Each offering colourful and curious and obviously, tasty. In total I counted that we’d been served 14 dishes and we also got involved when the pescatarian on our table got fish dishes instead of meat.
Cod brandadaWarm lentil saladA nice waiter gamely posing for a photoGR 174 Red Wine
Ibérica is a beautiful, classy and colourful venue – the staff were energetic, helpful and fun – and there was a buzz to the whole evening.
My favourite dish unexpectedy was a pear and spinach salad with feta, pine nuts and pesto. INCREDIBLE. My other top dish was the chargrilled octopus brought out for the pescatarian (he didn’t get much of a look in as we all piled in to try it). It tasted like a juicy steak.
Pear and spinach salad
If you get the chance do go and eat at Ibérica – it’s a glamourous fun night out and the food is awesome. And make sure you check out the ladies toilets – they are apparently the most Instagrammable in Manchester I’m still kicking myself for not taking my phone to the loo…
Wreckfish in Liverpool opened a few weeks ago. I was already a fan of Gary Usher’s other three restaurants Hispi, Burnt Truffle and Sticky Walnut, so I made sure to book in quick at Wreckfish.
What these restaurants do well is high end, interesting food at really affordable prices in simple, attractive contemporary venues.
Wreckfish is in a lovely old building in the centre of Liverpool, inside there’s lots of exposed brick and it has a cool industrial feel. It’s really classy.
I went for crispy lamb’s tongue with pear puree and roasted peanuts for starter, and I attempted to balance out my meat consumption by having a vegetarian main of roasted turnip cakes and I finished with a dark chocolate and blackberry mousse for pudding.
The crispy lamb’s tongue was spot on, deliciously cooked and I loved the peanuts and puree that went with it.
I was less keen on the turnip cakes. It was a bit of a non dish, nothing wrong with it, but it was just a bit bland and more like a side dish. To the restaurant’s credit, they were very eager to hear our thoughts on the food and relayed back to the chef that I was disappointed with my main.
Jamie’s main, which was a roast beef dinner, was absolutely glorious though (see feature photo). I got very involved in helping him eat his dinner having lost interest in mine. I can honestly say it’s one of the best roasts I’ve ever eaten.
And I ended on a high as I was very pleased with my dark chocolate and blackberry mousse – just a very fresh and tasty pud!
All in all, I think it’s a brilliant restaurant, the staff were lovely, and the food (bar the turnip cake) was exceptional and great value for money.
Crispy lambs tongueTurnip cakeDark chocolate and blackberry mousse
Last night I got to stuff my face with the most delightful vegan street food treats at Jackie Kearney’s book launch.
For those who haven’t heard of Jackie, she was one of the Masterchef finalists in 2011 and is a committed vegetarian.
Her latest book is called My Vegan Travels. Jackie has travelled a lot in South East Asia and picked up a ton of great ideas for cooking vegetarian and vegan food. Her previous book Vegan Street Food was along a similar theme, but her new book is focussed on super simple, comfort food recipes.
I got to munch my way through: shitake mushroom croquettes, bombay veg sandwiches, beetroot and watercress samosas and artichoke torta. All rather lovely. But the icing on the cake for me as a greedy sugar fiend, were the chai doughnuts with raspberry jam and soft pecan cookie ice-cream sandwiches (with a vegan malted coconut and blueberry ice-cream). Scrumptious.
The book looks absolutely superb, so if you want to buy an original Christmas gift for a cooking enthusiast, My Vegan Travels is a great shout.
It was Saturday, and we were heading into town to watch a 6pm film at Home, and fancied a light dinner out beforehand.
After a bit of a sniff about on Tripadvisor, we decided on the Northern Quarter Restaurant and Bar. Partly because we’ve both been before and loved it, but also because they have a brilliant Express Menu – 2 courses for £14.95 or 3 courses for £18.95.
4.15pm is an early dinner, but it meant that it was quite a calm, quiet time in the restaurant, which is always rather nice on a busy Saturday in town.
We only went for two courses. Much as I would have liked a pudding, I was fixated on having a tub of ice-cream at the cinema, so held off.
Jamie had a pale ale rarebit with Goosnargh duck egg and I chose Brixham crab cakes. Both were delicious and the presentation was lovely too.
Pale ale rarebit with Goosnargh duck eggBrixham crab cakes
And for mains, I decided to go carb-less with a flat iron steak and a salad and Jamie chose Goan chicken, Asian slaw and chips. I’m not a massive red meat eater, but the steak was a triumph – very melty and tasty. Obviously I had to test Jamie’s chicken too, which was succulent and full of flavour.
