Feeding treasure not at the trove

Ancoats to the belly

Courage, it was, and not of the Dutch variety, at least not that early in the morning and I would never trade my sobriety for the daring to do anything, that I had planned to have breakfast at Trove in the old industrial estate of Ancoats, Manchester, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution is a gentrified area of old mills converted to modern residences.

That itself is interesting because in reading up about the recently deceased Max Mosley, I discovered his father’s knighthood was a baronetcy, a hereditary knighthood, the Sir Oswald Mosley, 6^th Baronet Ancoats and notoriously a fascist leader in the 1930s, of father and son, there is much to be said, but I digress.

Riding on a mule

Arriving at Trove that I last visited in July last year, a waitress enthusiastically sought a table for me before a nonchalant manager interjected and said all the tables were reserved. Whilst he could have offered to take a reservation for later, his off-putting attitude left one feeling another visit to the place will not be considered again.

Staying within Ancoats, I found another place called Mule, where as I ordered I had to pay, leaving no room for tipping for a service well delivered. Strangely, I was forced to obtain cash from a till in Leicester because one of the shops we went to did not have any electronic payment systems. I have not handled cash in quite a while, even church offerings are done contactless.

Tasty with colour

Mule might well be an inspired name, the meaning in English would not suggest that, but that would be to overthink the provenance. The menu was as exotic as it was politically correct with pescatarian and vegetarian fare, I humoured myself looking for something Pastafarian or if I had hair, Rastafarian. Do not laugh.

I ordered the chorizo hash since I needed some meat, that option was not qualified, and it had everything. Chorizo, potatoes, poached egg, and spinach – it had a Mediterranean colour and flavour suited to my palate. I enjoyed it. For drinks; Earl Grey tea, at table three, outside.