Dishes from a cookbook filled with Sunderland favourites will be on the menu as part of Sunderland Restaurant Week.
The event is set to return on March 15-23 with a whole host of restaurants, cafés and bars offering bargain deals. There will also be an opportunity to enjoy local favourites from the Mackem Cewkbewk – a celebration of recipes with a Wearside twist brought together by Mackem Dictionary creator Paul Swinney.
Along with offering a range of traditional dishes and a new take on classics, the book also gives insight into local cuisine and its origins.
As part of restaurant week, several participants have got behind the book and added a local flavour to their menus, some of which will continue after the event too.
Sunderland College Bistro diners will find sweet treat Pink Slices on the menu, as well as Double Maxim Mussels.
While the association with Sunderland for the latter may not be as obvious, Paul believes it has a rightful place. “We’ve been a fishing port for a long time, but you don’t see many mussels. However, I always remember my surrogate granda, who was Belgian, scrubbing mussels when I came home from school. I saw North at Seaburn had a Double Maxim mussels recipe on their menu for a time. Traditions have to start somewhere, and this is a great Sunderland dish.”
A tried and tested Sunderland special, Panackalty, is being offered at Rumour Has It, while Port of Call will be adding Pink Slice Ice Cream to vanilla cheesecake during restaurant week and Sunderland Fish Dahl Curry to the specials post-restaurant week.
“Sunderland has a long history with fishing, being a fishing port long before it built ships. Strangely, beyond fish and chips, fish doesn’t really feature in the cuisine, so I wanted to change that,” said Paul. “I also wanted to reflect the cultural variety of the city and the impact this has had on the food we eat. For example, the Moti Raj has been serving up South Asian cuisine in the city centre since the 1970s. Yellow split peas are a staple in both North East cooking (pease pudding and ham shank broth) and south Asian cuisines (dhal), so bringing them together to form the Sunderland Fish Curry felt like a good thing to do.”
The Mackem Cewkbewk is on sale for £15 – with the proceeds going to Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen.
“The book is about celebrating one of the things that makes Wearside unique. In doing so, I wanted to do some good with it too,” added Paul. “Raising funds for the Soupie felt like the natural thing to do, not least given how hard the last few years have been for those in an already precarious financial position.”
Sharon Appleby, chief executive of Sunderland BID which organises Sunderland Restaurant Week, said: “Sunderland has a long food history, with a whole host of traditional dishes which have stood the test of time. Thanks to Paul’s book, we’re able to acknowledge this, not just for Sunderland Restaurant Week but on an on-going basis, at a time when the city’s food and drink offering has never looked more exciting.”
Restaurant week diners can take advantage of £10, £15 and £20 deals at venues across the city. Vouchers for all the offers can be downloaded at www.sunderlandbid.co.uk/restaurant-week
Copies of The Mackem Cewkbewk can be purchased at www.a-love-supreme.com
