Nine good things I ate and drank in June

Ice cold sashimi, a footy pie and a spam bao

We’ve officially passed the halfway point of the year and I am already lamenting all the things I said I would have achieved by this point and haven’t. Is it just me who constantly berates themselves for not having completed way more tasks than humanly possible in the first six months of the year?

Speaking of failing to achieve things, I have a couple of massive deadlines hanging over me like a scythe. This means I have been so frozen in fear that I won’t do well enough at either of them that I have let it get to crisis point and now have less time in which to do a great job. Again, just me?

Well, thank you for aiding my procrastination by abetting my notion that writing up my best dishes here is more crucial than anything bigger and scarier (and more lucrative) that I should be doing. Amazingly, this means this round-up is bang on time this month.

Read on for the best things I ate (and drank, except wine, which is over there) in June:

Spanakopita at The Little Greek Shop (£4.50)

I’m bored with brunch. Don’t get me wrong, I still *heart* eggs on toast, crumpets, all the stuff, I just can’t be arsed with it outside of my own home. But after an early morning swim followed by strong coffee and a furious laptop tapping sesh, I’m hangry by 11am and on the hunt for things to stuff in my face that aren’t bloody avocado and poached eggs on toast for, like, £15.

Friends, I found a good one. If you’re addicted to new openings, like so many people in Manchester are, Bouzouki by Night might have eluded you. It’s been here since the late 80s, tucked away on Princess Street above Spar hosting lively Saturday night parties with banquets of Greek mezze and, yes, jugs of Retsina. Oof.

But it also serves bacon butties and slabs of spanakopita from a little hatch during the day. I’m a sucker for any savoury Greek pastry, and never miss an opportunity to knock back mouthfuls of wilted spinach like my childhood hero Popeye, yet I have rubbernecked nervously at this hatch more times than I care to mention. Finally, I went for it. And I’m glad I did. Just on the right side of greasy, crispy filo stuffed with dill-fragranced spinach and salty-creamy feta. Just warm enough to wolf down quickly while sitting on a slightly damp bench. Yours for under a fiver. My new obsession.

Redhouse farm lamb shoulder, broad beans and nasturtiums at The Edinburgh Castle, Ancoats (£22)

Birthdays call for a bit of excess but my partner Giz doesn’t like faffy food so a celebratory dinner at The Edinburgh Castle was just the ticket for his special day. Shaun Moffat’s menu is unlike anything in Greater Manchester right now. It strikes a balance between comforting and unexpected. Classic French influence underpins the dishes sourced entirely from UK ingredients. So instead of olive oil and lemons, you’ll find rapeseed oil and apple cider vinegar. But you’ll also find seasonal fruit and veg like Bedlam Farm purple artichokes, Yorkshire rhubarb, and bright green broad beans as seen in this dish. Shaun really loves veg and that’s great cos so do we.

A plate of sliced lamb so generous, it could have been served up by your nan was a refreshing change from some of the ever-diminishing small plates out there. Everything on the plate subtly treated and shining in its own right. A confident kitchen team like this, which knows not to add one ingredient too many is rare and beautiful. It’s difficult to find the right words to describe such artful simplicity without doing it a disservice. Just go eat there and you’ll understand. We layered up the veg with sides of buttered hispi and a tomato salad leaving us feeling at the same time greedily indulged and full of nutrients. Don’t worry, we put away a huge slab of sourdough too.

Seared salmon crunch roll from One Sushi (£14.50)

There is so much good sushi in Manchester at the moment, which makes me happy as I can’t get enough of the stuff. These days, I go to a trade wine tasting pretty much once a week and always come out of them insatiably hungry. Luckily One Sushi is on my walk home and it’s probably the best place for takeaway stuff in the city. Their omakase is on my wish list but for now, the odd box to wolf down on the sofa it is. I always spend about 20 minutes deliberating over which to choose and talking myself out of spending way too much money buying more than I should, but this tempura prawn stuffed, seared salmon-topped roll was absolutely mega.

Luna Colada at Blacklock Shoreditch (£9.50)

I love coconut but would almost never order a pina colada. Too sweet. Too sickly. Too gloopy. Too much. I’m a Manhattan or Negroni girl at heart. But I found myself in a cocktail masterclass at Blacklock in Shoreditch as part of a very generous press trip put together for Manchester media ahead of them opening here later this year. They showed us a couple of cracking drinks from the menu and this unsolicited pina had me taking down its number. This Hawaiian Tropic-scented beauty has been clarified, refined and dusted with coconut like a sexy Tunnock’s Snowball. It’s a blend of Havana 3, Aluna Coconut, and Wray & Nephew Rum, with pineapple and citrus to sweeten things just enough. I’m into it.

