Around The World In 80 Meals! (part 8)

Manchester Christmas Market

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Attraction | "71) German Christmas Market - The Best Wurst In Manchester"

A Victorian Christmas Photo - Manchester Christmas Market, Manchester, England

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Germany – 15/12/09The first snow flakes of winter were spiralling through the air. So Rebecca and I wrapped up warm against the chill and headed out to Manchester’s Christmas market.Christmas markets are a particularly continental trend. They act as tourist magnets across central and eastern Europe – I myself have visited one in Krakow. And 11 years ago Manchester City Council decided to get in on the act. Touring stall holders from Europe were invited to come over and sell food, drink and crafts. Local enterprises joined in. And they have been growing ever since. In 2009 the markets covered Albert Square in front of the town hall. From there they spread down Bras...Read More

Germany – 15/12/09

The first snow flakes of winter were spiralling through the air. So Rebecca and I wrapped up warm against the chill and headed out to Manchester’s Christmas market.

Christmas markets are a particularly continental trend. They act as tourist magnets across central and eastern Europe – I myself have visited one in Krakow. And 11 years ago Manchester City Council decided to get in on the act. Touring stall holders from Europe were invited to come over and sell food, drink and crafts. Local enterprises joined in. And they have been growing ever since. In 2009 the markets covered Albert Square in front of the town hall. From there they spread down Brasennose Street to Spinningfields (where an ice rink had been set up), and from At Anns Square along New Cathedral Street to Exchange Square. They seem to get bigger and better all the time. And quite frankly they are brilliant. The arrival of the Christmas markets at the start of December is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the year among Mancunians.

Obviously I had peeked in at them already, and had managed to find stalls selling food from Switzerland and Luxembourg. Other stalls served grub from across Europe (Austrian pancakes, Dutch waffles, Spanish paella) and the UK (Welsh beers, meat and pies from Savin Farm in Cumbria, toffee from Duerden’s of Burnley). But the other commonly-used name for the markets is ‘the German Market’. So I was determined to use the evening to tick off German cuisine with my little Deutsch sprech-ing companion.

We started off in Bavaria. German herren in natty braces and pointed felt hats tended a large charcoal brazier. Above it a grill was suspended, and on the grill bratwursts and currywursts sizzled. We stepped up and ordered two bratwursts at £4 each. We were each served a thick curving sausage in a crusty roll. The ends of the sausage jutted out either end. We were then free to add ketchup or mustard. The bratwursts were crispy-skinned, with scalding hot moist meat within – just the thing to warm one up on a winter’s night!

What it needed was a hot drink – preferably alcoholic. Thankfully there wasn’t a shortage of stalls and bars serving mulled wine or eiswein (they are licensed to serve until 8.45pm only though). We headed over to Zum Lustigen Rudolph, a fancifully decorated large rustic-style chalet. Pride of place went to an animatronic mounted reindeer head on high – in a rich baritone ‘Rudolph’ sang a selection of Christmas carols. We joined the throng to order hot mugs of wine (they are served in Manchester Christmas Market branded mugs - £5 gets you a mug of wine, but if you return the mug you get a £1 refund). They have eiswein in different flavours. Rebecca had an apfelwein, flavoured with apple; I ordered a himbeerwein, flavoured with raspberries. It tasted like hot Vimto. These were hot and strong – certainly enough to have made us feel tipsy if we hadn’t already had that bratwurst.

We had a wander around the market, taking a gander at the different stalls. After a while I personally felt it was time for pudding. Thankfully 2009 saw the return of the strudel stall. Here there were a variety of filled pastries, hot out of the oven, to be served with or without custard. I wasn’t in the mood for a cherry strudel, and I had tried their forest fruit strudel the year before. So I thought it only fitting that I had a slab of traditional apple strudel for £3. This was large enough for two easily – though Rebecca let me down by only taking a couple of forkfulls. Still, I just about managed to pack it away. The layers of pastry were flaky and crisp, the filling piping hot and sweet.

