Afternoon tea at And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
Winning an afternoon tea at West Didsbury teashop And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon was a delightfully lovely surprise. I’d forgotten that I entered a competition on Didsbury Life, so was most pleased after a very hectic week to receive a phone call to tell me I’d won.
Having been open for a year-and-a-half, the little tearoom is set on Burton Road, in the heart of West Didsbury. With gorgeous retro chairs and tables, vintage cake stands and vivid turquoise blue walls, Dishes and Spoons is a relaxing, bright and airy space.
It’s not just cupcakes here, there’s everything from carrot cake, red velvet cake, scones, biscuits and even retro hardboiled sweets. This is a Great British celebration of traditional baking at its best.
The slabs of sponge are washed down with a choice of loose teas from the Brew Tea Company in Liverpool or fair trade Union roasted coffee.
The afternoon tea is available on Saturday and Sundays from 1pm, and at £10.95 per person is amazing value. With a tier of sandwiches, freshly-baked scones and three cakes EACH, this is a belt-loosening treat. It has been recommended to me before, but I’d never had a chance for a tasting session.
Sandwiches are either egg mayonnaise or ham and mustard and are really just a polite nod to savoury before the cakey-sconey fun begins. The scones were beautifully light with that home-baked freshness and are served with a choice of jams and cream.
Chocolate-dipped strawberries are an attractive juicy palate-cleanser before the final tier of cakes. We were given cupcakes, chocolate brownies, red velvet cake and carrot cake. See what I mean about the amazing value for money? We didn’t manage all the cakes in one sitting, and got them packaged up to eat over three days.
The chocolate brownies were the moistest, fudgiest, most delicious brownie I’ve ever tasted. It still tasted good a few days later, and surprisingly hadn’t dried out at all. With a thick cream cheese topping, the carrot cake was a chunky hunk of goodness, and the cupcakes were delicate and pretty. The red velvet cake was just as tasty, with the deep red coloured sponge seeming quite dramatic against the white cream filling and topping.
Dishes and Spoons is run by Anna and James, who came back from a trip to Australia with a yearning to create the amazing treats they found (although I didn’t realise that Oz was famed for its cakes). Burton Road is the perfect places for this venture. I can see why it’s so popular, appealing to students, young professionals and families.
They also do a roaring trade in take-out, giving a fantastic bustle to the place. But be warned, they do sell out so don’t be late!
This teashop exemplifies everything Manchester does best. An independent place, full of personality doing what they do very well and doing it with passion.
230 Burton Road, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2LW (opposite the co-op)
W: www.dishandspoonfood.co.uk
T: 0161 637 5517
E: thebaker@dishandspoonfood.co.uk
T: @dishesandspoons
Bringing Lowry to Life
In case you hadn’t noticed, the University of Salford are doing some very exciting things at the moment. With their new Mediacity:uk presence sharing a building with ITV and being near the BBC, their media students are going to have some great opportunities.
This Saturday (November 12) will see Lowry’s painting of Piccadilly Gardens from 1954 brought to life in 2011. How the hell would they do this, you ask?
Well, a digital projection in Piccadilly Gardens will project the movements of passersby into a screen where special motion capture technology will transfer their movements to Lowry characters. People will be able to stand in front of the screen and see themselves depicted as a Lowry painting character.
Over at Mediacity:uk, visitors will be able to see the entire painting re-created with Piccadilly Gardens and the characters, with movements taken from real-time shoppers and passersby.
Lowry didn’t paint many recognisable Manchester or Salford landmarks – many of his paintings were composite, or of places that don’t exist anymore – so this is a really interesting painting. Not sure what Lowry himself would have made of the Communist-looking concrete Piccadilly Gardens of today.
This innovative stunt is just one part a showcase of digital art and technology at the university’s Mediacity building, called Believe. It sounds like there’s loads of cool stuff going on there this weekend.
You can visit the university’s onsite TV studios and virtually star in an adventure with BBC’s Dinosaur Planet and then download the clip to keep forever. In the building’s ground floor exhibition space guests can have a go at some fun digital video games on iPad-like touchscreen tables, while a dazzling 7m x 3m video wall with the world’s best resolution will show impressive film and animation.
Called Believe, the event is free of charge and is open from 10.30am-5.30pm on Saturday, November 12 at the University of Salford, MediaCityUK, Salford, M50 2HE.
Visit www.salford.ac.uk/believe for more information.
Artisan Markets, Castlefield
It couldn’t have worked out better. We had nothing planned, and it was a mild November day with searing blue skies and a low afternoon sun.
Scanning through my Twitter feed on Sunday morning, I noticed a tweet about Castlefield Artisan Market, which is on the cobbles under the viaduct near Dukes 92.
With a great mix of food, vintage stalls and craft, this was the best market I’ve been to in a long time. Jazz was blasted out across the cobbles, with a troupe of dancers, doing a ridiculously cool dance routine. The upbeat music gave the event a really lovely atmosphere and gave everyone a smile on their face.
We stocked up on salt marsh lamb from Cockerham in Lancashire, as well as speciality sausages, cakes and delicacies from Taste of Anatolia, among many other delicious items.
This is exactly what Manchester has needed for many years, and I can’t understand why the council hasn’t been able to organise something like this. Although saying that, the best events come from innovative individuals doing something they’re passionate about. And in true Manchester fashion, this isn’t just any old farmers’ market – it’s so much more than that.
Castlefield Artisan Market will take place every first Sunday of the month, from 10am to 4pm. The next event is December 4 and there is a special Christmas market on December 23.
Come along and show your support.
Surburban Series plates by Lisa Mouncey, from Broadstone Mill