Last time I was at Bury market, some months back, I spotted Moroccan Bites in the middle of a row of market stalls but I’d already eaten (at another market stall – Turkish Gozleme) so didn’t stop. This visit, I made a beeline for it. The owner and chef is Loubna. She told me that, at lunchtime, they serve couscous and tagines but this was mid morning so it was time for me to have a a second breakfast. They do offer a “Full English” (understandably, no pork products) but it was the Moroccan breakfast that appealed. There’s two fried eggs, sprinkled with a little spice (maybe ras-el-hanout), a lovely flatbread that was nicely doughy and little dishes of black olives, honey, feta, chopped tomato and cucumber. And there’s a mug of coffee included in the £6.50.
There’s been an expansion of the number of “ethnic” cafes – market stalls converted to a new use with a handful of tables in front. Next door to Moroccan Bites, there’s a Dutch place serving pancakes and stroopwafel with a variety of toppings. And next to that, there’s East Asian food – Japanese, Korean and the like. There’s another East Asian cafe on the other side of the market – I saw they do Korean kimchi fried rice with Spam and I’m deffo having that next trip. And a Middle Eastern one majoring on falafel. It used to be the case that your options at Bury were either a Brit greasy spoon or a warm black pudding from Chadwick’s. Now there’s so much choice, we had to buy our black puddings to take home for the freezer.
