Maida Grill House, 38 Liverpool Street, Salford M5 4LT (0161 312 9772, maidagrillhousesalford.co.uk). Starters £2-£8; all other dishes £5-£8.50; unlicensed.
Even in this age of rapid digital spread, the UK still has its discrete regional foods. I’d call them delicacies but they rarely are. Middlesbrough’s Parmo, that thumping pizza box-sized deep-fried schnitzel, topped with bechamel and cheese, is many delightful things. Delicate is not one of them. It is the perfect end to a rigorous Friday night out; a welcome blast of carbs, fat and protein. Leaf scratchings, made from the internal fat of the pig, are huge in a few square miles of the Black Country, and all but unsellable anywhere else. Neath Market has its gravy-slicked faggots, a tribute to nose-to-tail-eating long before nose-to-tail was a thing, and Wigan has its particular pies.
