Around The World In 80 Meals! (part 5)

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A July 2009 trip to Manchester by Liam Hetherington

Sushi is Served! Photo - New Samsi, Manchester, England

Quote: Getting by with a little help from our friends Paul and I continue our quest to eat from 80 different countries without leaving Manchester...

25 Photos

Cassava Cassava

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Restaurant | "41) Cassava Cassava - Not To Be Repeated..."

Pounded Yam Photo - Cassava Cassava, Manchester, England

Quote:

Nigeria - 08/07/09 On the menu at Cassava Cassava you will find such dishes as Puff Puff, Moi-moi, and Fufu (though sadly not other Nigerian favourites like Chin Chin, Kuli-Kuli, Dundun and Bunce Bunce). Equally sadly I'm not sure that this is a venue to which I will want to return... Cassava Cassava is a Nigerian restaurant located on the upper reaches of Cheetham Hill Road. Looking for a Nigerian eatery we had chosen this place over a couple of rivals for two reasons: it had its own website, and I knew some people who had eaten here and survived to tell the tale. In fact, one had raved about ...Read More

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on August 1, 2009

Cassava Cassava
432 Cheetham Hill Road
Manchester, England M8 9LE
0161 795 5847

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Great Kathmandu

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Restaurant | "42) The Great Kathmandu - Ayo Gurkhali!"

The Great Kathmandu Photo - Great Kathmandu, Manchester, England

Quote:

Nepal – 10/07/09And so I accidentally had a Nepalese meal…I mean, having a Nepalese meal was always part of my plans. It just happened at a time when I was not expecting it. It was a lazy Friday evening and the plan was to meet up with Ross and Laura (who had been partially traumatised by her Nigerian meal two days earlier) for a couple of beers, a DVD and a take-away curry. However, we were in Didsbury, so I should have know that our curry would be a Nepalese one. I don’t know why – maybe it is because Indian restauarants are just not exotic en...Read More

Nepal – 10/07/09

And so I accidentally had a Nepalese meal…

I mean, having a Nepalese meal was always part of my plans. It just happened at a time when I was not expecting it. It was a lazy Friday evening and the plan was to meet up with Ross and Laura (who had been partially traumatised by her Nigerian meal two days earlier) for a couple of beers, a DVD and a take-away curry. However, we were in Didsbury, so I should have know that our curry would be a Nepalese one. I don’t know why – maybe it is because Indian restauarants are just not exotic enough for upwardly-mobile Didsbury – but the area has become something of a Nepalese ghetto. Wilmslow Road in East Didsbury hosts The Original Third Eye, Palatine Road in Northenden Jai Kathmandu, and Burton Road in West Didsbury has no less than three Nepalese restaurants – Gurkha Grill, Namaste Nepal and the Great Kathmandu.

It was to the latter that we were going. The smart pink-tied waiters showed us through the diners to a desk at the back where we could place our order for collection. We were told that there would be a twenty-minute wait – enough time for us to head out for another drink.

The smells wafting from our take-out as we headed back to Laura’s were quite intoxicating. However, upon opening the bags we hit a snag. Not being familiar with Nepalese food it was a struggle to work out which carton contained which dish – the odd scribble on the lids was not particularly helpful. We were able to make out our starter however – a Kathmandu Mixed Shashlik to share. This was a grilled kebab of lamb, chicken, king prawns, tandoori chops, onion and peppers. And it was fine, but of the standard you would expect from any decent curry-house. There was nothing that would set it apart as being particularly evocative of Kathmandu – and certainly not the king prawns! What I would say was that for £9.75 it was not good value, even considering the free poppadums they had included. Between the three of us it amounted to £3.25 each, and I’m not sure any of us got more than, say, two pieces of meat.

