The Big Easy

332-334, Kings Road, London

 I’m gonna let you in on a secret that will probably make you stop reading my blog. It wasn’t until a recent saturday night in chelsea that I first tried the delicacy that is lobster. I know that sounds incredibly pretentious, ‘ohhh look at me dining on lobster in chelsea, I’m so upper class’, it wasn’t as pretentious as it sounds though I promise, it was merely coincidental and the fact I constantly pick my nose and sit with my hands down my pants means I couldn’t possibly be accepted by the upper class even If I was forced through Eton for boys.

Back to the point, I suppose I’m a food blogger, I’m assuming people would brand me as that and I guess you’re right. So you’re probably thinking why the hell would I listen to a quote on quote food blogger who’s never dined on the oceans prized crustacean, the lobster. Well I just never got round to it ok, I’m from the northwest or a landlocked segment of the northwest should I say. Therefore the red little fellas aren’t particularly accessible in the area so I’ve never got round to eating them ok. Yes I understand that if you’re from Newcastle, or somewhere by the sea, that there’s loads of lobsters. That many that they probably even deliver the milk to your door, pick up litter off the streets and provide a dog walking service for you when you’re at work. I’ve not been blessed with this luxury. Plus until a couple of years ago when I decided to man up I was never really a lover seafood.

After one of my classic longwinded introductions that I feel optimises my writing style to it’s useless core, I didn’t even order the lobster. I did try a bit though and then realised I probably should have ordered it.

On this particular night I ate at The Big Easy Bar. BQ and Crabshack. Since always having an unhealthy obsession with the unhealthy food that is BBQ food, I’d known about this place and had wanted to eat there for a long time. So I was pretty excited. The vibe in this place was unreal, the transformation from being outside some posh club where prince harry is an apparent regular to walking 1 minute down the street into the big easy and being transported into what feels like a beach side bar in San Diego is pretty special. We were seated downstairs with a birds eye view of the live band that were smashing out some cheerful rock and blues covers throughout the night, could have been potentially annoying but it complimented the atmosphere perfectly. 

When it came to ordering i realised that this place was more focussed on the sea food than the BBQ, the ocean part of the menu is slightly larger. Despite this I wanted to test their BBQ meats out against the greats and went for the sharing platter which consisted of ribs, chicken, BBQ beans, cornbread and chips. I’d heard tales of men keeling over in defeat whilst trying to tackle this mountain of food. They also swore that there was pulled pork with this feast which I found confusing as there was no pulled pork on the menu (turns out the covent garden branch has a slightly different menu). Still I was there to eat what I ordered, however when it came it was less mount everest more mount snowdon. Don’t get me wrong, a quarter chicken, full rack of ribs and a bunch of sides is definitely enough, I’d just let the mythical meat tales I’d heard get to my head. 

Despite this I was impressed. Everything was drenched in a beautiful BBQ sauce, BBQ sauce is a dangerous one as it’s can easily taste very boring. Thankfully the big easy do it well, sweet, smoky, sticky; pretty much any positive adjective beginning with an S you can think of. The BBQ beans were decent but I’ve had better. The same can be said for the fries and the cornbread, which were to a high enough standard that no-one would turn up there nose at them. It has to be said though that after allowing my indecisive father to join in on the platter, it was quite clear that a two person portion of sides was brought out and blagged as being suitable for three. That was a bit of a blow, they might want to sort that out. While the men chowed down on the low and slow meats the lobsters went down excellently with the ladies. At the end of the day this place has great food, is reasonably priced and  has an amazing atmosphere. So if you’re looking for a mountain of meat or some succulent crustacean in London then look no further than The Big Easy. 

 Bunnychow, Soho 

Bunny chow? What the fuck is Bunny chow you say. Well that’s exactly the question I was asking myself when I heard about this mysterious delicacy that has recently made it’s way to London. My first thought was of my families pet rabbit atticus, and that bunny chow sounds like some sick sort of revenge pie my that dad would threaten to shove him in when he finally comes to the end of his tether with my mum requesting ‘tea in a china cup with a splash of sterilised milk’. Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet and upon visiting the restaurant on wardour street in Soho I saw no evidence of his furry species being used in any of the food. 

Bunny chow is a South African fast food dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with a  curry stew. It instantly registered with me as something that sounds right up my street, so discovering that a place specialising in it had recently opened up just down the road led to me pretending that I had lunch plans, cancelling my lunch plans and making new lunch plans to go and eat some bunnys. 

I’ve been twice, whether that’s an acceptable amount of visits to come to a conclusion on the food is up to you but at the end of the day I’m making zero money and also constantly finding excuses as to why I can’t exercise, so I can’t go everyday or I’d be fat and more broke than I already am.

