Squirrels, for me at least, have always been a friend of the park, not the plate. Still, when I saw a dish of crispy fried wild squirrel appear on the menu at Street Urchin I knew it was inevitable that I would try it.
Served over a creamy pulled ham hock cassoulet with hazelnut bread croutons and nettle pesto – the squirrel deep-fried and crispy, chicken wing-style, in a buttermilk batter – at £22.50 a plate, this is certainly no roadkill barbecue.
The dish has been a smash hit since its introduction and shortly after making its first appearance on their specials board, it quickly sold out.
In fact, the crispy fried squirrel here has proven so popular that by the time I got down the specials plate had changed altogether.
Reimagined with homemade black pudding, puy lentils, wild garlic and new potatoes, with a tart little pickled blackberry and rocket salad, whilst some elements were different, the crispy fried wild buttermilk squirrel was still the same – and that’s what I really came for.
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So, being pretty much game for anything, I left my mixed feelings about the cute little pests at the door and ventured inside to find out if these squirrels are as delicious as I had heard. Spoiler alert, they kind of are.
Nutty and mellow, a bit gamey, you’re encouraged to eat the meat as you would a piece of fried chicken -and so I did. For a moment, I even forgot what it was that I was eating.
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With all the flavour in the crispy buttermilk coating, and more from the combination of black pudding, puy lentils, salad and wild garlic, the only thing to bring me back to reality was the little bones I kept having to pick out.
According to husband and wife time Rachel and Kevin Choudhary the dish has proven a hit with customers and staff alike, leaving them ‘really surprised’.
“We were looking for something new for the game options on the menu. Kev was speaking to our game supplier and randomly asked if he had any grey squirrels. Happily, he did,” Rachel told The Manc.
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“The whole team tried the dish the day it went on and the majority thought it was really good.
“We weren’t sure if it would sell, but have been really surprised. So many people have tried it and given good feedback. We’ve recommended that they eat it like chicken wings and pick it up, that way you get most of the meat.
“I’d never tried squirrel before and I absolutely loved it, it has great flavour, rich buttery texture, and it’s wild, free-range meat.”
In the UK the culling of grey squirrels is perfectly legal, and some chefs are even adopting the mellow, nutty meat as a sustainable alternative to factory-farmed products – arguing it’s better to eat it than let it go to waste.
Part of a new trend in what’s being called ‘ethical dining’, I personally found the squirrel to be bony but delicious. If asked to try it again, I absolutely would – no hesitation.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Food & Drink
Electrik Bar in Chorlton is giving away 100 FREE frankfurters to celebrate their latest kitchen collab
Danny Jones
We all love a freebie, so we thought we’d spread the good word of the scran lords by letting you know that Electrik over in Chorlton is giving away 100 free frankfurters to celebrate their newest menu takeover.
The popular neighbourhood bar and kitchen on Wilbraham Road in the South Manchester suburb has had a couple of different foodie collaborations over the past couple of years, with local residents Paramogeddon and Four Side Vegan Pizza being the most recent, but now they’re doing hot dogs.
Welcoming their latest vendors Tisch Und Teller, Electrik will be giving away a total of 100 free frankfurters to the first century of people there this evening.
Bringing a taste of Berlin, Bavaria, Frankfurt and more (with a Manc twist, of course) to the popular pub for the Thursday launch party, all you need to do is order a drink upon arrival to get your hands on a free frankfurter sandwiched between a lovely fluffy roll.
Who doesn’t love a hot dog? Especially when they’re giving them away.
As for Tisch Und Teller (TuT), they’ve been serving up German-inspired favourites from the likes of The Shakespeare in Manchester city centre and Nip and Tipple in Whalley Range since September last year, including some very impressive brunches and Sunday roasts.
But the brand just keeps gaining more traction and now they’re setting up shop in Electrik, we’re sure the word will continue to spread – and fast.
Better still, as advertised on the promo poster, not only will TuT now be serving up their delicious food from Electrik every Thursday-Sunday for the foreseeable but the launch party will also live music by local legend and DJing veteran, Abigail Ward of Ghost Assembly.
Free food, pints and top tunes – what more could you ask for on a random weeknight?
The offer will be available from 6pm tonight and, once again, you have to be among the first 100 people to buy a pint to be eligible for a free frankfurter.
Manchester’s new Instagrammable coffee shop is giving away FREE drinks tomorrow
Emily Sergeant
One of Manchester’s newest Instagrammable coffee shops is giving away free drinks tomorrow ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
With another long weekend right around the corner, and much of Greater Manchester and the UK fortunately looking set to bask in the springtime heat, popular coffee chain, Blank Street – which is one of Manchester city centre’s newest residents, with two sites in Piccadilly Gardens, and on the corner of King Street and Cross Street – has decided it wants to help the country “beat the 3pm slump”.
Ahead of the upcoming bank holiday weekend, the chain is inviting Mancs to “meet for matcha” tomorrow afternoon (Friday 3 May).
The exciting freebie offer is all said to be “inspired by data” that shows that almost half of office workers aren’t taking a break from their desks during the day, even despite research showing that this can boost productivity.
Hundreds of iced matcha lattes will be served up at Blank Street‘s Manchester branch on the corner of King Street and Cross Street between 3pm and 4pm tomorrow.
For anyone “ice cold pick-me-up ahead of the long weekend”, but keen not to tip their employers off, the coffee shop chain has created an online tool to allow workers to discreetly add a matcha moment to their diary.
The brand-new online tool will apparently help to “distract calendar snoopers” by creating a cleverly-named meeting and adding it automatically to Outlook, Google, or Apple calendars – with potential meeting titles that include plenty of corporate jargon to “provide the perfect alibi”.
So, all matcha fans need to do tomorrow afternoon is show the Blank Street team at their chosen branch a meeting in their calendar, and in return, they’ll receive a free small iced matcha latte of their choice from the chain’s delicious spring menu.
Blank Street’s popular matcha offering includes the Classic Matcha, the viral Blueberry Matcha, the silky-smooth White Chocolate Matcha, and the brand-new sumptuous Golden Matcha, so there’s something to “inspire every matcha lover to take a little time out”.
As matcha allows a slow release of caffeine, Blank Street says it’s the “perfect drink” to keep energy levels up throughout the afternoon when you’re stuck at your desk on a Friday.