Flat iron steakGoan chicken
All in all it was great value for money and a lovely way to spend a wet and windy Saturday afternoon. The venue is really chilled, unpretentious and classy and I love the large glass windows which look onto the old Smithfield fish markets. I don’t go back to many restaurants, because I always like to be finding new spots to write about, but this place is worth breaking that rule for.
I’d heard so many amazing things about Umezushi, I just thought it would be nice to pop in and have a light lunch on a Saturday. However, Jamie got giddy and decided we should get the tasting menu. I wasn’t going to argue.
This was the tasting menu:
Miso Soup
Sashimi
Nigiri
Grilled dish
Simmered dish
Dessert
Served with Japanese wine or sake.
We passed a lovely couple of hours munching our way through this lot. I had the Japanese white wine, which was light and appley and very nice. And all the sashimi and nigiri was sublime, really fresh and beautifully presented. The grilled fish was mackerel and again was just exquisite. And our final savoury dish was the ‘steamed fish’ which was another soup, this time with sea snail in! Very delicious. Pudding was sake infused pineapple with a dollop of ice-cream.
The whole thing was a really relaxing, intriguing experience. And I really liked the vibe in Umezushi – a tiny wooden interior that seats about 20 people, under a railway arch near Victoria – it felt quirky and cool. And I loved that the toilet has a Japanese cityscape wallpapered all over the walls. Oh yes, and the staff were very attentive and sweet too.
Miso soupSashimiNigiriGrilled mackerelSea snail soupSake infused pineapple and ice-cream
I’ve spent a good couple of years obsessing over Instagram – it’s absolutely my favourite platform. I enjoy ogling people’s beautiful photos of food, latte art and travel destinations. I also love the friendly, nurturing, community vibe on Instagram. People are more likely to say nice things to you than on Twitter, which feels like a rowdier, more argumentative place.
Having been on a few courses and done a load of experimenting on Instagram, here’s some top tips for you:
Learn to take good photos. This may sound a bit obvious, but Instagram is the most visual social platform and your photos need to stand out to get noticed. Here’s a brilliant article on how to take better photos with your smart phone – I found it super helpful.
Write good captions. Yes, it is primarily a visual platform, but you’ll pack more of a punch if you’ve written something interesting alongside your picture. A lot of people use it almost as a journal, to share little stories from their day, while others use bantery fun captions – the range of writing styles is huge, so pick an approach that’s right for you. I’ve got most inspiration from scouring accounts like Orla and Me, Old Fashioned Sus, Allison Sadler as they express themselves brilliantly and authentically.
Get some Insta role models. As I mentioned above, I have a ton of these. I don’t just seek inspiration from them in terms of how they write their posts, but I look for ideas for how they compose photos, how often they post, who they are following, what hashtags they use and how they use Instagram stories. I want to the learn from the best. Other accounts I love are Alison Perry, Father of Daughters, Phillipa Stanton
Use the photo editing phone app called VSCO. It’s free, but it’s not that good unless you pay for some filters. Instagram itself offers filters and editing tools, but they are a bit clunky and uninspiring. VSCO is more subtle and the filters are great. Because I largely stick to the same filters it gives my feed a more cohesive, consistent look.
Use a planning app. I use Mosiaco (which I paid about £5 for), but I know that there are free apps others like Planoly and Preview. Mosiaco allows me to test out what my photos are going to look like with the rest of my Instagram pictures before I post them. Again, so I can try and aspire to the Insta dream of having a gallery that is well thought out and is following a deliberate colour palette.
I hope these are helpful and if you have any tips for me – do comment below.
I also offer one to one Instagram training, if that’s something you’d find useful, whether that’s for your personal account or for business please get in touch. And here’s my Instagram feed, if you want to check it out.
Last night I headed out to the Con Club to meet my friend Kate for dinner. It was Tuesday night, so a proper meal out felt rather extravagent, but having just got back from my holiday, it seemed like the perfect way to try and distract myself from my post holiday blues.
The Con Club is opposite Altrincham Market and is a gorgeous venue – it’s an old building (1887) that was renovated last year, and the Con Club opened as a restaurant in November. It’s a really trendy, beautiful place now – spacious, high ceilinged, modern and fun.
The beautiful interior of the Con Club
We arrived at 7.30pm and the place was buzzing! Who knew that Altrincham is the place to be on a Tuesday night? I ordered a Yakatori Beef dish with Asian veg and Kate went for a sirloin steak with fries. We were both very pleased with our choices.
Yakatori Beef dish with Asian veg
Having just got back from Italy I ordered a Italian wine: Levorato Primativo. It was fruity and delicious. And I felt like I earned myself some brownie points for not staying safe and ordering my usual glass of Malbec. Check out my recent Help, I’m in Wine Rut blog post to read more about my attempts to push myself out of my wine comfort zone.