Upon my first visit I was greeted by a girl holding a bucket in some strange bunny mask. As my eyes scanned the menu I could see her staring at me, therefore absolutely nothing I was reading was being registered to my brain; instead I was just thinking ‘why is she staring at me’. She said ‘can I help you’, not putting together the bunny mask and the fact we were in a place called bunny chow, I didn’t realise she was working there. I just saw the bucket and heard her question and assumed she was aggressively pursuing charity donations for some sort of ‘save the rabbit’ foundation. I nervously muttered back ‘im just deciding what I want’ to which she replied ‘you should get the pork’, this spurred on someone from behind the counter to join in and reassure me that I should ‘get the pork’ . I’d looked at the menu before coming and had previously decided that I definitely didn’t want the pork, however I was desperate to remove myself from this situation that was making the back of my neck sweat profusely so I went to the counter and ordered the ‘Pork N Pickle’ . 

This was a combination of pulled pork, slaw, homemade pickles and BBQ sauce. I didn’t really want to try this the first time i went because It’s a very predictable combination that so many places do very well meaning it’s often hard to compete. Unfortunately on this occasion Bunnychow didn’t deliver. The flavours were just not strong enough and were further masked by the wholemeal bread in which they were contained.

I really wanted to like this place, so I went again and this time tried the ‘Bangcluck Bunny’. This combination of Molasses bakes beans, spinach, chilli and smoked cheese’ sounded a lot closer to the authentic African bunny chow delicacy I’d read about and so, I was excited to try it. Again it just didn’t really do anything for me, I’ll admit I was manflued up on this occasion so my taste buds might not have been on point; yet to me it really just tasted like beans on toast with an occasional spinach leaf thrown in. 

It’s clear Bunnychow are keen to reel in some new customers, both times I’ve been they’ve had drink samples on display and offer food samples as well. Additionally they offer a 20% off voucher and a free coffee before 12 if you bring in your old receipt. Each time I’ve been in it’s been fairly empty, which is really unfortunate especially for a venue of their location in the middle of Soho with such attractive offers. 

I’m genuinely gutted that It didn’t impress me, I’d never heard of the delicacy before, I loved the concept but I think Bunnychow would benefit from making their food more authentic and less seemingly accessible. Take away the idea of filling up a hollowed out piece of bread and the menu is rather uninspiring. Meatballs, peppers and BBQ sauce? Sausage, Gravy, blue cheese and mustard? It’s all very predictable yet desperately random at the same time and sounds like something only someone small enough to fit in a high chair would put cite as their favourite dish. This place must have a core fan base as they’ve built themselves up from selling their product out of a van around various locations in London, to a pop up location to a permanent restaurant and therefore I encourage you to go and try it for yourself and make your own verdict.

As for me the only bunny i’ll be paying attention to is this guy. 

Delancey and Co,
Goodge Street, London

According to wikipedia ‘digestion is the breakdown of food into smaller components that can be more easily absorbed and assimilated by the body’. Whilst I’m aware that that is the textbook definition of the word when I refer to ‘digesting’ something and in the context of food I’m often talking about a mental process that could take anything from a few hours to a full day. When I’ve eaten something and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it my mental digestive the process can be likened to kissing some bird that you really fancy. Thinking about it after, what was good about it, was there anything I could have done to improve it, was there anything they could have done to make it better; pretty much everything up to the point of thinking how can I sleep with it where I’m luckily still sane enough to draw the line. It’s an experience like this that I was hoping to have during my lunch break today like every other day.

After a recommendation from a member of staff I decided to attempt Delancy and Co on Goodge Street just off Oxford Circus. Being the type of person who does not make decisions purely off recommendations I did a little reading up and thought I might as well give it a shot. This place has New York city written all over it, serving up bagels and sandwiches in true big apple style with salt beef and smoked salmon being the main focus. It’s laid out inside like a classic NY diner and runs like a Barburrito/Subway type joint where you pick your bread then your filling then your blah blah blah you know the rest.  

The first thing I thought when gazing upon the menu was ‘BIT EXPENSIVE INIT’, pretty sure I said it out loud as well which spurred on my new intern pal to swiftly exist the door and make the smart decision to grab a sandwich from Tesco. Now don’t get me wrong, I know this is a foodie place and that we’re one street away from Oxford Circus; it’s not like I was expecting pound bakery prices and I know you’ve gotta make that rent money boy. However I thought the best part of £9.00 for a lone bagel at the smallest size was pretty steep. At this point it was too late to back down, I’d already led my intern buddy in a series of random directions to find this place, so there was no chance I was going to walk out of Delancey and Co without anything. On reflection I probably should have walked out with a can of Brooklyn lager (they serve beer) which I contemplated but then thought taking that back to the office and downing it in the lobby might not make a great impression on my fellow staff members.

