Savino's

The morning after the stonemason party I found myself victim of Cambridge's appalling Sunday bus service. One bus an hour and the connecting bus leaves 2 minutes before the inbound bus gets in. Great! I've got 58 minutes to kill at Cambridge bus station! I checked the messages on my phone which seemed to mainly involve one of my relatives trying to get in touch with me not exactly what I needed at that particular moment.



I somehow still had a few quid in my pocket and there was a busy looking cafe with authentic looking foreigners sat outside reading authentic looking Italian newspapers. Coffee must be good there. And it was.



They have some pretty interesting sounding combinations on the board for their sandwiches and pannini - ever the masochist I had a pannino involving dolcelatte and artichokes. It was crunchy and full of nice Italian stuff. There was a basic but serviceable salad on the side (is raw red onion allowed? I'm not sure) and oil and balsamic in drizzlers on the table - among the little touches that make the place just-so. It wasn't cheap - by northern bus-station standards it is pretty astronomical in fact but I'm a stranger in this land.

The man behind the counter (is he Savino? answers in the comments) was clearly having trouble with the young waitress he was working with. Along the lines of he was dancing the tango and she was dancing the boogie-woogie. They weren't quite going in the same direction and seemed to be forever crashing into each other. It would be good to know if they have managed to resolve this particular bit of choreography. I took some photos, promised them a review and off I toddled for the number 7.



All in all it was very pleasant and such a million miles away from all the shitty chain coffee starbucks bullshit. If you are ever stuck at Cambridge bus station it's the place to go.

The Bottisham Brasserie

While staying in Cambridge on my escape-weekend we went out to a party with some stonemasons - real stonemasons who mason real stone - we aren't talking secret societies here. By way of proving this, the yard outside their house had a row of impressive looking sailors in process of restoration. The ones who weren't stonemasons seemed to be mostly female cricketers with the odd crossover into astrophysics.



The party of about 20 walked across the fields of Cambridgeshire to the village of Bottisham where they have a nice little Indian brasserie. Now it ain't glamorous (was that a pentagram on the wall?) and lets face it it isn't geared up to dealing with large parties - it took forever for our food to come and you could see the other people in twos and fours getting quite twitchy while they wait for our food to come, hoping that theirs would follow on its heels. Once the trolley had been wheeled out and wide assortment of wonderfulness placed on our table they did get their fill but it wasn't exactly erm snappy. No. I think the lesson there is don't go in a big group, and if you see a big group entering run several miles to the next eating establishment. Otherwise, stay and feast.



But hey the food was actually pretty good - certainly on a par with other quality curry places I have visited - they've put in the work and are using real spices, real veg, real meat and real authentic know how to put it together. While we had entered pretty hungry we left suitably full and satisfied.

We headed back to the stonemason place (on the road this time - probably was a full moon, wouldn't want to risk it) and watched the flames of the bonfire flickering in the darkness.

The Northern Quarter (TNQ)

This was the day that I left my partner. I dragged my bag and pan into the office, phoned my mum, agreed to go stay with her for the night and went out for some dinner while I waited for her to get home from a prior engagement. I rolled into Victoria station and meandered around looking for a suitable spot. I was almost tempted by Nosh but then thought I'd had enough Chinese lately and that I would carry on walking a little. Soon I found myself at The Northern Quarter or TNQ - as you might have guessed it is named so because it is in the Northern Quarter. Go figure. It has very big windows and seemed busy despite it being a little early. I walked in, worked out where to sit and got a glass of wine while I perused the menu.

Being a little bit skint at the moment I thought I shouldn't be too naughty (who am I being naughty at anyway? erm it's up to me for goodness sake) and went for the two courses for 9.99 early bird menu. I had squids and noodles again as a starter and a burger for the main. Both were very well presented - the squid peppery and tender, the burger chunky and satisfying. BUT had I not been so preoccupied with my domestic situation I probably should have asked for the burger to be done rare. Having been brought up on french steak hache dripping with blood, it always feels rather disappointing when burgers - particularly good quality ones - are totally cooked. Hey, there is always next time. The chips were almost certainly pre-prepared frozen chips - which I thought they could have done themselves, but hey what do I expect on the cheap menu. Next time I'm going to have the a-la-carte menu and ask for my food still twitching.

There are no pictures on the walls in the main body of the restaurant however by the entrance to the toilets there is a large picture of Luke Skywalker. Is he inviting constipated patrons to use the force? Perhaps. The staff took a few moments to look blankly as I said this before coming out with peels of laughter and whispering among themselves.

Rice n Three, Bolton

A friend was passing through Bolton so I took him to Rice n Three for lunch. We sat and we chatted and compared stories.

