ACCIDENTAL meals are sometimes pleasant curiosities.
Lush it t’were folks, seasoned to perfection, moist in the meat and spicy with the kimchee, the pair working as a team.
Thus after an exhaustive schlepp across one third of central Manchester, every street, every lane, every leisure and shopping complex, I arrived back in Spinningfields hungry.
Not been to Artisan for yonks I thought, let's give it a go.
But why the schlepp?
We're engaged in cataloguing every restaurant, bar, pub, cafe, chippy, Greggs in the city centre - in other words the area bounded by Great Ancoats Street, the Mancunian Way, Trinity Way and Miller Street.
We not absolutely clear why this is being done, but it’ll be interesting to read the results – probably. Just how many YAFIs are there? How many proper pubs are left? How many bars are there and what's the full quota of Subways.
If we do this next year we'll be able to work out exactly how the scene has changed.
Back to Artisan.
Artisan
I looked through the menu and came up with the idea of St Louis pork ribs (£14.95) with a salt and pepper crust and kimchee - a Korean inspired dish of fermented seasoned veg.
Lush it t’were folks, seasoned to perfection, moist in the meat and spicy with the kimchee, the pair working as a team. In terms of strength and solidity it filled that hungry gap a treat. Looked good too.
The whole experience, washed down with an Erdinger, and then another couple, left me raring to go, desirous of strutting the streets cataloging. I made one more attempt to pick the already empty bones clean and strode back to duty through a busy Tuesday lunchtime Artisan crowd.
I recoreded all the food and drink venues south of John Dalton Street and Bridge Street to the Mancunian Way in no time, my belly happily full of pig and kimchee.
The Great Manchester City Centre Food And Drink Survey Will Be Released next week.
Rib ticklers