We both finished off with decadent puddings, I chose a carrot cake with coconut sorbet and Kate opted for a chocolate lava cake with popcorn ice-cream. My carrot cake was excellent, but I have to confess to having pudding envy for Kate’s dessert, which she described as the most chocolately cakey extravaganza she’d ever eaten.
chocolate lava cake with popcorn ice-cream
We both had a superb evening at the Con Club, it’s lively, stunning to look at, the food is fabulous, and the staff couldn’t have done enough for us, making us feel very spoilt and well looked after.
I do love a glass of wine, but I’ve definitely fallen out of love with Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc, my go to supermarket picks. I know there’s more to wine than this. Surely I could be giving my tastebuds a bit more of an adventure?
Who better to assist me in broadening my wine horizons, than Janet Harrison who runs Cracking Wine? And here she is with a load of great suggestions, I can’t wait to tuck in:
Janet taking in the aromas of a nice rosé
So, a refreshing change to be asked if I’d tried any good wines recently. You see my friend Katya is in what I call a wine buying rut. Like most people she’s a bit tired of Sauvignon Blanc (you’ll get there eventually) and so overwhelmed with the amount of ‘easy drinking reds’ on offer, she tends to keep buying the same ones.
The up side of having such great supermarket ranges and independent wine stores is that we all have a huge choice, but as anyone who shops in the massive M&S in Manchester will tell you, it is easier to pick the nearest thing and make a bolt for it – and who buys all those cardigans?
Anyway, I digress.
I only need to flick through the recent pictures on my smartphone to see what I’ve been slurping recently – not that I NEED to photograph to remember (ahem).
You see my glass is always full – well, that’s until it’s empty of course.
Here are my current top picks if, like Katya, you are stuck in a wine buying rut. There are versions of all these wines at supermarkets, independent stores and in restaurants, it all depends on your budget and whether you are splurging at the weekend or just celebrating #WineWednesday.
White for easy drinking/light meals:
Albariño: A good news story from the Galicia region of Spain and gorgeous wine too (think of Al Pacino if you can’t remember the name). The one I bought that is pictured below is from Define Food and Wine. It’s an absolutely gorgeous wine shop, deli and cafe near Nantwich.
White wine for more substantial meals or cheese:
Montagny: This is a white wine from Burgundy – enough said. If you are an ABC (anything but Chardonnay) I challenge you to try, but do so with some cheese or light meat dishes which have a creamy sauce. This is a fabulous one from Waitrose, and Aldi will be bringing out a corking version in November.
Wines from Portugal seem to be everywhere at the moment. Try this Porta 6 from Majestic Wine – it also has a jolly picture of a Lisbon tramcar on the front.
A Montagny, a Porta 6 and an Albariño. Happy drinking times ahead!
Heavier red with hearty meals:
Warning….splurge alert! I’m not a massive fan of Australian Shiraz – I find it a bit overpowering sometimes, but this Vinteloper Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills is certainly worth the cash. Imported by the fabulously quirky Red Squirrel Wines, they seek out rare and special wines made with love.
It is delicious!
You’re very welcome.
Chin-Chin
Don’t drop the Vinteloper Shiraz! It’s £40’s worth of wine.
Janet Harrison runs Cracking Wine, providing fun and informal wine tasting events in the North. She also runs the only wine festival dedicated to Champagne and Sparkling wine in the UK, it’s called the Fizz Festival and it’s coming up in November at Altrincham Town Hall.
Sounds exotic doesn’t it? Well as it happens, it was a pretty extraordinairy and colourful night, so it lived up to it’s name.
Last night (Friday 15th September), Jamie and I ventured into town to attend this Filipino style food pop up.
Having been invited by a friend, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what I’d signed up to, apart from some good Filipino food (which was enough of an incentive for me).
What I hadn’t expected was the awesomeness that is 101 North Western Street, it’s a superb craft beer bar, bottle shop and event space which is in a huge, warehousey type building under a railway arch. It’s near Manchester Piccadilly station. This place has attitude. And even better there was a DJ playing excellent music and the whole venue had been decked out with Filipino style decorations. It all felt very tropical (despite it actually being quite nippy).
I decided to start the night by sampling a Belgian beer from the bar. I opted for a 8.5 % Delirium, which was utterly delicious, but made me very excitable very quickly. There was quite a party atmosphere so being a bit merry helped! We were sharing a table with a young couple who happened to be friends of Mama Z (the chef), and while we were waiting for our food to be served we got chatting to the lovely Stefan and Tuesday.
