Twelve good things I ate and drank in February

Dumplings, dips and an Arbroath Smokie

It was a fishy February. Nearly all of my favourite things I ate last month were of a marine persuasion, so I hope you’re as big a fan of this kind of food as I am.

It was also a star-studded month. I was invited to the Michelin Awards in Glasgow early in Feb, and later in the month, I spent the afternoon taking a hugely celebrated wine star around Manchester. A dazzling start to the year.

I’m dead proud to be doing things like this as a completely independent agent, and I won’t apologise for bragging cos I worked hard for this, so there.

Read on for the best things I ate in Manchester (and Glasgow!) in February.

John Dory, flame-grilled, butter-poached lobster, XO hollandaise at Kaji (part of a £120 guest chef tasting menu)

I’ll be honest, I have turned down multiple invites to Kaji (for various reasons) but I have been a Steve Smith (of Freemasons at Wiswell fame) fangirl for years so when he took over the pans here, I caved. I can’t afford to eat here, nor can I justify going all the way to Suffolk right now, so I graciously accepted a press invite for a special tasting menu event with Steve and his pal Dave Wall from highly acclaimed Suffolk gastropub The Unruly Pig. Dave’s food was great, and Suffolk is now even higher on my to-visit list than before, but this dish from Steve stuck firmly in my memory. A blackened pan-fried piece of John Dory with sweet, flame-grilled lobster and the kapow of XO hollandaise. A reminder of why I love Steve’s cooking so much. Lasers set to stun.

NB: This was the first in a planned series of dinners with special guest chefs. And I know Steve Smith has plenty of talented chef friends with whom he’s shared a round of Benedictine over the years, so it’s one to keep an eye on for future events.

Squash and ramiro pepper atom dip at Sebb’s Glasgow (£7)

As Michelin chefs and Michelin spotters dined upstairs at Margo (which is surely wonderful), we headed downstairs where the cool kids go. Sebb’s is Margo’s edgier younger sibling and though I hate to always compare everything to Manchester, I can’t help it: Erst meets Medlock Canteen but with its own personal magic.

One of the staff recommended this dip with gusto as we deliberated over what to order, and yep, she was bang on. Creamy labneh topped with mashed roasted butternut and red pepper drizzled with chilli butter, giving it an almost popcornesque flavour. To be scooped up, naturally, with an ubiquitous flatbread served in a brown paper bag because every chef secretly wants to run a lowbrow kebab joint.

Sunday roast at The Trading Route (£22)

I’m not one of those Sunday roast people. The ones who goes out to restaurants for them all the time. I do love a roast, especially the side bits, but I generally eat them at my or someone else’s home. I am well aware there are lots of great ones in Manchester though, and I do dabble now and again.

I went for this one because I was invited by my pal Will who co-owns The Trading Route. TTR is famous for its rotisserie chicken but there are other meaty options for the roasts, so having overdosed on chicken at home that week, we were very happy to order beef. Bloody good it was too, dry aged, grass fed beef from Littlewood’s Butchers with a massive, proud Yorkshire pud, vivid veggies (kale, my favourite, much more thrilling than the brocolli I see on a lot of other roasts - one of the few things I don’t eat btw), and crispy spuds. Excellent gravy too, and props to the very good cauli cheese with roasted leeks (which you have to order separately for £7 but it serves two).

It’s no surprise this is a good roast, coming as it does from the fair hands of Jamie Pickles who is in the kitchen at the much fawned over Stow. The team behind Trading Route also own Trof which, as everyone knows, has long held the title as one of the best places for a roast dinner in Manchester. Oh, and one more thing, on a Sunday it’s no corkage on wine so you can raid the shelves of the mini wine shop at the front of the venue and pay retail price for it. In my book that’s an excuse for a spendy wine.

Full Scottish breakfast at House of Gods hotel, Glasgow (£see below)

Full disclosure: I don’t know how much this is on its own because I was treated to a room here by the lovely PR for House of Gods hotels. We have been chatting on and off for a few years because they are supposed to be opening a HOG in Manchester at some point, though with a lot of setbacks, we’re not sure when. This was part of the ‘Treat Me Like I’m Famous’ add-on package, which also includes prosecco, cocktails and more and is currently £119, discounted from £199. It was served in the very swish rooftop bar and is one of the better hotel breakfasts I have had (and I have had the Moor Hall breakfast). I was very pleased it included both haggis and a tattie scone (it’s illegal to leave Scotland without having had at least one of the latter). After an evening of boozing at the Michelin Awards, this set me up for a day of sightseeing and eating in Glasgow. It’s genuinely a cracking hotel (we stayed at a far less glamorous one the next night); book it if you ever visit the Big G.

Smoked fish plate at Crabshakk Botanics, Glasgow (£25)

I was a celebrity chef cookbook stan as a teen and I can’t remember if it was in a Rick Stein or a Delia book where I first saw the term ‘Arbroath Smokie’ and became casually obsessed with one day trying one. For some reason, I never did try one until I went to Glasgow in Feb 2025.

Friends, it was a revelation. Giz described it as “whisky fish” (like he describes heavily oaked Chardonnay as “whisky wine”) and he’s bang on. It’s peaty, intense and completely delish. This Arbroath Smokie was part of a smoked fish platter (also featuring Bradan Rost and smoked salmon with horseradish cream) at the outrageously good Crabshakk Botanics. We also ate dressed crab, fried crab cakes and loads of skinny fries and lemon mayo with a bottle of riesling. I couldn’t have been happier. If this restaurant was in Manchester you wouldn’t be able to prise me away from it with a oyster knife. It’s spendy, but we wrote it off as a pre-V-day treat. Proper romantic it was too.

Baked cod in banana leaf, stringhopper pilau, kale mullang (£45 as part of a four-course tasting menu)

Another cookbook writer I stanned when I was a kid was Madhur Jaffrey (the queen!) and it was in one of her essays (in this brilliant book) where I first read about string hoppers. I was so entranced by the stories of Sri Lankan food, I promised myself I would one day visit. I still haven’t had the chance. One day. Soon, I hope.

At least we have Manchester and its mindboggling number of ways to try food from other cultures. It’s not like this everywhere and I think we take that for granted sometimes. Immigration has richly enhanced our region, not just on the food front obviously, but I’m very thankful for it giving me the opportunity to learn and try new things.

I went to a Little Sri Lankan supper club (on my own dolla) a couple of years ago and had been meaning to return but, well, you know, life happens. I finally went again at the end of Feb when I was invited to their new regular club at Miru Mill in Stockport. A gorgeous space. Gorgeous food. Gorgeous people. All the dishes were great but little fishies always win me over. This had everything I love: coconut milk, curry leaves, cardamom, wild garlic, fish from Easy Fish (note to self, go back there, stat), and a new thing I had wanted to try for literally years: stringhopper pilau - these are rice noodles that here have been spiced up as a comfy bed for the fish. You absolutely have to do this supper club. It’s ace.

Uh-oh! You’re half way through and the second half of these roundups is for paid subs only. Since I left my ‘big Manchester media’ roles, I am completely independent and paid subs help me to pay my bills via the writing work I do here. I am doing more and more for the excellent humans who think my writing (and the time it takes) is worth paying for. Mad concept, I know! Totally get it if you’re skint tho, mate. x

Below is an insight into the voices in my head, as well as loads more fishy treats…