Manchester’s very own French-Canadian snack bar Blue Caribou is now delivering make-at-home Poutine Kits right to your front door.
After unfortunately having to temporarily close up shop earlier this year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Blue Caribou decided to set up its unique poutine delivery service for food lovers to try their hand at making from the comfort of their own home.
It’s safe to say that it’s well and truly gone down a hit with the residents of Greater Manchester and beyond.
There’s also plenty of sides and extras available to order for delivery as well if you fancy taking your homemade poutine to the next level.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE_GRcWAfQs/
Unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is poutine?
Poutine is a dish that originated in the Canadian province of Quebec – emerging in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec area – and consists of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy.
It’s basically comfort food at its finest and you can now experience this taste of Montreal in Manchester.
Blue Caribou
Blue Caribou: Snack Bar du Québec is an independent eatery that prides itself on being the UK’s only authentic French-Canadian snack bar serving the “best poutine outside of Montréal”, alongside a whole host of Québecois classic dishes.
If the name rings a bell at all, then you might recognise Blue Caribou from season 2 of the hit BBC show Million Pound Menu.
You can browse and buy each of the Blue Caribou at-home Poutine Kits via its website here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1vrdpgCte/
Blue Caribou currently ships order once a week via Royal Mail’s 24hr service. Items are dispatched on Wednesdays for next-day delivery, but depending on service levels in your area, they may be delivered on the second day instead.
All orders are packed in insulated packaging and will remain in a cool condition for more than 48 hours.
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Emily Sergeant -
14th September 2020 