The main courses were more interesting. In particular dishes tended to be more subtly spiced (i.e. not as ‘hot’) as the Indian dishes I am more used to, and they often came ‘dry’ and not in a ghee-based sauce. For example Ross ordered Chandane Dry Fry (£7.10), a vibrant concoction of chicken stir-fried with ‘herbs and spices in the Nepalese style’ (certainly a touch of chilli and a sprinkling of ginger). To contrast I ordered Bhaktapur Chicken (£7.30), which came in a makhani-like butter and cream sauce. Laura’s choice was lamb karahi for £6.95, rich in onion, capsicum and tomato puree. Add in two portions of pillau rice at £1.90 each and we had a perfectly decent take-away meal for three for £35.

With its rather dated décor Great Kathmandu is not the flashiest Nepalese restaurant around – that title would probably go to Gurkha Grill orThird Eye. But it has a devoted following who choose this little place over its rivals time and time again, whether for eating in or taking out. And while I think the mixed shashlik starter very overpriced for what we received, I have to say that the three mains were both tasty and competatively priced (for Didsbury). And in the Chandane and Bhaktapur dishes they showed us something a bit different from the usual curries on offer at every tandoori up and down Britain. All credit to the Nepalese chefs (Chandra Kumar K.C. and Dhurba Bahadur Dangol). I would be happy to eat here again.

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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on August 1, 2009

Great Kathmandu
140 Burton Road
Manchester, England M20 1JQ
+44 161 434 6413

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43) No Such Thing As A Free Lunch In Burma...

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Story/Tip

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Myanmar - 14/07/09 There are no Burmese restaurants in Manchester. I am aware of one in London (Mandalay), but I think that is a lone example in the UK. Once an integral part of Britain's Indian Empire (and scene of some of the most furious fighting in the second world war) Burma / Myanmar consciously turned its back on the West following independence in 1948. Now it seems to revel in its status as a pariah nation. No surprise then that bilateral links between former imperial overlord and repressive military junta are so few and far between. What was a surprise was that Burma visited me at work. On Tuesday 14th July the canteens at work was taken over by a 'Saf...Read More

Myanmar - 14/07/09

There are no Burmese restaurants in Manchester. I am aware of one in London (Mandalay), but I think that is a lone example in the UK. Once an integral part of Britain's Indian Empire (and scene of some of the most furious fighting in the second world war) Burma / Myanmar consciously turned its back on the West following independence in 1948. Now it seems to revel in its status as a pariah nation. No surprise then that bilateral links between former imperial overlord and repressive military junta are so few and far between.

What was a surprise was that Burma visited me at work. On Tuesday 14th July the canteens at work was taken over by a 'Saffron lunch'. I work at the head office of The Co-operative, Britain's fifth largest supermarket chain. Since its foundation in the 19th century it has taken a firm interest in a wide variety of ethical issues - it pioneered Fairtrade, has firm commitments to animal welfare and marine stewardship, believes in supporting British farmers where possible. It also supports other campaigns such as (most recently) Amnesty's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and schemes to reverse the decline in numbers of bees. Currently The Co-operative is supporting the release of the film Burma VJ, a documentary about Burmese 'video journalists' exposing the true face of the military regime in their country: Members of staff were supplied with slips to add their voices to a petition calling on the Burmese authorities to release the imprisoned VJs. And the two canteens hosted a menu of Burmese food, ranging from rice vermicelli with fish soup to beef and potato curry, from fried pork balls with Burmese oil rice to iced coconut milk with sago.

Realising this was my best chance to try Burmese food (even if it was prepared by the catering giant Sodexho) I headed down for lunch, accompanied by Gemma, Nichola and Amy. The menu had obviously inspired many within the complex as there was a long queue. Those who wanted the barbecued leg of lamb kebabs - as most of us did - faced a ten minute wait around the servery. Already though we could see that the menu included lamb, beef, pork and fish. Used to cuisines from India or Pakistan / Bangladesh I was used to beef and pork being entirely omitted from the menus; this made a refreshing change.

Eventually fresh hot kebabs came out - a surprisingly generous two skewers of meat drizzled with yogurt. Rather than having this with a bed of Burmese noodles of coconut rice, I opted to cannibalise another of the main courses, and asked to accompany it with Burmese-style vegtable stir fry. This wasn't a problem, and the total price (of around £3.60-ish) was very reasonable.

