Earlier this month I went along to the food festival at the Lowry Outlet/Media City. We got there around eleven o’clock and the first thing I realised was that not having eaten yet was my biggest mistake.
The air was filled with the wafts of all different kinds of cuisines. There were smells of burgers, chips, curries, churros, Chinese food, hot dogs, fried chicken and more. My stomach started growling as soon as we got out of the car! I think it’s safe to say my plan to not eat until lunch had well and truly gone down the pan. My biggest choice now was which one of these amazing foods should I buy?
We wandered through rows and rows of hot food and sweet stuff, stopping to sample some weird and wonderful cheeses on the way. I reminded myself of the fact that I had challenged myself to try and experience new things as something caught my eye. It was a small stand at the end of one section of stalls. At first glimpse it looked just like a regular stall selling traditional pasties but I looked again and saw that they weren’t your typical meat and potato. There was zebra (!) and kangaroo (!). A difficult choice I think you might agree, but I went for the kangaroo pasty.
I’m not even sure what emotion my face is portraying there.
Just look at my face! To be honest, I actually really enjoyed it. As far as new experiences go, it’s definitely one I would try again. If you’re into trying weird and wonderful foods, I recommend heading down to your nearest food festival (or something similar) and grabbing yourself a kangaroo pasty. You’ll be hopping mad not to (sorry, I had to).
After I’d finished my pasty, I felt it was only fair to counterbalance the savoury with a bit of sweet so I decided to put myself into a sugar coma with six churros. If you’ve never heard of them, just imagine putting doughnut mixture into a playdough machine…or just see the picture below. Mmmm delicious!
Churros…tasty!
After this it had begun to rain (typical British weather) and we were all craving some hot drinks to warm us up. We’d been given a flyer and told that there was a cafe at the back of media city serving hot drinks in front of a log fire. Perfect!
This place was called Love Conquers All and was hidden behind the concrete jungle of Media City and Salford Uni so it really did seem like a hidden gem. When we walked in we could feel the heat from the fire immediately and some big comfy sofa were free by the fire. There was a mismatch of furniture giving a real homely feel and some added quirkiness from the bicycle wheels hanging from the ceiling. There were even children’s games laid out on the table.
‘Love’ really gave you the feeling that you could stay for as long as you like. Our hot drinks were delicious and reasonably priced too. They even had a great looking outdoor terrace but with the rain and wind taking over, we didn’t try that out.
I’ll definitely be returning so if you’re ever in the area, make sure you check it out. They’re on twitter too: @LCAMediaCity.
Overall, an enjoyable day I’d say. I’ll be off out exploring again soon so stay tuned.
Sophie x
Life as a Uni Graduate 