Eleven good things I ate and drank in Manchester in July

Malatang, damson beer and a salad with more cheese than lettuce

Boy it’s been a good food month which is probably why despite me being on week eight of Couch to Five K (I’m doing it for the third time and I hate running), I still have a double chin.

I’ll keep the intro short cos you’ve got loads to get through.

Read on for the best things I ate and drank in Manchester in July.

Hot pot with tom yum soup at Malatang (£15-25ish)

When I was a kid, I was not to be trusted with the pick-n-mix. Give me a candy-striped bag and free rein to select jelly sweets with a small shovel and you’ve got a recipe for financial disaster worse than hiring Liz Truss to run the country.

Malatang, which has rapidly taken over the spot previously home to Nudo Sushi on Oxford Road, is like pick-n-mix for adults. So of course I went too far. Giz managed to keep his bowl under the £15 mark but mine was nearer £20. Worth it though.

If you’ve not been to one of these fast-food versions of Chinese hot pot restaurants before, let me explain: You are provided with a large plastic bowl and a set of tongs. Then you can choose whatever goodies you want in your big bowl of soup, weighing it on scales as you go. They recommend a minimum of 400g per person and it’s £3.30 per 100g. There are noodles, veg and mushrooms, and all kinds of meat fish and seafood from beef, pork and fish balls to frog’s legs, duck blood tofu and honeycomb tripe. When you have chosen everything you want, your bowl is taken off to be cooked in a hot soup of your choice. The name Malatang comes from the spicy Szechuan classic clear soup but we went for a creamy, Thai-style Tom Yum. When your massive bowl of soup is ready, you can sprinkle extra toppings like crushed peanuts, chopped coriander, minced chilli and sesame oil. A fun, filling and friendly experience at a price point largely - dependent on your own capacity for restraint.

Lamb kheema flatbread at Fold (£8)

Looking for somewhere great for lunch that’s attached to a nice walk and open early-midweek is harder than it should be. But Fold and Marple’s lovely aqueduct came to the rescue for a day out with my brother. I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t yet been back to Fold since it launched last year and I interviewed executive chef Ryan Stafford for Manchester’s Finest. With all the best intentions, there is only so much time and money available so sometimes it takes me a while to get back around for a revisit.

I’m glad I went back though. For my money, this visit was a few notches up from the restaurant’s opening gambit of squid bolognese and prawn cocktail on a stick. Don’t get me wrong, that was really enjoyable but it seems the kitchen has relaxed a bit while maintaining the quirkiness I really liked. It’s still super high-end dining but portions are chunkier and ideas more streamlined. This “kheema” flatbread is a case in point. Made with slow-cooked and shredded lamb rather than mince, its richness is cut through beautifully by ribbons of pickled courgette and piquant blobs of labneh. This was a great lead-up to a meal which included cured scallops, octopus with green sauce (a close contender for DOTM) and hogget skewers and finished with the best Eccles cake my brother said he had ever eaten. Good job we’d walked up an appetite.

‘Jam’ damson wild ale at Balance Brewing Taproom (£4 for 1/3)

When my handsome, clever, and occasionally quite witty older brother Darryl came over from NZ to visit, I had to find multiple things to impress him with while also entertaining myself. At a loose end pre-dinner on a Friday we went on the hunt for craft beer. It’s not often I have a partner in crime to visit taprooms with on the weekend as most of my beer friends and loved ones have boring old ‘day jobs’. So I took this chance to lug my bro across the rainy city to the back of Piccadilly. The plan was to go to the ever-reliable SureShot but I’d missed the memo about the opening of Balance in the past 12 months and we stumbled across it first.

So very glad we did. I loved its musty cellar smell, like a church basement, and its red curtains giving Twin Peaks. Anything that’s giving Twin Peaks is ok by me, except, like, actually murdering women, obvs. We’re talking creepy aesthetics and hot girls/guys only. Just to be clear. I also love a sour beer, and love a damson so you can imagine my delight to find a wild damson ale called Jam on tap. Pouring by the third an’ all! Probably my favourite measure. I like my beer like I like my wine, tangy and served in small portions. Who even drinks pints any more? Well, Darryl, for one.

Lamb shank from Jaan at Exhibition (£24)

Little fat flatbreads are everywhere in Manchester at the mo, from the difficult-to-beat OG with lardo at Erst to the lamb one above, it’s definitely a trend. I’m not complaining. I love my food sitting atop a carby pillow as much as the next fella does, so I was happy to visit another place celebrating them.

I think ‘Persian bread kitchen’ doesn’t quite do justice to the range of dishes on offer at Julian Pizer (of Another Hand)’s new offshoot Jaan at Exhibition, though. On our (kindly PR comped) visit we did enjoy some lovely flatbreads, which here have a note of baking soda to them as is traditional in Persian barbari, but we especially loved some of the dishes that come without flatbread. There’s a chunky sea trout fattoush - a shout on a too-hot day, and a super spicy squid dish but our fave was this lamb shank served beautifully plated with a small mound of feta-flecked Persian grain salad and pretty pickles.