After all that wait, the kebabs were not really anything special - just chunks of lamb on a skewer. They did not have any particular flavour or spice to them that I could pinpoint as being essentially 'Burmese'. However, the vegetable stir fry was delicious. It had been cooked in a dark sauce of soy and black beans which gave it a sweet / salty tang.

It was an unexpected way to pass a lunch time. But I felt it was more of a novelty - it did not really ask you read or learn about the plight of the people of Burma, it did not ask you to gt involved or take up the cause. It was a sideshow to that evening’s film premieres which The Co-operative were sponsoring. We ate and we chatted, while in Yangon protesters, activists and journalists were still sitting in jails. Still, it may have raised awareness of the situation out there, and has really to be taken as just part of the publicity. And one cannot deny that such campaigns are precisely the sort that more organisations should be taking part in.
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Dubai

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Restaurant | "44) Dubai - A Gulf Above The Competition"

Dubai Food Photo - Dubai, Manchester, England

Quote:

United Arab Emirates – 21/07/09I was excited to spot a new take-away open up on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme. There is usually a pretty rapid turn-around of establishments along this thoroughfare and already this year I had missed my opportunity to go to King Cobra (Sri Lankan) - now Beirut (Lebanese) – and West Bank (Palestinian) – now Zam Zam (who knows!). And the Iraqi Marmara now seems to have been rechristened Sports Bar. So I was determined not to miss out on this new place. Its name? Dubai!Other Middle-Eastern eateries Paul and I had visited this year ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 1, 2009

Dubai
21 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme
Manchester, England M14 5TB
0161 224 5529

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Old Orleans

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Restaurant | "45) Old Orleans – Jamabalaya, Crawfish Pie, Filé Gumbo"

Have Some Gumbo... Photo - Old Orleans, Manchester, England

Quote:

United States of America – 22/07/09Whenever I talk about my Around The World In 80 Meals quest the same comment gets made over and over again: "What are you going to have for America? A Big Mac?" It would be fair to say that American cuisine does not have the best reputation in the world…Yet if we look beyond the prediliction for fast food, massive portions and extra-large trousers the USA really should be a haven for great food: high standard of living, stringent hygiene laws, a famously-friendly service industry, abundant and diverse nat...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on August 4, 2009

Old Orleans
The Printworks - 27 Withy Grove
Manchester M4 2BS
+44 161 839 4430

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Kosmos Taverna

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Restaurant | "46) Kosmos - The Stars Of The Kosmos"

All Greek To Me... Photo - Kosmos Taverna, Manchester, England

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Greece – 27/07/09We ate in distinguished company at Kosmos. Photos of famous faces gazed down at us from the walls - Richard and Judy, Phil and Fern, Ant and Dec. Ken Dodd, Barbara Windsor, the Queen. Okay, I will admit that the Queen has never dined at Kosmos. Rather it was the other way round. Kosmos' head chef / proprieter Loulla Astin had dined at Buckingham Palace during a dinner to celebrate the British hospitality industry. The menu and invitation were displayed in the same frame as the picture of Her Majesty. Yet Kosmos is just a small neighbourhood Greek taverna in Fallowfield (though it is handily located on the busy Wilmslow Road and directly opp...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on August 6, 2009

Kosmos Taverna
248 Wilmslow Road
Manchester, England M14 6LD
+44 161 225 9106

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Shimla Pinks

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Restaurant | "47) Shimla Pinks - The Daal of the Year"

Five Starters Photo - Shimla Pinks, Manchester, England

Quote:

India – 31/07/09'Going for an Indian' is a time-honoured British tradition. Indian food really has been taken to heart in the UK, with restaurateurs putting their own spins on classic dishes - balti originated in Birmingham, and Britain's favourite dish, chicken tikka masala, seems to have had its genesis in Glasgow. However, as discussed elsewhere, the majority of British curryhouses are owned and run not by entrepreneurs of Indian descent, but rather of Pakistani and ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 6, 2009

