GAME season is a particular delight here at Taste of Manchester. It summons up memories of Robert Owen Brown serving up an old school whole grouse with bread sauce and game chips… or perhaps an abundant game dinner, venison and pheasant and hare in succession with root veg and berries and intense sauces at game savvy restaurant such as the Hearth of the Ram or the Freemasons at Wiswell.
All seasonal, of course, and very British. But, of course, other nations have their own game allegiances. Spain, in particular, brings some amazing dishes to the table. Witness the current Special Game Menu at Iberica, Spinningfields – six of the best featuring partridge, venison, mallard and hare. When the season’s over in early spring most won’t feature.
It helps in all this, of course, that this upmarket Spanish chain has its roots in mountainous Asturias in the north of the country, where such game is abundant. Michelin-feted Exec Chef Nacho Mantzano is Asturian, as is his Group Head Chef, Cesar Garcia (above), who came up to Manchester to unveil the menu.
The raw materials were all sourced from a sustainable supplier in Lincolnshire but the cooking was pure Iberian, each tapa size course matched by Spanish reds from Navarra, Manchuela, Extremedura, Somontano and Castilla plus a Verdejo white from Rueda. Not a Rioja or Ribeiro del Duero in site. It’s Iberia policy to encourage customers to sample from lesser known regions.
Partridge featured twice (above), contrastingly in an intense escabeche with rib-sticking beans from Avila, then cooked teasingly as a pie but with a potato crust (both £7.50).
In between a surprisingly light tasting hare dish was a variant on the Asturian Fabada, a broad bean stew, accompanied beautifully by a smoky Verdejo white from Rueda.
Extremedura was the source of my favourite red from the matching – a New World style Vina Santa Maria Crianza Cabernet Sauvignon. It coped admirably with the most interesting of all the dishes – mallard duck breast, served pink, with sweetly pickled chanterelles and beetroot, both roast and cured. The UK has converted Cesar to beetroot, which barely figures in his native Asturian cuisine.
We finished with two quite different treatments of venison, sourced from different breeds – Fallow Deer and Muntjac. At least, I think that was the case. Cesar’s English is pretty good but he did rattle along at a great pace in his enthusiastic commentary!
Meatballs with a slick of sharp apple puree were a kind of gamier albondigas, while loin with roast garlic and honey alioli was soothing but very whole clove garlicky.
Iberica, 14-15 The Avenue Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3HF. 0161 358 1350.