Manchester

A Manchester cafe has launched a Squid Game honeycomb challenge

A cafe in Manchester is giving customers the chance to play the Squid Game 'Dalgona' honeycomb challenge throughout October.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 19th October 2021

If you haven’t watched Squid Game yet, then peer pressure clearly has nothing on you.

The hit Korean TV series has pipped Bridgerton to become the most-watched show on Netflix ever – and it seems that most of the country is currently pretty obsessed.

In the show, challenges must be completed in exchange for a huge cash prize – with over 400 debt-ridden contestants taking part in a series of life-or-death childrens’ games / Image: Netflix

In the show, challenges must be completed in exchange for a huge cash prize – with over 400 debt-ridden contestants taking part in a series of life-or-death childrens’ games. Successors pass through to the next round, whilst losers are swiftly ‘eliminated.’

Kids games played by contestants include ‘Red Light, Green LIght’, marbles, glass stepping stones, and a Dalgona honeycomb challenge that requires each player to carve a set shape out of their dish within a set time limit.

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The Dalgona honeycomb challenge at A Nice Sip in the Corn Exchange gives you the choice of a circle, triangle, star or umbrella – just like in the Netflix show Squid Game / Image: elsaeats.food

In its third episode, which features the aforementioned sweet toffee treat challenge, contestants are forced to choose between four shapes – then battle against the clock to remove theirs from its tin, unscathed, before time runs out.

This is done by etching through the Dalgona, a nostalgic winter Korean toffee candy made with melted sugar and baking soda. A popular street snack in the 70s and 80s, back then vendors would often challenge their young customers to trim the toffee away from the image using only a pin – as is depicted in the show.

To play the challenge at A Nice Sip, you need to buy two drinks. You can take part throughout October / Image: elsaeats.food

Rewards were often given back in the day, be that free candy, money, or a gift, with common shapes including circles, stars, and triangles. At A Nice Sip, though, your only reward is emerging victorious with a few great drinks in hand.

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The challenge itself is more difficult than it looks, especially as the treat cools and becomes more brittle. If you think you’ve got what it takes, though, you can give the challenge a go throughout October at city centre Corn Exchange cafe A Nice Sip.

The entrance to Hong Kong bubble tea cafe A Nice Sip in The Corn Exchange / Image: A Nice Sip

The newly-opened bubble tea spot is running the challenge throughout the month, but don’t worry there won’t be any faceless, red-suited guards with guns watching you.

To have a go, you simply need to purchase two drinks from the cafe – which sells everything from fruit tea to hot chocolate, coffee, and traditional Oolong tea. You can choose to tackle one of the four shapes available in the game, opting for either a circle, triangle, star or umbrella.

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Image: A Nice Sip

The Hong Kong cafe also sells a selection of tasty treats, from ice cream and fruit-loaded bubble waffles to matcha macaroons and toffee apple milkshakes.

The trendy bubble cafe first originated in Hong Kong before expanding into Asia, then coming to the UK in July 2018. It specialises in fine tea, which is brewed to exacting specifications on site daily.

You can find A Nice Sip inside Manchester’s iconic Corn Exchange, or the business also has two other sites in the Arndale Market and in Salford. However, the Dalgona challenge is only available at the Corn Exchange site.

To find out more, visit their website or follow them on Instagram here.

Featured Image – A Nice Sip / Netflix

Manchester

This Chorlton bar will serve a Sunday roast for you AND your dogs

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Over in South Manchester, local bar and restaurant The Chorlton Green is serving up a banging Sunday roast – and they’ll even do a special portion for your dogs.

Perfect for when you want to head out with your furry friends for a gravy-soaked dinner, this cosy neighbourhood spot has you (and your pets) covered for all your Sunday lunch needs.

An undeniable part of British culture, there’s not much better than heading out with family and friends on a Sunday for what is arguably one of – if not the – best English meals going.

And for those who can’t imagine dining out without their dog at their side, this south Manchester bar and restaurant is definitely one to put on the list.

With a choice of chicken, beef or nut roast served alongside carrot and suede mash, perfectly crisp roast potatoes, stuffing, seasonal vegetables and a giant Yorkshire pudding, The Chorlton Green dishes up a seriously good roast if we’ve ever seen one.