Shimla Pinks
Dolefield
Manchester, England M3 3HA
+44 161 831 7099

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48) Exodus: Movement of Jah People

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Story/Tip

Eritrean Cuisine Photo - Manchester, England

Quote:

Eritrea - 02/08/09 Doing some shopping on a Sunday I stumbled across a free festival in Manchester. Situated in Cathedral Gardens just behind the eye-catching glass ski-slope of Urbis a stage and a plethora of stalls had been set up for the Exodus Festival. This was a collaboration between Community Arts North West and 'Greater Manchester's diverse refugee communities'. There was a lot going on when I arrived, as a quick look around showed. On the main stage Asian Music Talent, with members from Pakistan and India, were fusing classical Asian tunes with bhangra beats and chilled-out western electronica. To one s...Read More

Eritrea - 02/08/09

Doing some shopping on a Sunday I stumbled across a free festival in Manchester. Situated in Cathedral Gardens just behind the eye-catching glass ski-slope of Urbis a stage and a plethora of stalls had been set up for the Exodus Festival. This was a collaboration between Community Arts North West and 'Greater Manchester's diverse refugee communities'.

There was a lot going on when I arrived, as a quick look around showed. On the main stage Asian Music Talent, with members from Pakistan and India, were fusing classical Asian tunes with bhangra beats and chilled-out western electronica. To one side West African Development were leading a drumming demonstration with audience participation on intricately carved wooden instruments, some drums standing a good four foot tall. Inside Urbis a Tai Chi workshop was in full flow. A good natured and cosmopolitan crowd mingled around, hands full of leaflets or plates of food.

The stalls towards the bottom end of the Gardens, towards the cathedral, were selling hot food. Samosas and curry from the Indian subcontinent, fried plantain from a Nigerian stall. And there at the end was a flag I didn't recognise. A small piece of paper announced that they were the Eritrean Women's Group. I decided that this would be where I would be getting my dinner from.

So what is Eritrean food? I'm sure there's a special hell reserved somewhere for people like me who can now answer: it's just like Ethiopian food essentially. Not surprising when you consider that both nations were once one. For my £3.00 (bargain!) I received a spongy sour injera flatbread. On yop of this I got a mix of rice and veg (peas and sweetcorn), some cooked green beans, a pile of vivid green stewed spinach, and a meat stew. The rice was ho-hum, the beans quite nice, having been cooked in a tomato and onion salsa. The spinach I did not care for; it was bitter and slimy. However the meat stew was great! I had to ask the ladies on duty what it was. Apparently it goes by the name of zigni, and is beef in a red sauce comprised of cheese, onions, garlic and tomato. To this was added chilli and berbere spice. And it was deceptively spicy - it was only once I had already forked in my second mouthful that the tingling dry heat of the first mouthful hit my lips.

The women's group had also put on an Eritrean coffee ceremony. A lasy in robes and headdress sat at a decorated chest, heating thimbles of treacly black coffee over a paraffin stove. I'm sorry to admit that I really do not like coffee, one of the most over-rated beverages in the world in my opinion. Even the smell of this rich concentrated coffee upset me a little so I left part way through. Instead I wandered through the crowds tearing off bites from my injera to eat.

Three stars.
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New Samsi

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Restaurant | "49) New Samsi - If You Knew Sushi..."

