Fringe Food & Drink

Empty the cupboards plan is not going too well. Had no onions or margarine left so had to go and buy somemore. Only going to buy a few things turns into buying another fourteen foods as well. Is there a cure for this? Managed to make some pizze (there's no such word as pizzas) from scratch which used up some flour. Topped with that old trick of turning a tin of tomatoes into a thick sauce. Basically use a blender and reduce the water content by a quick boil and a long simmer.

Ridiculous item purchased - some dried sliced aubergine for 99p. Looks good but will they sit it out on a shelf? Most stupid item not bought was spray-on olive oil in a can like a shaving foam canister. What's the point I wonder - either use a bit or a lot of oil from a bottle. Otherwise go fat free. Today I was given a sample of loose Sri Lankan Co-operative tea. It has a very "Indian look" about the box with foreign squiggly writing on one side. That will sit on the shelf behind the other teas. There has to be some stock rotation unfortunately it doesn't rotate fast enough.

Got another plan. Invite some people round to eat up the food. Tricky part is devising a menu that incorporates buckwheat, carob syrup, pumpkin seed oil and a big collection of pickles.

Peanut Butter Lovers.com

Kipple is a word for stuff you have in your house that you don't use but will come in someday. It collects in cupboards, on tables, in the hall, bathroom, and just about everywhere. Whole rooms can be devoted to it - usually designated as a junk room. But when you find your kitchen cupboards full of it you know you've gone too far. Baring an imminent flood, war or revolution it's not going to get used before the best before dates have long since expired. What to do? Get a plan - don't buy any food for a week and eat as much as you can. I'll let you know how I'm getting on. Tonight it was baked quince with a topping of cashew, pinenuts, breadcrumbs, olives and capers with french beans in sweet-sour fried tomatoes. That's the fridge nearly sorted.


But those cupboards are still out of hand - all that flour, pasta, the cans. Going to be some weird creations going on.

Major rethink going on at the mansions. Need one of those multi-agency initiatives that politicians go on about to kick start some of the those planned projects. Or stay off the booze and get an early night.
BBC 1000+ Recipe Database Ideas to liven up a dark autumn night

At the Manchester Food & Drink Festival only one Chorlton business picked up an award. That was Unicorn Grocery for 'Best Vegetarian Provision'. No surprise except hey hadn't won it in previous years.

Back in the real world we had a trip out to some organic growers on the Fylde coast, inland from Blackpool. Looking at tomatoes growing in big green houses, and then leeks being cut out of the ground for Booths supermarkets. Booths are a family firm who have a chain of supermarkets mostly in Lancashire plus a few outposts in Cumbria and one in Knutsford. They pride themselves on being a bit upmarket and bit classier. Hard work being a small scale farmer. Up against the weather, the market, the weeds,
and the pests. Easier ways to make money and working was never one of them.

Last day, and I haven't got a ticket the big dress up awards ceremony in Manchester. However I'll get a report from a couple of mates who are going. The web site will be carrying on after the festival and with a new look. Now I've got broadband all sorts of possibilities are promised.

Sunday afternoon in Albert Square. Big tent with men serving pasta and wine. Give it a go, sit at the tables surrounded by Italian language and two younger generations doing English. Just like being back on holiday except not as sunny and different accents. Get down to Barca to see the coffee demonstrations and end up being told the merits of buying a Gaggia (pronounced ga-je-a) expresso maker. If you've got a couple of hundred quid to spare you could be making the real thing at home for 11p a cup. Available at Kendals on Deansgate. So if it costs 11p, why does it cost so much in place like Starbucks. Do the staff get paid loads of money? No. Do any coffee workers and growers get loads of money. No. Pure capitalism in a cup. A few get rich benefits whilst we're lucky to get rich aroma.

Evening at the Fringe Food & Drink in the Irish Club. They rattled through the awards to get to the serving of pie and peas. Full list to be published soon, wasn't taking notes on a drinking night. Best Coffee - Bean Counter, Best Takeaway - Frost's The Butcher (voted by the public). A few suprises - Best Scotch Steak - Idaho bar, Best Organic product was eggs from Frost's The Butcher, Best Fruit & Veg display - Muriels on Beech Road (closing soon).

Ventured into the city of Manchester. Always good on a weekday get around. A quick visit to the Farmers Market in Albert Square. Great venue - loads
of office workers, trippers and tourists mingling amongst the stalls of butchery and cheeses. There was the usual Mrs. Miggins type jams and
pickles, you know, the ones with a bit of cloth and a laccy band round the lid and even a cookery demonstration by Zerena Allen from Zedz Foods, who
are specialists in gluten free food items - muffins and burgers & etc. Full marks to the council for getting this together in a prime location.

Now to the organic wine tasting at Unicorn. Wine tasting always sounds better than the reality. Take notes, then forget taking notes, then get a
taste for alcohol and want to go to the pub. Might learn something but it's the remembering at a later date which bottle was which, that's the problem.