Getting down to the food which it apparently always takes me too long to do. It was good but it wasn’t ten quid good. The salt beef was nice and stacked high and the pickles were tasty. I opted for standard english mustard and also jalapeño mustard which turned out to be a little overpowering. I was also allegedly entitled to some sort of cream cheese which was unfortunately never offered to me and which I was too dumb to ask for. There’s ad ons you can get for extra money such as pickled red cabbage, sliced red pinion and mashed avocado but didn’t fancy pushing my bagel into the financial shark tank of £10 + and get bitten. One thing that really annoyed me was the bagel real estate. I understand I got the smallest version, but it was just a normal bagel with way too much on it. I was planning on enjoying this whilst trying to look like a pretty smooth guy but when a pickle hurled it’s self onto the table before I even lifted it up that plan went swiftly downhill. I thought this place was supposed to be creating an alternative to the ‘dirty food’ phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation but there was nothing particularly clean about this.

The food here is nice but referring back to my sad little analogy from before, I’d pretty much forgotten about about it 30 minutes after eating it. I feel like if the price was dropped by a couple of quid then i’d feel better about it but then again, it wouldn’t be my go to lunch spot if I was making the club go up on a Tuesday. The moral of the story is I should have taken a left instead of a right and gone to Honest burger instead.

A short list of complaints about the Manchester Christmas Markets that I am sick of hearing.

 1. IT'S TOO BUSY I COULDN'T MOVE
Last year over 100,000 people attended in the opening weekend alone, over the entirety of it's opening it was estimated that around 9 million people flocked there in turn making it the busiest Christmas market in Europe. Just out of interest I'd like to know what part of 'The busiest Christmas market in Europe' warrants people creating an illusion in their mind that  it's not going to be really really busy. Use the brain that God/Buddha/Allah/evolution gave you and do the math for yourself. Nobody likes human traffic, I certainly don't, I've never met anyone who does and I don't imagine I will any time soon. However if you're interested enough to visit the markets this year but insist on complaining about fighting your way though the crowds then there's a few really obvious things you can do to make your experience less painful. These no brainers such as avoiding it on a weekend and spending more time in the parts that aren't Albert Square will save those around you and yourself a headache. 

2.IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE

I'll admit to anyone that yes it is expensive and overpriced. The food definitely is, the drink definitely is and as I'm not a random crap type of guy so I can't fairly comment on any of the  stuff the stalls sell but I can imagine that it's the same scenario there. The annoying thing is that everybody knows this, so there's no need to keep commenting on it. Even worse than complaining about the price is making comparisons. The last thing I want to hear is someone stating that for the price of one glass of mulled wine you could have got a full bottle from lidl. If you already knew that then why didn't you bring some in a thermos unless you knew that doing that would make make people resent your presence just as much as being a Mr Whinger.   Everyone is still gonna pay the prices at the end of the day. If you really can't stomach how bad you're being ripped off then take a look around, you're loose in a city, not locked inside some sort of modern day deceivingly relaxed version of Alcatraz.   So go and pick up a Chicken Mayo from McDonalds and then walk around and soak up the atmosphere for free if it suits you. If that's even too expensive for you then kindly click the X at the top right hand corner of this window.

3. STOP SAYING IT USED TO BE BETTER
It used to be more quiet and it used to be cheaper. Yes I remember 4 years ago getting a sausage for £2.50 and being able to walk around without bobbing and weaving like I was training with The Money Team but that doesn't necessarily make it 'better' now does it. There's more stalls, more food, more booze and more people. When I first started going my friends were more interested in playing call of duty than going to the 'weird German thing' to drink beer and stare at a singing moose's head. In many ways they still are, but after having it drilled into their consciousness by the rise of it's popularity, through endless selfies in front of that Santa Claus spreading over social media; I now get to slap solitude in the face and get out of the house once in a while.

                                                              


WOULD YOU REALLY RATHER NOT HAVE IT?
All these complaints beg the question, what if it didn't exist? Wouldn't have anything to complain about then would you? In reality the North doesn't have a great deal on the South and by the South I mean just London. No matter how many times you share that '20 reasons why Lancashire is the best' article you're still not going to kid anyone. The fact that people from all over the place flock to our local Christmas market must mean it counts for something. So if you could stop with the negative energy towards it then that'd be great.

(For anyone offended this article is aimed largely at my Father)

Manchester's Oktoberfest 101: The Survival Guide

Now whilst I do realize this is a food blog I've positioned myself in the state of mind that I am here to offer advice on anything that goes down peoples throats, I am of course talking about drink so please if you're reading this refrain from giggling because you've taken what I just said out of context.
Food and drink really do go hand in hand and I often find myself pondering which I enjoy more. The equation I used to work this out was as follows.

