Manchester’s grilled cheese legends Northern Soul are on the look out for ‘cheese tasters’ to trial their new Christmas menu for this year.
With the most wonderful time of the year now firmly in our sights, the Northern Quarter cult-favourite eatery is getting ready to launch its highly-anticipated festive food offering for 2023 in a couple of days time, and is in need of some enthusiastic cheese fans to lend a hand in testing out all the new diary-filled Christmas creations.
Taking to Instagram this week to call on keen ‘cheese tasters’ to come forward, Northern Soul wrote: “Christmas menu testers wanted.
“We are hosting a private Christmas launch party and giving a chance for a lucky few of you a chance to come and try our CRIMBO MENU and give us some feedback.”
The street food joint is an absolute favourite of Manchester‘s foodie community, and is known and loved for serving up some of the heartiest – and cheesiest, of course – comfort food dishes the city has to offer.
First established all the way back in 2015, and now based on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter and down at the Etihad Stadium on match days, as well as popping up at food festivals and markets across the UK throughout the year, Northern Soul has been serving Mancs cheesy grilled sandwiches for coming up to a decade now.
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Claiming to be the first restaurant of its kind to open in the UK, the grilled cheese OG’s have gone from strength to strength over the years, and have developed a well-deserved cult following along the way.
Northern Soul is looking for ‘cheese tasters’ to trial its Christmas menu / Credit: Northern Soul Grilled Cheese (via Facebook)
While grilled cheeses in all their finest forms are, of course, the restaurant’s speciality, Northern Soul also serves up other cheesy delights like mac and cheese, loaded fries, burgers, and jumbo wings, and is also known for adding all sorts of limited-edition seasonal specialities to its menu throughout the year.
And anyone who knows Northern Soul knows just how legendary its Christmas menus are each year – which is why getting the chance to become a ‘cheese taster’ this festive season is bound to be the stuff of dreams for fromage fanatics.
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Despite the fact most of the 2023 Christmas menu – which is being launched tomorrow (9 November) – is currently under wraps, Northern Soul has already confirmed that its beloved ‘Crimbo Dinner’ grilled cheese has made the cut this year.
This means the ‘cheese tasters’ will get to try out the creation that’s made up of juicy turkey crown, cranberry sauce, succulent stuffing, and a giant homemade pig in blanket, topped off with a little Yorkshire pudding and dripping in gravy.
The restaurant’s famous raclette is also returning for 2023, and it’s bigger and better than ever before.
The Alpine-inspired winter delicacy sees melted cheese draped over your own personal mini smörgåsbord of pickles, spicy piccalilli potatoes, and stout mushrooms made from a secret family recipe.
Fancy trying your chances at becoming one of Northern Soul’s ‘cheese tasters’ then? All you’ll need to do is head on over to the Instagram post and comment underneath letting Northern Soul know why you’d be the perfect person for the job.
Featured Image – Northern Soul Grilled Cheese (via Facebook)
Eats
The cosy Peak District pub serving a pick’n’mix sausage and mash menu
Daisy Jackson
There’s a Peak District pub that’s turned one of Britain’s most beloved comfort foods into a full-on pick’n’mix.
Tucked away in the postcard-perfect village of Castleton, Ye Olde Nags Head is serving up a fully customisable menu of sausage and mash dishes.
We’re talking near-endless combinations of proper pub grub.
You start by choosing your sausages from a daily rotating selection (not a sentence you hear every day, but we’re into it).
Expect classics like Cumberland alongside more adventurous options like venison and mustard, or even wild boar and orange, plus a veggie sausage daily.
Then it’s onto the mash – you can go for flavours like cheese and onion, wholegrain mustard, or even black pudding mash.
Classic cumberland, mustard mash, and mushroom sauceVeggie sausage with cheese and onion mash and classic gravyTucking in
To finish? A choice of rich, hearty gravies and sauces to bring it all together, whether that’s a classic onion gravy, a peppercorn sauce, or a creamy wild mushroom sauce.
And if that wasn’t enough, you can even upgrade your bangers and mash pick’n’mix by having it all served inside a giant Yorkshire pudding.
Ye Olde Nags Head is a historic 17th-century pub, with a roaring fire in every room and cosy bedrooms upstairs.
Inside Ye Olde Nags Head pub in the Peak DistrictYe Olde Nags Head pub is near Mam Tor
It’s one of those flagstone-floored, beamed-ceilinged, mismatched-furniture type pubs that welcomes everyone in every state, whether you’re caked in mud from a hike or popping in on a coach tour.
Another of the pub’s specialties is the Derbyshire Breakfast, a hearty plate of sausage, smoked bacon, black pudding, free range egg, grilled tomatoes, field mushrooms, baked beans and fried bread.
The pub also offers takeaway breakfast butties, so you can use it for both a pre-hike stop and a post-hike pint.
Given it’s just minutes from the ever-popular Mam Tor hike, this is one pub you’ll definitely want to add to your next Peak District day out itinerary.
The hillside farm in the Peak District making its own ice cream
Daisy Jackson
Did you know there’s a 300-year-old farm in the Peak District serving up some of the freshest ice cream you’ll ever taste? And yes, you can meet the cows that made it while you’re there.
Welcome to Hope Valley Ice Cream, a family-run gem where things are kept refreshingly simple: happy cows, proper farming, and seriously good ice cream.
Set in the heart of the Peak District countryside, this place is about as wholesome as it gets.
The ice cream is made on-site in the farmhouse, literally just metres from where the dairy herd are out grazing.
You can watch the animals, wander around the farm, and then tuck into a scoop or three perched on a milk pail stool, or a picnic bench (or even a decorative tractor).
Hope Valley Ice Cream has some amazing seasonal ice creams, like lemon curd, elderflower, and blackberry, alongside all the classics and a rather delicious tiramisu.
You can grab a cone, sit down with a coffee (again, made with milk from the nearby cows), or go all in with a freshly-made waffle if you’re feeling fancy.
Takeaway tubs from Hope Valley Ice CreamYou can get a mini pail of ice creamMeet the newborn calves at Hope Valley Ice CreamTuck into your ice cream on a milk pail stoolHope Valley Ice Cream
And if you’re the type who really loves ice cream? You can actually order a full pail of it, with four huge scoops plus whipped cream and sauce.
The farm itself is run by the Marsden family, who’ve been working this land for generations. It shows in everything – they’ve created a place that feels genuinely welcoming, not just another tourist stop.
Beyond the ice cream, you’ve got plenty of reasons to stick around. There are calves (including the newest tiny arrivals), plus donkeys and pigs to say hello to.
Whether you’re heading out on a hike or just fancy a drive into the Peaks, this is one pitstop that’s absolutely worth it – and honestly, it’s worth the trip on its own.
Emily Sergeant -
8th November 2023 
