As a child my mother warned me away from street food! With beef burgers that tasted like cardboard (and were made from god knows what), and sold by some vendors - who you wondered how often they washed their hands, I think she was probably right. However it's amazing how Street Food has moved on since then.
Today I've come to the Beech Inn, situated in a bohemian part of Chorlton-cum-Hardy:
It's the sort of pub where could bring your dog (if you've got one) and read the paper and enjoy a pint of real ale. At the back you'll find Street Food from the Hungry Gecko:
The Hungry Gecko is run by Jackie Kearney, who you may remember as a finalist in BBC One's MasterChef in 2011. Jackie has a Joi de Vivre that's infectious, and specialises in Asian street food (everything from everything from Japanese to Indonesian, to Sri Lankan and Tibetan) like the Pani Puri at the top of this post.
The Pani Puri reminded me of amazing Indian food walk in Southall that I did with Monisha Bharadwaj. The dish consisted of a crispy puri filled with spiced chickpea & potato, served with tamarind sherbet, daniya chitney pomegranate and yoghurt. You have to put all of it in your mouth at once!
For the main course, my wife chose Beef Rendang:
This dish was made with slow cooked Cheshire beef (supplied by Chorlton's excellent butcher W H Frost) lemongrass, chilli and coconut.
I was tempted to try the Indonesian fish curry (made with fish from Chorlton's amazing fishmonger Out of the Blue), but in the end settled on the Veggi Thali Plate:
To finish my wife had Rhubarb and Custard as you've never seen it before:
The Hungry Gecko is currently at:
The Beech Inn
72 Beech Road
Manchester
M21 9EG
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