The markets are expensive, but they are now an irreplaceable part of a Mancunian Christmas. They seem to get bigger and better each year – and 2009’s was certainly both the biggest and the best. Hurrah for Germany’s hearty and warming cuisine! It may have been designed to keep the fat on your bones on cold Thuringian nights, but standing in a cast pool of light, huddled up in scarves and gloves, watching the first snowflakes of the year spin and twirl it also served to officially announce that Christmas was here.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Manchester Christmas Market
Albert Square
Manchester, England

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Norwegian Blue

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Attraction | "72) Norwegian Blue - Pining For The Fjords"

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Norway – 22/12/09The fact that I am counting Norwegian Blue shows how desperation is creeping in – running out of time to complete my challenge by the end of 2008, and running out of countries to claim. Because, let’s face it, there’s nothing Norwegian about Norwegian Blue other than the name.Drinkwise, there was nothing that seemed to be Norwegian – not even a cheekily themed cocktail. I was presented really with a choice of Danish Heineken lager or Swedish ...Read More

Member Rating 1 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Norwegian Blue
The Printworks, Withy Grove
Manchester, England M4 1WZ
+44 161 839 1451

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Sokrates Greek Taverna

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Restaurant | "73) Sokrates - The Wisdom of Choosing Set Menus"

Its Name Is Keo Photo - Sokrates Greek Taverna, Manchester, England

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Cyprus - 07/01/10Okay. So I failed. I was trying to find 80 restaurants with cuisines from different countries around the world by the end of 2009. Instead I managed to visit only 72 due to other commitments. But even though my (self-imposed) time limit has expired I feel that I might as well continue and see if I can find another eight national cuisines represented in Manchester. Even at this stage I have no confidence that I will actually manage to eat all 80. But I think it is a valid experiment. And so, a new year, and a new country - Cyprus.It is a common misconception that, depending where you are on the island, Cyprus is basically just ...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Sokrates Greek Taverna
25a Northenden Road, Sale
Manchester, England M33 2DH
+44 161 282 0050

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Rodyna

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Restaurant | "74) Rodyna - Back In the USSR"

Rodyna Photo - Rodyna, Manchester, England

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Ukraine – 20/01/10The quest to eat around the world in 80 meals had started in a an Russian restaurant. As we approached the end it was time to go back to the USSR. I had discovered a Ukrainian deli set one street back from Cheetham Hill Road. It was time to visit the Rodyna – the motherland.The staff at Rodyna, both Ukrainian and British of Ukrainian descent, were unfailingly helpful. When I explained what I wanted they joined me in scouring the shelves, trying to find typical Uktrainian delicacies. The difficulty, as they themselves explained, is t...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Rodyna
39 Bent Street, Cheetham Hill
Manchester, England M8 8NW
+44 161 835 2968

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Iceland

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Restaurant | "75) Iceland - That's Why Chums Go To Iceland"

Iceland Photo - Iceland, Fallowfield, England

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Iceland – 29/01/10Possibly a sense of desparation is creeping in here. Friends laughed when I said that for my Icelandic meal I was resorting to a shopping trip at Iceland. Iceland, for those not in the know, is a British chain of frozen-food supermarkets famous for its "that’s why mums go to Iceland" slogan (so famous enough, that in 1997 Britpop wannabe’s Bennet released a single entitled ‘Mum’s Gone To Iceland’ that reached the heady heights of number 34 in the British charts!). However, ironically enough it was bought out by the Icelandic company Baugur in 2005 (pre the Icelandic economic crash). And so I feel a certain justification at counting this as an ‘Iceland...Read More

Iceland – 29/01/10

Possibly a sense of desparation is creeping in here. Friends laughed when I said that for my Icelandic meal I was resorting to a shopping trip at Iceland. Iceland, for those not in the know, is a British chain of frozen-food supermarkets famous for its "that’s why mums go to Iceland" slogan (so famous enough, that in 1997 Britpop wannabe’s Bennet released a single entitled ‘Mum’s Gone To Iceland’ that reached the heady heights of number 34 in the British charts!). However, ironically enough it was bought out by the Icelandic company Baugur in 2005 (pre the Icelandic economic crash). And so I feel a certain justification at counting this as an ‘Icelandic’ meal.