When I'm drinking I'll usually pass on buying food in order to buy another drink until I've drank so much that I need food. When I'm eating I'll usually drink anyway.

So there's your answer, I apparently prefer drinking alcohol to eating and because of that this blog has now been reborn as a space on the internet solely dedicated to writing about getting pissed. I'm just kidding but I am here to share my experience of Manchester's recent Oktoberfest that descended upon Albert Square and to hopefully shed some light on whether it's something you should pencil in to your calender for next year.

Now as we all know Oktoberfest is a huge funfair that started in Munich Germany in 1810, largely themed around beer. Since then it has naturally spread around Germany and in turn the world, arriving in Manchester for the first time October 2014.
As mentioned before it is located in the hottest spot of the city Albert Square, which is as of late is acting as a space for endless brilliant pop up events. In true Oktoberfest style the entirety of the square is clad in a huge white tent. There's no BS here, it's literally a tent, a bar, loads of long benches and tables and a stage that plays host to a traditional Bavarian oompah band.
I'm sure you get the picture, so here's some notes to read up on in case you're thinking of trying it out.

RULE NUMBER 1: STACK THAT PAPER
Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of guy that makes it rain in the club and even if I had that kind of money I wouldn't be doing it in the UK because we don't have any single notes. That being said I get pretty tired of people complaining how expensive it is to buy beer at a bar. I love a cheap pint more than anyone but if you're in a city or big event anywhere in the UK it's a no brainier that if you buy a couple of pints with a tenner you're not gonna get very much change. However even i found that here at Oktoberfest in Manchester, it was pretty damn expensive. Everything is served in steins and that's just how I like it but a two pint serving setting me back around £12 is just above the pounds for pint ratio that i find acceptable.

RULE NUMBER 2: DON'T BE FUSSY BECAUSE IT RHYMES WITH P....?
The thing I loved about this event is that there was only one type of beer. I was praying that it was going to be nice and thankfully my prayers were answered. I'm not into rubbish beer but if you are especially fussy about these types of things then consider this before coming or your mates will be drinking themselves silly whilst you sit there with a water.

RULE NUMBER 3: GUARD YOUR BEER TOKENS WITH YOUR LIFE
The occasion for which I attended Oktoberfest was for a stag do so therefore there was a few of us and we pre booked  a table/beer/food kind of deal. If you do the same you'll receive tokens that can be swapped for beer which the staff usually come over to your table and collect then bring back your drinks. On one occasion we and more accurately me, were one beer short. I don't know if someone stole my drink, I don't know if it was the rude member of staff's fault. All I know i'd payed for a beer and I was left beerless which made so that I can't even reference it to any other upsetting experiences because nothing comes close.

RULE NUMBER 4: DON'T STAND ON THE TABLES
But if you want to just do it until the bouncers tell you that it's your last warning.

RULE NUMBER 5: DON'T THROW PEOPLE ON TO THE TABLES
They give less warnings for this. I counted 3 for standing on the tables but for throwing people the second warning was actually them trying to kick us out, which we thankfully dodged by some beautiful soul of a woman breaking her ankle a few tables down which we managed to convince the security that it was a more serious issue than ourselves.

RULE NUMBER 6: BE AWARE THAT THE BENCHES BREAK
Standing on the benches is all good in the eyes of the law but be careful on those bad boys. Out table went through quite a few of them due mostly to dancing like Chris Brown with his legs tied together, thankfully they had replacements.

RULE NUMBER 7: WHEN YOU'RE TOASTING YOUR PINT GET IT RIGHT
You'll most likely find yourself clashing your glasses together and shouting 'WHEEEYY' significantly more forcefully than you would if you were having a cocktail at the alchemist.  This is definitely fun and mandatory at Oktoberfest, I don't want to be the spill police but I saw many getting too excited and losing literally half of their beer. With drinks so expensive here spillage is essentially the liquid equivalent of making it rain.

All in all Manchester's first Oktoberfest was really pretty good and is something I can see being a staple part of the calender for years to come. If you find the time next year it comes highly recommended.

Oakie's, Huddersfield 

My list of worries for when I’ve graduated:

       Am I going to get a job?

       Am I going to get a job I like?

       How am I going to eat Oakie’s?

     Am I going to have to live with my parents again?

       Am I going to like where I might be living?

       Are Oakie’s going to move to where I might be living so I can eat there?

With Oakie’s original location in the fusion food hall temporarily closed whilst they move on to bigger and better things; my poutine withdrawals are sky high, leaving me feeling like a real life adaptation of a character from trainspotting on the mend. I was hung over today, I got paid today and I couldn't go and get a poutine; it’s times like these when I wonder if there really is a god.

