I ate chicken feet and thousand-year-old eggs in Manchester’s Chinatown – and I loved it
The Manc's Food and Drink Editor took a deep dive into Chinese delicacies at Mei Dim, and fell in love with its baskets of chicken feet, thousand year old egg congee and beef tripe.
Chicken feet, tripe, and thousand-year-old eggsmight not be the first things you think to orderwhen visiting a restaurant in Manchester’s Chinatown, but if you’re paying a visit to Mei Dim then you really need to give it a go. If not, you’re seriously missing out.
A non-descript basement canteen tucked underground on Faulkner Street, from the outside its laminated pictoral menus give very little clue as to the delights within. But they’re very much there for the taking, if you’re daring enough to step out of your comfort zone.
Visiting on a chilly Monday lunchtime, this is exactly what I’ve vowed to do – with a little help from a friend who not only speaks fluent Cantonese, but also lived in Hong Kong as a child and has a chef for a dad.
Armed with knowledge, he’s the best dining partner I could ask for: patiently explaining the menu to me and then delighting when I announce, at the end of our meal, that I’ve fallen in love with chicken feet. ‘At last’, he says, he’s found a white person who will eat ‘the weird stuff’ with him. It’s the start of a beautiful new chapter for us.
After some back and forth, followed by some wrangling with the staff in Cantonese, he manages to convince them to give us a sheet of paper to ‘tick off’ our dim sum choices. This, I’m told, is how it’s meant to be done – with the staff taking one half, and leaving the other on your table to count off the dishes as they arrive.
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At this point I realise it’s a good thing I’m not alone, because I really have no idea what I’m doing. Although there is an English menu provided, there’s also a second specials menu that has absolutely no translation.
The service is also perfunctory at best, or at least it is before they warm up to us. Left to my own devices, my awkward self would’ve probably already upped and left, only to miss out on one of the best meals of my life.
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We reel off our order: steamed chicken feet and beef tripe, a steaming bowl of congee (made with a thousand year old egg), steamed custard and egg yolk buns, roasted pork cheung fun, and Shanghai-style soup dumplings.
‘Have we gone too weird?’ we wonder out loud, before deciding no, not at all. At this point, I’m very much in for a penny, in for a pound.
Meaty congee with thousand year old egg at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
Steamed beef tripe with ginger and spring onion at Mei Dim, pictured above egg yolk custard buns. / Image: The Manc Eats
It doesn’t take long before our first dish arrives, a plate of slippery-looking cheung fun – a thin, gelatinous and slightly chewy rice noodle roll filled with pork then drizzled in soy sauce.
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It’s followed, swiftly, by a tower of bamboo baskets, filled with chicken feet, steamed beef tripe with ginger and spring onion, plump steamed custard buns and our steamed soup dumplings – all dumped, rather unceremoniously might I add, on our table.
Once the curtain of steam between us evaporates, we survey the spoils. My nerves about eating feet dispelled, I take some quick instruction on how to remove the skin from the bones with my tongue then get stuck in.
Quickly realising these feet are 99% skin (in my opinion, one of the best parts of the bird) it dawns on me: I’ve finally found a dish where it’s acceptable to only eat chicken skin, without ingesting any actual meat. No wonder so many people rave about this as a comfort food.
Egg yolk custard buns at Mei DIm. / Image: The Manc Eats
Cheung fun with pork at Mei Dim. / Image: The Manc Eats
And as for that thousand-year-old egg? If anything, it’s a misnomer. A couple of weeks, or months old at best, sitting in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls makes it rich in flavour and adds a hefty dose of umami to a meaty bowl of congee.
Beyond that, the greatest delights of the day have to be the egg yolk custard buns, satisfactorily oozing their hot golden goo at the slightest pressure. When Giggs grins and tells me that he hasn’t had any this good since leaving Hong Kong, I know we’re on to a winner here.
Although Mei Dim has a distinct lack of social media presence, the fact that most of its clientele are Chinese speaks volumes as to the quality. It also has a great word-of-mouth reputation, which is how I stumbled across it in the first place.
That said, it’s not going to be for everyone and there are plenty of keyboard warriors who’ve taken the time to slag this place off. Quite a few scathing TripAdvisor reviews bemoan its old school decor and lack of ‘friendly’ service, but I rather like it. If anything, it makes it feel more authentic.
This is how I remember Chinatown always used to be when growing up, and I think there’s something to be said for a restaurant more interested in what’s coming out of its kitchen than the tables it’s being served on.
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Simply put: if you want to be fawned over, you’re probably best off going elsewhere. But if you want great dim sum, Mei Dim is an absolute must.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Food & Drink
Inside The Black Friar as Salford pub unveils incredible floral display
Daisy Jackson
Spring has really sprung in Salford – legendary pub The Black Friar has just revealed a sensational makeover, with gigantic flowers sprawled across its frontage and a new seasonal menu to go with it.
