Manchester Food & Drink Festival Top 3 ft. Taste of the NQ, Trove & more

It may already be half way through its annual run but Manchester Food & Drink Festival is already well on its way to beating last year’s festival with its huge programme of food-based activities packed full of both brand new events and old favourites. With featured events including the city’s biggest street food fair, masterclasses on the likes of plucking a pheasant and the Big Indie Wine Fest, here are our picks of what’s still to come.

Festival Hub second session  at Albert Square
Right at the heart of the food festivities is the Festival Hub, which continues today with the second half of its session, bringing with it a host of food vendors with cuisine from around the globe. Snacks on offer include wood-fired pizza from Fire and Slice Pizza, Indian street food from Chaat Cart and Zouk, sweet and savoury crepes from Pancake Corner and a pop-up paella and tapas bar from Levanter Fine Foods, while All Star Lanes will be leaving the bowling shoes behind to cook up their authentic American cuisine. With a 100-strong collection of beers at Pub at the Hub, masterclasses – plus the addition of an Indie Produce Fair (Fri 4 – Sun 6 Oct) – to see the festivities out, we’d recommend arriving on an empty stomach.
Wed 2 – Sun 6 Oct, Albert Square, M2 5DB, 12pm – late, FREE, www.foodanddrinkfestival.com

Taste of the Northern Quarter
Once home to just a handful of bars inhabiting the buildings left over by the declining textiles trade, the Northern Quarter now boasts approximately two million bars, pubs and restaurants – easy, then, to find yourself stuck for where’s good to go. Get ahead of the crowd with Manchester Food Walks’ culinary tour of the district, with visits to ten tasty hotspots as well a guide to the history of the area. From arch criminals, superheroes and drag queens to markets and rag traders, learn about the history of the area while you sample your way through ten small courses from some of the Northern Quarter’s finest eateries. Then impress your friends with your newfound favourites.
Sat 5 Oct, start at Manchester Tourist Information Centre, 45-50 Portland Street, M1 4AJ, 11.30am – 2.30pm, £30, www.manchesterfoodwalks.co.uk

Trove Café pizza night
Everyone knows you can never really go wrong with pizza and good music – and clearly Levenshulme’s bread artisans Trove Café are wise to the fact as they see the Food and Drink Festival out in style with an extra special edition of their weekly pizza night. Swapping their speciality real bread and organic preserves for their tasty weekend pizza menu– with the addition of a venison pizza especially for this event – the café will be hosting top musical talent with music from Manchester’s favourite independent label Red Deer Club and sets from DBH, aka Daniel Bridgewood-Hill, and his folksy string band Suttree.
Sun 6 Oct, Trove Café, 1032 Stockport Road, Levenshulme, M19 3EX, Tel: 0161 224 8588, www.trovefoods.co.uk

See the full programme at www.foodanddrinkfestival.com.