Let’s start with the Huddersfield dining scene, or the lack of which. It’s like something out of The Walking Dead, barren, desolate and dangerous. ‘Lets go and get lunch’, ‘OK, where should we go’? Begin the mission of walking round getting hungrier and hungrier whilst your judgement become less logical and your desperation becomes more radical. It’s like seeing 30 zombies in a corner and thinking let’s not go in there, 20 minutes later you see somewhere with 15 zombies and your optimism increases and think you might be able to walk in there and take them. Then the next thing you know you’re in a Weatherspoon’s camouflaged under some other name and decor, you’re eating a microwaved meal that you could have bought from Sainsbury’s and your taste buds are being violated.

Since last September Oakie's has become a culinary safe house to me, serving up delicious poutine that’s well above just reliable. 
   

So what is poutine? I don’t expect anyone but the residents of Huddersfield to know because before Oakie’s I’d never heard of it in my life. Essentially its chips, cheese, and gravy with some form of meat on top. There’s various options including chilli beef and hunter’s chicken etc etc but from my experience the only choice worth choosing is of course pulled pork, the ultimate way to consume a pig. Upon my first visit I was horrified by the idea of tainting pulled pork with gravy, mainly due to the fact that I’m a bit of a pulled pork hipster and I've always come from the school of thought that gravy should be reserved for roast dinners; but it works tremendously well. I could honestly talk about how good the food is and start throwing about a load of adjectives like nobody’s business but there’s really no need. It’s flawless and you need to try it.

A point needs to be made about the actually quality of the food. To my knowledge Oakie’s source everything locally which results in each individual component of their delicacy being of a ridiculously high standard. Yes it is a pretty heavy snack, it’s hardly rocket with a squirt of lime juice so you probably wouldn't get away with eating poutine for every meal, every day of the week. However at least you know that you’re putting something decent into your body.    
  

I remember one of my friends once saying ‘I don't like poutine’ and all I could do is look at him like he just tweeted ‘If barraco barner is our president why is he getting involved in Russia’. A living man should not physically be able to say the sentence ‘I do not like poutine’ just like a man isn't able to urinate without getting in on the floor; or maybe that’s just me? Regardless there’s an underlying manly theme that goes along with this food, so if you see a female eating here that isn't 70 stone then you should probably hit on her, chances are she’s a keeper.      

The originality of the place really needs to be praised. Apart from there being a poutine place on Bricklane market in London I’m not massively aware of anywhere that specializes in it. With this being such an instantaneously like-able food that can only mean one of two things, everyone is going to start stealing the idea or Oakie’s are going to secure national domination; I’m hoping it’ll be the latter.

With Oakie’s Kitchen opening at five bar very soon and expanding their menu to include the likes of burgers, sandwiches and all sorts of other things that are going to make my summer fat boy bulk a walk in the park; it’s becoming difficult to understand whether I’m more excited to eat there or hand in my dissertation.  

Jenna El Fna

A foodie paradise? That was my perception of the square before visiting; unfortunately it falls rather short of the mark. The square is the central point of activity in Marrakesh and is something everyone needs to visit at least once but for food it did let me down a little. Each of the hundreds of stalls are essentially exact copies of one another and the majority of them specialize in takeaway classics such as mixed kebabs alongside Moroccan specialties like cous cous with vegetables. The food is decent don’t get me wrong; it just wasn't quite I’m going to eat this then quit uni and get a job hustling on the square so I can eat this every day good (I hate uni).

We ate here after arriving on our first night and didn't really enjoy it, in all fairness we had been travelling since 5AM the same morning so this may be a bit biased.  In my experience the best way to enjoy the square is after a couple of bottles of wine, I understand that’s an extremely chavy uncultured view to have but if it wasn't for the alcohol I probably wouldn't have sat down on a bench and started chowing down on the brains and tongue of a boiled sheep’s head, which was actually not that bad.

Surrounding the square is an abundance of restaurants/cafes many of which I was reluctant to eat at due to me viewing them as a bit too touristy. However if you are going to eat at the square a safe bet is ‘Toubkal’. Whilst this cafe isn't as grandiose as the mountain peak it is named after it does do an excellent chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives that will cost you less than 3 quid, that’s right, less than three English pounds sterling (depending on your conversion rate).  With the chicken tagine being so good I’m going to go as far as saying you could probably order any tagine from here and it’d be good; If it’s not who cares, it’s less than three quid you can’t even get a meal from maccies for that. The couscous is also good but you’re probably best avoiding the rest of the menu, I tried the lamb ribs and instantly felt sorry that such a cute animal has been wasted. Also you should sit downstairs, service will be quicker and upstairs is quitter and grubbier despite providing a reasonable view of the square.

