FoodSnapper

Was it crazy to take picture of food? It is quite embarrassing when someone you know do that excessively, and I m sure I have embarrassed Z and a few friends of mine in numerous occasions. My appreciation of food doesn’t stop at the point I finished it, in fact, it escalates when I break down the food in my mind, thus I want to remember and learn from the goods and avoid the bads. It wouldn’t be a good idea to keep a portion of my creation for future reference, so at least I would like a picture as a trophy.

For years, I thought I am the only loony in the bin, putting pictures of my own sweet creations on facebook. If I said there was nothing to do with self indulgent, it would be a lie. However, receiving comments and genuine interest about food from the others are far more satisfying than the praise on its own. Recently, someone contact me thorough facebook, told me about a website called FoodSnappers, a website full of ‘loonies’ (in a good way) like me. It was great to see like-mind people have same passion on cooking and food. This public blogsite encourage us to take picture of food and drink, to share the joy of having good food and prolong the moment of indulgences. If there is an ‘xtube’ on food and drinks, FoodSnappers is the master of amateur ‘gastroporn’. Of course, visual stimulation is not the only high in the website. Recipe section is the place for amateur or even professional chef to share recipe and discuss culinary skills. Some of those recipes are developed from experience, failure and then modified. Blogmaster Joe regularly posts seasonal recipe with article and pictures that makes you feel the urge of cooking. After all, FoodSnappers is the blogsite for all amateur chefs, food critics, foodies or generally food lover to exchange skills, recipes, opinion and the joy of cooking.

http://www.foodsnappers.com

Family Do: Lunch at Mr. Thomas's

English Chop House, the first thing came into my head was Aberdeen Angus Steak House which is Scottish in fact. I apologise for my lack of chop house experience. In my mind, I couldn’t get around the idea of steak pie and grilled steak, such simple, no gimmick, somehow uninteresting dishes, could be famous nationally and internationally, and plus, I don’t need to travel tens or hundreds of miles into those remote villages and their local gastro pubs, a gastro pub in town, can’t be that authentic. Fortunately for me, I proved myself wrong on the day.

The day wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be, so my Adventure in Clitheroe has to postpone. I was so looking forward to the outing with my surrogate family. My interests never get far away from food and drink, going to Clitheroe is not only for landscape, castle, or herons. I expected visiting local restaurants and bars, having some traditional pub food would be my high-light of the day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side, we have to think of something else for this family do

After some serious discussion, Mr Thomas’s Chop House is the place, Za decided, I have no idea what is this restaurant like. I only have this mental image of a posh Wetherspoons, scally free, playing cosy music in the background, not long before I had this Victorian building in front of me. Entering it I found myself in a smallish English pub as I went blind at the same time because of condensation. It was peak lunch hour on Saturday, the queue was surprisingly not bad. We have waited for 10 minutes to get a table which I considered lucky. At the point stepping in the restaurant part, the mystery of famous English Chop house finally unfolded. My inner tourist-self came out with my brick-like camera, started observing for potential snap materials. Floral lights hanging down from the ceiling, the incandescent lighting on beige tiles tainted the whole room into a canteen like dinning hall, without the shouting from the dinner lady and the chance of beaten up by a bully over a pudding. The tiling of the restaurant, from floor to ceiling are original, you can feel the bareness but also layers of characteristics. Most of diners were family and couples, they all seemed having a great time.

I was amused by the choice in the menu, traditional fish and chips, steak and kidney pudding to hash and flame grilled steak. I stuck with my favourite, steak and kidney pudding, even the smell of hash that the lady sat next to us was enjoying, made me have a second thought. The pudding came with peas, chips and gravy. I wouldn’t expect less on the chips from a famous chop house, and they didn’t disappoint me. The gravy was a real meaty one instead of those brown glue with bits of disintegrated onion. They were very good but not enough to blow me away though. The peas were something I want to know more. Crunchy, and somehow have this meaty and smoky flavour. I guess it would be fresh peas roasted with bacon or lardoons, it was divine. Last but not least, is the huge pudding, perfectly cooked. Breaking into the just dried outside, steamy, fluffy, doughy goodness were flowing out, not only the juice, but chucks and chunks of steak and lamb kidney. The pudding soaked up all the juice, leaves enough for lingering between the meats, not too much to transform itself into a doughy mess. While I was having my orgasm with my gastroporn, Em wasn’t impressed by her fish and chips. She insisted me to give a second opinion, and it wasn’t bad. However, for 13 quid, I do expect more than it was. The fish wasn’t seasoned well, batter was ok, but on the thick side and then it dripped out oil in my mouth. It might be because of Em sent the first one back to kitchen, because the fish was overcooked, they rushed out a new one without enough time to drain the grease. Other than that, everyone was happy about their main course.

