Now that I’m based back in West Yorkshire, Manchester is
only a half hour train ride away, rather than a two-hour trek. Exhausting all the
restaurant options in York really made me feel like it was time to be moving on
and Manchester, with its seemingly endless eatery options really gets me
excited. I get the sense that the city cares about its food; Simon Rogan's The French narrowly missed out on a Michelin star this year but has raised the bar pretty high, and there's enough money knocking about to warrant some pretty good cocktail
bars. If I had the money I know where I’d spend it. But I don’t have the money.
And as for drinks, the 10.30 curfew of the last-train-home doesn’t really give
me the option for a night on the tiles, nor am I an afternoon cocktail person.
Not having set foot on Spanish soil, my experience of paella
so far hasn’t been that great. A market stall in northern France does shine
through in my memory; heaving with onlookers all ogling a steaming pan the
width of a double bed, we fought our way through the crowd for a family-size
portion of the stuff, studded with spindly langoustines, peppers and tomatoes. But
of course that was good; I was ten
for god’s sake and it was the holidays!
When I was small we used to drive to Manchester and stop off
at a little bakery up some steps in Chinatown. Inside there were glass-fronted
displays of all kinds of sweet and savoury soft doughy buns, glazed and shining.
We always bought something sweet with bean paste in it, which got thrown out
after we’d taken one bite each in the back of the car but the star of our
purchases was always the pork buns. The dough itself was sweet and pillowy soft
but that filling! Tender roasted pork with honey and five spice. I didn’t know
what char siu was back then but now I try to recreate those flavours every time
I’m out of ideas with a piece of pork sitting in front of me. This time around
I had a few pieces of pork belly to use up, so I felt that the time was upon me
to try and recreate my Manchester favourite.
Everyone has at least one emergency recipe in their arsenal,
even if it’s just frozen chips with cheese. When the cupboards are bare and
it’s lunchtime, this is the one that I fall back on time and time again. It’s
based on a recipe I saw a few years back in The
Guardian by Yotam Ottolenghi (before he was famous, yeah?). Lots of budget
foodstuffs like pigs ears and oxtails have recently been picked up by celebrity chefs
and so thrown off their uncool reputations. Lentils, on the other hand, still bring
to mind images of dingy 1970s bedsits and hippies. I’m not going to fight for
their cause but I do always have some in the cupboard and they taste great in
spicy soups or as sloppy rainy day meals like this! I make this recipe by
memory and according to what doesn’t have a thin layer of mould on it in the
fridge; the results are always slightly different but still tasty.
Take a look in the ready meal aisle of any supermarket and
you’ll see just how much Man vs. Food has affected the way we eat. I remember a
time when the “American” section in Sainsbury’s boasted a few fajita kits,
loaded potato skins and spicy chicken wings. Tex-Mex however, has finally
given way to “genuine Mex”, with burritos and quesadillas popping up regularly
in high street chains and though I still have to buy my ancho chillies online,
some supermarkets have started to stock a little more than sachets of taco
seasoning. Drooling over philly cheese steaks dipped in beef juice or groaning
at the thought of a Ruben sandwich has also become more of a reality this past
year. I’ve been given the nickname “burger freak” by my mum recently, as
whenever she gets a text from me, I’m telling her about some new patty I’m
trying. I find it difficult to tear myself away from Gourmet Burger Kitchen and
their blue cheese and bacon burger at the best of times, but having spotted a
friend on Facebook eating out at a restaurant that had “barbecue” in its name;
it felt like a day trip was in order.
Trinity Kitchen opened its doors just over a year ago in the
heart of Leeds’ new shopping mall on Albion Street. When visiting the city to
shop, it’s now the first place I hit and that’s not just because it’s right
next to the station! Trinity adds a much-needed string to Leeds’s bow in my
opinion and I’m a big fan of the place. Local businesses must not enjoy seeing
swathes of people heading there to shop but the centre houses almost all of the
high street chains and it is tempting just to visit Trinity and then head back
home. Of course, I try not to do this as I don’t want to miss other favourites,
like the Corn Exchange, Kirkgate Market, Harvey Nichols and little boutique cafés and shops but when it’s
a rainy Leeds day the temptation to skip these can get pretty strong.
It’s no secret that I’ve been trying to teach Roger how to
cook. Unfortunately, my success rate isn’t as high as I would have hoped; a
confidence knock has kept him back after a misspell on my account led to him
using a whole bag of flour (how could
he use a kilo of flour?) to try to bring pizza dough back to a knead-able
consistency when too much water was specified in the recipe. One thing I have
learnt is that there is no room for initiative in the novice cook. If a recipe
stated “add poison”, I’m pretty sure Roger would, because the recipe said so. Despite these setbacks,
I still enjoy making Roger watch me cook, even if he doesn’t, in the vain hope
that one day he’ll realise that he can do it too! I know, it won’t ever happen,
but please humour me.
