Reviewing lunch time food and evening dining in Manchester's city centre
Posts tagged salad
Eat, The Arndale Centre
01 year ago
For the second day running I’ve been to Eat in The Arndale Centre.
I’ve had the same thing both times so there’s just one review. The first thing to say is that the food in there does generally look really fresh and tasty. The second thing to say is that it doesn’t really cater for your budget is not generous.
Anyway, I’ve had the crayfish noodle salad both days and its pretty tasty to be honest. Its tossed lightly in a satay sauce and has a freshness added by the inclusion of half a lime to squeeze over the top. Its not a spectacular meal but its tasty and healthy which fits the bill at the moment.
As usual I was with Stevo for both visits and he loves the place which is why I went. I wont be going if I’m not with Stevo as its pricey and further than I normally go at lunch; but then again, I wont protest if he wants to go again next week.
At £7.65 its one of the most expensive lunches I’ve had.
PS There sould be a follow up to this review later this afternoon when I tuck into the Wasabi Peas I treated myself to 
ALDI, Market Street
01 year ago
by Mister Tum
in Food Shops
Chicken Salad Sandwich 99p
There must have been an altruistic psychic making sandwiches on the factory line for Aldi this morning. Knowing that a purchase from their paltry sandwich selection usually leads me inexorably into a mental battle with suicidal impulses this humane telepath clearly lent a generous hand in the preparation of the unusually agreeable ingredients.
Normally with a cheap-ass ALDI chicken/ham/bacon/insert-meat-here sandwich there is an almost profound abundance of salty sandy dryness, to the near exclusion of filling and sauce. This experience of painful aridity, akin to chewing on a used sandal, is what usually triggers my downward spiralling thoughts of permanent self-harm. In this instance, my unnamed guardian spotted this sad potential and sought to assuage my aching soul and rumbling stomach.
Resigning myself to the barren flavours but undeniable affordability of the meek chicken sandwich I tucked in, inconsolable tears of resignation threatening to flood my eyes, when suddenly my endorphins kicked in, seizing upon the slightest thread of zest and throttling the essence from it with every ounce of strength in my otherwise resource-depleted brain. Clawing back positivity from the black abysses of blandworld, it was like travelling the long savoury road to redemption via the medium of chewing.
Your mileage may vary, and this experience was particularly circumstantial, borne of impecunious financial standing and boosted by unexpected fervour responding to the natural elation of dodging suicide. But next time I’m staggering along Market Street screaming at the skies for inspiration and weeping at strangers to give me direction to food, I know I’ll be able to drag myself to the realisation that: the ALDI over there? It aint so bad. And thank goodness for their psychic staff…
Marks & Spencer, Piccadilly Gardens
01 year ago
by Mister Tum
in Food Shops
Ham/egg/potato/tomato salad – 2 for £3
So, clearly these are fair portions designed to assist those looking earnestly to lose weight. However, at that price point, and with my girth, it clearly becomes a case of combining two options together to make a passable portion-sized salad.
Gotta say this upfront: I’ve had these salads for two days running now. Get an egg+potato salad and a ham+egg salad and you’ve got a really decent meal right there. Comes with a pretty standard but tasty salad cream – actually about four times as much as you could feasibly need, unless you particularly enjoy, say, physically bathing in the stuff.
So yes, so what, I’ve had 4 salads for 2 lunches in 2 days. I completely undermined any sense of eating to lose weight, like Homer in the Blisstonia episode when he eats so much will-sapping gruel that he doesn’t actually lose any will at all.
Why the salads all of a sudden? Well, aside from the utter tedium of gnawing through 20 cubic metres of lettuce – weighing in at about a total 1 gram of lettuce – the rest of the stuff is actually good. (Well, a good accompaniment to say, a big burger). Fresh tomatoes, cucumber, onions, eggs, potatoes, ham and the aforementioned vast quantity of lettuce.
And, for once living up to Marks and Sparks’ claims about being not just food this goes beyond the typical last-week’s-leftovers you might be fortunate enough to stumble across at the Gabattoire for example. All in all, if you’re a bloke you’ll be looking at two of these at a reasonable price for a pretty solid, semi-healthy lunch. For once you won’t have to charge into the fountains in Piccadilly Gardens loudly decrying your own very existence, weeping tears of utter defeat at the futility of having to choose what to have for lunch for the 50,000th time and having absolutely no answers at hand.
Incidentally, M&S, bring back Dervla Kerwan, we miss her!