Another place we tried was ‘Le Premices’, cosmetically this is a bit more upmarket than many of the other places on the square and whilst more expensive than ‘Toubkal’ it’s still cheap. Whilst it looks a bit posh in reality the sanitary conditions and service don’t set it apart from anywhere else. I wasn't particularly happy to eat here but the lamb tagine and cous cous were actually pretty good, wouldn't go back in a hurry though.

Le Riad Monceau is a hotel that doubles up as restaurant and is relatively easy to find, about 5 minutes from the main square down one of the quitter souks. The first thing that needs to be said about the place is that it is the nicest restaurant I’ve ever eaten in my life, the only negative of this was that I felt highly unqualified to be there. I’m more used to shoving a dirty burger in my mouth and then proceeding to wash it down with some form of beer that I’ll undoubtedly spill everywhere in the process of doing so. At this place the waiters were filling up my wine glass literally as soon as it was empty, luckily I took it easy and didn’t make too much of a fool of myself but I felt like they were going to wipe my mouth between each fork full of food then bring over some really well groomed pug for me to stroke (I can dream). Jokes aside the service was excellent which I was most welcoming about as generally the service in Marrakesh is terrible. We picked a main from a set menu which featured delicious starters that I ate having very little idea what they were. I went for the ginger chicken tagine for my main which was really good but was a little too fancy to be the best tagine I've had in my time. I’d highly recommend this place but it doesn't exactly come cheap as I’m sure we paid around £100 for the two of us including drinks and tips.

On our final night we did the unthinkable and sought out a restaurant that we actually wanted to go to. Amia restaurant is located in Marrakesh's ‘New Town’ and is rated at number 6 on tripadvisor. It’s good but I’m pretty surprised it’s rated so high. The interior is really nice and transports you out of Morocco for the time you’re sat in there. The menu does the same thing; I had to double take when I started seeing things like steak and burgers popping up and whilst it had a reasonable variety of choices I stayed loyal to the tagine. It was good, no complaints; additionally I tried the monk fish which had a tomato, olive and caper dressing and was also really good. Amia gets a thumbs up from me over all, good menu, good food, very reasonably priced and they serve alcohol (Hallelujah). The only downfalls were the atmosphere as we were the only people in there, which I can’t really understand for such a highly rated restaurant. The service was also slow which was pretty ridiculous considering.

We also went to a place called Kosybar, nice views, expensive drinks and terrible food; wouldn't recommend it.

I don’t know whether this has come across negative or not but regardless I love Marrakesh and everyone needs to go there.

Marrakesh – A foodie’s guide PT 1

I recently returned from a trip to the beautiful city of Marrakesh, Morocco. Whilst there were many reasons involved in making Marrakesh my destination of choice such as the culture and the incredible scenery; me being the gluttonous animal that I am that’s always thinking about his stomach, meant that the countries’ food played a big part in my decision.

Now supposing anyone reading this is one day planning to visit the city of Marrakesh, (something I highly recommend you do) then hopefully my experiences will prove of some use to you. I am however by no means some Moroccan culinary don, due to the lack of time I had coupled with my inability to decipher any of form of map I unfortunately did not end up eating in many

of the places that I wanted to. Before I get into where I ate and what I thought of it I decided it might be helpful to throw out a few pointers that everyone should consider before chowing down in the kesh. 

1. If in doubt order a tagine

I consider myself a bit of a food snob really. I’m not proud of it, I’d love to be able to go to spoons for lunch and not want to kill myself but unfortunately I just don’t possess that ability anymore. That being said the standard of food in Marrakesh I found to be very high. I ate in various places that I hadn't researched/didn't really like the look of due to the overwhelming 35 degree heat/being dragged there and found myself impressed overall. A safe bet wherever you go is always a tagine. As it’s the national dish of Morocco they do it everywhere and do it very well. During my stay I managed to have a tagine for lunch and dinner three out of four days and am happy to say I only found one of them mediocre.

     2.       Hygieneinell

The first thing you’ll have to come to terms with when visiting Marrakesh is the standards of hygiene. Unfortunately, there are none. Unless you’re willing to fork out top dollar to dine in the fanciest of restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner then this is something you’re just going to have to deal with. Understandably it’s a fairly hard adjustment for most, even myself. I mean I’ll sit with my hands down my pants for three quarters of the day then cook up a storm but as soon as there’s a fly anywhere near a kitchen I want to start crying.  Then again there are donkeys running through the street, there are stray cats on every corner, there are cobras slithering about on the square; if Marrakesh was the kind of city that 'antibacted' between each customer then it probably wouldn't be the exciting place it is.