Mixed cheese and charcuterie platter at Petit Paris (£27)

If you’ve paused briefly to admire the above image, I hardly need to say anything to convince you to share one of these with someone you love as a matter of urgency. I take my wine tour guests to Petit Paris all the time and always tell them that these are the best cheese and charcuterie boards in the city but it had been a while since I’d been in off-duty to graze on one myself. My bro’s visit was a good excuse to pop in for a spot of people-watching, catching up and guzzling wine while hoovering up this amazing cheese and cured meat. It changes all the time, but I especially loved the herb-rolled soft sheep’s cheese on this one.

Salcombe crab on toast at Hawksmoor (£16)

I was invited to visit Hawksmoor as I hadn’t been for a while and there were some new lunch specials. What a treat! So of course we enjoyed a steak frites with Diane sauce and a massive sorta-French dip butty. Both are great and I urge you to do Hawksmoor at lunch if you haven’t before, it would be very main character of you. In a good way. And you get to listen in to cringey ‘business’ chat on adjacent tables. Always entertaining.

You already know how good their steak is but what stayed in my memory long after was this ridiculous crab on toast. The guy serving our table was a cheeky lad who, when I was torn between two starter options, said he would write them both down and surprise me with one. That probably strikes fear into some hearts but it’s a game I my indecisive arse is allllll over. Go on then, I said.

Crab on toast it was; fresh, sweet, and like all the hottest people, a perfect balance of white and brown. But listen, there’s also this thick, buttery homemade mayonnaise that ties the whole thing together like Lebowski’s rug. So golden I thought it was hollandaise. Holla/Mayo/Whatevo. It’s incredible. I recommend you treat yourself to this for lunch with a massive glass of Au Bon Climat Chardonnay and some chips on the side.

Caesar salad from Tartuffe at Side St Studio (£9)

The above picture is now my benchmark for the precise amount of cheese I want on all of my salads from now on. And crikey, a salad this hearty with this much protein, in a space this gorgeous for under a TENNER? Tartuffe, you have my heart.

We’re talking at least one entire little gem lettuce, leaves separated but left whole so you can use them as greedy shovels, great hunks of their signature roast chicken, pickled anchovies (!), tons of grated cheese (a sheep’s milk babe, I think), and big crunchy homemade croutons. AND I got some work done, which these days is a miracle.

Ume Sour at Monkey Trio (£9)

Monkey Trio has a place in my heart for being the first place I wrote about for Substack. I knew I wanted to do my own thing, I leapt into the unknown with a story about matcha beer and you caught me. If you’re still reading and you’ve been here from the start, thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means.

I popped back in recently to try a cocktail from their short but interesting menu. The next table had a bright purple Ube punch on the go, tempting for the colour alone but probably too sweet for my taste. So Ume Sour it was, a classic sour made with foamed egg white, lemon and Japanese Umeshu plum sake which brings a completely unique flavour. Stunning.

Globe artichoke with smoked cod’s roe from Erst (£14)

If you feel like eating something outrageously indulgent with a friend that won’t completely break the bank, get stuck into one of these and a bottle of wine between you one afternoon at Erst. I don’t know anywhere else in Manchester that will do you a whole globe artichoke (please do @ me if I’m wrong) and if you’ve ever tried to cook one at home, you’ll know what a faff it is. Leave it to the professionals, I say. I enjoyed this over a lunch date with fellow Substacker Aine Morris. We met for the first time and got on like a flatbread on fire.

“Churros” bravas potatoes at Tast (£8)

I assure you I am not on commission at Tast even though I do write about it a lot and visit it on my wine tours every month. I was recently invited to try some new dishes to the menu now their new chef Fabiola Bonacci has settled in. The dish that made our whole table sit up and pay attention was this humble spud one. We were certain we had been brought a plate of battered sausages with hot dog condiments (and there would have been no complaints there) but this is patatas bravas inspired by churros. Sausages of mashed potato coated in crispy breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with drizzled brava sauce and garlic aioli. Your new favourite beer snack.

Nasty martini at Skof (£14)

I have spoken at length about Skof already so I’ll keep this brief. I returned to celebrate mine and my dad’s birthday at the end of July (it’s my birthday today btw if you’re reading this on the day I send it) and it was every bit as wonderful as the press event if not more so. The staff are fully relaxed into the job, particularly Sean who had endless bants with my mum who will mumsplain foraging to anyone who’ll listen.

This time, I made sure to try a cocktail and this nasty martini was anything but. Sort of like a posh pickleback it blends Tanquerey and Vermouth with a pickled nasturtium stem oil making it look like a lava lamp. I was beside myself.