The humble bratwurst seems to be the go-to culinary delight of the Manchester Christmas Markets, closely followed by the popular Yorkshire Pudding Wrap - but did you know you can get a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings for just a tenner?
You might have thought we’d explored all of the foodie offerings to be had at the pop up cabins this winter, with our handy sausage guide, weird and quirky foods and festive cocktails round ups. But with over 200 stalls to visit, there’s always something new to uncover.
And, this week, we’ve found two Mancunian institutions dishing out £10 trays of festive food - but which one would we deem worthy of our December 25 centrepiece? Yard and Coop, or Porky Pig?
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Over on Exchange Square, the queue for Porky Pig snakes through the concrete benches behind the stalls. Famous for their Yorkshire pudding wraps, they’re one of Manchester Christmas Markets’ busiest stalls every year.
Back in their spot outside Selfridges, the carvery station is serving up battered pigs in blankets, Yorkshire pudding wraps and giant carvery boxes that cost just £10.
Don’t be put off by the length of the queue, as Porky Pig’s fast and efficient conveyor belt-style serving sees you move to the front in a matter of minutes.
Priced at £10, the giant carvery box contains a choice of one meat - pork, gammon or turkey - or two pigs in blankets, served in a giant Yorkshire pudding with mash and roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots, peas and gravy.
Each box is built in front of you, so you can skip out on things like stuffing if you don’t fancy it.
What I really like about this is that you can either enjoy it right away, or have it lidded up to enjoy a little bit later on. The sturdy box protects your meal from the wind, too, meaning your food stays hotter for longer - and it’s far easier to hold and eat than some of the other dishes at the markets.
The gammon on my Christmas carvery was slow cooked and fell apart in my mouth, while I enjoyed the spud-duo of mash and roasties. The peas I’d have happily gone without, but it certainly had everything - including a generous helping of gravy. It felt like a pretty good street food take on a Christmas dinner, but, would something a little less traditional top it?
Northern Quarter favourites Yard and Coop are at Manchester Christmas Markets for a fifth year, and are located on St Ann’s Square - you can’t miss them because they’ve always got a queue, which is the sign of good, local scran.
The wooden hut has been decked with fairy lights and a festive feathery chicken, with a colourful menu board displaying their popular orders. Visitors flock in their droves to this stand for their best selling salt and pepper tray, but it’s their Christmas Dinner Tray we headed down to try.
Traditionally, Christmas dinner’s main event is turkey, but Yard and Coop - not exactly known for being conventional - have swapped it out for their now legendary buttermilk fried chicken. Similarly, roasties have been ditched in favour of fries, and your average steamed vegetables delightfully dehydrated into carrot and parsnip crisps for extra crunch.
All of the main components of a Christmas dinner are there - meat, carbs and veg - joined by suitably seasonal cranberry sauce and drizzled in homemade chicken gravy. It’s not your average Christmas dinner, and it goes BIG on flavours. It’s salty, sweet, moist, flavourful and basically everything I love about street food, with delicious chicken pieces drowned in the gravy, and well-seasoned fries making this an exciting and satisfying take on a festive feast.
It’s potentially lacking a pig in blanket or a bit of Yorkshire pudding, but for me Yard and Coop wins this competition with their unconventional festive offering.
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