Fringe Food & Drink

You think you know, but really you know a bit, maybe more than others, but you'll never know everything, that's the only thing you'll ever know. Radicchio [ pronounced ra-dick-e-o] why haven't I been grilling it, why haven't i done more than treat it as a bitter salad leaf addition. Check UK Food TV web site especially Giorgio Locatelli [ celeb chef with loads of olive oil ] - search for radicchio. Get me a radicchio it's on to-morrow's menu.

Picked up on M/c Metro News story that an "Art Caravan" is coming to Chorlton. It's a little caravan & it's got work by artistes in it - video pieces it's reported. It'll be parked outside Diamond Dogs, Beech Road Sunday April13th from 7pm. It's also at Castlefield Gallery on Thursday April 10th from 6pm. Full report on the day - uploaded live from Beech Road, err maybe, but it'll be better to see it with your own eyes.

Read this story today in 'The Grocer' magazine (it was lying about, I had time on my hands) about the minium wage rising to a massive four pounds 50 pence an hour. Then there were quotes from some head of some convenience stores bleating about profits, closures, price rises to pay for it. Anybody who opposes the minimum wage should be made to live on it for a year. We're talking about peoples' rent, electric, food, bills & clothes. If you can't pay the minimum wage you shouldn't be in business. If you don't pay the minimum wage you're in the slave trade.

Fitzpatrick's in Rawtenstall is the country's last temperance bar - a pub serving only non-alcoholic herbal drinks like Dandelion and Burdock. But owners Chris and Julie Law have been told to take their most popular drink Sarsaparilla off their shelves while it is sent off for analysis.
Manchester Evening News Story.
If it hasn't killed anybody in 150 years it's probably safe & not addictive. The only time I was in Rawtenstall [ pronounced Rotten Stall ] it was Wakes Weeks [ everything shut for annual holiday ] and the Temperance Bar was closed as well.

Ten news channels to flick between - the schedules have been cleared for the war in / on Iraq. Abu Dhabi TV comes out well even if you can't understand arabic, TV5 in French covers the global anti-war movement as does Euro News. 16 UK troops killed and none by the enemy makes it a grim business

BBC2 TV series Thursday 20th March 2000h GMT - bring on the celeb chefs, spin it out for five or more episodes. As long as beans on toast is in there ( I doubt it - even though it's the biggest selling tinned food ) with bangers & mash. Haven't found the web site to go with show - not yet anyway. Set the VCR - I'll be working & down the pub.

.
Do the traditional fried food stodge & tea cafes have more customers than the ersatz mediterranean dips bit of salad & coffee cafes? In the weekdays probably yes. For although house prices are at all time high in Chorlton the streets of the shopping area are wandered by low income customers stopping for a tab & a brew. Wandering through "The Square at Chorlton" formally the Precinct our spycam captured it in ragged 24bit colour.


Would have checked out "The Big Cup" cafe to see which camp it was in - no it's definately not traditional grease 'cos it does croissant, muffins & coffee at £1.98. But there was no place to chain my bike. So abandoned the idea.

A new cafe has opened and I've not even checked out the menu - The Big Cup on Barlow Moor Road. Went to my first ever Chorlton Civic Society meeting on Tuesday last - and i detected a very anti-bias against A3 planning (a term they used a lot). It means bars/ cafes/ takeaway / restaurants. Perhaps if we got a few more we'd get a wider selection of food. Some of the places in Chorlton haven't changed their menu since they opened.

As spring is nearly here we've returned to our allotment. All this war talk and we'll be digging for victory. Saddam will be pleased to know we're doing potatoes, leeks and globe artichokes. Bush will be happy we're not doing broccoli but raspberries.

While Seated restores faith that the USA isn't full of fat people, dumb tv, shite coffee & Bush. See link and Corrupt Cops Cuff Anti-War Kids might be a war, but not winning hearts & minds at home....I've think I've seen this before but it might have been in dreamtime....

Do you know that moment when you discover a new food? Had one to-day slicing up a block of panisse - it's made of chick pea flour, water and salt, and knocks polenta back into a cracked pot. It's from Provence - and obviously you could make it at home but I've got to to get some shop to stock this stuff. This was a free sample to try. Slice up, heat up or fry up and serve with whatever. I did it with fried shallots, red onion, tomatoes, pine nuts, olives topped with fried aubergine slices. Like food fried in olive oil. Very filling with a slightly sweetish taste.

Manchester looks good on the telly. Couldn't go on the march against the war because I was working. Political protest is now the new apathy. How are they going to sell this war to the people - normally nobody gives a monkeys about troops invading a distant country. However one casualty of war talk is it drives the other news from the pages. On the horizon in September is the growing of GM crops in the UK when the Government caves in to the US multinational seed & chemical companies. The job of the US President is to make the world safe for capitalism / big business / greed / profit and he's making a successful job for his sponsors.

Trying to develop a new tasty sauce for fried vegetables. Nearly there, and it's centered around pomegranite syrup and tahini. Add some warm spices - cumin, mustard, cinnamon, chilli, galangal. Dilute with water, season with salt & pepper. Must start writing down the quantities. Everything is done by a heuristic approach of adding amounts from the palm of my right hand. Everyday I meet people who ask me for recipes. Have you not got the internet? Ever been to a library? Buy a cookbook - you can pick up some cheap ones from any of Chorlton's three bookshops...Stop asking me I use guesswork.

.Like the look of these footprints painted on the pavements of Chorlton. Think it's a pedestrian safety initiative.
Last night at approx 2115 hours local time thought I'd get a bottle of wine to finish to evening. Carringtons closed Mondays, but shuts at 2030h anyway. What's this Oddbins closed its doors at 2100h. Reduced to going to Thresher - a bottle shop with mostly Aussie alcoholic fruit juice - however a cheap Italian red was found and consumed. Early closing alcohol shops....it's a poor state of affairs.