Eats

A huge Italian food festival and outdoor cinema is coming to Manchester

First launched in 2017, the festival is promising some exciting new additions for its fourth edition - including a massive outdoor cinema.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 25th May 2021

The UK’s biggest Italian food festival Festa Italiana is returning to Manchester in 2021 – with Cathedral Gardens turning green, white and red over August bank holiday.

Featuring delicious pizzas, fresh pasta, sweet crepes and deli meats as far as the eye can see, Festa Italiana is known for bringing amazing street food into Manchester city centre and showcasing top Italian chefs from across the region.

First launched in 2017, the festival is promising some exciting new additions for its fourth edition – including a massive outdoor cinema.

Sponsors Peroni will be bringing a big screen down for the weekend, hosting themed screenings of classics like La Dolce Vita, Romeo and Juliet and Cinema Paradiso – so get ready to sink into bean bags and deck chairs, tuck into popcorn and sip on aperitivo cocktails or bottles of Italian lager.

The UK’s biggest Italian food festival is coming to Manchester / Image: Festa Italiana

A ‘photography exhibit surprise’ is also on the cards for Festa Italiana 2021 (more on this in due course), as well as a wide range of workshops, demonstrations, book signings and banquets.

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Top-class chefs like Aldo Zilli, Giancarlo Caldesi, Gennaro Cantaldo, specialist pasta maker and author Carmela Sereno Hayes, and Festa founder Maurizio Cecco are all confirmed to attend.

Maurizio’s 12-year-old daughter, Sienna Cecco, will also be making an appearance: leading some free cooking classes over the weekend for children.

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A talented little chef in her own right, Sienna has her own YouTube channel and developed quite a following after live-streaming family cooking lessons during the lockdown.

Salvi’s owner Maurizio Cecco founded the Italian food festival / Image: Festa Italiana

Elsewhere, Salvi’s has confirmed it will be bringing back its popular deli stand – so whether you’re after top-quality cured meats, cheeses, olive oil or cake you know where to go for the finest Italian produce.

The street food lineup for this year is still being kept under wraps for now, but with the emergence of some new Italian-inspired eateries during the lockdown, we are crossing our fingers for some fat slabs of lasagne and Italian-American deli sandwiches.

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Always a big part of the festival, previous years have seen festival founders Salvi’s churn out popular fried pizzas and fresh pasta alongside Shudehill’s Pasta Factory, Rio Ferdinand’s glitzy Italian Rosso, and sourdough West Didsbury pizzaiolos Proove.

Festa Italiana will take place at Cathedral Gardens in August / Image: Festa Italiana

Born out of Manchester’s rich Italian heritage and community, Festa Italiana will return to its home at Festival Piazza, Cathedral Gardens from August 27 – 29.

To find out more information and keep up to date on new announcements, head over to the Festa Italiana Facebook page.

Eats

Inside the new Simpson’s-themed cafe that has opened in Manchester city centre

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

A new cafe with food and decor inspired by The Simpson’s has opened in Manchester city centre, and it’s already proving quite the mecca for fans of the satirical American cartoon.

Called Desert Island Dumplings, the new cafe – which sells a range of non-traditional vegan dumplings, salt and pepper chips, hash browns, and naughty noodles – can be found on the top floor of Affleck’s in the Northern Quarter.

Bursting with The Simpson’s memorabilia, the team has really nailed the theme here with a giant chalk blackboard reading: “I will not eat too many dumplings” over and over again.

This continues with retro school desks, a painted ‘blue sky’ ceiling, a Simpson’s scarf, and a Bart-shaped gaming monitor hooked up to an old Play Station and Game Cube (complete with the original Simpson’s Road Rage game and The Sims).

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

The cafe even boasts a larger-than-life mural of Homer disappearing into a hedge, taken from a 1994 episode of the show where Homer attempts to befriend his neighbour Flanders.

Speaking on the inspiration behind The Simpson’s theme, owner Lucy Linford told The Manc that one day a customer brought in a The Simpson’s scarf and ‘it just grew from there’.

She said: “Some people are a bit confused and I guess it is a bit weird, but it started because I do love The Simpsons and I do watch it a lot.

“The Simpsons thing just, like, evolved. Some guy came to Ancoats with that scarf to give me, and then we had that hanging up, and then it just came bit by bit.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

“If anyone asks it’s kind of like, I wanted to open a cafe that I’d go to and I’d want to go to a cafe that had Simpson’s stuff, so I made that happen.”

As well as featured plenty of The Simpson’s memorabilia on its walls, the cafe also boasts a host of Simpsons-inspired dishes.

On its menu, you’ll find the likes of non-traditional dumplings in flavours like cheeseburger, salt and pepper chick’n and overnight blueberry oat, alongside the likes of drunken noodles, salt and pepper chips and salt and pepper hash browns.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Read more: A restaurant dedicated to garlic bread has opened in Manchester city centre

There are a bunch of Simpson’s-themed menu items, ranging from steamed hams to an array of combo boxes inspired by different characters in the show including ‘The Lisa’s Lunch Special’. ‘The Homer’s home Early Mega Box’, ‘The It’s All Coming Up Millhouse Special’ and ‘The moe Syzslak Mystery Mega Box.’

As for drinks, these are limited to soft drinks with favourites like Ribena and Coke available alongside delicious Columbian filter coffee, various teas and mugs of hot chocolate.

Read more: Walkers is opening a string of crisp butty cafes across the UK

To find out more about Desert Island Dumplings and plan your visit, make sure to follow the team on Instagram here.

Featured image – The Manc Eats

Eats

Walkers is opening a string of crisp butty cafes across the UK

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

We all love a crisp butty here in the UK. Or, at least 98% of us do, according to research conducted by Walkers.

There’s simply no denying how those crunchy slices of potato – be they deep-fried, air-fried or baked – add a lift to even the most humdrum sarnie.

So when we heard the news that Walkers is opening a host of crisp butty cafes across the UK we were pretty gassed, to say the least.

Locations are yet to be confirmed, with each shop set to run a unique menu of crisp-filled sandwiches alongside their own regionally-inspired offerings, reports The Hoot.

Loaded up with the likes of Quavers, Wotsits and Monster Munch, the new UK cafes will serve up the very best crunchy sandwiches created in collaboration with Max Halley, the guru behind the famous London sandwich shop Max’s.

Whilst most of the sandwich combinations are still being kept under wraps, we have heard talk of a fish finger Monster Munch hybrid with added chipotle mayo, Pic De Gallo and cabbage on focaccia, aka the ‘‘Might Monster Muncher’.

The decision to open the new UK crisp sandwich shops is inspired by Walker’s own research after the company discovered a whopping 98% of adults strongly believe that crisps make their sandwiches better.

Read more: A restaurant dedicated to garlic bread has opened in Manchester city centre

Philippa Pennington at Walkers said: “Last year the residents of Sandwich voted “Crisp In” as the winning combination, but this year we’re widening the debate to showcase the wide range of crisp and sandwich combinations – from classic Walkers crisps through to Wotsits and Monster Munch.

Read more: The landmark pub with Lemn Sissay poem painted on the side has been demolished

“With Walkers Sandwich Shops located across the UK, we’re calling on people to head to their nearest shop, taste the sandwiches and have their say online by sharing their favourite combination from the menu, or favourite crisps to enjoy in a sandwich.”

Featured image – Wikimedia Commons

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