Manchester: the foodie’s city

We talk to Charlotte, a first year PhD student with the School of Chemistry, about why for her, Manchester is the city of food.?

Are you taking people on tours of the city yet?

I am! My partner is from Preston, so she doesn’t really know Manchester well – I’m a bit of a foodie, so I go out and find random little restaurants, and then when she comes to visit, I’m like – right, we’re going to go to this specific place in Chinatown and it’s going to be incredible! I’ve also had a lot of friends come and stay, and it’s really nice to show them places around Manchester. I live quite near?The Whitworth art gallery, which is such a nice place. Even if it’s just taking people to the café, so they can sit and watch the world go by. I’ve really enjoyed showing off Manchester because it’s such a lovely place. The city centre itself is quite condensed, right, but there’s so much crammed in there.?

So finding good places to eat has been a big part of your Manchester experience??

A lot of my life revolves around food! For me, food shopping is what I imagine clothes shopping is for some people. There are some incredible, different cultural food markets around here, that growing up I didn’t have, whereas here I can find something I’ve never tried and come home to cook with it. If you like food, Manchester is such a good food city.?

Well, if you could recommend a decent pasta place…

…if you like Italian food, there’s a nice Sicilian place in the northern quarter! It’s called?Sicilian NQ, they make all their own pasta, it’s really cool.?

Where’s the first place you went to eat in Manchester?

On my first night here, my Dad helped me move into my flat, I didn’t have anything in, and we went to this Korean takeaway near where I live. I’d never had Korean food before, so we didn’t really know what anything was on the menu – I just ordered three things, and the food – it was so good! We just sat in my flat eating this fantastic takeaway! I’ve gone several times since, and I even took my postdoc – I’m reassured that it’s good because he did his PhD in South Korea and he loved it – it’s a regular place that we go to. It’s called?Seoul Kimchi, it’s a tiny little place but it’s really popular. When I want comfort food I go there, they have a great kimchi stew.?

Sharing places to eat is a really good way to meet people as well, right??

My floor is really multicultural and a lot of the people I’ve made friends with here has been through food. I remember in my first week a load of guys took me to an Arabic restaurant - it was an experience I’ve never had before – we all sat on the floor to eat together and it was really lovely, such a good way to make me feel welcome. I have a list of notes in my phone of Chinese restaurants that people have recommended to me!?

So, is the first place you’d show someone in Manchester a restaurant or a café?

Maybe it’s not a food place actually. I really like the walk down from?Brunswick Park?where the Chemistry building is, you can walk down Oxford Road, and as you go down the central road you can see the library. And when it’s a sunny day I really love doing that walk, it’s usually quite busy but not crowded, so you can see all the different people around you, and there’s really beautiful architecture if you look up – that’s something that really surprised me when I came to Manchester – how beautiful all the buildings are. Whenever I have friends come to visit, I never let them get the bus, I always make them walk with me into town along that road, and you walk past loads of different cafes and other places – it’s lovely.???