Quote:

Japan – 05/08/09Japanese cuisine seems to be very much in vogue in Manchester at present. New Japanese restaurants seem to be opening at a fantastic pace. In the last 12 months alone I can think of Wasabi in the Printworks, Tokyo Season on Portland Street, Sapporo Teppanyaki in Castlefield, and Samsi in Spinningfields. However, I played it safe and headed for the grand-daddy of them all, New Samsi on Whitworth Street (near the Gay Village). This was the pioneer of Japanese dining some 16 years ago, and it is where I usually go when I want to go all Tokyo.Funny to think that several years ago, the concept of eating raw fish seemed disgustingly alien in Britain. Now...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 20, 2009

New Samsi
36 Whitworth Street
Manchester, England M1 3NR
0161 279 0022

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McFresh

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Restaurant | "50) McFresh - Rasta Food"

McFresh Photo - McFresh, Manchester, England

Quote:

Jamaica - 15/09/09 Moss Side has something of a grim reputation - riots in the '80s, drug-fuelled vilence in the '90s, gang turf in th '00s. But the area was once famed for its community spirit, firstly amongst the Irish immigrants, and then among the West Indians who arrived in the 1950s and '60s. So it was here that Paul and I decided we should go searching for Caribbean food. Walking down Claremont Road from Rusholme we soon found a couple of possibilities for food (as well as a Sudanese cafe and an East African called Kilimajaro Cafe - Tanzanian...?). One place, by the name of MC Fresh advertised itself as ‘The Taste of Jamaica’. So in we went. The menu...Read More

Jamaica - 15/09/09

Moss Side has something of a grim reputation - riots in the '80s, drug-fuelled vilence in the '90s, gang turf in th '00s. But the area was once famed for its community spirit, firstly amongst the Irish immigrants, and then among the West Indians who arrived in the 1950s and '60s. So it was here that Paul and I decided we should go searching for Caribbean food.

Walking down Claremont Road from Rusholme we soon found a couple of possibilities for food (as well as a Sudanese cafe and an East African called Kilimajaro Cafe - Tanzanian...?). One place, by the name of MC Fresh advertised itself as ‘The Taste of Jamaica’. So in we went. The menu promised all kinds of Jamaican delights - saltfish and ackee, callaloo, jerk chicken, Irish Moss. However, upon talking to the softly-spoken West Indian behind the counter we found that most of these dishes were only available for breakfast. We were left with a choice of just three dishes - curried mutton, chicken stew, and oxtail. Paul ordered the chicken stew with rice and peas; I went for curried mutton. We were also given boxes of 'veggies'. And I also ordered a drink - Guinness punch. My meal in total cost £7.65.

We retired back to Paul's to eat. And my overwhelming thought was: edible but not great. The curried mutton was a slightly off-putting mustard-brown colour, but it tasted fine, if slightly over-poweringly of mild curry powder. The mutton was gamey-tasting, and came on the bone; it was bulked out with potato and carrot. The rice and peas were a hit with both of us though - short-grain rice, almost purple in colour from the kidney beans it had been cooked up with. Tasting Paul's chicken, I found it reminiscent of Chinese chicken, cooked through, with a sweet glaze on the meat. The 'veggies' were not what I expected, instead being a salad of lettuce, tomato, sweetcorn and grated carrot. Half the portion was made up of a coleslaw-like affair, but sweeter and made of very finely chopped cabbage.

I had felt a bit nervous about trying the Guinness punch. It had been served from an unmarked jug kept in the bottom of the fridge, decanted into a styrofoam cup. It was the colour of milky tea, but served cold. In actual fact it was not bad, if slightly over-powering. It tasted like a Baileys milkshake, cold, sweet, and slightly coffee-y. Ingredients apparently include sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder as well as classic Guinness stout.

The food, I'm sorry to say, did not blow me away. And I think the reputation of Moss Side is likely to deter passing trade. A case in point: once we had made our purchases I crossed the road to take a photo of the place. As I got my camera out a man who had been loitering outside the neighbouring supermarket started to swear, and turned around so that his face would not be visible in any photograph. I have to say, this unnerved me somewhat, and directly influenced our decision to go back to Paul's to eat, rather than dine out on a nearby bench...
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Member Rating 2 out of 5 on September 20, 2009

McFresh
140 Claremont Road, Moss Side
Manchester, England M14 4RT
0161 227 9939

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About the Writer

Liam Hetherington
Manchester, United Kingdom

"I try to travel on a 'big' holiday once a year, alternating European & extra-European trips, plus on..."
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