SleuthSleuth is a sideways glance at the city every week, it's the truth, but Sleuth's truth. He's several people all at once. We give £25 for every story/rumour and piece of absurdity you find for us to publish. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious. We ask for the money back if any legal action follows. Follow Sleuth on twitter @mcrsleuth
Zouk Restaurant Gets Take-Away
Zouk on Chester Street, and one of our favourite Subcontinental restaurants (click here), has opened Kukooz on Oxford Road. Situated next to Odder and opposite the old BBC site, this anagram of Zouk OK, is a gem of, to use 2011’s buzz phrase, ‘casual dining’.
Very, very goodNot that the business itself agrees. They use 2012’s buzz phrase, ‘street food’ to describe themselves
The menu features a rich blend of Indian, Moroccan and Lebanese food. Sleuth sampled one of the dosas (savoury pancakes) and fell in love with it. Exemplary.
The blend of spices and herbs with pomegranate plus chick peas, sweet potato and other ingredients on another dish, together with belly lamb was magnificent.
Kukooz
It’s a sharply designed venue as well, owned by Mudassar Bashir, with John Farrer, ex-Teacup, as chef - you can see their jolly faces below. The pair said they're still trying things out, so give it until 15 January before they're properly geared up.
Sleuth’s friend, when told about Kukooz, said: “What's that? Street food? Take-away, casual dining, now street food? What next? Road kill.”
Not a bad idea, thinks Sleuth, low overheads and emphatically locally sourced.
A pair of Kukooz: Mudassar Bashir and John Farrer
James Bond, Leader of the Treemen, Visits The Etihad
Sleuth was at the Manchester City v Stoke City match on New Year’s Day. Before the game Timothy Dalton was interviewed live in City Square. He told us how he’d been a City fan for years since nipping into a Maine Road match as a teenager without parental permission.
He was introduced by a hesitant City presenter as one of the many James Bonds. “That was more than twenty years ago,” said Dalton with a sigh, clearly resigned to the fact that his long and distinguished film and theatre career had been reduced to two Bond movies. Sleuth agrees with him, how can anyone, forget Dalton's outstanding role in the 1980 classic Flash Gordon as Prince Barin, Leader of the Treemen.
By the way City knocked the Living Daylights out of Stoke, 3-0.
Timothy Dalton at City - you can see him three times here if you look really carefully
Prince Barin, Leader of the Treemen and a massive fan of Manchester City
David Hasselhoff, Hollywood Spelling Mistake, Vists The Etihad
Another man known for very few acting jobs, Mitch Buchanon in Baywatch, Michael Knight in Knight Rider was also at the City v Stoke game. This was David Hasselhoff, currently in the excellent Peter Pan at the Opera House. He was given a shirt to wear by City. Unfortunately the name on the back of the shirt was spelt ‘Hasslehoff’. Oh dear. Schoolboy error. But as noted in the above story, at least the Hoff got to see City win, despite the misspelling. The three City goals came from Lilo Zambretta, Heading Zico and Surgio Eee-aye-addio.
'Hasslehoff' in the City changing room - picture from Twitter. Carlos Tevez looks shifty wondering if Pablo Zabaleta will notice his missing suit
Sleuth’s Long Beak Of The Week
Every seven days or so Sleuth is stopped in the street by policemen, firemen, concierges, Pablo Zabaleta, Prince Barin, the complete cast of The Hobbit and asked "Where can we see a fine early morning heron in Manchester this week?"
Why,” says Sleuth, “that would be down by Britannia Mills, in Hulme/Castlefield just mooching around looking for a fat frog under a stone to munch.”
The can-you-spot-the-heron game of the week
Sleuth’s Remarkable Journey Of The Week
Sleuth decided to be the first person to take the Metrolink from Chorlton to Shaw – he likes being a tourist in his own region. The journey is direct, takes forty minutes, and is an interplanetary voyage between different worlds.
Waterfall above ShawShaw lies three miles north of Oldham and is a small determinedly downbeat old mill town. It has a very full Wetherspoons and lots of tracksuited folk of all ages, sexes and sizes.
It also has some classic Lancashire mills still busy as bees and a quaint wool shop with sofas and settees and ladies sat knitting and chatting. Chorlton would love the latter, but instead of being a recent re-visiting of an age old craft, in Shaw it's, seemingly, part of an unbroken tradition.
Outside Sleuth wandered on to the hills and found dramatic scenery and a waterfall at Brushes Clough. Lovely. He fell in a deep puddle. Not so lovely.
Fortunately he found a bath on the moors, complete with scrubbing brush - maybe that explains the name of Brushes Clough. Anyway the bath sorted him out. Cold up there, naked in that water, but thank God for scruffy hill farmers. Now could someone change the water please?
Welcome moorland bath with scrubbing brush
Sleuth's Picture Of The Week
While wandering on the hills above Shaw, see story above, a sunset lifted the leaden skies over the city and Sleuth caught this picture.
Manchester - seen through an iPhone cropped picture nine miles away. Here comes the Apocalypse.
Manchester, at the end of all things