Having said that, you would be hard pushed to find any particularly Icelandic fare in store. Their famous prawn ring possibly ("give us more food mama, give us prawn ring mama" to quote Bennet) – but even there the prawns in question are not cold-water prawns from the North Atlantic, but are instead sourced from Thailand. In fact, a quick browse showed that most of their own-brand lines were produced in Thailand. Certainly, all three items that we bought were.

We took advantage of their ‘Buy 3 for £5’ on party food – though as we would be eating shortly this precluded us from buying anything that would require defrosting prior to cooking. We bought a pack of butterflied king prawn skewers, half in a mildly spicy (and rather mealy-tasting) sauce, half in a much more fiery sauce. Not very Icelandic. We also had a pack of chicken tikka bites on skewers. Even less Icelandic, but actually very nice. And finally there was a pack of duck spring rolls – least Icelandic of all, but perfectly fine if a little over-sweet. Taste for value was not as bad as I had expected. The king prawns I think I might pass on, but £5 for a selection of nibbles is not a bad price-point. We grazed on these watching TV, with a can or two of Danish Skol lager to wash them down with.

We did have some properly Icelandic food however – though not bought at the supermarket. A friend had brought some Skólabiti back from a visit to Reykjavik (thanks Emma!). Skólabiti were flakes of air-dried fish – haddock to be precise. And they looked pretty off-putting – fibrous and yellowy with the texture of felt carpet underlay. Still, we had a challenge to complete so we tucked in. The taste itself wasn’t actually that bad; it tasted like rather strongly-flavoured fish. But the smell was rather overpowering, and the mouth-feel of this tough fibrous material was not pleasant. It was so tough that I could not bite through a piece; I had to pop bits in whole. I don’t think it is something that I would make an extra effort to buy in future, though I could eat it at a push (if I held my nose). But it was authentically Icelandic (from Hafnarfjörđur), and so turned our not-very Icelandic dinner bought from an Icelandic-owned supermarket into a credible chapter of our explorations.
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Member Rating 2 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Iceland
Fallowfield Shopping Centre - Unit B - Birchfields Road
Fallowfield M14 6FS
+44 161 225 7890

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Cora's Philippine Cuisine

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Restaurant | "76) Cora's - Filipino Heart"

Cora's Photo - Cora's Philippine Cuisine, Ashton-under-Lyne, England

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Philippines – 25/02/10Corazon (Cora) runs a little café in Ashton, not far from Ikea. Visiting first on a Sunday we found it fairly busy, but serving only full English breakfasts (at £3.50 these were great value, but not what we were hoping for). Talking to the chatty owner revealed that she does indeed served Filipino food, but only in the evenings. Paul, Simon and I immediately made a reservation to return the following Thursday.Filipino cuisine is a mixture of Asian staples, Spanish tastes, and local produce. As such it is a curious half-way-house between mainland Asian (Chinese etc) and Latin American food. According to Wikipedia the culinary heart of the Philippines...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Cora's Philippine Cuisine
174 Oldham Road
Ashton-under-lyne OL7 9AN
+44 161 3304978

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San Marino

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Restaurant | "77) San Marino - A Little Bit Of Italy"

San Marino Photo - San Marino, Bolton, England

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San Marino – 09/03/10Located up of the fringes of the West Pennine Moors north-west of Bolton, San Marino was the most remote restaurant Paul and I had visited in our quest. It took us an hour’s driving from Manchester city centre to reach it. Much like its namesake microstate it was hidden up in the hills…Of course, it would be too much to expect to find a restaurant in Manchester specialising in Sammarinese cooking. But Wikipedia itself says that the cuisine of San Marino is "strongly similar" to that of Italy and as we were desperate to tick off ano...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

San Marino
Belmont Road
Bolton BL7 9QT
+44 1204 811266

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Ruthin Castle Hotel

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Hotel | "78) Ruthin Castle Hotel - Afternoon Tea and Welsh Cakes"