With absolute lashings of gravy on top, all roasts are priced at £15 (or £ for dogs) – with big steaming bowls of oozing cauliflower cheese served on the side for an additional £3.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

As for drinks, the bar is known locally as a wine specialist and has a great selection of bottles to go alongside your food.

However, if wine isn’t your thing don’t worry – because there is also a good range of cocktails, beers, spirits and soft drinks to choose from.

As well as serving up a hearty Sunday roast, The Chorlton Green also does a weekend bottomless brunch offer every Saturday between the hours of 12 and 4pm.

Read more:

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Priced at £35 for the Gold Package or £45 for the Platinum, those heading down can get stuck into 90 minutes of non-stop cocktails and fizz alongside one of the venue’s famous brunch boards.

Think endless glasses of Prosecco, Pornstar Martinis, Bloody Mary’s and Captain’s Choice (all available as part of the Gold Package), or if you really want to go all out the Platinum brunch deal also includes vodka, gin and rum mixes as well as wine.

Read more: Brits apparently drench meals in gravy three times a week, according to new study

Based over on Beech Road, The Chorlton Green has long been a favourite with locals for its relaxed atmosphere and great wine collection. As well as being dog friendly, the bar also boasts a great live music offering. Suffice to say, for a neighbourhood spot it really does have it all.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

Manchester

Man uncovers long lost photos in charity shop depicting historic suffragette march

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Whilst digging away in a charity shop, a man has uncovered a set of old Victorian era glass slides depicting what appears to be Women’s Sunday – a suffragette march held in London, organised by Moss Side’s own Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Amongst a heap of slides that appear to be taken sometime around the early 1900s, one depicts a large group featuring women in the signature stripy hats worn by the protest group.

What’s more their new owner, Ray Newman, has even suggested that one of the photos may depict Emmeline Pankhurst herself.

Writing on Twitter, he shared a thread of the images with his followers: adding short commentary to each one.

One the photo in question, he comments: “If you zoom in on the woman in dark clothing seen looking towards the camera from between two PCs she looks like Emmeline Pankhurst, or am I fooling myself?”

Image: Ray Newman via Twitter
Image: Ray Newman via Twitter

Others have chimed in with suggestions as to the date of the photograph, with one writing: “The boater straw hats plus mutton sleeves equals c.1910.”

Given that the Women’s Sunday protest was held just two years prior to this in 1908, it does seem possible that this incredibly old photograph has captured one of the biggest moments in the suffragette’s history.

The event, organised by Pankhurst’s WSPU, featured the organisation’s colours (purple, white and green) for the first time in public. In days leading up to the event, over 10,000 scarves in the colours were sold at two shillings and elevenpence each, whilst men donned ties in solidarity.

Held to persuade the then Liberal government to support votes for women, the march is thought to have been the largest demonstration to be held until then in the country – drawing around 30,000 women marched to Hyde Park in seven processions.

Image: Palette㎙ 
Image: Palette㎙ 

Of course, the photos not being dated or marked in any way, it is hard to know if these really are images of Emmeline Pankhurst and the historic march but there are quite a few people online speculating that it could well be.

Several have pointed to the seemingly large police presence (and one person claims to have counted eleven officers), suggesting that that could indeed point to it being a photograph of a large suffragette protest.

Read more: The forgotten Manchester suffragist who inspired a teenage Emmeline Pankhurst

Elsewhere amongst the collection of photos, images show a stately home, school or institution with flamingos outside, what appears to be a boy scout troop or group of cadets armed with rifles, boaters on the water at Alexandra Park, and a number of people posing in period dress.

Writing above a picture that depicts an old British high street, Ray comments on how the glass slides are tricky to scan adding that he had to “do it with my phone against a bright white screen.”

He continues: “This is a high street… somewhere… c.1910, I’d guess. I can see a sign for an inn with an ‘excellent motor garage’ but can’t work out any more than that.”

Above another, he said: “A stately home, school or institution. There are statues of flamingos on the left. Definitely haunted. (House and slide.)”

Read more: These are the top 20 things Manchester has gifted the world

Offering a fascinating look into a lost world, some of the images are over 100 years old and taken when photography was something of a new art form. Unlike today, when everyone has a camera in their pocket, to own a camera was something of a rarity – making these images even more intriguing.

If you would like to see the full thread of pictures uncovered by Ray, you can do so by clicking here.

Feature image – Ray Newman

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