Temple of ClitumnoMOZZARELLA came into my life as an eighteen year old hiking back to Trevi in Umbria from the sweet little Temple of Clitumno.
I was travelling around Italy on my own during a gap year and it was all temples and ruins with me...and football, beer and girls I suppose.
At a terraced roadside bar I had a sandwich as twilight came down. I sat at a table facing the hills, rubbed my eyes and thought I'd gone mad.
I'd like to say it was the first taste of mozzarella - in a sandwich recommended by the barman - that had unhinged me. After all it was a new flavour, cheesy yes, but soft and creamy, and all lush and liquid.
But what was making me doubt my sanity were the dancing lights in the adjacent wood.
I'd been walking in the heat all day with little to drink, so with that in mind and in a kind of daze, I let the lights draw me, and my mozzarella sandwich, into the wood.
And realised I was seeing fireflies.
Magic made visible. It was otherworldly, enchanted. It seemed like there were fairies dancing before my eyes in the hot heavy Umbrian night.
So when I eat mozzarella I think of fireflies. Two first encounters at the same moment. And to be fair I also think of big juicy beef tomatoes. Because they were in the sandwich as well.
This (eventually, at last, finally) brings me to Salvi's Mozzarella Bar on the outer fringe of the Triangle in Exchange Square in Manchester.
Exterior - push open that door and enter
Here I've also had glorious mozzarella and seen fat tomatoes.
Yet Salvi's is a curious little place - like the aforementioned Temple of Clitumno.
The intention is clearly to be a proper deli of cheeses, hams, vinegars, olives, wines and plump oil-soused take-away sandwiches of fine homemade breads laden with the edible gifts of Mother Italy - but it doesn't quite work that way.
Deli counter
Instead at the back of the little shop lies an area of about eight covers which might become a regular hang out for me. Tastefully designed in woods and natural tints with a handsome counter, it feels genuinely Italian and also contemporary, like a bar stumbled upon in a smart square in Milan.
It's immediately obvious that this is no YAFI, our Confidential snort of derision at so many plastic Italian restaurants swamping Manchester meaning Yet Another F**king Italian.
I've enjoyed two visits to Salvi's, the second aided by an excellent glass of smooth rich excellence in the form of a Barolo 2005 (£30 a bottle, although you get can a good 2009 Aglianico Struzziero for £20, house wines are £15 quid a bottle).
Barolo and a flower
The food is good too.
The Parma ham and mozzarella platter with a few leaves and juicy tomatoes chucked in and some glorious bread was pure simple pleasure for £8.95. If fireflies had been fluttering around the Wheel of Manchester I could have been eighteen again. The buffalo mozzarella is special, the softer milkier variety, in this case from a family farm near Milan. It's pure, yielding loveliness.
Mozzarella as the star
Two sandwiches have been mightily enjoyed as well. The pick of these being the roast pork, all pesto-ed up, in a hot ciabatta (£5), which was succulent with a real piggy tenderness in the meat. Although the mozzarella and ham chappy and our cover star at the top of this page was just about as good.
A plate of pasta, perfectly al dente, with a salty blast of capers and anchovies and titled the Spaghetti alla Salvi's (£7.95) was delightful. Big and filling.
Anchovy, caper spaghetti - salty, folks, cheerfully salty
There is room for improvement.
Salvi's needs to lose some of the counter space and stick in another eight tables. It also needs to heat itself better, freezing days don't do it any favours - maybe it could hire teams of fireflies to warm things up.
The temperature problems might be remedied by a glass canopy and arcade that is soon to be hung from the front of The Triangle - the latter by the way returning to it's original name of The Corn Exchange.
A note on the service at Salvi's, which was charming and knowledgeable. I just wish I'd taken some of that damned mozzarella home with me.
I don't know about you but I often buy a mozzarella intending to use it in a caring, sharing, cooking manner and then end up slamming it down my throat in about five gobbles. I do this hurriedly and deceitfully by the fridge door hoping that everybody else in the house will think the massive mozzarella mouse that only I ever see is back.
I look out of the window sheepishly as I munch. Sadly, there are no fireflies in my Old Trafford back garden. A fox every now, the odd frog and best of all a jay, but no prancing living lanterns in the trees.
It's all about longtitude and latitude in the end.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield
ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Salvi's
The Triangle, Exchange Square, Unit 22B, Manchester M4 3TR, 0756 337 5135
Rating: 15/20
Food: 7.5/10
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Mozzarella and ham sandwich
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