Blog of the Week: Around the World in 80 Dinners

By Paul Robinson
A confession/disclosure: I know this blogger personally. That said, so does virtually any regular of The Cornerhouse and the entire Arts Faculty at MMU. Even Sarah mentioned him on her food blog. However, as I haven’t posted anything recently to join the musings of my colleagues, I figured I would nominate another infrequent blogger for your attention.
A couple of years ago, Robert Hamilton explained his idea to me over a lager (in aforementioned Cornerhouse): “a journal and food diary for reluctant tourists and lazy foodies like me. The idea developed out of a chance remark I made to a friend last year. Friend: Where did you go on your holidays? Me: Lunch.”
Sounds like the story of my life. Us Mancunians are an over-worked and lazy population, aren’t we? And yet we have one of the highest immigrant populations in Europe. There has got to be some good eating out there beyond the curry mile and Chinatown, right?
And so it was that Around the World in 80 Dinners was conceived. He admits that this project – to have a meal from 80 different countries within Manchester – is actually physically impossible. In fact, at the time I think I suggested I would be amazed if he got cuisine from 30 different countries out of the Chinese and Asian dominated local culinary scene.
But that hasn’t stopped him trying. He has on occasion strayed beyond the city limits, and I would (and did at the time!), argue his trip to a “Canadian Steak House” doesn’t count, but he has so far clocked up 45 dinners and enough calories across all those meals to keep a pack of horses going for a week.
However, pace has slowed. He hit 40 dinners in August of last year, and just 5 more that “count” since then. His blog has moved tone to occasional write-ups of restaurants he has enjoyed here and abroad (see, he does travel occasionally really), and I fear his goal of 80 restaurants is now unobtainable. I mentioned to him I was thinking about blogging about this, and he mentioned he thinks there are 10 left that can count, and then he’s out of ideas.
And that you see, is why I suggest his blog as blog of the week. Let us haunt his blog with comments suggesting places he doesn’t yet know. Let’s egg him on until he is successful. And fat. Very, very fat.
Then we lazy pigs can take comfort knowing that if we wish to explore cultures from all over the World we too can be complacent with public transport and the knowledge the cardiac team at MRI is on standby, 24×7.