This month we fight over sticky Korean chicken, swoon over broccoli and collectively spend a fair bit of time in Hispi.
IBERICA - Oxtail Sandwich
Iberica have introduced an autumn/winter menu which proves that, although Spanish weather is considerably more pleasant than ours at this time of year, they still know a thing or two about comfort food. The Oxtail Sandwich looks like a typically neat and orderly tapa but tastes like a first class meat pie and mash. The base is a rich, warming oxtail stew cooked long and slow for hours with vegetables and red wine until the meat becomes soft and tender. They then reduce and enrich the gravy further with the addition of Port. The stew-mami mixture is packed between sliced bread and served on top of creamed potato with chives. The whole thing is doused in rich gravy and a homemade tartare sauce – the chopped capers and gherkins in which provide a perfect pickled edge. Deanna Thomas
14-15 The Avenue, Manchester M3 3HF
SEOUL KIMCHI - Korean Chicken
There are very few things I know as little about as Korean food. The theory of Quantum Entanglement is one, the line-up on this year’s I’m (Almost) A Celebrity Give Me Some Money another, and how to dismantle a clothes horse without trapping any fingers. There you go, three things I know less about than Korean food. So a trip earlier this month up Upper Brook Street to Seoul Kimchi - one of only three standalone Korean restaurants (I know of) in Manchester - promised to be a schooling. And it was.
For the first time I tried kimchi which didn’t taste like something left in the fridge door for seven years, sampled the wonders of ‘Bulgogi’, ‘Bibimbap’ (main image) and ‘Bossam’, and learnt never to trust the Korean definition of 'mild spice'. However, it is the memory of the straight-up sweet and spicy Korean chicken which will linger on; sticky, crispy, deep-fried chicken thighs topped with crushed peanuts and perfect for a chop stick pick 'n' pop. David Blake
275 Upper Brook Street, M13 0HR
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ATLAS SHAWARMA - Mixed Shawarma
Forget your highfaluting posh nosh this month. Take the advice of my sixteen-year-old son who every day from college troops to Rusholme and gets the £3 lamb and chicken shawarma. Then with his mates they lose themselves in all the rich, gorgeous unleavened bread with meat, salad, sauce and peppers so hot they burn holes in Whitworth Park rhododendrons 300 yards away. Often he says it transports him so much he munches in a sort of adolescent trance until lunch is over and English Lit, Drama and the other two A Levels I've forgotten he's taking are arrived at just a tad late. To back him up I had one and it was fine and filling food. Proper trad Curry Mile. Jonathan Schofield
112 Wilmslow Rd, Manchester M14 5AJ
HISPI - Linguine with Pesto
I’ve decided I like places to eat named after cabbages – The Savoy, Brassica and now Hispi. And it’s only the merest leap to believe the previous incumbent of this crowd-funded neighbourhood bistro was named Jem & I after the lettuce. In homage I went veggie on a recent lunchtime visit, starting with truffled potato salad, followed by linguine with pesto. Sounds like a sad ‘Med-influenced’ ready meal, but the emulsion here was composed of parsley, hazelnut and sage and pooled out bright green with a chlorophyll meets nut allergy resonance intensified by brown butter in the mix. There was probably something charred in there too – the Hispi folk leave hardly a veg uncaramelised. They also top dishes with salad or spiralised root veg. Here I negotiated a blanket of crisped potato strings. As al dente as the pasta. It’s all about texture, as they say. Neil Sowerby
1C School Lane, Didsbury, M20 6RD
SAKANA - Green Caterpillar Roll
Although protein-packed insects are being marketed as a sustainable source of food, no larvae were used in the making of this dish. It’s named after its quirky and cute caterpillar-like appearance. This sliced inside-out sushi roll is filled with unagi (freshwater eel) and cucumber, topped with thin slices of avocado and tiny jewel-like green fish eggs. It even has little mayonnaise eyes. Unless you have a heart of stone and a creative side the size of an amoeba, you can’t fail to smile when this little critter appears in front of you. Deanna Thomas
23 Peter St, Manchester M2 5QR
HISPI (again) - Charred Broccoli
Vegetables aren’t high on Gordo’s list, but done well they can of course be exceptional. When Gordo was nineteen years old (physically; he was born 31 years of age mentally) he was taken to the Belfry Hotel in Handforth by one of his pals, Les ‘Winker’ Watson. Now Les was a foodie. He ordered a side plate of steamed and salted broccoli with freshly made hollandaise sauce. Gordo nearly had a little wee, it was that good. Last week found a much older, but still as daft fat man ordering the broccoli at Gary Usher's new Hispi restaurant in Didsbury. It had just come off a grill, probably having been tickled in the steamer, then pulled off (shut it you lot at the back), given a big hit of seasoning and served. It was just as historic as that broccoli over forty years ago. The ability to cook and dress an ingredient as well as this shows class. Gordo
1C School Lane, Didsbury, M20 6RD
LA CANTINA - Chocolate Pudding
Normally I’m not one for chocolate puddings, they’re a bit too oooh-I’m-awfully-decadent-me on the outside and then don’t deliver on the true velvety bitter-richness of the hallowed bean. Better just to indulge in a really good quality chocolate bar. This chocolate pot from La Cantina, however, has it all; silky smooth mouthfeel, warm spices, aromatic notes and an extravagant amount of calories. The only addition needed is a sprinkling of sea salt and you’re there. Lucy Tomlinson
113 Heaton Moor Rd, Stockport SK4 4HY
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