Fire and Salt BBQ @ The Gaslamp - Manchester

Do you ever have that thing where you find somewhere you really like, think it's brilliant and then never go because there's one major flaw?

The Gas Lamp, I like to go here - photo with thanks to Drinking Aloud

It's like this at the Gas Lamp - one of the few pubs in Manchester that I like to go and hang out. Mainly because there's a great selection of beers and spirits, a bit because the staff are very knowledgeable, quite a lot because you don't get too many knob heads/beer nerds looking down on you there and 75% because there are sexy men who drink there. I like sexy men. With beards. And glasses. Foreign accents are a plus...

Here's lots of people and some sexy men in the Gas Lamp - with thanks again to Drinking Aloud

So how come I don't drink there too often? It's because I think with my damn stomach ALL THE TIME. The Gas Lamp has an amazing array of drinks, but the local eating choices are:

a) Mark Addy - would be great if it didn't stink of toilets and they didn't fuck up my food EVERY time I go there.

b) Australaisa - Really? People think the food is good? And they want to pay that much for it?

c) Oast House - too full of suits trying to have a dress down Friday on a Tuesday. And I have to share tables with other people. Other people are a drawback.

D) Neighbourhood - expensive and I wasn't impressed (bitchy blog post coming soon).

Luckily, those chaps at the Gas Lamp have gone some way to rectify this serious matter and to appease my ever hungry belly. From now till sometime in the future, the Gas Lamp will be playing host to the magnificent Fire and Salt BBQ.

If you have missed the phenomenon that is the wonderfully juicy, tasty, life changing food from Fire and Salt, then you have obviously been dead or living under a stone, so let me explain:

Fire and Salt set up their company in order to bring the taste of the American South (as in rednecks, not Mexicalis) to Manchester. Firstly they ate a lot of sub-standard BBQ in the UK. Then they went to the roots of BBQ and journeyed round some overly conservative areas of the USA, eating much better BBQ, but keeping any liberal views they may hold firmly under their hats. Then they came home and built a bloody big smoke pit in their garden. Out of bricks. With their hands. Now they smoke whole pigs in their backyard (whole pigs! For hours! They don't sleep! And there's basting to be done!), then they feed said pigs (and other meats) to lucky, lucky people.

Brisket from Fire and Salt BBQ - I didn't take pictures as I was wolfing food, so here's one I stole

I popped along to the Gas Lamp last week to see what they had going - and boy, I wasn't disappointed. Paying a tenner at the bar, I sat back with a good quality rum (it would have been whiskey, but I was in a rum mood - bah boom...) and waited for my food to come out. A plate plied high with chicken fried ribs (not chickens' ribs, they would be TINY, but ribs chucked American Triple D stylee in the deep fat fryer. And fried. Like a chicken), oozy mac and cheese and some spicy okra corn tomato concoction that probably has a proper name, but I was concentrating on the food and not the names at that point.

Ribs - I could have eaten twice as many. Mac - the best in Manchester I'd say, as you could actually taste the cheese and the mac wasn't flabby; it all oozed properly in only the way a mac chock full of cheese can. It was nearly as good as mine. And that's saying something because mine is probably the best in the world. Actually, rephrase, it is the best in the world.

So bar coming round to my house, because you're not invited, go to the Gas Lamp and ingest the best food you will probably have all year, instead of some tasteless, churned out shite from around the corner.

Fire and Salt BBQ will be there from 6pm on Thursdays and it'll only cost you a tenner. Get there quick before all the food sells out.

The Gas Lamp, 50 Bridge Street, Manchester M3 3BW - Gas Lamp Twitter - Fire and Salt Twitter

Brew Dog/Trof Mash Up, Deaf Institute - Manchester

Ok so I'm a little late posting this one, but I've had heart/brain/job/house stress so you'll have to forgive me.

Week before last the crazy craft beer creators, Brew Dog joined forces with Trof for an epic night of beer tasting, good food and great times. The idea of the night was a bit of beer and food matching at The Deaf Institute (Trof's beautiful music/food/beer place) - showing off Brew Dog's DIY crafts ales and the great cooking from Trof's chefs. Seated at trestle tables with glasses and plates passed down, the atmosphere was friendly and convivial - all helped by super friendly staff and the boundless energy of the brew doggers.

We kicked off the night with 5am Saint - a 5 x hopped beer; creamy, piny and very sessiony. Paired with a mini yorkie pub, chipolatas and sage, the beer's pine notes coupled with the herby sage brilliantly. We then moved on to my favourite beer, Punk IPA - this has fruity note with mango and papaya, softened by caramel hints - this was matched with haddock goujons - the citrus in the beer cutting through the batter without overpowering the delicate fish.

So far, so easy - very generous half pints of 5.3% or so beer - now it was time for the big guns. Out came a Hardcore IPA, pretty hardcore at 9.5%. This is a double dry hopped, aggressive beer with a big hit of resinous pine, softened out by the sweet caramel, toffee from the higher alcohol content. A big shouty beer like this needs a big shouty dish, so The Deaf institute whacked us out some cheesy Welsh rarebit with some beer cooked onions. The cheese and sweetness paired perfectly with the cheese, which softened out some of those piny resin flavours.

