Meat and three. It’s an absolute staple when it comes to dining out in the south of America, but most people in Manchester have probably never heard of it.
Simply put, a meat and three restaurant is one where – as the name suggests – you pick one meat and three sides from a selection that typically spans the likes of fried chicken, beef and pork chops, vegetables, potatoes, green beans and macaroni and cheese.
This is southern food at its best, taken straight from the heart of America’s barbecue tradition.
The term is thought to have originated nearly 100 years ago in Nashville in the 1930s, at the employee cafeteria of May Hosiery Mill.
Back then diners were served a choice of meat and vegetables, plus bread, for just 25 cents, and whilst prices have definitely gone up since then, in essence, the food remains the same.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is hearty, home-cooked food that feels like a warm hug on your lowest day – and now, it’s landed right here on our doorstep in Manchester.
Enter Kong’s Meat and Three, the newest concept from the team who brought us fried chicken burgers with chicken skin crackling, not to mention Manchester’s favourite fried chicken roast dinner.
Founded by fried chicken head honcho Tom Potts, who in a previous (pre-pandemic) life was the bar manager at Oldham street’s fusion ramen spot CBRB, dishes like BBQ ‘pit beans’, mustard seed potato salad and collard greens all feature as regular sides.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Elsewhere, you’ll find a creamy three-cheese macaroni, flatbreads, red cabbage house mayo vegan slaw and hunks of corn on the cob slathered in butter, chilies and more. Boiled broccoli and carrots? Get out of here.
ADVERTISEMENT
We cannot stress it enough: this is pure comfort food.
A significant upgrade on the British ‘meat and two veg’, the beauty of meat and three, in part, lies within its rules.
Anything that’s not meat counts as veg (yep, really) meaning that gravy, mac and cheese, and even bread must all bow down and submit to reclassification. Some things you just have to accept.
Even better, everything on the menu here, with the exception of the tater tots, is made in-house, from scratch, with a whole lot of love. That includes house sauces like mustard and madras mayo, Korean hot sauce and big jugs of gravy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Using thigh meat, Kong’s signature buttermilk chicken is brined for three hours, rolled in a secret spice mix, then double-dredged for a crispier texture. Brisket is slow-cooked overnight for a minimum of 12 hours until it’s ultra-tender and falling apart.
Pork belly is steamed, scored then oven roasted for a final hour until it is so crisped up and crunchy you can almost hear it crackling as you pore through pictures of it on Instagram. It’s a meat eater’s heaven – but also sells vegan tendies for those of the plant-based persuasion.
As well as offering up daily meat and three plates (or, rather, should we say trays), Tom has also just added new sandwiches to the menu – taking his three staple meats and folding them into chunky baguettes or brioche, with a fulsome heap of tater tots on the side.
This is not so much in the meat and three tradition – but it’s very on-brand for Kong’s. The original signature chicken sandwich features, only natural as the dish that launched the brand and Tom’s new life as a fried chicken impresario.
There’s also a relatively traditional Vietnamese-style pork belly banh mi, stuffed with pickled carrots, pate, crispy pork and coriander, and a beef brisket french dip that combines everything we love – crusty baguette, slow-cooked brisket and a sweet, homemade onion chutney with a jug of gravy to dip it all in.
ADVERTISEMENT
All said and done, this is pretty close to sandwich perfection.
Open Wednesday to Sunday at Northern Monk Refectory between 12 and 10pm, get yourself down for a solid scran. Trust us, you won’t regret it.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Manchester
‘New wave’ pizzeria where every pizza is served with scissors is heading to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Always a hot topic of conversation around a pizza is how to eat the damn thing – knife and fork, slice and hold, fold it up?
And now a new pizza concept is heading to Manchester, where authentic Neapolitan pizzas are always served with a pair of scissors for cutting up your dinner.
We here at The Manc are firm believers that scissors are a far superior tool for getting your pizza into slices, so news that Forbici (which literally translates as ‘Scissors’ from Italian) is opening in the city centre is music to our ears.
Forbici is taking over a corner unit on Cross Street, not far from the former site of much-loved family-focused Italian Croma.
Claiming to be arriving in town with ‘the world’s most powerful pizza dough’, the restaurant hails a ‘new wave’ of pizzeria.
Its roots will be firmly in Naples, with puffy biga dough handmade fresh daily and proofed for 12 hours. It’ll be made so fresh every day that pizzas will only be available while the dough lasts.
Forbici will serve its pizza the Neapolitan way too – quartered (it’s ‘four ways always’, with scissors, which protects that signature airy crust.
The pizzas are going to be topped with tomatoes from Solania, the only producer of true San Manzarno DOP tomatoes, and Fior di Latte Mozzerella from Vico Equese, a small coastal town where tradition runs deep.
They’ve even imported a pizza oven direct from Sorrento.
And drinks will come from Italian craft beer brand Amarcord, one of the nation’s first independent breweries.
Forbici says it will blend ‘born in Naples’ flavours with ‘rising in Manchester’ influences.
