Before Lidl came to Oxford Road, Worldwide was the place where I did most of my shopping. My…read moreflatmate and I set ourselves a challenge - each time we went to Worldwide we would buy an item of fruit or veg which we had never tried before, bring it home, attempt to prepare it and sample it. This led to some rather funny looks at the counter. One one occasion, on asking our Kenyan friend for cooking information, he explained to us that they probably laughed at us because *no-one* buys just one bhindi. We soon learnt from this school-boy error. As well as fruit and veg I always picked up pitta, naan and other foreign breads here, but it's probably not the place to go for a reasonably priced loaf of Warburton's. They also sell exciting fizzy drinks from all over the world, baklava, mango lassi and every herb, spice, bean or pulse you could think of, all of which I can recommend. Things that I have purchased from here and regretted include tinned palak paneer, a tray of 30 very unethical eggs, weird smelling incense, cheese and DIY henna. As a vegetarian I've never looked at the meat counter. But I know that my Muslim flatmate bought her meat there as it is all Halal and my Chinese flatmates bought their meat there because they sold all the disgusting-sounding parts of animals that they liked to boil up in stews, such as chicken feet. I challenge you to visit Worldwide and not to come away with more than you went in for. Even the fruit and veg is priced so that you end up with 3 cucumbers (£1) rather than the one (50p) you went in for!

Worldwide Foods. Not just a clever name my dears, certainly not. While its location on the Curry…read moreMile might make you think it's an Indian supermarket, well! Remember that it's not only Indian restaurants in Rusholme. Okay, so most of them are curry houses, and that's reflected in the fact that Worldwide Foods is mostly Indian, but you're just as likely to find your Turkish flatbreads or your Jerk seasoning here as you are your Patak's pastes and poppadoms. But you'll find so much more. As I found out far too late on the way out, there's a massive fresh produce fruit and veg stall at the back. There's also a Halal butchers, and tons of stuff you've probably never heard of. We picked up some unusual little treasures like miniature crisp puri breads with cumin seeds, like tiny poppadoms, sweet buns made with sesame seeds and egg, and crumbly shortbread-like biscuits with coconut and topped with chopped pistachio and almonds. In fact, if you're as unfamiliar with ethnic sweets as I am, you may well spend most of your time in the cookie aisle to pick up new treats. As well as this there are additional niche items like rose syrup (for faluda methinks), tropical drinks, every kind of Bombay mix you can think of, canned goods and tons of pulses and rice... just do what I did and explore. It's so much fun. Worldwide Foods is nothing short of a culinary adventure!

With this modest little greengrocers tucked away right next to the bakery (Greenhalgh's), the…read morefishmonger and butcher (Evans of Didsbury) and the beautiful Cheese Hamlet, Didsbury dwellers have very little reason to venture to Tesco at Parrs Wood. In fact, all they need now is a candlestick maker! The best offers are always on display outside the shop and currently include melons, pineapples and assorted berries, all for at least half the price you would expect to pay in Tesco. If you're looking for a wide range of Indian or African veg then you'd probably be better off heading to Khawarja Brothers in Chorlton or Worldwide Foods in Longsight or Rusholme, but if you're after your two veg to go with your Sunday roast then this is a brilliant and inexpensive alternative to the chain stores. They also have a range of reasonably priced flowers, and although the simple cellophane wrapping may not be as aesthetically pleasing as the bouquets on offer in local florists, the flowers usually look lovely enough, and better than those at the Shell garage across the road!

Freshsave is a totally adorable wee grocery shop that offers lovely fresh produce at fantastic…read morevalue. I could go on and on about the fruit and veg here, but all you need to know is that it's good and it's cheap. As Kirsten says, it's pretty bog standard fare; onions, potatoes, peppers, greens and the like, but it's more than sufficient as a day-to-day grocery stop-off. The fruit is always tasty and usually ripe (I hate getting stuff home from Tesco to find it's still rock hard and will take a week to be edible!) As well as great fresh produce, you can pick up a pretty decent array of Indian curry pastes, chutneys and pickles, and some really fabulous poppadoms (I recommend the red pepper ones) The best curry I ever made was with Madras curry paste bought from here, with Freshsave tomatoes, and beef from Axon's. What with this and all the other great independent places in Didsbury, I have no idea how the Co-Operative stays open!