The historic pub is celebrating the changing of the seasons with both a striking floral installation and a menu that celebrates spring and Salford in equal measure.
Most Mancs will by now have spotted the 4,000 flower-strong installation that now adorns the front of The Black Friar, with bright pink, yellow and purple flowers spilling from a gigantic pink tap.
And all those florals continue inside, with the pub’s Tavern – previously a cosy winter hideaway – now filled with trailing blooms and woodland installations, just off their award-winning garden.
Cheshire-based artist Kelly Louise Chapman is the woman behind this sensational transformation of the much-loved gastropub.
As for the pub’s kitchen, they’ve crafted a new very seasonal and very British menu, with plenty of nods to Black Friar’s Salford roots.
There are dishes like a Boddingtons braised ox cheek (the pub still proudly displays its Boddingtons sign outside), aged beef tartare, butternut squash and ricotta tortellini, and pan-roasted cod fillet.
Spring small plates at The Black Friar pubDelicious spring drinksInside The Tavern at The Black Friar
A popular item from the Valentine’s Day menu – the Cornish crab vol-au-vent – will be sticking around on the spring menu, along with an enhanced grill section that includes a lamb Barnsley chop cooked over coals.
Then for desserts, you’ll be spoilt with a banoffee knickerbocker glory, and passionfruit panna cotta.
And for drinks (because this is a pub, after all), The Black Friar has put together a range of seasonal drinks like a rose sangria sharer, and non-alcoholic sodas like kaffir lime and coconut.
Ben Chaplin, head chef at The Black Friar, said: “This new menu is all about celebrating the best of spring produce.
“We’ve carefully crafted each dish to highlight fresh, seasonal ingredients and bold flavours, adding new depth to our offerings while still delivering the comfort that will always be associated with The Black Friar.
“My top recommendation and personal favourite dish is the Slow-Cooked Boddingtons Braised Ox Cheek.”
Neil Burke, owner of The Black Friar, commented: “We wanted to bring a taste of spring to The Black Friar, inside and out. This floral installation will transform the space and bring sunshine and smiles, whatever the weather!
“My top recommendation on the new menu is the Cumbrian Spiced Lamb Scotch Egg. It’s EXCEPTIONAL.”
To find out more about The Black Friar and to book a table, visit HERE.
You can now get a Pot Noodle as part of your Tesco meal deal
Danny Jones
If you ask us, a big key to a happy life is all about celebrating the little wins as much as possible and in this case, when we heard that you can now get a Pot Noodle as part of your Tesco meal deal, we nearly did a cartwheel.
Are we exaggerating? Only a little bit, to be fair. Is this still kind of a big deal (pardon the pun) for the millions of Brits whose lunchtime meal regularly consists of a Tesco butty, beverage and perhaps some crisps? We think so.
We only heard the joyous news through word of mouth, but it looks as though the rumours are true after being not-so-quietly confirmed via the official Pot Noodle social media channels last week, revealing that you can indeed get your flavour of choice as part of your meal deal.
That really is the headline here, let’s be honest; the fact that you can now get a Pot Noodle – something many people have for their tea or a more than satisfying late-night snack – as the bonus side along with your main item at Tesco it an absolute result.
With meal deal prices having steadily crept up across the nation over recent years, no matter which supermarket, Tesco Extra, Asda Express, Sainsbury’s Local, convenience store and so on you seem to look in, getting an extra bit of value for money like is a big win for those on a quick dinner dash.
This is just like when we figured out you could get a proper Ginsters sausage roll, Cornish pasty or steak/chicken slice as your snack too. Just as buzzing then as we are now.
The brand also recently revealed what the UK’s most popular meal choices were last year, and some of the selections might surprise you.
Once again, it’s all about enjoying the little things, and put it this way, if we’re overreacting, then so are plenty of others.
Now accepting donations so One Drunk Redneck can get to the #UK and experience a #Tesco meal deal. I only need to raise enough for a one way ticket. I'm not too worried about how I'd get back home.
Oh, I probably should take my spouse. Ok, enough for two, one way tickets.
The only slight downside is that right now, as you might have spotted in the Instagram post above, this offer has only been rolled out at select Tescos.
As for those in Greater Manchester, there are just two local shops: the Tesco Extra in Walkden in Salford, as well as the Extra on Huddersfield Road in Bolton; the next closest after that is Warrington.
Nevertheless, you would expect that if the popularity of this new deal takes off – Tesco’s lunchtime package being one of the most popular in Britain – it’s likely that they will expand their plans up and down the country at large.
Speaking on the launch in an official press release, Pot Noodle’s senior brand Madeleine Boulton said: “We know our fans are always looking to get the most bang for their buck, so our move into the Tesco Meal Deal as a side is our way of giving customers the ultimate ‘snackisfaction’ and for some, the perfect hack that will ensure their meal deal sees them through the day.”
Can’t lie, we do rather fancy a Bombay Bad Boy now.
Georgina Pellant -
20th January 2023 