With all the girls around me, pudding was a compulsory. Banoffee Sundae did catch my eyes, but Za and Bec had put their mark on it, as I kindly chose lemon posset instead. Em ordered a sticky toffee pudding, so we can share a bit of everything. I rest my case for lemon posset, it was something to die for. The texture and flavour just perfect, it melted at the second you put it in your mouth and burst out citrus tang, gorgeous! Sticky toffee pudding was great too, very spongy, strong treacle flavour with a runny buttery toffee sauce, it was just the thing for a cold rainy day. I was glad I haven’t ordered the Banoffee Sundae, dry stale toffee sponge cubes at the bottom, seemed like trimming from the toffee pudding but dried. Chucks of banana, with condensed milk like fresh out from the tin without caramelised, just enough to coat them, leave the sponge cubes dry and crumbly. Strongly not recommended.

Price: Lunch £30 per head (including main course and desserts, 3 bottle of house wine shared between 5 people and 10% service charge)

Mr. Thomas’s Chop House
Victorian Bar, Restaurant and Coffee Shop
52 Cross Street
Tel: 0161 832 2245
http://www.tomschophouse.com/

Savina - The Transforming Mexican

Z (my BF) was so sweet and considering recently, probably because I was a bit upset and feeling unsettle. We have been together for 3 years, I moved to Manchester a year ago because it is closer to work. He lives in Liverpool, seeing him every weekend could be a chore when my schedule is packed and work is stressed. Sometimes I wish he lives closer to me (but not with me), we can meet up for lunch or just pop in for tea in week nights. In some weekend, I would rather be alone. Anyway, today, we are not talking about that, it is about Savina - the posh Mexican.

Z’s dad came over last week, usually I would be the cater for them. Z’s dad, Mick loves good food, apparently his wife is not a brilliant cook, in that sense, I am confident to say, Z is a lot luckier than Mick. It was a Wednesday night, I went over to Liverpool from Cheadle Hulme after work. Z insisted to dine out as a treat. I have not dinning out since I got a proper job, my parent stopped funding me, so even I'm earning more than when I was a student, I also spend more on basic expenses.

We went to this Mexican restaurant called Savina. He has tried them twice and he likes it. Although, I'm sceptical about it, he is a very appreciative person and anything taste semi-decent he would say that they are good. There were a few diners when we arrived, the receptionist was nice, non-English by her accent, kindly showed us a table with a nice window view.

We did not ordered wine, Z was driving and I was too tired to get tipsy. The décor of the place is trendy, red in colour, a bit too red I would say. In my mind, Mexican restaurant would be more down to earth, not pretentious, cosy and simply no fuss, Savina has not got these boxes ticked.

The main menu was not full of choices, but that is not the problem. A limited menu means stocks gets used quicker and fresher most importantly. There were about 5 starters, 3 of them are Nachos with different amount of toppings. 5 grilled steak dishes in Mexican Style, of course those special term appeared on the menu, like chipotle, aioli, cilantro to make these basic dishes sound authentic. There are a few more fish dishes, they sound nice but not interesting enough. At the point I was thinking, ‘grilled steaks can’t be their major diet, can it?’ I read further down of the menu, the 5 chef specialé were the ones I was looking for, I’m sure there are plenty more down to earth, hearty dishes in Mexican cuisine.

We started with Nachos Supreme which we quite enjoyed. Main course arrived straight after we finished the starter. Me and Mick ordered Cochinita Pibil, a stew dish, with braised pork, in tomato, onion, garlic, cumin orange and cilantro (coriander) sauce. A flavourful dish with a warm welcome, it is a perfect comfort food for week evening. The sweet and sour from the tomatoes and orange, with a hint of smokiness I would think that’s from smoked paprika, and coloured by chipotle, with coriander’s fragrant underlined. Even though, the traditional way is served in banana leaf parcel, I did not care much. Z had a chicken dish in a spiced cream sauce, served in similar way but with sautéed potatoes with chorizo, they are tasty too.

The only last criticism about the food is, the portions are small, and the warm, simple, rustic, grounded presentation does not match the attitude of the restaurant’s décor. There was a crashed when they tried to get a balance of both worlds. I do not mean Mexican cuisine cannot be trendy and posh, even so, a harmony between the taste and visual pleasure is needed. Price-wise, three of us shared a starter, a main course and a beer each, the bill came at 60 quid. I could not say it was a rip off, but for a 12 quid main course, they could have done more than that.