Rice n Three is a little Indian cafe in Bolton - near the "bottom" end of the high street - walking from the station towards town you take a right at the first set of lights and it's in the row of shops on your right. The place is greatly favoured by my parents slightly do-lally cleaner and not without reason. They have a rotating menu of curries, making a different selection of vegetable and meat dishes each day. The idea is you get a plate of rice and three of the curries - but of course you can ask for naan or just two curries or chapattis if you wanted. I had lamb, channa and cabbage which cost not much more than £2.50. For a grotty looking cheap little lunch place it really does nice curry. Subtle variations in spices and complimentary flavours of the three dishes go down a treat. The meat, while slightly boney was tender and sweet. It can't be beat. (Update: The prices have gone slightly higher since I wrote this, more like four quid for a meal, but it's still a bargain)



Bolton is in some ways a terrible place from a culinary point of view - finding a nice restaurant without leaving the town seems like very hard work, but as this place proves, if you lower your expectations and follow the local flavour there are truly some diamonds in the rough.

Prezzo

I was coming home from a few days away. I was about to get a train back up to Manchester from London and needed some lunch before I came up. What is it to be? Onion rings from Burger King? No, I had had that on the way down. What about this posh looking little restaurant on the corner. That will do nicely. Prezzo look like they are quite a big chain but mostly limited to the South - which will be why I hadn't come across them before.



Clearly these guys are EXPERTS at extracting as much money as possible from those who haplessly wander in off a train - they were on to me in seconds offering drinks and nibbles. The pretty waitress asks me if I want olives and I say yes please. Then in a way that sounds like it is mandatory says "and bread" and I say "yes, ok". The bread is not mandatory, it does not "just come" with the olives and it is certainly not free. It was also quite filling and I didn't really need it. While that might seem a bit pushy the service was actually very good - for speed and efficiency you simply can't fault them. I even managed to extract a smile or two.


The main course, now it was a while ago but I think I had some kind of baked pasta chicken carbonara affair and as I remember it was nice. Could have had a bit more creamyness in the sauce perhaps. I was so stuffed from the bread and the pasta though that I just couldn't manage a pudding - bit of a shame as I rather fancied one when I walked in there.

Soup Kitchen

Tucked away in the Northern Quarter (behind Oldham Street and just across the road from the infamous Koffee Pot) is the Soup Kitchen. I have had my eye on it for a couple of weeks and leapt at the excuse to go there. This morning it was totally dead. Admittedly I was in there at a bit of a funny time, too late for breakfast and too early for lunch but it did seem a bit silly being the only soul in there apart from the staff. Still there has to be someone first through the door.



The staff were still working on the day's soup preparations but had got four varieties ready. I chose mushroom, some bread and butter and a cup of coffee and sat down. Now first things first, it was tasty soup and nice bread and good coffee. The soup was clearly packed with herbs, thyme and coriander and I suspect quite a bit of salt and pepper. Texture wise it dunked well, and drank well though the exuberance with thyme meant there were a few woody sprigs involved, one of which I nearly choked on. The bloke behind the counter looked at me worriedly to make sure everything was all right and then peered closely at his soup pot.



The place reeks of cool - down to the big red curtains and trendy antique magazines on the bookcases - but still it remains quite good value and they clearly care about what they are doing. My soup, bread and coffee came in at under a fiver. I'd like to come back when the place has some more people in it.

Zinc

I was particularly pissed off - and instead of heading into work thought I'd go mooch around Manchester for a bit and perhaps have a bit of food. I trundled through Picadilly Gardens, bought some small bits and bobs for my camera at the shop under the Royal Exchange and then spotted the Zinc Bar and Grill in the Triangle building near Victoria.



They had a nice looking lunch menu but were rather unwilling to give me anything on it until it officially became lunch time at 12 - I think it was about 11:15 when I walked in and they were still serving "brunch". I wasn't being moved and stubbornly sat, drank coffee and waited until they would serve me my chosen item, some kind of fried squid with thai noodle salad. Everyone overcooks squid. Everyone overcooks seafood in general to my mind. This example was nearly worth the wait with about the right texture and had a tasty bit of liquid/noodles/green stuff surrounding it. I gobbled it down but I was still hungry and wanted pudding.



Chocolate sponge pudding - with a sponge outside and a gooey liquid centre - never fails to delight me and they were making a very good effort with it. They didn't have any vanilla icecream so I ended up having it topped off with chocolate ice cream making the whole thing a bit heafty, vanilla would have been a good bouncer for all the chocolate - but perhaps they had seen me coming and realised that I required my food dirtily indulgent.