The Vanstaurant loves MCR!
Exciting times here at Tigellae! We are well aware that it’s been a few weeks since our last blog post about street food adventures in Manchester; the truth is that, since then, we’ve had a LOT MORE street food adventures in Manchester!!
Since our first event at the end of March we have revisited the Urban Food Fest no less than five times, and have had two different menus to share. For the first three evenings we served up our trademark panini with crunchy Altamura bread and a variety of hot and cold fillings, including our Maremma chicken cacciatora in a tomato and red wine sauce, and a buttery Bergamo spinach panino with provolone and Grana Padano cheeses, both of which proved very popular on cold and rainy Mancunian evenings!
We change our menu on a regular basis to provide as much choice as possible, and in the last couple of weeks we’ve also introduced two different types of pasta to our street food menu. We know that the UK loves a bolognese sauce, so we decided to create ‘Bologna 1859’, based on one of the oldest-known recipes for it using beef, and pork “spalla” (shoulder) and “coppa” (neck) all braised in Sangiovese di Romagna red wine. We had something for the veggies too – a spicy tomato arrabbiata with plenty of sauce!
As well as becoming a regular at the Urban Food Fest, a couple of weeks ago the Vanstaurant also spent the evening at AWOL Studios, close to Ancoats in central Manchester. We were approached by the organisers of an art exhibition at the studio and were asked to be the sole traders. It was a fantastic event, showcasing the work of many talented artists in and around the city. It was all put together by the brilliant Stef (aka Yorkshire Terrierist!) who was friendly, funny, helpful and just a joy to work with! You can get more information on the studio and the artists involved over at AWOL Studios’ Facebook page.
Finally, if you want to get a great idea of what our food looks like, follow Vanessa @crossinglimits on Instagram. She’s a student and foodie from Singapore who was first in the queue at Urban Food Fest on Saturday. Her pictures are beautiful and even before we met her we had a lot of fun following her food adventures online!
Thanks also to Jonnie B for his wonderful pictures and to everyone who has come to see us and try our food over the last few weeks. Last Saturday alone our visitors to the Vanstaurant were from Greece, the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Monaco and (of course) Italy. The picture below was sent to us by our friend Raffaella, the lovely lady on the right of the photo, who comes from southern Italy and said our focaccia reminded her of home!
We are off to Italy on the 20th of May and will be back in early June with a new delivery menu and order system, plus more events throughout the year. Watch this space!
See you soon,
Laura and Giordano