Delicious Delirium
The glorious Filipino menu we were served consisted of:
Nibbles: ‘pulutan’ (fried pork puffs)
Starter: fried lumpia (or fried spring rolls) and dipping sauces
Main: ‘ulam’ (or chicken adobo) and ‘gulay’ vegetables (butternut squash with coconut and lemongrass) served with rice
Dessert: gorgeous fried plantain spring rolls with caramel sauce and crushed peanuts
Each freshly prepared dish arrived with a craft beer that had been hand picked by Mama Z to match the flavours of the food.
Filipino Disco in full swing
The food was great, my favourite being the gulay vegetables and the plantain spring rolls. I do have photos of the food, but they are so blurry and dark you won’t be able to make any sense of them! Check Mama Z out on Instagram for a better idea.
A revelation for me was how much I enjoyed the beers. I’m not a big beer drinker, but I loved every single one – even the stout (Wild Beer Millioniaire). And the beer drinking definitely helped with the whole disco vibe as we were chatting and laughing all night with Stefan and Tuesday.
So all in all, an absolutely buzzing, brilliant and tasty night. Make sure you get down to the next Filipino Disco.
Thanks to Skiddle for inviting us as guests. All opinions and words are my own.
When I arrived at Henbury Hall in Macclesfield on Monday morning for ‘Fresh Walks Wild’ I had very little idea how the day was going to pan out.
I regularly go for hearty networking walks in the Peak District with Fresh Walks. They are always, without fail, energising, great fun and useful for business.
However this was a new version, a bush crafting event run by Lewis Herridge at Re:You.
I’m relaxed about going on a 14 mile hike up Kinder with the Fresh Walkers as I know what to expect, but would I like making fires and shelters with this lot? Would it be as much fun?
As it turns out, it exceeded expectations, and we had a blast.
What made me instantly happy on arrival was that everyone was sitting round a real campfire drinking tea. Winner. I felt instantly at ease. And even better there was a ‘wild’ toilet. I had wondered if we’d be peeing in the bushes, so this unexpected luxury pleased me no end.
At 9.30am this was the cosy campfire scene I enteredThe luxury ‘wild’ toilet
We took a while drinking our teas and chatting before things got started, which was a very nice start to the day. Then Lewis got us on our a feet for a little tour of the camp and talked us through the four most important things for survival in the wild: shelter, water, fire and food. We were then put in groups and asked to find items in the local woodland to represent ways of tackling those four areas of survival.
My group embraced the task with enthusiasm, and having recently watched Bear Grylls Celebrity Island, I felt I had a lot of expertise to offer the group.
We chose:
nettles for eating
some dung because where there’s animal droppings there’s usually water nearby, and you can burn it
moss because you can squeeze water out of it
some sticks of wood to burn, or build a shelter.
We then had a big group show and tell with our items. It was a proud moment displaying our dung.
Lewis demonstrating the various uses of stinging nettles in the wild
Our next job was building a fire. Lewis showed us a variety of ways of getting a fire started ranging from putting some wire wool on a battery, to sparking flint against steal and then using the sparks to light a tampon. As you can imagine as mature adults we all found lighting a fire with tampons absolultely hilarious. We all had a little practise which you could tell everyone thoroughly enjoyed.
Lewis showing us how to get a fire goingAndy Fleet using the primal flint and steel method to get sparks flyingAll the men mesmerised by the process of lighting fires
Then is was competition time. We were split into three groups. We now not only had to get a flame going, we had to build a proper fire. For each group, Lewis stuck two sticks in the ground and tied a piece of string across them at about 60 cm up from the ground. The first group to burn the string would be the winners.
Unfortunately, myself and my group were not the most talented fire makers and came last (and even then we cheated). It was a fascinating activity though.
Look at the pride in our faces!
Next up lunch, to which I have to confess I contributed absolutely nothing. A few of the guys got busy chopping veg and knocked up a beef stew, although ingredients were admittedly shop bought and not foraged. The stew pot was thrown on the fire to cook, which gave us all a lovely hour or so to just sit around, drink tea, eat biscuits, enjoy the fire and chat.
After our hearty meal was the final challenge of the day. Building a shelter. Lewis got us to examine a shelter that had already been made so we could understand how to create one, then we were asked to source the materials for building our own (although to be fair Lewis gave us a load of wood to get us started). After 90 minutes of collecting mud, branches and rhoddidendrum leaves, we had our very own rather fabulous looking shelter.
Shelter in progressThe final shelterObviously I had to road test it and it was very cosy!
We then rewarded ourselves with a final cup of tea, some bourbon biscuits and a final soaking up of the campfire.
I went home feeling more connected to nature, very chilled and very happy. Thanks Lewis. And of course thanks to Michael Di Paola from Fresh Walks for organising.
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