Andrew Garton, CEO of Forbici, said: “Forbici isn’t just another pizza restaurant—it’s a new way of experiencing pizza.
“We are pioneering a new wave of pizza in the UK, with the simple belief that pizza should be better.
“We have brought together the finest master bakers who have spent decades honing their craft in Naples to create the perfect formula for fermenting the world’s most powerful pizza dough.
“Born from centuries of Neapolitan expertise and heritage, Forbici will be rising in Manchester this year.”
Forbici will open its first Manchester pizza restaurant on Cross Street this spring – you can follow them on Instagram HERE for the latest.
New Lancashire Cricket investors aiming to make Manchester Originals as big as United and City
Danny Jones
Lancashire County Cricket’s new investors and Manchester Originals’ majority owners have stated their desire to make the local Hundred team as big as Man United and City.
The Originals were courted by the RPSG (Rising Pune Supergiant) Group this month, with the Goenka family agreeing to buy up a 70% share of the club after LCCC sold part of their stake in the franchise.
Famously in charge of the Lucknow Super Giants over in the Indian Premier League and their Durban equivalents in South Africa, the possibility of not just a shiny new kit but the Originals being renamed the ‘Manchester Super Giants’ isn’t out of the question, though it would be much further down the line.
Although the conglomerate was initially interested in one of The Hundred’s Southern teams, London Spirit – and they were quizzed on this in a press conference on Friday, 14 February – Vice Chairman Shaswat Goenka’s answer was simple: “Lords is Lords but Manchester is Manchester.”
Expressing a huge amount of respect and admiration for the city’s competitive history, even dubbing it a “sporting powerhouse”, Goenka began by insisting that the opportunity presented is one to build a perfect marriage of culture and a love for cricket.
Going on to identify sport as “one of the single biggest things that unites people across the world, regardless of race, colour” and so forth, he believes that while this is categorically not football, this new chapter could rival its prominence here in the UK and especially Manchester.
From there, he went so far as to argue that the stopping power is there and that RPSG “want the Manchester franchise in the Hundred to become the third biggest sports team in Manchester and challenge those two sports teams [Man City and Man United] in Manchester.”
Quite the statement indeed – but one that was echoed by his two new key collaborators in Lancashire’s CEO, Dan Gidney, and Manchester Originals Chair, James Sheridan.
Gidney in particular was visibly energised by the prospect, reflecting on the moment he realised a great potential after seeing the fanaticism shown by the crowd during India vs Pakistan at Emirates Old Trafford for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Even with new leadership, Lancashire Cricket will remain 30% owners of the Manchester Originals. (Credit: The Manc Group/Matt Eachus)
Waxing lyrical about seeing “just how much supporters celebrate a single game of cricket”, he said the goal is to “inject some of that passion into Manchester and LCC“.
Doubling down on Goenka’s statement, he continued: “We’re a bit conservative in the UK, we need to embrace the power of this sport; the fandom is off the scale – [it could be] stronger than the Premier League, in my opinion.”
All three executive speakers were also keen to reiterate that is by no means a complete takeover but rather a “joint venture” aiming to achieve a “true partnership” which could pose even more exciting cross-pollination in the future.
The consensus seems to be that further collaboration with the Super Giants is pretty inevitable and not just in regards to the men’s game but that this merging of brands presents a huge opportunity for young players and the women’s team too, the idea of players spending more time over in India and even some games perhaps being held still sounding very plausible.
Manchester Originals’ Chair, James Sheridan, did caveat the discussion by noting that “contracting isn’t straightforward in franchise cricket” but that conversations have at least started to take place” and, like Goenka, they don’t see this as a gamble but what is bound to be a “formidable partnership.”
He also reiterated the belief that Manchester is “probably the UK’s No 1 sporting city, adding “There you go, I said it”, and that the vision is to build the best team, the biggest fan base and the best culture – with this particular region being the perfect staging ground to do so.
The Manchester Originals Chair and LCCC Chief Exec welcome the incoming co-owners. (Credit: Supplied)
Two players were present for the press conference as well, with Originals Women’s star Beth Mooney saying she had “admired The Hundred for afar” since it started and quickly knew she “100% wanted to be a part of it”, aiming to “help create a legacy with the Originals as the tournament.”
Men’s player Phil Salt welcomed the new ownership as the start of an “extremely exciting new era” that should help them “bring the best product to the UK”, reiterating that “being part of the right organisation is key.”
Although the investment is yet to be fully ratified by the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) and Lancashire made no bones about the arrears they still have on the books, Gidney was keen to label a lot of as ‘good debt’ and an investment in facilities and infrastructure, something which RPSG will only further aid.
One of the biggest outlays even prior to the new co-owners is the ongoing Farrington project but since the wider county region may have struggled to cheer on a Manchester team, the Originals and Lancashire, more importantly, will no doubt benefit from its completion.
The new sister stadium will be based over in Preston, offering a second home for what is crucially a Lancashire club. (Credit: Supplied)