    3.       Get your Duke of Edinburgh Award

I’m sure D of E awards involve map reading or something? I wouldn't know because I've never done it and I also can’t even be bothered to Google it. Regardless if you really do want to eat in specific restaurants that are a bit out the way then you’re going to have to live and breathe map reading. You’ll find a lot of the streets will be labelled on the map but won’t be IRL (In real life), which naturally is a massive pain. If you’re looking for somewhere in the Medina to eat at about 6 PM, then set off at 7 AM and you might get there an hour late. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m incredibly incompetent with maps but until someone proves me wrong, trying to find somewhere in the Medina/souks is a lost cause.  

Restaurant recommendations and more to come in part 2.

Reds True BBQ - Restaurant Review

I've never really considered myself a religious person, in my younger years I used to attend church most Sundays but it was never something I was really into. It was really more of an attempt by my mother to steer my down the right path which half worked out; I reckon I've turned out alright. Now at 21 years of age I have discovered a new place of worship. Carrying out my prayers requires me to commute around 30 minutes in either direction from where I am currently situated, yet I try to visit one of these churches as often as possible.

Meat is my religion and Reds is my church.

With the franchise recently expanding into Manchester and Headingly, I thought it fitting to share my thoughts before the chain secures national domination.

This review may already sound biased but just to let you know my relationship with Reds has not always been so full of love; in fact we got off to a pretty rocky start.  On a cold October night last year I made the pilgrimage to its doors, only to be turned away like when I was 10years old and wore a slayer shirt to church. Informed that I would be waiting for up to 4 hours I had to walk off back into the night a hungry defeated man, only to be taken advantage of by ‘Handmade Burger Co’ where my taste buds and bank account were well and truly violated. This night scared me for life, however I was determined to not let it get me down. I gathered my energy and after a few weeks put myself out there again and was thankfully greeted by Red’s warm embrace through it’s doors and have been welcomed back ever since.

It’s worth mentioning the no booking policy, which is the only complaint I repeatedly hear about the place. As I have experienced it’s rather frustrating turning up somewhere and being told you’ll have to wait for hours, that being said it makes getting in all the more satisfying. All you really need is some common sense and a bit of luck, if you turn up with 8 mates at 7PM on a Saturday night and find it outrageous that you’re not able to waltz in and sit down at a table, then you are genuinely quite stupid. The Leeds restaurant alone caters to nearly 20,000 diners a month so you've got to be tactical about getting in. My recommendation is to avoid weekends completely unless you’re Jay Z, go for lunch on a weekday or get there around 5 and you should manage it.   

The fact that it’s always so busy means there’s an incredible atmosphere every time you eat here. The amount of times I've sat down in a restaurant and there’s barely anyone else there, even if the food and service is good; it’s pretty awkward. You need not worry about this at Reds and I’m sure the same can be said for the Manchester branch, as I understand half the city is already converted into believers.  Another excellent feature is the encouragement regarding social media, among the soulful decor you’ll find web addresses for the reds Instagram page, encouraging you to hash tag at will. Wherever I go and no matter whom I am with, I always sweat a little when I take a picture of my food, despite never failing to make time to do so. I don’t know why, I see people instagramming their food all the time yet I never see people taking pictures in real actual human being life. Am I missing something? Is there a secret way of doing it? Regardless Reds essentially encourage it, that’s the king of supportive friend I need.

I've made my way through a decent amount of the Reds menu, so I’ll draw attention to a few of my favorites here.

The pit burger; my go to choice, optimizes man food. If you threw that thing into the middle of a farm I’m pretty sure the animals there would cry their eyes out upon seeing their friends and family sliced up and crammed in between two buns. It’s huge for starters and there’s so much meat on this thing it’s unreal. Two steak burgers, brisket, pulled pork and streaky bacon topped with cheese, dill pickle, tomato, lettuce, dirty sauce, American mustard and BBQ sauce between a brioche bun. It still remains as the best burger I’ve ever had, a title that still has few contenders. If you’re planning on eating this the come prepared, it’s not the easiest of tasks. My build is probably more Pete Docherty than Brock Lesnar but I am proud to say I have demolished quite a few of these bad boys in my time without leaving anything (excluding the sides).

Speaking of the sides you can’t really go wrong with any of them. You’re able to choose between humble and divine, humble sporting options such as skin on fries and grits and divine boasting sweet potato fries and pit beans. I pretty much go for the pit beans every time now, smoky bbq beans mixed with onions, pulled pork and burnt ends, they’re delicious and essentially a meal in themselves.

