TEA SHOP OF THE YEAR - NOESIS (URMSTON)

Coming across the delightful Noesis in Urmston was one of my favourite finds of the year - a new stylish teashop in Urmston. Its certainly not all style over substance though, they take their teas (and coffee) seriously. 

Each tea on the (ever expanding) tea menu comes in an infusing pot with its own timer ready to beep when the optimum brewing time is reached. Upon beeping its ready to pop on top of your pot to drain the tea out and into your teapot ready for pouring and  drinking. If you enjoy quality teas served at their best then make Noesis your next stop.

The owners are incredibly friendly and will make you feel very welcome, and the décor is warming with its wooden counters and tables. And if you want to rest for a nice relaxing cuppa there is a very comfy sofa in the corner with a chunky coffee table and a selection of newspapers. Just the treat for a Saturday afternoon after a hard days shopping.  There's also a good selection of cakes and biscuits available and a selected range of paninnis if you need something more with your drink.

It certainly is good to see places like Noesis opening up in Urmston, helping it catch up with its foodie neighbours Didsbury & Chorlton.

TWO GREEDY MANCUNIANS AT THE AIRPORT

Well, the great British weather is here at last, so no need to escape for some sun, well, at lease for the next 10 days or so, then I'm sure the misery will set back in. So...... you may want to head to the airport in the near future - if you do you are in for a real good treat! The new food court and the Grain Loft bar & restaurant are now fully open in Terminal 1.

We'll start with the downstairs food court.... to get you in the real holiday spirit there is ice cream available from a new permanent ice cream van from Manchester's renowned Gingers Comfort Emporium offering a selection of quality ice creams including their flagship flavour of salted caramel & peanut butter (sometimes known as Chorlton Crack).

Also on offer in the downstairs food court is a selection of continental baguettes at the Upper Crust, and some pasties at the ingeniously named "The Pasty Shop" who claim their pasties are handmade in Cornwall.

The other delight available in the main food court is Mi Casa Burritos who offer exceptional tasty burritos - we were fortunate to sample some little beef treats - an explosion (maybe I shouldnt use that word when talking about the airport) of Mexico in your mouth!
That concludes the food on offer in the new downstairs food court area, so with a stride in our step we ventured up to the Grain Loft - the Beer, Wine & Food extravaganza!

Upon arrival to the Grain Loft we were shown round its high tech seating booths where you can plug in your smartphone or i-pod/i-pad to play your own music within your booth - good for families, or the pull your own pint section at the back good for groups wanting to beer-up before boarding their easyjet flight to Ibiza. Foodwise - basically the Grain Loft offers good quality pub food - for those wanting something a bit more substantial to get them through their flight paired with good quality, local brewed beers.

We got to sample a selection of the menu and can recommend the chicken cooked with a beer can up its arse (shown in the title photo) accompanied with some really good chips. Other favourites we sampled were the steak which was perfectly cooked and of superb quality meat. And for a most delicious heart attack before jetting off you need to try the black pudding fritters with beer mustard dip - possibly the best thing i have put in my mouth all week! Yum!

The main beers on offer at the Grain Loft were brewed from brewers Thornbridge - based in the lovely town of Bakewell (where the tarts come from) who offer some real tasty ales including Jaipur & Kipling.  So next time you are at Manchester's Terminal 1- make sure you fill up with some quality food & drink.

FOODIE PENPALS 02: A TREAT FROM LONDON

Ahoy there food friends - for this months package from Foodie Penpals I received a delightful box from Mary in that there London! It contained (as you can see in the picture) some Sussex Farmer's Savoury biscuits - Cheese & Wholegrain mustard - the mustard seeds in them gave a warmth which goes splendidly with the confits and cheese. If you see a box of these Sussex farmers biscuits I fully recommend you get yourself a box. On to the cheese it was a cheese called Cahill Porter which is made with porter (hence the dark look to it) - it was an excellent cheese. To accompany it Mary also threw in a couple of confits (one Fig & Thyme and one Apple & Pear) which added a nice sweetness to go with the biscuits and comlimented the cheese. The Chorizo that Mary also put in the box - I havent sampled yet, but it looks fantastic and I love a bit of Chorizo!!! I also had a lovely card from Mary - a truely delightful foodie penpal package from London. Thanks Mary.
If you like the sound of Foodie Penpals then click the link below and get yourself signed up!

LIKE CHILLI - LOVEPICKLE!

If you like chilli and enjoy Indian pickles then you should check out LovePickle!

They are available in 4 different heat strengths from mild to extra hot - and 2 greedy Mancunians got a jar from each end of the range.  Having started at the mild end - we soon realised it was a nice fresh tasting pickle (all of the range are "handmade from the finest ingredients: ripe tomatoes, fresh chillies, garlic, ginger, mustard oil and seeds plus a selection of carefully selected quality herbs and spices"), but it still had a strong chilli kick. I must admit with a good dose of heat to the mild pickle I was apprehensive to try the extra hot. Yes it was hotter, but not so hot it just overshadowed any flavour - infact I felt the extra chilli in it seemed to have an affect on the flavour - it was less sharp and vinegary than the mild pickle and had a deeper & richer tomato flavour as well as the extra chilli flavour. Both were really nice good quality chutneys and are very versatile - going well with cold meats & cheeses, or served as an accompaniment or to add flavour and heat to Indian meals.

