SWEET MANDARIN: CHINESE CUISINE (UK)

Sweet Mandarin is an award winning restaurant, having won many coveted prizes including the AA Rosette, the F word which is a Gordon Ramsay Local Chinese Restaurant competition, and the chefs, sisters, also served the Prime Minister and Premier Li. They have published a cooking book and is sold in their restaurant here in Manchester and also on Amazon.

Their journey is shown on their website and also in their memoirs which is also available to be bought online. The restaurant is located in northern quarter between the many bars and restaurants. Northern Quarter in Manchester is known for being where the young will venture to. It's abundance of cafes, bars and restaurants make it a busy hub of interesting cuisine, merchandise and services.

Sweet Mandarin was right across from a Mexican themed bar. It was a rainy day, a day when we were celebrating our friend's birthday. It wasn't so bad as we got to hail a cab for the journey down to the northern quarter. We were meant to go to this pizza joint, but it was closed for renovation and we had to look about in the rain to find another place to eat, and we stumbled upon Sweet Mandarin.

It wasn't very big place but the atmosphere was warm with lanterns hanging above and oriental screens planted about. The waiters were friendly people and we greeted immediately at the door. The place didn't need a reservation and we were placed to a table.

I discovered halfway through the meal that one of the people who served us was actually one of the sisters, the very owners of the restaurant. I was surprised to find her face on the menus before us, with her sister behind the bar making drinks.

We ordered a platter of dishes, my friend being a vegetarian and I myself loving tofu, had some vegetarian dishes, and the birthday girl also ordered
some other meals as well. She loves meat. We decided on vegetarian fried rice, vegetarian appetizers, braised tofu and mixed vegetables, lemon chicken, and a creative new dish that puts a spin on the classic peking duck.

The vegetarian appetizers were vegetarian spring rolls, salt and pepper mushrooms, with seaweed. The fried rice was served with mixture of vegetables, like cabbage leaves and chestnuts. It was a well seasoned, taste great served hot and with the claypot tofu, which had braised tofu and vegetables, cabbage leaves, spring onions, ginger, onions and mushrooms. The claypot had a healthy portion of vegetables and tofu, with a generous amount of gravy.

The peking duck, which is called crispy aromatic duck on the menu. It was exactly as named. Crispy, with the duck dried to the bone, along with the skin, which had been marinated for a whole day with a blend of spices. It was served with pancakes, thinly sliced cucumbers and spring onions, and sweet bean sauce. This is all wrapped neatly into a roll and eaten by hand. It was crispy and though dry, you could still savor the taste of the spices left in the duck.

My friend who has never tried the peking duck found it to be delicious and ate most of the duck, to my amusement.

The lemon chicken had crispy skin and the lemon sauce has all the elements of a lemon sauce, not sweet like most chinese restaurants would do it but enough to complement the dish.

We also had drinks with the meal. A bunch of cocktails which were named after the zodiac. I had one in the year of the pig, which I was born in and my friends decided on monkey. Mine was lychee infused vodka, lychee juice, fresh lemon and a splash of ginger juice. The monkey was spicy ginger infused beer, lime and vodka. They were both delicious and best of all hid the taste of the alcohol.

I really recommend this place for those seeking chinese cuisine in Manchester but it is fairly pricey. The whole meal had a higher price than expected but I think it was worth it.

Location:
19 Copperas St, 
Manchester, M4 1HS,
United Kingdom

Phone:+44 161 832 8848


Opening hours:

Sunday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Monday

12:00 - 23:00

Wednesday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Thursday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Friday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Saturday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

For more information go to this website:http://www.sweetmandarin.com/



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This is Sharon signing off on this week's episode. Tune in next week for more.

YUZU RESTAURANT: JAPANESE CUISINE (UK)

I've only been in Manchester a fair amount of time, and I still do not know the city as well but I luckily do have friends who do. I've been brought to lots of asian food places and one of them is this japanese restaurant called Yuzu. Literal translation sour mandarin. I think the hardest part is naming something and trying to get it what you want it to embody. Well to me it is, I'm pretty sure everyone else find it easy to name like their book or something. I'm always making things harder than it seems, I do not know why. I'm trying guys.

Okay, so we go down to Chinatown. It's very near chinatown and right after the japanese restaurant we went to an asian dessert place nearby.

So anyway, going to it. The restaurant is quite a high class place, but not very big place with seating but I think that is what they're trying for. Cause as I have read in manga, yes I read mangas, I know, I'm a huge nerd, I love comic heroes too by the way. Anyways, it is always to my knowledge that food places aren't so big, they have to maintain a specific size, not sure why, also have seating near to where the chef is cooking because, well I don't entirely know, maybe to get closer to cooking experience, the show of it? I can't seriously tell though.

