Fringe Food & Drink

Have we all got obscure jars & packets in the food cupboard? An xmas pudding that will expire in 2004, molasses, pickled walnuts, damson jam, an italian barley drink, smoked green spelt grains. Can't get round to consume them, can't throw throw them out. Can't face it - put them back behind the doors and forget it's happened.

This is the time when Chorlton empties of people...all the incomers from different parts of the country disappearing back to their tribal homelands. Get served at The Bar immediately, get served in The Beech even quicker. From another country 40 miles down the road from here - a holiday destination for the English. Food Wales [a secret worth sharing ] it's even got veggie recipes which is surprising since you can't buy tofu or sun dried tomatoes in most of the wee nation..

At last something is opening soon - a new pub. Alright an old pub that will return from a failed themed idea. Better save judgement until it opens at the start of May. At least they've given it back it's old name The Lloyd's - corner of Manchester Road & Wilbraham Road. Also it has a local brewery in charge Lees of Middleton. Expectation is running high bound to be disappointed.

pictures of art caravan, inside & outside, that turned up tonight at Diamond Dogs, Beech Road...three short videos powered off a car battery...followed by an evening of "entertainment" in the cafe. We took our shabby post-hangover states home. Caravan Project

Are they still doing the Unity Festival in Chorlton Park? Yes but sorry to say this but it's well past its sell buy date. It's Sat July 5th I think.

It's on - the Manchester Food & Drink Festival that is - Chorlton will be having it's own Fringe bit with a little bit of funding from the City Council and the rest from the participants - sometime in October. Way off, got to have a good summer first.

Well it looks like the middle east grocery / deli opposite the bus station on Barlow Moor Road isn't going to open again. Been shut for ages. Then to cap it all the little camping gear shop is finishing due to retirement. Called "Army & Navy" from the days when there were stores that sold surplus army gear. A diminishing diversity in the high street draws ever inwards.

Never get take-away pizza for the following reasons - a) i'm a pizza snob, unless it's cooked in a wood burning oven and has a thin base it's not worth buying b) they've got too much gluey cheese. But are they good value for money? The toppings are cheap, the dough is even cheaper and the staff get paid buttons. So where does all the money go? So let's put it to the test. I'll make a home made pizza (without a wood burning stove), add up the cost and the amount of effort needed and compare it with you would buy from one of those glossy leaflets that are always coming through the door.

video nation...hot dinners makes it to online streaming video from the BBC. Needs Real Player, two minutes of who knows what. Well we do, we made it one Sunday night, ill but with a looming deadline, the camera was going back next day.

Purple Streaming Broccoli definately the spring vegetable - grows locally and cooks globally. Wrote this today for a leaflet to sell it - with a different layout to this version PSB. It's Purple Sprouting Broccoli, not streaming, and it comes in yellow as well.

Shop and save article in today's Guardian [ Society section ] about Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton. Basically how the shop was saved from developers. Doesn't come with the colour picture in the paper edition.

It's taken a couple of weeks to get to the Big Cup cafe / sandwich bar on Barlow Moor Road. Smart, friendly and functional but lack of veggie options. Read some of The Guardian whilst they made my sandwich to take to the allotment. Big bold pictures on the wall by Samantha Brain (website doesn't work). Across the way the Army & Navy store is closing down. Another interesting shop going, get in for some camping equipment bargains, before an estate agents moves in. Too many estate agents, parasites on the high street. It might become something else, just got it in for estate agents.