It's all just one big restau-rant...

Friday 19 October 2007

New Samsi, Whitworth Street

I came in to town via Victoria which gave me the excuse to sit for a while in an armchair on the top floor of Trof - mainly blogging previous meals. They sure get excited when you ask them to do a cocktail in there, the barman was tossing Tabasco all over the place. I figured my liver would probably benefit from my stopping drinking already, headed back to the flat to get my camera and came straight back out to the New Samsi Japanese restaurant on Whitworth Street.



I've not had much proper Japanese food before but what sushi I've had, mainly from Marks and Sparks, I have greatly enjoyed. I asked for a pot of tea and perused the menu for interesting looking things. Octopus sushi. That sounds nice. And erm what else. I asked my pretty kimono-clad waitress what was good and she asked if I wanted something really Japanese, pointed down to the bottom of the menu where there was something involving pork and "sweet egg". Sadly I chickened out and went for the eggless version above it - next time I promise to be more brave.



The octopus was very thinly sliced, had suckers and wiggly bits and looked like four little works of art when delivered on their little porcelain shelf each wrapped with a little bit of rice. It seemed such a shame to hack them into their constituent parts, smear them in soy and wassabi and eat them, but that's what had to be done. The octopus was a little rubbery but then they just are aren't they.



The next course arrived and looked rather like a Viener Schnitzel. With a bit of salad on the side and some sweet sticky sauce poured over. Schnitzel are normally lean but this was proper full-fat melty pork belly inside and was very very nice. I finished my tea, took a few more photos for good measure and left feeling full and content.

Paella at the Cornerhouse

I quite like the Cornerhouse, as do half the trendy arty Powerbook-weilding bods of Manchester. No trouble fitting in there then but it can get pretty crowded - or convivial perhaps. I came, had some coffee, used their wi-fi for a while and I realised I was hungry. I'll have a bottle of Entire Stout and a paella please. And you know what, there was nothing wrong with it at all. Massive juicy (tender and in no-way rubberised) prawns, bits of chorizo, mussels, chicken and lots of nice yellow rice. All served in one of those cast iron things with handles. I ate every scrap.



I've had the food in there a number of times now - and considering that it isn't their core business (that would be drink followed by the cinema I suspect) for a nice lunch at semi-reasonable prices it's very good. The menu is basically Mediterranean in style, pizzas, bowls of meatballs (ask for extra bread to mop up the sauce if you get these), paella and so forth. Sit, sup, open your laptop and for god's sake try to look cool.

Kurdistan Restaurant, Bolton

I may have mentioned previously that one of these days I was going to get brave and go to the Kurdistan Restaurant in Bolton. This place is truly in a world of its own - I've never seen any "westerners" in there and sure enough I got a truly undiluted cultural experience. The telly was blaring with a Kurdish news channel, people came and went wishing each other hearty "salam-allec"s either fetching takeouts or sitting down for lunch.



The menu is represented by pictures. I had the Lamb Quzi. When it came I was reassured that all the portly gentlemen at the next table were having the same thing - a good choice is a popular choice.... I got a bowl of soup for starters which was watery, tasty and not suitable for vegetarians. The main course was primarily bits of lamb (with suckable melty bones) and rice (with raisins and bits of noodle). On the side and to provide sauce it comes with a bowl of tomatoey beans. The etiquette is to gradually empty the beans/sauce onto the rice/lamb over the course of eating it. A beautiful bubbly naan came - initially as a kind of lid for it all. Again it took me a few moments to twig - but that is why they have the little wicker mats on all the tables - to put your naan on. And all this for four pounds. Brilliant.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Happy seasons, Chinatown

It was Sunday night - in all honesty I was still a little wonky after going out on Saturday so rather than cook the various things I had in the fridge I went out for some Chinese. I find trying to research Chinese restaurants in Manchester a very confusing business as most of the reviews seem to be either WRITTEN IN CAPITALS and/or very very short. I had better not let the side down:



HAPPY SEASONS IS A GREAT RESTAURANT IT'S NOT BIG BUT THEY HAVE REAL CHINESE PEOPLE IN THERE AND UPSET SOUNDING DANES. CHINESE PEOPLE DRINK TEA AND USE CHOPSTICKS. DANES USE KNIVES AND FORKS AND DRINK BEER. I HAD VERY GOOD SOUP WITH WANTONS IN IT AND SOME KIND OF PORK AND CABBAGE DISH.



