Paneer Tikka Tacos
Vaso Kitchen
A Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon trip to Stretford Food Hall uncovered the excellent Vaso Kitchen, serving up some very impressive Indian street food dishes. One of them was this – the Paneer Tikka Taco. Basically a freshly cooked naan topped with marinated paneer, mustard seed slaw, yoghurt and chilli.
Everybody Loves BJ’s
Crazy Pedro’s
For this month’s pizza special Crazy Pedro’s opened up the voting – so that the people of Manchester could choose a past pizza to bring back. They chose wisely. This collaboration with Bunny Jackson’s features their signature Hotter Than The Sun Sauce with spicy chicken bites, mozzarella sticks and ranch dressing. This is one of the best they’ve ever done. Probably why it won the vote.
Specialist Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum
Science + Industry
This is the only place IN THE WORLD where you can get these Spiced Rums. They’ve been specially designed by two of Science + Industry’s staff and they’ve made a couple of cocktails out of them. I’m not going to sit here and tell you which one I like the best, but Karl’s has been washed in BUTTER so it’s silky smooth and Kyra’s is made using Ube – which is a purple yam originally from the Philippines.
Teriyaki Salmon Bento Box
Seoul Kimchi
This absolute delight at the fantastic Seoul Kimchi made my Bank Holiday Monday significantly better with it’s little compartmentalised Korean morsels – pretty much providing a ‘tapas’ style experience all in one. It’s pretty big – taking up most of the small table in this tiny restaurant and you’ll find some teriyaki salmon cooked to perfection, fried dumplings, kimchi, rice and more.
Tapas on the Terrace
La Bandera
They’ve got a new terrace out the front of La Bandera and so it would be extremely rude NOT to head on down and engorge yourself on ample tapas dishes. As you’d expect from a bog-standard Brit – I ordered the Patatas Bravas, Croquettes and those little Padron Peppers but I branched out a bit and enjoyed some Spanish meatballs, calamari and some top notch Spanish wine. AND the sun was shining (ish).
Pabellon Criollo Arepa
Mia’s Arepas
A brand-new and very welcome addition to the weekly Piccadilly Gardens Market, Mia’s Arepas should be the next place you visit for your lunch. I mean – just look at that incredible creation above – it’s a Venezuelan arepa (a fried maize flour patty) stuffed with seasoned shredded beef, cheese, shredded avocado, black beans and fried plantain. Drizzle with hot sauce and tuck in.
Smashed Avo, Beetroot Hummus, Feta on Sourdough
Another Heart to Feed
It’s an absolute pleasure knowing that Another Heart to Feed is just around the corner from the Finest offices – as they serve up some of the best brunch dishes in the world. This is their signature too – the Smashed Avo with Feta and Beetroot Hummus – always reliable and always super tasty. Enjoy alongside a nice cuppa or if you’re feeling frisky – a beer.
Stacked Pancakes
The Koffee Pot
The city institution is back open again and we couldn’t be bloody happier. A couple of the Finest crew went down this week to take some pics and also have a little taste test – just to make sure that they’ve not lost the magic touch while away on lockdown.