Could be called International Parsnip Day except most places in the world
use them as cattle feed - but not the plucky Brits. Spotted parsnip
muffins, parsnip soup, parsnip bread and big organic parsnips but nobody
dressed up as a Parsnip. There is a costume knocking about and no doubt
somebody was wearing it.

Last few days left of the festival. However I get the feeling that it
doesn't always engage the public. People go out shopping for groceries or
to a cafe. Their mind is pre-set on an experience they are so familiar with
they don't think too hard about it. Well it's only shopping or a snack -
just like it's only breakfast or going to bed. Should we be really aware of
what we're doing? To make a festival work you have to draw attention to
things. To snap people out of cosy habit. Or should we? Only wanted to buy
a bit of food and now I've got somebody giving out propaganda promotion.
Have a workshop & form small groups and we'll discuss the issue.

Recipe Cottage: Thousands of Free Recipes Yes 35,000 or more. Seach engine to look up anything you fancy making. Kale or quince get back a dozen recipes. Recommended.

Trouble logging on tonite - plugging in phones and testing lines but you don't want to read about that. Check out the moving chilli at Unicorn. Everday the Jalapeno chillies move to a different place in the shop. Bit of chilli thing at Unicorn at the moment. Hopefully we'll be able to publish their trivia fact sheet. Tomorrow is sea vegetable day there. They had a local radio station phoning them up asking for details. What can you say - edible sea vegetables, we've all heard of shushi - so what's the story.

There's me thinking I could manage a daily report. Not when you rush home from work, grab some hot pasta and then slope off to The Bar. Who needs the internet when you can go out of an evening. Carringtons did their organic wine sampling on Saturday. I was already familiar with the selection which shouldn't be taken as a boast but as an indicator of a future liver condition. They had some huge weigh scales in the shop and invited everyone to enter some form of competion. Really I think it was a piece of market research getting a profile of their customers' address and occupation, plus how lardy they are. At 81.5 kilos I can safely put on somemore pies. No imperial measurements but these are only used by the over 30's - so if you want to keep a young age for publicity purposes never admit to knowing about pounds, stones, feet and yards.

Sunday saw the Raw Food enthusiasts at Unicorn. Fresh Up North is the group and they know their stuff. They drew an appreciative crowd in the store and no wonder with the free tasty morsels on offer. I thought it would be carrot sticks and celery. Thought wrong, nori shushi rolls made on the spot, almond mayonaise, and the best thing made out of nuts I've ever tasted. They even make crackers. Nothing is heated. Amazing and imaginative.
Check some recipes they gave me.

Day two and whilst most of the world doesn't know there is a festival it is
slowly taking shape. Get out there this weekend. Hiccups - the offical
Manchester Food & Drink Festival brochure has yet to turn up in any
quantities and City Life published the wrong dates for Palmiro's "Rat Pack
Nights". Stefano, I said you'll sell it out anyway whatever the dates. The
imported Mexican chillies are arriving at Unicorn. Which is a suprise
because getting anything from Mexico is a catalogue of missed shipments and
long delays. So with the specially made chocolate & chilli muffins it was
smiles all round for their chilli promotion which kicks off on Friday.
Victor at the Barbikan was his usual positive self - you have to hand it to
the Barbikan they've been selling good bread and top victuals for at least
20 years now. Possibly longer. I had a report from the pub quiz at the
Marble. The Unicorn team were leading until it came to the last set of
questions. A picture of a pig with the divisions of meat to work out. Well
that foxed them. It would probably stump would most people who think ham
and rashers come out of a plastic vacuum pack.

Saw this article for a product called 'Active Water' which at 79p for half
a litre isn't cheap. It's water plus a few grains of dehydration salts in
it to restore to back to prime after some sweaty sports activity. They are
taking the piss. A few pence of sodium and calcium compounds dissolved in
spring water in a fancy bottle. For that price! Have a beer instead. Then
another.

Suppose Tuesday is an odd date to start a food & drink festival. So I toured around looking for it...not in evidence too much. Clearly a festival by stealth. Chilli lights were going up in Unicorn and they mentioned the all day bread oven on Saturday. I'm taking my own bread dough but you can use the one supplied and bake your own fancy shaped loaf. Barbikan was lunch time hectic as usual. Bean Counter under development. Popped into Carringtons, no signs & no leaflets. Then I got distracted by buying cognac (the hip flask football match refreshment) and ending up buying a bottle of Pommeau as well. Rarely seen outside Normandie a 17% apple derived beverage for under a tenner. Costs half that on t'other side La Manche but it was the suprise of seeing one of my favourite bevvies in a shop on Barlow Moor Road. Well there is still the food & drink pub quiz tonite at the Marble, might pop in after the footie match, depending on the result. Chorlton isn't a place to get going early anyway.