Ruthin Castle Gatehouse Photo - Ruthin Castle Hotel, Wales, United Kingdom

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Wales – 21/03/10Wales is the closest country to Manchester, well within driving distance, and yet I was unable to find anywhere local to me that could be said to have traditional Welsh cuisine. In fact, searching of the internet I was having trouble finding any traditional Welsh restaurants in Wales itself. Like most non-ethnic eateries in Britain the food on sales is a cosmopolitan collection of the best bits from around the world, so you might find Italian pasta on a menu next to French onion soup, Greek mousska bracketted by Indian chicken tikka masala and pad Thai from Thailand. Still, with my self-imposed deadline of Easter looming ever closer I decided to cheat and take a shor...Read More

Wales – 21/03/10

Wales is the closest country to Manchester, well within driving distance, and yet I was unable to find anywhere local to me that could be said to have traditional Welsh cuisine. In fact, searching of the internet I was having trouble finding any traditional Welsh restaurants in Wales itself. Like most non-ethnic eateries in Britain the food on sales is a cosmopolitan collection of the best bits from around the world, so you might find Italian pasta on a menu next to French onion soup, Greek mousska bracketted by Indian chicken tikka masala and pad Thai from Thailand. Still, with my self-imposed deadline of Easter looming ever closer I decided to cheat and take a short trip over the border into north Wales.

The historic market town of Ruthin appealed. Seated in the Vale of Clwyd, the peaks of the Clwyddian mountains rising up on all sides, Ruthin was an important powerbase of English marcher lords in the medieval periods. The Lords Grey were firm supporters of the Lancastrian kings, and it was a local feud that led to Owain Glyn Dŵr’s rebellion against Henry IV – Ruthin was his first target, and it was raided and razed in 1400. Nowadays the village is firmly Welsh, represented in Cardiff and Europe by Plaid Cymru politicians.

There are a couple of promising-looking restaurants in the town such as Manorhaus and the Picture House that have menus promising Conway Bay cockles, Welsh lamb and black beef, and selections of local cheeses. Rebecca and I wandered up to the grand red castle that overlooks the town (the name Ruthin derives from the phrase ‘red fort’). Following its destruction (temporarily at the hands of Glyn Dŵr, more permanently after the Civil War) the current Ruthin castle is a Victorian confection that operates as a grand hotel. It is a venue for weddings and christenings, and hosts medieval banquets in an adjoining courtyard. We walked through the gatehouse with its Welsh dragon flag proudly flapping in the breeze, up the sweeping drive towards the main entrance, guarded by pink marble lions. Inside is baronial Victoriana at its finest – dark wood panelling and stags’ heads mounted on the walls. In fact, the castle was so popular with Queen Victoria’s son Edward, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), that the main restaurant is named ‘Bertie’s’ in his honour. Of course, his visits were back when the castle was back in private hands…

We were shown through to the octagonal Library Bar. With its roaring log fire and big comfortable leather chairs this was just the place for a spot of afternoon tea.

For £10.95, the afternoon tea we were served certainly harked back to the days of Anglo-Welsh aristocracy. And they were certainly filling enough for even the famously rotund Price of Wales. We were provided with a three-tiered cake stand each. The top tier held dainty sandwiches with their crusts cut off – cucumber, ham, and salmon. And proper butter, not mayonnaise! The second tea was a warm freshly-baked scone, served with little pots of butter, cream, and raspberry jam. In fact they were so warm mine crumbled in my hands as I tried to cut it. The bottom tier held cakes, and were much more Welsh in origin: carrot cake, bara brith, and some Welsh cakes. Welsh cakes, are not just cakes from Wales, but small griddle scones cooked on a hot bakestone about an inch and a half across, buttery with dried fruit. Bara brith, literally ‘speckled bread’, was a slice of traditional Welsh fruit cake. A drink of your choice comes with the food – generally coffee or tea, though Rebecca asked for apple juice with hers. I had a pot – good for three cups – of Earl Grey tea (there is a wide choice of teas to try as well; I chose the Earl Grey as the castle had been the property in the middle ages of the de Grey family, earls of Ruthin – though they were of no relation to the 19th century British prime minister after whom the tea blend was named).