Other menu standouts include the pulled pork burger, pretty straightforward and something you’ll find pretty much anywhere these days; 2013/14 has to be the worst year to be a pig. Reds of course do it extremely well and I think you’ll struggle find a PP butty this good (and cheap) anywhere in the North.

The focal point of any BBQ place is without a doubt the ribs, and with Reds recently placing on the top 8 places to get ribs in the UK among a load of London hot shots; I doubt you’ll need my word to confirm that their ribs are pretty special.

Basically this place is excellent, I’m yet to find any real fault with it. Chances are if you live remotely near Leeds you will have already worshiped the meat at Reds; if you haven’t then you’re probably mental.

With regards to Manchester, yes there is a lot of choice in this culinary oasis but next time you’re choosing, choose reds and you’ll never look back.

Almost Famous Manchester - 

Another review of the most reviewed place ever ft. some rubbish pictures

Sporting a deathly hangover whilst on my travels from the Tudor esq heights of Chester back to the dark depths of Huddersfield I spotted a window of opportunity whilst pit stopping in Manchester. The window that I had for so long pined to be on the other side of, the window that advertised the sale of Unicorn Meat, the window that of course belongs to none other than the famous Almost Famous.

I’m ashamed to say that this was my first time visiting the place, despite my unhealthy food obsession and being aware of it since its inception in the home of beards, fake glasses and rolled up jeans AKA the Northern Quarter (Apologies if that’s not the trend anymore). For some reason I never went, maybe due to me having to decipher what my 10 pounds of student loan could get me this week or my inability to grow any form of beard at 21 years, regardless these burgers for so long had been out of my reach.

The location at Great Northern warehouse is excellent; the area is smart, modern and definitely a worthy environment for Drake and Rihanna to go bowling. We arrived at about half 3 and were seated straight away, a welcome relief indeed.  I’d heard the horror stories of the hour long queues due to the no booking polices and whilst no stranger to this, I definitely did not fancy hanging around whilst 70cl of Sailor Jerries’ resumed the torturous process of leaving my bloodstream. The décor inside the place was great, reminding me of an American diner/80’s disco type vibe with a humungous bar that really was quite impressive to look at. The best part was undoubtedly the massive gorilla sat in the middle of the room, who doesn’t want to walk in somewhere and see a massive gorilla. The only downfalls I could imagine people, typically of the elder generation, complaining about are how dark it is and how loud the music is. I however don’t really have a problem with that because I’m not 60 yet. 

Down to the menu which was reasonably priced and offered a good amount of choice, without reading like a softback copy of The Goblet of Fire. From my experience a long menu is the trademark of a rubbish restaurant so I was glad to see Almost Famous did not throw an onslaught of options at me, although I did struggle with choosing, purely because of my irritating indecisiveness.  After choosing we went to order our food and drinks at the bar. I was definitely happy that they had played the ‘nandos card’ in doing this, waiting for the bill is still one of the most annoying things in life ever, more places definitely need to adopt this system.

So the main event was of course the food, which came out pleasantly quickly. I opted for the ‘Animal Burger’ whereas my dining companion ordered the ‘Triple Nom’, we also shared a portion of ‘Pig and Waffle Fries’. First of it looks damn good, dirty, but good; kind of like one of the girls from Jersey/Geordie shore, that good that I could only pause for a brief second for the obligatory pre-meal Instagram shot; (a moment stole from me by my low battery)  before getting stuck in. I consider myself reasonably experienced in burgers. This was a good burger. One of the best burgers I've ever had.  The two peppered cheeseburgers we’re tasty as hell and ever so slightly rare in the middle which is always a good sign of a quality patty.  That combined with the mustard mayo fried onions, jalapeno onions, lettuce and chipotle sauce made for a messy but delicious concoction, throw some beef monster munch on top of all of that and you’ve got something hilariously special. Have you ever tried monster much slathered in mash up of cheese and sauce? I hadn’t either but now I feel like I can never eat them the same way again. 


Unfortunately I publicly displayed my almost famous virginity by attacking this beast the wrong way which resulted in me having to swallow my pride and use my knife and fork like a civilized person might do, try to learn from my wrongs. Onto the pig and waffle fries, which further enforce the fact that they don’t do anything subtle at this place? Incredibly tasty and even if the lights in the building weren’t so dark I’m not sure I’d be able to distinguish the different elements of what was smashed all over the waffle shaped chips. Pulled Pork, redneck sauce, blue cheese sauce, jalapenos and onions, of course it was incredible. The culinary cat woman to my batman had the ‘triple nom’, which was essentially these fries in burger form with a load of slaw on. After declaring it ‘one of the best’, which is a term that does not get thrown around very often in our food adventures it became clear that almost famous had definitely lived up to the hype.

Rating:

8/10