Then we moved on to the Dogma - hardly any hops in this one, it's all about the malts; 10 different types to be exact. This was really smoky, full of chocolate and rich salty flavours (can't say I liked it that much), which complimented the red meat of a soft Lancashire hot pot (which I liked a lot). This was served with a hand pickled red cabbage; the astringency cutting through the heavy beer and meat perfectly.

Next along were two porters - I took some sips, but they were way too heavy for me. Alice Porter was had some creamy exotic flavours (but not the ones you buy from Thailand), some chocolate and vanilla - this was paired against cheese. I loved the cheese. And last was the 12% behemoth that is Lost Dog; a collaboration with Lost Abbey Brewery in California. Pretty special this one - once brewed it's shoved in to rum casks with rum soaked raisins, so it basically tastes like a big piece of fruit cake - continuing with the cakey theme, this was paired with a brownie, double richness that my mouth loved.

From reports from other folks who stayed on (damn you Northern Rail and your early last trains) there was more tasting after we left of the super special, very high percentage beers (think 30%) - might have been a good thing that I was constrained by those trains after all.

This one off night was a great way to get to know the beers of Brew Dog and consider that it's not just wine that can be matched with food - it was also a great night to get to see the variety of food that The Deaf Institute can produce. Let's hope it's not a one off - more Dog Trof mash ups please!

Please note I was given my tickets for this for free, but I didn't have to say nice things, I just had a really good time and enjoyed the food and beer matching.

Ps sorry for no pictures, I did take some but it was so dark in there and my phone camera is so rubbish that there’s no point putting them up – even after a good old photoshop, they’re still pants. Anyone thinking about upgrading their Iphone? Donations of a 4S greatly welcomed – I’ll even cook for you to say thanks!

The Deaf Institute, 135 Grovesernor Street, Manchester M1 7HE - a great venue for food, drinks and especially gigs/music - goo check it out.

Dirty Dogs are Hot - Port Street Beer House, Manchester

Who doesn't like a gob full of sausage? I'm one who can't complain when offered a mouthful of meat, so when I heard a pair of plucky food lovers were bringing their take on American style hotdogs to one of my favourite beer haunts I just had to go and see what all the fuss was about.

Dirty Dogs have a passion for good hotdogs; seeing that no one else was selling them in Manchester and feeling some love for the whole 'street food/pop up' scene, they've decided to give it a go. They also got a mission - feeling that hotdogs in this country give this American institution a bad name, they're determined to save us from a surfeit of substandard sausages.

Me and the poster lady; total sausage lovin'

Set up in the back yard of Port Street Beer House, the smell of cooking hotdogs and sweet, sizzling onions hung heavy in the air. We got there pretty early having been tipped off that there was a limited number available - good thing, the queue was already out the door.

Sausage fest

Opting for the night's special, The Port Street; a Barbakan bun was loaded up with sweet onions, a massive smoked Polish sausage, topped with IPA soaked sauerkraut and all cut thorough with lashings of dijon. The sausage was enormous and I had trouble fitting it in to my eagerly awaiting lips (yeah, I just had to get some smut it) - the flavours all worked supremely well - smokey sweetness cut through by the tangy sauerkraut and all pepped up with generous amounts dijon.

Smoked polish sausage with IPA soaked sauerkraut

We also tried the Dirty South - pork frank on red cabbage slaw all smothered in pulled pork and BBQ sauce; yup, that's pork on pork baby. The frank for this dog was smaller than the smoked sausage, but had a good bite, a sweet/salty taste and was not too fatty, which was a major plus. The pulled pork was a tad dry, but these guys were cooking on hot plate in beer garden - and this was 100% better than anything I've had in a similar setting.

Pork on pork loving with the Dirty South

The dogs ran out quickly, the topping quicker; fellow blogger Mangechester was left with a pork frank with an extremely arty lattice of ketchup and mustard. Nice, but certainly no cigar.

Dirty Dogs have started small; they're concentrating on getting the recipes just right, securing spot on suppliers and making sure they can please the crowds - they're well on their way to doing just that. There's a few things they need to pull up on; they're quite slow on the hot plate, they need to work out how many toppings they bring and that pulled pork needs work. But for a fiver, you get a big, tasty mouthful and I haven't had a better bit of sausage than this in my mouth round the back of a pub before.

There's the whole argument that this just jumps on the current trend for American fast food, tarted up and served street side - yeah maybe, but this being Manchester we don't have that much street food as we're ten steps/years behind London. Doesn't matter if it's on trend at the moment; Dirty Dogs' hotdogs taste good and I don't care if it's so now, so last week, or if it was never in anyway - the food tasted good and that's all I care about.

Where can you catch them? Check out their Twitter feed and hopefully you'll be able to take part in some hot sausage action; I know I'm certainly gagging for more.