Make no mistake, you get plenty of food for your £10.95. In hindsight sharing one afternoon tea between the two of us would have been a safer bet. We did have to leave some of the cakes – though the bar maid suggested that we take them with us and provided a sheet of foil to wrap them in. It was a very relaxing way to pass a Sunday afternoon in Wales, and particularly to be recommended to any foreigners visiting this corner of north east Wales.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on March 28, 2010

Ruthin Castle Hotel
Ruthin, Denbighshire
Wales, United Kingdom
+44 (1824) 702664

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Puddleduk

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Restaurant | "79) Puddleduk - Liam In Lima Better Late Than Never"

Cusquena Photo - Puddleduk, Manchester, England

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Peru – 01/04/10Paul and I finally managed to get to grips with a Peruvian meal just three days before the final deadline of our quest. And we managed it at the fourth attempt – including three separate trips out to Lee Lane, Horwich.The building that has housed Puddleduk since it opened in February used to house the Peruvian restaurant Inkaa. Paul and I had made a trip out here in November only to find that it had very recently closed down; instead we were forced to have a Polish takeaway. However, interestingly enough a new restaurant by the name of Pud...Read More

Peru – 01/04/10

Paul and I finally managed to get to grips with a Peruvian meal just three days before the final deadline of our quest. And we managed it at the fourth attempt – including three separate trips out to Lee Lane, Horwich.

The building that has housed Puddleduk since it opened in February used to house the Peruvian restaurant Inkaa. Paul and I had made a trip out here in November only to find that it had very recently closed down; instead we were forced to have a Polish takeaway. However, interestingly enough a new restaurant by the name of Puddleduk has now moved in. A sister restaurant to Preston’s Duk and Pond, Puddleduk is not truly a Peruvian restaurant. Rather its playful and inventive menu is a fusion of different international dishes and some rather joyous fruit-based experiments. However, there was enough there for me to count it as my Peruvian meal.

Inside there is a rustic South American cantina feel going on with rough wood tables, Peruvian blankets on the walls, and a Latin soundtrack. I had booked us a table which was probably a good move – maybe it was because the next day was Easter Friday, but the place was busier than many other places we had patronised on a Thursday night with dining couples, groups of friends, and a semi-raucous female birthday party downing sangria. We opted for beer, in this case being bottles of Cusqueña, Peruvian beer that I recalled fondly from my own stay in Cusco.

The menu is an extensive list with an annoyingly random use of fonts, type sizes, speech marks and bolds. The dishes thereon are inspired by chef Andrea Mellon’s international travels, from Canarian potatoes to Cypriot halloumi, Catalan chicken to Berber lamb and Argentinian steak to Thai mussels. But there is a strong Peruvian feel to the bulk of the menu. Some dishes, like the ceviche have to be ordered in advance – unfortunately my request was not received in time by the main chef, mso I had to choose from the remainder of the menu.

We both started off with Peruvian stew. This was a £6.95 bowl of succulent chicken strips in a sauce that was both fruity and spicy, laden with green peppers, chopped chillis and surprising little morsels of apple, orange or raspberry. The menu stated that it was guaranteed to kill a cold at 100 yards, and they were probably right. Do not order this dish without at least a full glass of drink beside you! After the stew we had to pause and sip our beers to give our tastebuds chance to recover before our next course.

I continued with the Peruvian theme with my next course. I was tempted by the £6.25 Cuzco chicken in a creamy tomato and basil sauce. However, I thought that a more robust taste would be obtained by opting for Machu Picchu steak (£10.95). This was juicy strips of fillet steak fried up with mushrooms dipped in truffle oil. It came accompanied with a ball of ‘dragon pate’: venison and chilli pate. The pate was quite harsh on the palate, and I did not think it had been very well integrated with the rest of the course – it was an amusement served simultaneously, but did not really add much to the dish. I wasn’t really sure what its link to the fabled Machu Picchu was either. While there is beef in Peru, I doubt there is much venison. Llama would be more common. Mind you, at least I was trying. Paul ordered home-made mackerel pate served with chunks of toasted ciabatta (£5.95).