So we have like a few dishes to order. It was kind of pricey, but I really didn't mind. I had my favorite like order when I eat Japanese food, Udon with tempura platter, but there was like a different type of noodles, it's called Kishimen. It's flat and broad like a fettucine pasta. It of course does not have the same texture as a pasta, less sticky and more slippery since it's soaked in the broth. I love soup noodles, because of the flavorsome and wholesome taste you get because it's boiled with lots of ingredients and it's brought into the very spoon in which you drink it from. Oh the shivers of delight.

I have a love for tempura, it's meant to be not oily, and crunchy to the taste. Usually good restaurants do it very well, while others make it kind of heavy and oily. This one is really good, light, and definitely crunchy. It was an array of sliced eggplant, sweet potato and beans with giant shrimps. So there's always an extra plate of a type of dipping broth for tempura, well for some restaurants, not this one though.

I did not try the miso soup in the restaurant, not going to lie, dislike miso soup. I think there was a trauma when I was kid that brought me to dislike it so much but I can't remember what it is, and has cause me to hate it forever.

Overall, the meal was good, though I don't know if it was worth 16 pounds but they did use quality products from the taste of it.

They do not serve sushi just meals. So if you wanna eat that you could go to one of those rotation types of sushi places.

You could check out their website. This place is quite well known, and has a good reputation in Manchester. I, however had the best udon ever in Brighton, and ever since it cannot compare to anything else.

WEBSITE: http://www.yuzumanchester.co.uk/

Open: Tuesday — Saturday
Lunch: 12pm — 2pm(Last order 2pm, 2:30 on Saturday)
Dinner: 5.30pm — 10pm(Last order 9:30pm)

This is Sharon signing off this week's episode on The Makan Post. Stay tuned for more episodes coming your way.

The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and dont forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the Follow button below. Also, check out our instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

themakanpost@gmail.com

MANCHESTER FOOD HUNTING- SEOUL KIMCHI: KOREAN FOOD (UK)

It's been raining for awhile in Manchester, since it's the start of the winter season. Malaysia's weather is usually tropical so I'm used to the rain, but it's mixed in with the cold air, making it so much worse. So I love how conveniently located this particular restaurant was. It's like a ten minute walk from my dorm to Seoul Kimchi, and not to mention the food is really good.

 They sell mostly Korean dishes, as well as Japanese ones. It was really good comparatively to other Korean places. From what I've been told, it is the most authentic and delicious Korean meal to every other Korean restaurant in Manchester. But it has westernised a bit, seeing as some ingredients can't be found here in the UK.

We ordered a set meal, consisting of Jeon (korean pancake), salad, korean miso soup, galbi (a beef stew) and matcha ice-cream. As well as being very well represented, there were also some side dishes. Traditionally served with a meal, like kimchi, kongjorim (marinated soy beans), marinated sliced potatoes( I'm not sure what the name is).

The korean pancake traditionally consists of sliced vegetables mixed in a savory batter and fried like a pancake. It's really delicious if done well, but if the batter is too thick, it would have this doughy consistency which isn't very good. Usual good pancakes will be crispy and not too oily. Korean pancakes would have kimchi usually in them, it is optional though. But others would have sliced vegetables, like in our's, spring onions, some capsicums, both red and green. It was seasoned well, and was crispy. The salad was just a typical leafy salad, with lettuce, rocket, and some sprouts, and capsicum, with a light caesar dressing.

Galbi was a braised beef stew, with carrots and onions and capsicum. It was a nice consistency of sweet and salty, delicious to the taste, with the meat so easily broken apart and therefore melting in my mouth. All the vegetables were boiled properly and not hard at all, and you'll be able to bite easily into it.

The miso soup, something I don't usually like drinking, is as salty as I remember. I have a biased view towards it but it taste like a normal miso soup, though with cabbages, and tofu in it. Miso soup has soy bean base and I don't know why I dislike the taste so much but my friend drank it finish so I assume it was quite good.

 I have to say, matcha ice cream is my Achilles heel. Actually anything matcha just have me sinking on my knees. I absolutely adore eating match base products, and this was delicious. There wasn't any over powering taste of matcha, or under powering that you can't even taste the matcha. This was jsut right. I love the dusty green colour of it, and I'll always be able to eat, even in a cold weather.

This place is a must visit in Manchester if you're looking for good korean food. But I have to say, that the food there is quite expensive, I assume because of the ingredients they have to procure from Korea. The price range well above six to eight pounds for a meal. That's like forty something ringgit or more, including extra dishes. 

They have a facebook page, where you can come and check it out : https://www.facebook.com/seoulkimchimanchester/

Address:

• 275 Upper Brook Street, M13 0HR Manchester, United Kingdom
• The opening times : 
  

  Mon-Sat:	11:30 am-3:30 pm 5:00 pm-9:30 pm
  Sun:	12:00 pm-8:00 pm

THIS IS SHARON. SIGNING OFF FROM THIS WEEK'S BLOG. LOG IN NEXT WEEK FOR JOLYNN'S TURN. 

The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and dont forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the Follow button below. Also, check out our instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

themakanpost@gmail.com