Stop shouting for goodness sake. Thing is there are SO many restaurants I need to go to a few more to get a proper handle on where is actually good. This place certainly had a bit of not-posh charm and was indeed full of genuine Chinese people ordering a completely different sub-set of food from the westerners. Chopsticks in one hand, little spoon in the other, a big slurp of tea, and bones left scattered across the table they came in ones and twos for a quick fix or in parties for lingering conversation.

The two-stream approach does bother me a bit - like they take the same food but take the bones out if you're European. It's like having the crusts cut off the bread by a well-meaning but ultimately mis-guided parent. Call me strange but I can't stand such mollycoddlement. Next time I go to one of these places I'm going to ask for tea, get talking to the staff and see if I can get the good stuff. Rant over.



The food was pretty good really, particularly the soup which was lovely and watery and full of good things. The menu so extensive that there must have been all sorts of interesting stuff hiding in there - I was very tempted by the rather expensive scallop dishes in the seafood section at the front but think I didn't exactly do badly with the pork with preserved cabbage. It doesn't matter what culture you come from, pork and cabbage is always a winner!

The Castle - return visit

Not content to go straight home I went down to the Castle again. I figure a good way to establish oneself in a community is to go to the pub a few times. Tonight I got as far as the back room and found the piano and a bunch of very very worse for wear welsh people with long hair. They were playing guitar very badly - only about three strings remained. According to the girl who was with them they had been totally fucked for about three days now. I suppose that's what passes for rock and roll. Sad. I was on my second half of Old Tom by the time they asked if anyone played the piano. I sheepishly raised my hand and tried to follow the three string chaos. We got some giggles from the bearded local biker types which was the best accolade available.

The piano is of course totally fucked as well. It's way out of tune and there are many many missing notes. Middle C was a great start being quite absent. I think some kind of piano restoration fund might be needed here. Still, limitation is probably the mother of invention and I enjoyed just going with it.

I might pop back for the open mic night next Monday - sounds like they are ok and it's so long since I've done anything like that. Could even prepare some little samples to go with if I get the time. I should sample the piano to get a hold on the tuning first.

Note: This is not an eatery, they do not do food.

Update April 09: The Castle has re-opened resplendent with new landlords and toilets. A piano restoration fund has been officially established and is doing well. Pay them a visit and follow them on twitter @thecastlehotel and do stick some pennies in the piano pot!

Monday 8 October 2007

Happy Birthday Yann

Now I do somehow have to reconstruct some kind of life so I've taken a few opportunities (on doctors advice I might add) to go out and get ratted and meet people.

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My latest attempt at this was on Saturday night when I meandered my way along to Oldham Street and the Castle Hotel. I had read on the internet that it was an un-fucked-about-with pub which did good real ales and sometimes saw impromptu gigs by the real musos. I'm not so bothered about the real musos but the real ales and some friendly un-fucked-about-with people would be fine. Can't go wrong really.

On the way there I inevitably got accosted by some Gypsy flower ladies and couldn't resist a quick chat in Romanian. They were only too happy to oblige and gave me a carnation for my trouble. In hind-sight I really ought to have given them some pennies for it but wracked with guilt I figured I was better giving it to the pub rather than not paying for it and then throwing it away. That would just be sad.

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I don't know who this guy is but he has a very nice tash


I had a bloody great night. I sat at the bar, drank quite a bit of their incredibly dangerous Old Tom, talked nonsense with incoming punters who miraculously wanted to buy me Tequila. I photographed the ornaments, the barpeople and then leaving the kind man who bought the Tequila a rather long way behind marched down to the Night and Day Cafe. The bouncer let me in with an "is it just you on your own?" which I thought sounded a bit odd - only to discover that it was the owner Yann's 60th Birthday party. Not a bad party to crash on my first night out in Manchester I'd say. The rest of the night starts to blur - but I did try not to overdo it too much from then on as I knew I had to be out and sober by lunchtime. Many languages were spoken, some human. Happy birthday Yann - it was nice to meet you. It was nice to meet everyone else too. I'm sure I'll be back for more...

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Note: Night and day do food during the day but I've never eaten it