There are plenty of arguments for and against the social impact of segregated communities in…read moreManchester. One of the overwhelming advantages of such communities however, which I'm sure will gain universal approval is their complete immunity from being threatened by giant retail food chains. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that've been driving out small independents outta business across across the country. I LOVE the fact that the communities remain militantly loyal to local foodstores like Madina. Upon close inspection, turns out the reason is a little more complex than just cultural affiliation. One of the main one reasons? This place is AWESOME!! There's literally a library of spices to buy (at BARGAIN prices) and experiment at home with. Any foodie/charlie out there who's sick of the monotonous nature of the shopping experience, will find this to be their culinary/chocolate factory. True, London probably bigger volume of such establishments, but they probably cant beat us for sheer quality. So next time you're stuck in traffic driving to town on Stockport road (through Levenshulme) have a break, and instead of having a kitkat, park up and have a cheeky gander.

Despite having a deceptively small storefront, once inside Madina Superstore turns out to be…read moreanother Desi supermarket easily on a par with branches of Worldwide Foods or Manchester Superstore. With the UK 'hungry gap' upon us, I bagged a box of lychees plus sundry Desi vegetable and fresh herbs. Freshness of the produce was very good, although a bit of banter with a Desi customer revealed that he was passing up on the tinda as being too big - although this is no doubt an out-of-season issue. For the mobile cosmopolitan foodie such as myself, the aim is to know where all the ethnic food stores are so that ethnic food shopping can be done with a minimum of detour from other city business and pleasure. Although there is nothing really oustanding about Madina Superstore to make you travel beyond your nearest Desi superstore, it is nice to have a proper Desi supermarket in Levenshulme to save Levy locals a trip up Stockport Road to Longsight. And visitors such as myself can combine a visit to Madina Superstore with a trip to the monthly Levy Market, or else the permanent Trove café bakery or POD deli.

This is the one place I don't mind seeing festive decor during the month before December…read more Supermarkets, sod off with your Slade on repeat. Department stores, forgive me if I look suicidal at the sound of Chris De Burgh murdering that painful Jerusalem song. But our Christmas Markets here in pretty Manchester... *sigh* Every Scroogey, Grinchy bone in my body crumbles to pixie dust and I immediately find myself feeling the Yuletide glow. Oh for five and a half stars. If possible I'd give the Christmas Markets another half star every year as they seem to get better and better each time. I trundled along to this Brazennose Street site a few times as, well, you don't want to attempt the giant European ones of a Saturday night. Heck, you don't really want to attempt any of the Christmas Markets on a Saturday night, but because Brazennose Street is a little more tucked away, despite the crowds it was far easier to navigate than any of the others. These are the World Markets, which means you're likely to find food from any of the continents. On this occasion for us it was Turkish; grilled spicy chicken or falafel on flatbread with salad and a yoghurt sauce. There were continental waffles next door with all kinds of tasty toppings (bookmarked for next time), plenty of places to grab the usual Gluhwein and if you can bear to drag yourself away from the food, there's artisan jewellery, knitted clothing and a bunch of accessories and gifts, perfect for any hard-to-buy-for type. You can get the trademark gluhwein here, which I did when I was here with two of my best friends, one of whom I grabbed a beer for. Oh it was a glorious day/night. I implore you to visit all the Christmas Market sites this year, and make sure you don't forget about this one. It's very pretty, well laid out and all round festive loveliness. A few stops along this route and you'll feel, Titanic style, like king of the woooooorld! Well, World Markets.

I've only really done a whistle-stop tour of the Markets this year, so I'll keep this pretty short…read more The Market on Brazenose Street is one of the ones that you are most likely to overlook, but in my opinion has some of the most original and unique gift options on it. Whilst the bigger market, literally just up the street has the same thing, year in, year out, this seems to me to have something new every year. This year, in addition to the semi standard food stalls, there's some great cheese (Snowdonian no less), some amazing art, great crafts and fuzzy felt! If you've made the effort to go to Albert Square, make sure that you take the side trip. You never know, you might find something that will make the perfect pressie for that special someone who's always soooooo difficult to buy for!

Customer since first opened. Incredibly helpful whenever I've made a trip from France for essential…read moresupplies. Thank goodness you do delivery, you can't get cassia in France for love nor money.