Subway, Mosley Street
01 year ago
by Mister Tum
in Fast Food Chains
Thursday 6” Sub of the Day: BMT on Herb & Cheese £2.29.
Subway. Started out so well, sunk so low. Remember when the Sub of the Day was £1.79? Remember the days when they used to give out rewards (buy six get one free)? Or when they used to make it in their words “how you like it”? Now it’s more like “how we like you to have it“, i.e. with little to no filling whatsoever. Also, they take every single opportunity to up-sell you more and more. They honestly put McDonalds to shame for this. I’m pretty sure Subway would happily ask if you wanted to supersize given half the chance.
I’ve been to Subway a shamefully substantial amount of times over the years and here’s what I’ve learned:
- Do not experiment with anything on the menu as it isn’t worth the effort – stick to what you know
- Sub of the Day is the only reason to go, otherwise you might as well sink your cash into something worthwhile and go and have a ‘proper’ lunch
- The quantity of filling you receive is inversely proportional to the number of years/months/weeks that this store has been operating
- The cost of your sub = [x+20p], where ‘x’ is equal to the number of Subway subs you have consumed to date (e.g. my Subs cost approximately £16,864.00 these days)
- The length of your rage fuse is equal to your starting fuse (let’s call this ‘n’) divided by ‘y’, where ‘y’ is equivalent to the number of questions you are asked by the idiotically titled “sandwich artists” as you move along the line trying to prise your lunch from the collective artists’ grasping clutches
This is how I’d like the transaction to go:
‘6” BMT on herb & cheese with everything but olives, please.’
‘£1.79, please, sir.’
‘Thanks, bye.’
Here’s how it actually goes:
‘6” BMT on herb & cheese with everything but olives, please.’
‘Which bread?’
‘Herb & cheese, please’
‘Double cheese for extra 50p?’
‘No, thanks.’
‘Toaster for extra 60p?’
‘No, thank you.’
‘Extra salad for extra 70p?’
‘No, thanks anyway.’
‘Double it up for an extra £5?’
‘Please: no, thank you so much.’
‘Cookie with that for extra £17?’
‘No, just, no.’
‘Drink with that for extra £100?’
‘NO.’
‘Anything else with that for an extra -’
‘For the love of God, just GIVE ME MY DAMNED SANDWICH!!’
Actually, that extract is heavily edited for brevity. Anyway, you finally get your sandwich and tuck in, and you know what? It’s just not very good.
SubWAY? More like SubPAR.
PS. Anyone know what BMT stands for? (My unimaginative guess would be Bad Meaty Tripe . . .)
Marks & Spencer, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester
11 year ago
by Mister Tum
in Food Shops
“Your 5 A Day” meal, £4
Carrot and cucumber slices, nuts and raisins, some inedible humous and a curious cranberry (?) jam-type substance for £4. Some readers might think that this alone cannot amount to an entire meal. And you’d be right. Where is the meat product, for example? What do you mean, there is no meat? Doesn’t this go against the very tenets of your basic human-meal? Yes. It does.
This package meal seeks to offer absolution from that preternatural worry which we’ve all had marketed into our subconscious brains: have you had your five-a-day? Unless you’re the test subject of some sadistic microbiotic megalomaniac Gillian McKeith-spawn the answer to this question is invariably ‘no’. So, tentatively stepping into the bland and tasteless world of the vegetarian I sought to discover whether or not a longer life meant a better life. For, if one were to dine exclusively on such rabbit food, and if indeed it did prolong life in that one’s insides were eventually purged of the standard 5 lbs of red meat that we all know lie undigested in our guts (thank you Judge Reinhold in Beverley Hills Cop II) – then would this new meatless and thus longer-lasting life be worth actually living?
The short answer is no. And that’s what I’m giving you: the short answer. Suicide would be preferable. The food itself is pretty much fresh and inoffensive, what is offensive is that it doesn’t sit on top of a gigantic sizzling steak. You might think that’s my fault for not ordering a steak and getting the food I wanted rather than a veggie option, but you’d be wrong. The purchase was a direct result of the indelible fear that “5-a-day” marketing has seeded into the darkest parts of our souls.
Rustica, Hilton Street, Manchester
01 year ago
by Mister Tum
in Food Shops
Cheap and cheerful, greasy but good, comforting not gourmet – potential post-eating side effects: sleepiness, grease-fuelled guilt, contented satiation.
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