Sixth Rib-eye steak at Blacklock Covent Garden (£22)

My favourite of the three Blacklock venues we visited on our London press trip was the one in Covent Garden - and not just because this was the one where they encouraged us to try literally everything on the menu. I want to give a quick oink oink to a starter of pig’s head on toast (order it, thank me later) before getting down to what this place is really all about: chops, and affordable ones at that.

Sitting down to dinner with the owner is of course going to mean you get a great meal, but you also get to chat with them about what they do. It was clear from our conversation that Gordon Ker has a huge passion for food but also that he wants the pricing to be as accessible as possible. He told us they use the sixth rib as it’s lower down the rib hierarchy but only just which makes it a bit more affordable. Like when you buy Langhe Nebbiolo, essentially Barolo without a quite so hefty price tag. The sixth rib is a shade less tender but packed with flavour and this was my favourite cut of the meal. Grab yourself a garlicky hunk of bone marrow on the side too.

Blacklock opens in Manchester on Peter Street, just next to Brewdog (*side eye*) and opposite Peter Street Kitchen this Autumn.

* In case it wasn’t clear, this was an invited trip

Tuna sashimi at Samsi (£10)

What else is there to eat in undignified 27-degree heat in Manchester but things made of, or served upon, ice? So it was ice cream for lunch after an early morning wander around Tatton Park gawping at deer, and lovely, cool sushi for an early tea at Manchester’s longest-standing (I think) Japanese restaurant Samsi.

I always had a soft spot for this place back when Manchester had about a 20th of the restaurants it has now, but it has been a while since I last ate there. I’m not sure the decor has changed since it opened in 1993 but I hear pencil-thin brows are making a comeback, so don’t change a thing, Samsi. This sashimi was light, fresh and exactly what I needed. I don’t know about you but raw fish always gives me a dopamine hit.

Spam bao from Little Bao Boy at North Tap Room (£5.50)

I had friends over for a long overdue lunch one Sunday in June and took it upon myself to prepare a ‘30 plant dinner’. If you’ve ever been round mine for tea, you know I’m a feeder of the highest order. So the table creaked with piles of tabbouleh, hummus, lentils, beetroot and every conceivable type of salad dish. There were easily more than 30 plants in that lot and we all felt supercharged afterwards.

Life is all about balance, so after everyone had gone home, Giz and I decided to go on a small wine crawl, stopping at North for a Savvy B on tap and slaking our snack attack with the opposite of a 30-plant dinner. This bao with fried spam, American cheese and sriracha mayo was just the devil my virtuous self required to stay grounded.

The Fat Les at Bundobust (£9.95)

Two things I love very much in Manchester are Bundobust and Great North Pie Co (both have featured in my previous best dishes). One thing I absolutely loathe is football. Hate it. Everything about it. The worst of all football songs is Fat Les. So it’s a shame that Bundo x GNP named this inspired collaborative dish after a song made by three of the worst people of the 90s. It almost made me give this a swerve but it’s a testament to my love for curry, pies, and curry pies that through gritted teeth I ordered this dish. And I loved it. A Bundo veggie vindaloo wrapped in GNP’s perfect pastry, splodged with Bundo’s unmissable green chutney and bopped into a bap, Wigan-style. This dish is only available til 15 July so be quick if you wanna score one.

*I was kindly invited to try this dish by Bundo’s PR

Mixed grill of fish at The Dog and Partridge Charnock Richard, Lancs (£18.50)

My parents go to their local pub The Dog and Partridge for dinner every single Saturday night. This blows my mind a bit. The young team there are so well acquainted with my folks that when I took my dad there for Father’s Day, they all said he was like their dad too. I wouldn’t normally take him to the pub he goes to every week as a ‘treat’, mind (bit unimaginative of me) but my mum was prepping to go into hospital so it wasn’t an option to drag him to the big city.

But, you see, it was a treat for me to go there because it’s just so lovely. A city girl like me can get all wrapped up in limited edition collabs and hot new London openings but sometimes, a little, bustling countryside pub with an extensive menu of crowd-pleasing classics and staff that are likely to call you ‘cock’ as a term of endearment is just perfect. I usually get all swept up in the pub vibe and order one of their Yellow Pages-sized wedges of beef and stilton pie with buttery mash, or a burger with a steak knife stuck through it like a Tarantino victim, but I went off-piste on this occasion with a ‘lighter’ dish of, *ahem*, salmon, hake, trout, seabass, prawn and squid with new potatoes and spinach, all tossed in garlic butter. Bloody good it was too.