Gastronomica

It’s half past twelve and Gordo is feeling peckish. No change there then. Walking through the better half of Manchester Arndale, he is taking a short cut to the office when he decides to have a look in the food market to see what’s about for his lunch. Wings have a trainee ‘Yo Sushi’ doing respectable and good value food on the conveyor belt but Gordo has a proper look at some Italian meats which have caught his eye.

These are big suckers with ingredients fresh off the bacon slicer an hour before, using tomatoes as big as a baby’s fist, as bright red as a smacked arse and tasting of the sun.

They’re on a stall called Gastronomica, and since that chance encounter he has been back a few times. The usual reason, it’s food. In Gordo’s case it has to be good. And here on this ‘market stall’ you will find some of the best raw and cooked ingredients outside Italy. They range from hams and pasta through to wines and bread (described as ‘crusty loaves’, which are fantastic and give the usual suspects like the Barbakan a run for their money).

Cleverly, the team here do a little value adding, making a simple range of fantastic rustic sandwiches to ‘eat in’, they have two tables of their own, or take away. Additionally, there are a couple of slow cookers on the go most of the time, with steaming pots of, for example, fusilli all amatriciana (pasta with pancetta, onion, tomato and chilli for £3.80) or, the ‘famous Sicilian meatballs’ which are available every Friday and Saturday. The quality is outstanding for this type of venue and just the thing for a cold winters day.

The sandwiches include baguette with cooked ham, cheese, tomato and rocket (£2.50), baguette with parma ham, buffalo mozzarella, tomato and rocket (£2.80). These are big suckers with ingredients fresh off the bacon slicer an hour before, using tomatoes as big as a baby’s fist, as bright red as a smacked arse and tasting of the sun. But the daddy for Gordo is the ciabatta.

This concerto starts with porchetta, an Italian roast pork that sings of sage, thyme and sea salt: a luscious mouthful that doesn’t worry about its fat content. Draped on a layer of tomato, rocket and Italian mustard that cuts the fattiness wonderfully well, it becomes a king of a sandwich. The ciabatta is crisp as you bite through, then a soft pillow and finally the filling, all moist bursting with flavour. It really is ‘sunshine in a bag’.

Go and have a look for yourselves. If Gordo catches any of you muppets in that shithole Subway, he will cut your hearts out. But there again, if you are in Subway, you clearly don’t have one to cut out.

A Gordo Go, the food scores 9/10 for its sandwiches. The location might not be a piazza under the shade of a walnut tree but that’s the only downside.

Gastronomica
The Food Market
Manchester Arndale