Fifteen good things I ate and drank in November
From Michelin stars to lunch deals and three new openings
November’s food diary is embarrassingly long.
Due to mysterious seasonal work-related duties, my professional eating calendar always hots up this month and next. I had a voucher for a two-star Lancashire gem to use up (hi to everyone who waits til the final valid month before using their Xmas vouchers), and I checked out several new openings, some I was invited to by PRs, some I went to on my own steam.
This month, I’ve been a bit naughty and introduced a paywall. The first five dishes are free to read, the other ten require a paid subscription of just £3.50 a month. Which would get you about a third of a pint at Co-Op Live, from what I’ve heard.
One more thing, I am offering a cyber weekend 10% discount on Manchester Wine Tours which ends at midnight tonight. Use the code BLACKFRIDAY - it works for vouchers too.
Read on for the best things I ate in November:
Salt n’ shake crisp butty (£5 from the WTLGI pop-up at Altogether Otherwise)
“Is this Act 1?”, someone DMed me when I posted a picture from this pop-up on my Instagram stories. “WHAT IS THIS MAGICAL PLACE?” came another message from a friend who covers food and drink for a Manchester publication. This temporary migration of the team from Stockport’s Where The Light Gets In for a series of pop-up thingies is a little confusing. Good for the IYKYK brigade, I guess. I had to look up what they were calling it for this write-up. I’d only made a note of where it was.
Indeed, this iteration is called “ACT 1: Man Eating a Leg of Chicken” and it’s at a place I’d never heard of called Altogether Otherwise. To get to it, you have to follow some signs around the back of a building in Shude Hill where we found a man outside barbecuing in the snow. It’s all very Sam Buckley. Sam himself was inside bagging up crisps which had been hand-fried back at the mothership, to be shaken in their brown paper bag with a punnet of mysterious grey dust. I think said dust contains Szechuan pepper and cardamom but Sam told me it was ‘a bunch of stuff from The Landing (their allotment on top of a shopping centre)’ and joked, ‘There’s also a bit of crack in there.’ These were served with a sweetish brioche bun spread with inch-thick butter. Playful, silly, but all made with seasoned skill. I’m a fan.
Cime di rapa with stracciatella, chilli and bottarga ( from Cantaloupe)
Another hot-off-the-press, hipster hangout is Cantaloupe which I had been poised to book ever since hearing who was involved. I wrote a full article about it when I visited during opening week but I want to tell my new subscribers (of which there have been nearly 100 in the past month, whoah) about this dish. This is a dream plate for me featuring fresh cime di rapa, which is sometimes known as ‘Italian broccoli’. As a staunch broccoli avoider, I reject this terminology.
Cime di rapa sits somewhere between choi sum and cavolo nero. It’s a bitter, dark green leaf you’ll most commonly find in tinned form on pizzas here. This fresh version blew my mind. Served with a puddle of stracciatella (like a collapsed burrata) and seasoned with salty bottarga and just the right amount of chilli. It’s a dish I would go back again and again to Cantaloupe for. Except I can’t because they change the menu almost as often as Carmy Berzatto does.
Ruby red Devon aged for 80 days, barbecued celeriac, mustard and shallot (part of a £235 tasting menu at Moor Hall)
I’ve collected a fair few stickers in my i-SPY book of fine dining spots in the North West over the past decade or two but somehow had never made it to actual Moor Hall, only The Barn. I say somehow, but the main reason is that it’s eyewateringly expensive. A Xmas voucher helped bring the price down a touch and we haven’t managed to get away on holiday for a couple of years because I quit my proper job, started a business and our band released an album. So we had a fuck it moment and allowed ourselves the ultimate luxury dinner instead.
It was a bit of an out-of-body experience, partly due to a near-death experience earlier in the day, long story, and partly because it’s so gobsmacking from start to finish. Even the smell of the polished wood as you step into the reception area creates a fairytale wooziness from the off. The cosseting of the staff, the crackling of the fire, the OTT indulgence of it all. It’s magical. Don’t get me started on the breakfast.
Tasting menus like this are the sum of their parts so it’s tricky to pick favourite dishes but I keep reminiscing about the now legendary coal oil beef tartare. I think there is some disagreement about who invented this. Was it Moor Hall’s Mark Birchall? Was it Simon Rogan? I’m not getting involved. From the almost purple meat to the tiny rings of pickled shallot to the jet-black crispy topper which looks something between a Disney villain’s crown and my ADHD brain’s failed attempt at making parmesan crisps (but doesn’t taste like the latter, I promise), it’s a stunner of a dish.
Classic Mumma’s Burger from Mumma’s Fried Chicken at Mackie Mayor (£11)
I’d seen these sail past a few times when I was in Mackie’s with wine tours so it had been on my to-do list to try one. A 30-minute lunch break from Unconvention music conference at Band on the Wall gave me the opportunity to indulge. Mumma’s comes from the team behind Tender Cow and yes, it’s one of the best chicken burgers I’ve ever had. Everything is just right. A pert, emoji-esque burger bun, a fat, juicy, brined and beautifully seasoned fried chicken thigh, the correct type of bright orange American ‘cheese’, and a homemade ‘chilli jam’ that sends it into the stratosphere. The sauce is somewhere between sweet chutney and sambal, the addition of coriander seeds is *chef’s kiss*. A whole £7 for a handful of waffle fries though? Cluck off! (Reader, I bought them).
Karaage chicken at Hakkapo (£9 a dish or part of a £75 wine tour)
Yes, more fried chicken because it’s one of the best things you can have with your fizzy wine. I often serve my wine tour guests Karaage chicken at Hakkapo when we’re having a bottle of this beautiful, rich English sparkling from Hoffman and Rathbone from their excellent wine list. My guests are always impressed by the combo. Hakkapo is still criminally underrated. I love it and you should check it out if you haven’t been yet. The team are obsessive about everything they make, all from scratch, with loads of exciting specials (pistachio duck ramen, soft shell crab laksa, oof). We only want nibbly bits on the tours, so these bites of spiced thigh are just the ticket.
Whole monkfish tail, trout roe, beurre blanc, dill (£35 at Stow)
Alongside the media and family dining on the evening when we visit the new Bridge Street restaurant, Stow are: Mary Ellen McTague, various team members from Higher Ground and Flawd, Tom Barnes from Skof, Rob from Scranchester Tours, Joe from Schofield’s and Rose and Amy from Caravan. That’s just the people we happen to bump into. I think it’s safe to say this new restaurant from ex-Trof chefs Matt Nellany and Jamie Pickles (nominative determinism at its best) is a hot new opening. It’s also literally hot as everything is cooked on a great big flaming grill. We’re surprised, then, to find not as much char as we had anticipated on some of the dishes we try. The food is good though and our dish of the night is this whopping hunk o’ monk(fish) bathed in a buttery, roe-speckled sauce. More than enough for two and could feed three at a push with all the sides. I’m looking forward to seeing how the menu develops here so I’ll pop back in the new year on my own dolla as this was a PR invite.
Below the paywall are ten more dishes including the ultimate snack from Manchester’s newest wine bar (chef’s got a v impressive CV), something made by a chef from a two-Michelin star Spanish restaurant at a supper club in Manchester, and “one of the best things I have eaten this year” from a North Manchester restaurant that has finally won me over on my third visit…