Our desserts were not really Peruvian at all though. However, mine in particular really deserves a second visit it was that good. I ordered Pepper Pear. This was two whole pears poached in port and red wine and then topped with ground black pepper and a port reduction. It was absolutely wonderful! The by-now ink-purple pears had been cooked so thoroughly they could be sliced right through, and eaten in complete slices, core and all. The black pepper created a very unusual tingly catch at the back of the throat that I really wasn’t expecting. And the sauce was pretty much enough to get you drunk by itself. I couldn’t recall being so enamoured of a dessert since my visit to Luso over a year earlier. Paul had a Spanglish pancake, a pancake stuffed with more fruit and berries and then topped with grated cinnamon. Both were bargains at £4.95.

To finish off I persuaded Paul to join me with Peru’s national drink, a Pisco sour. I was expecting an Old Fashioned glass of pisco (Peruvian grape spirit), soured off with lime, sweetened with sugar, topped with frothy beaten egg white and a splash of bitters. What we got, I think, was a mere shot glass of pisco rimmed with salt. I certainly didn’t remember salt being an ingredient in the pisco sours I had enjoyed (rather to my surprise!) in Peru, and the traditional egg wgite froth was distinctly non-present. Mind you, I had wondered whether British health and safety rules would allow any bar to serve up a drink involving raw egg white!

Apart from this, the only real let down was the fuss it took to get the bill – 15 minutes speaking to three different wait-staff, in the end being given an estimated total of £58 as they could not find all the slips from the waiters’ notebooks. This delay caused us to just miss our train back to manchester from Blackrod station and have to wait an hour for the next one. It was a sign of a certain disorganisation. Of course, we wouldn’t have minded so much if we had not had a train to catch. Otherwise we would have been quite happy to relax on the big leather settees in the lounge.

Puddleduk is not very far from San Marino. And whereas I had stated that I was never likely to revist that restaurant purely because of its distant location, I do intend to pay another visit to Puddleduk. I mentioned that it had a very imaginative menu. Well, I would like to go back and try some of their other dishes – the blueberry fillet steak (cooked in red wine with a sticky blueberry and caramelised onion sauce) for instance, or the raspberry pepper chicken. With a playfulness like this Puddleduk is more than a Peruvian-themed restaurant.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on April 5, 2010

Puddleduk
116-120 Lee Lane, Horwich, Bolton
Manchester, England BL6 7AF
+44 0871 9603663

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Phileas Fogg

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Restaurant | "80) Phileas Fogg - The Last Supper"

Around the World in 80 Meals Photo - Phileas Fogg, Manchester, England

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The World – 04/04/10Easter. My last supper. And there were thirteen for dinner. No wonder I was concerned!I had set the date, booked the venue, and invited guests once I had passed my 76th meal, thereby causing a panic as I hastily sought out other possible eateries to take me up towards my target. I had always known where I was going for my 80th meal. As the whole Around The World In 80 Meals experiment was at least partially inspired by Jules Verne’s classic novel ‘Around The World In 80 Days’ I had been delighted to learn that the Radisson Blu...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on April 5, 2010

Phileas Fogg
Radisson Blu Hotel, Chicago Avenue
Manchester, England M90 3RA
+44 0161 490 5000

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Been Around The World - Thoughts on the '80 Meals'

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I’ve come a long way since my first idle / drunken bet in a Russian restaurant back just after Christmas in 2008. So what have I learnt over the course of the year? The biggest was probably that I can drink lager, which I had always tended to avoid previously. The strangest countries brew beer. Thumbs up to Indonesia and Ethiopia; thumbs down to Korea. In terms of beverages I would also like to recommend the meaty red wines from Argentina and ...Read More

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