A TikToker in Los Angeles has set the internet ablaze after claiming to have invented the picky tea.
Consisting of leftovers and various random bits of cold food, any self-respecting Manc knows that picky teas have been a hallmark of British summertime since the dawn of sliced cucumber.
To us Brits, the picky tea is an iconic summer staple – widely known to be every British mum’s favourite thing to serve when the weather gets hot and they don’t want to cook.
But now, the humble hodge podge of ingredients has been rebranded as ‘Girl Dinner’ on TikTok – and the New York Timesis crediting LA social media user Olivia Maher with coining the phrase.
According to an article published in the American newspaper, the 28-year-old used the term to describe her dinner of cheese, grapes, bread, and wine on 12 May.
In a video that now has over 1.2 million views, she said: “I cannot find the TikTok right now but a girl just came on here and said how in medieval times peasants had to eat nothing but bread and cheese and how awful that was, and she was like ‘that’s my ideal meal’. This is my dinner. I call this ‘girl dinnner’ or ‘medieval peasant.’
The video has racked up hundreds of comments, with lots of Americans posting to say they’re all about these sorts of meals as #girldinner continues to trend on TikTok.
There are reams of comments underneath, with users celebrating Olivia as the ‘original’ girl dinner creator.
Others have questioned #girldinner’s originality in the comments, with one person saying: “This is actually a European dinner by some standards.”
Another person said: “It’s called picky bits”
A third person said: “Perfect dinners, I call this ‘picky tea’ just want more bread for you”
Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter
A fourth person added: “I feel like y’all need to look up the average German breakfast(which can be consumed any time of day) because this isn’t really that far off”
A fifth said: “I call this a picnic dinner”
A sixth said: “American women calling picky bits, ‘girl dinner'” with a crying-laughing emoji.
In an interview with Insider, Olivia Maher said: “The name ‘girl dinner’ came to me while on a ‘hot girl walk’ ‘with a friend discussing our favourite low-maintenance way to eat when our boyfriends aren’t around.”
She added that she’d decided to have a ‘girl dinner’ after her walk, and decided to post it on TikTok thinking perhaps ‘other women out there might do the same and feel just as giddy about it.’
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.
Georgina Pellant -
10th July 2023 