For more information and to order some pickle then visit www.love-pickle.com.

or find out more info on LovePicke at:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lovepickleuk

Twitter: @Lovepickle_uk

I'm off to have some more LovePickle with a nice warm naan bread! mmmmmmmmmm

FOODIE PENPALS 01: A PACKAGE FROM AMSTERDAM

After reading about Foodie Penpals on a few people's blogs - I decided to sign up and join the world of sending and receiving food parcels to fellow foodies. Upon signing up I was assigned a German fellow called Marco, and I excitedly put together a box of some interesting foodie bits and pieces and got it sent off to him. He seemed pleased with what he received.  On the list this month of who was sending to me, I was very happy to see my box was coming from the Netherlands (Amsterdam) & I wasn't dissapointed when it arrived. 

I opened my box to see a lovely big chunk of Dutch Cheese - a 3 year matured hard gouda style cheese - not dissimilar to Reypanaer - a Dutch cheese I reviewed on my cheeseblog the mighty cheeseboard (http://www.themightycheeseboard.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cheese-of-day-reypenaer.html)

I also got 2 packs of biscuits. One pack was like a cinamon biscuit with almond flakes on the outside. And the other was the delicious (very European style) biscuits which are half coated with a fantastic dark chocolate - the type of glorious chocolate that you can smell the instant the packet is opened.

Another item in my box was a pack of sprinkles - some dark chocolate, some milk chocolate & some hundreds and thousands style sprinkles - always good to have in the cupboard to jazz up a pudding or to decorate a cake with. The final item in the box was a little bit disappointing as it was a bag of liquorice - am not particularly a fan of liquorice, but my foodie penpal wasnt to know that - so was still very happy with my box of delights - and my Dad was a happy man as I gave the bag of liquorice to him - he thoroughly enjoyed it! So thank you Cees for being a top foodie penpal & I will look forward to finding out my penpal for February!

Right...... i have some biscuits to finish off!!!

RESTAURANT REVIEW: LIVEBAIT

On a chilly winters eve (and after a few gentle pints in the Town Hall Tavern - a highly recommended drinking establishment) the Two Greedy Mancunians were back in action for 2013 with our first restaurant review of the year (incidentally Happy New Year to you all!). This honor fell to the seafood restaurant and bar "Livebait". Upon entering we noticed that for a Saturday night it wasn't overly busy, but put this down to it being freezing and also the ol' January money blues.

We were given the menus and ordered 2 Morretti's (one of our favourite Italian beers). For Starters, Alex ordered the salt & pepper squid with chilli dipping sauce (above). The squid was beautifully battered and not too greasy and not just your average squid rings, as it also had little baby ones and tentacles & the dipping sauce had just the right kick!  I opted for the crispy whitebait with aioli. The whitebait actually tasted of fish which makes a nice change from the deep fried slivers of crunch you normally get with whitebait - having said that they could have done with a fraction more crunch to them, but this didn't detract from the dish overall. They were presented nicely in a small frying pot and served with the aioli mayonnaise and a wedge of lemon.

We thoroughly enjoyed our starters and were looking forward to the main event ("two more Morretti's please"). For our mains Alex ordered the line caught cod with a mushroom and bacon risotto, and I ordered the Goan fish, clam and mussel curry. Alex thought his fish was cooked perfectly with the skin nice and crispy as this was devoured also. The risotto it was served with was an utter delight as many places can get risotto terribly wrong - it was rich and creamy and in Alex's words was..... "BELISSIMO!!!". We also shared a side of cabbage and bacon - which was very tasty.

My Goan curry came bursting with colour and smelling great. Not being a particular fan of salmon, i was surprised to find that it was really tasty and worked well with the curry - I think a white fish might have been lost with all the other flavours. The curry sauce was rich and there were flavours of coconut, mango & coriander and it had a nice (but not too hot) blend of spices. All of the mussels and clams were fully open and had been properly prepared & cleaned. The dish was served with a nice sized portion of rice and some lovely cumin flavoured poppadoms.

After a 5 minute breather and another couple of Morretti's we asked to see the desert menu. Feeling nicely full we both ordered lighter deserts. Alex had a trio of sorbet and ice cream, and was persuaded to accompany it with a glass of sherry which was described as winter in a glass. The trio consisted of a blood orange sorbet, a pistachio ice cream and a vanilla ice cream. All were pleasant and sherry was sweet and tasted of christmas pudding - living up to the claims of it being "winter in a glass".

Being a cheese obsessed fanatic (see my other blog: www.themightycheeseboard.blogspot.com) I went for 2 of the 4 cheeses on offer (I was too full to go for the full selection). I went for the Stilton which was a nice strong Stilton and paired with a beetroot chutney that worked marvelously together. The other cheese I went for was one of my all time favourites - the Spanish cheese Manchego - this was served with quince. I liked the fact that each cheese was individually paired with a different chutney/jam as all too often with a cheeseboard you get a selection of cheeses and then one dollop of a generic chutney to accompany all the cheeses - thought had obviously gone into this restaurants cheese menu.

The waiting staff were all very pleasant and we had a lovely chinwag about all things food with the manager after our meal, but the only complaint we had was that they need to get the green neon sign behind the bar sorted out as it currently reads "LIVEBA.." - aside from that minor quibble, it was a good evening and a really excellent meal, and for the quality of the food reasonably priced. I would fully recommend it to anyone who likes seafood and (if the table behind us is anything to go by), anyone who doesn't like seafood also!

To see sample menus and find out more about Livebait then check out their website: www.livebaitmanchester.com