Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Mr. Mano, I presume? He may be undercover wearing an explorer’s jungle hat but Bahrain’s steak supremo has stepped out of darkest Africa and straight into a Lancashire hotpot!
Mighty Mano Babiolakis, born in Zimbabwe at a time when it was known as Rhodesia, is tickling the taste buds with traditional recipes every Tuesday with his ‘love British food’ theme nights at the fine dining restaurant inside Bahrain Rugby Club.
It may be all Greek to some, but Mano has been a lover of true British grub ever since his school days where an expat chef kept the kids well fed. “I developed very Anglo- Saxon-ised eating habits at a very early age,” he admitted. “And, to be honest, there is some very wholesome cooking to be found across the UK. I find it very interesting.”
The menu changes each week but as a birthday treat I took the good lady wife Kathryn out to sample the tastes of home and the offering had my mouth watering within moments.
I went for the ham and pea soup and Kathryn chose the crab pancakes. Now this is where Mano’s mastery in the kitchen comes to the fore. Nothing is simply dished up, it’s created.
There was a distinctive woody flavour to the soup which had somehow been developed in a process involving tea leaves, tin foil and an old pan. Mano tried to explain the technique to me but, unfortunately, it went completely over my head as I was concentrating on savouring the flavour and didn’t want to spill the piping hot soup down my best shirt.
Whatever you did Mano; nice one, it worked.
The crab cakes were wolfed down, before I had the chance of sampling a small bite ... which reminds me of a sad story I heard the other day about a girl on her first date. Her beau left a tiny piece of steak and started to finish off the rest of his food. The girl proceeded to lean across the table with her fork, lift the piece of meat from his plate and swallow it, thinking it was going to waste.
Silly girl, he was saving it for last. Needless to say, the couple never dated again.
Back to Mano’s Restaurant ... for the main course Kathryn chose the roast rib eye served with roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables and I went for that Lancashire hotpot accompanied by pickled red cabbage, fresh greens and carrots.
Now, I love a good hot pot (or stew, as it’s called in London) because after slicing through the sliced potatoes on the top, the tender lamb meat pieces melt in your mouth and slip down your throat.
Perfection, I could have been sampling the fare at my friend Terry’s home in Preston and sat round his wonder-cook mum’s kitchen table, it was that good.
Mano and Rena boast more than 25 years in the restaurant industry and the couple make the perfect partnership. They moved to Bahrain 10 years ago from Africa where they were born and raised by Greek parents who were also in the food industry. Mano is master of the main courses and he leaves the desserts to his sweetheart.
Rena has a glowing reputation in the kingdom for her cupcakes and regulars at the rugby club queue up on a Thursday evening for a tray of her tasty delights to take home for the weekend. It’s not surprising, her chocolate fudge with peanut butter frosting and the Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting are worth the scrum.
Now, I have mentioned in previous Eating Out assignments that Kathryn considers herself a connoisseur of crème brûlée. Well, my expertise runs to apple crumble.
So when it came to our just desserts there was a choice of chocolate tart with ice cream and my favourite.
Although I usually prefer mine hot, this was textured to perfection with a superb combination of gritty crumbs and succulent fruit.
It’s nice to know, when you’re feeling homesick the taste of Blighty is not far away ... and you don’t have to get wrapped up to enjoy it!
The Love British Food set menu costs BD10 per person and includes a glass of fine beverage.