Another jam packed corner shop. This food store struggles to offer you enough crap as you enter…read more Ravi food store arch nemesis to wazi food store (in my mind at least) is again run by the same folk day in day out. I can imagine coming back here in 30 years time and just picking up what I want and leaving my change on top of the coffin behind the counter. Narr but seriously ravi is a choice corner store with everything you could want to get your mitts on, sweets, cans of soup and fresh fruit galore.

This unassuming little greengrocers on Withington's shabby Copson Street is absolutely bleedin'…read moregreat. Let's face it, for those living in Withington, your immediate choices for fruit are Somerfield (not great), One Stop (really, really, really not great) and Withington Fruit & Veg. Which is actually great. It's a shop of two halves, really. One one hand, it's a straight-up fruit and veg shop. selling all the usuals, loose, by the pound, cheaply. And very fresh. On the other hand, it's an Indian food store, which means you can grab big bags of spices, authentic curry pastes and all the different Rubicon flavours. It also means they stock an alarmingly wide range of fresh chillis, including the scotch bonnet chilli. Beware the scotch bonnet; it looks like a tiny bell pepper, but it is as fiery as all hell! Still, a great addition to a curry, and as everything here is charged by weight, one (more than enough for a hot Madras curry) will set you back about 5p! As well as stunningly fresh fruit and veg, and a great range of Indian foods, there's a good range of Jamaican ingredients such as plantain, dried salted fish and jerk seasonings. Great for if you fancy trying something new. The staff here are ridiculously helpful, and they always have a laugh with the regulars. The shop itself, despite being small and family-run, has its own bag-for-life, which I think is a great way of getting their brand out there, and also much better for fruit and veg than plastic bags. Speaking of, although they offer those polythene bags to put your purchases into for weighing, they're more than happy to weigh your stuff without bags, which cuts down on wastage and sits a little easier on the conscience. OH, and one time I was shopping there and I found a £2 coin in the carrots, and I told the shopkeeper and he smiled at me and said "keep it, it is the Universe's reward for your honesty!"

There are around four things preoccupying ELH these days. One is the amount of travel I'm doing…read morethis year - I'm seeing many different places with lots of quality people, that's rather nice isn't it? Another is putting up shelves and building Ikea desks... household new-home silliness. The third is Robert Sheehan. Enough said. The fourth is shopping local. As I'm a huge advocate - do you know any huge advocates? Okay, that's the 'Big Rug Sale' complex (how big *are* the rugs?), I'm not exactly a huge person - I'm very *into* my independent local businesses when it comes to coffee shops and eateries, I really feel I should carry this attitude through to most of my grocery shopping. At least to the fresh produce bit anyway. Then aren't I just a lucky duck that I live round the corner from this fruit and veg store? But wait, this isn't just a fruit and veg store, and it isn't an M&S fruit and veg store either... As Rebecca D has mentioned, it's also an ethnic food shop. Kind of like a mini Worldwide Foods, you can pick up some awesome ingredients in here, and it happens to have the cheapest halloumi I've ever seen. Seriously, they jack the price up so much in the supermarkets! Just pop here instead (they have the same brand in Worldwide Foods too). Shopping local rocks, and Copson Street is a revelation. I've so much yet to explore here, but in the meantime, sure - get your bits and bobs from the Co-op opposite but please do support this indie and stock up on your fresh ingredients here, you shan't regret it.

Alfie, the reason why this Worldwide Foods bears resemblance to Worldwide Foods in Rusholme, is…read morebecause they are part of the same chain (see website for details). You whiz past this shop on the train line which goes southwards from Manchester, and I have often contemplated pushing the emergency stop button to come and grab some of their fresh fruit and veg. It is not as large a store as the one in Rusholme, and doesn't have such a sleek and shiny feel to it, but still stocks a wide range of reasonably priced fresh produce out front, and inside they stock all of your East End and Rajah spices, lentils, beans and pulses, rice and miscellaneous objects such as henna tattoo kits, all at reasonable prices - cheaper if you happen to want 5kg of rice, or 1 litre of curry paste. OK, so most of the products are Indian, so 'worldwide' maybe isn't quite the right word, but they do trays of delicious Turkish baklava, as well as English staples such as milk, tea and bread.

Strangely, this Worldwide Foods store has reminiscences of Worldwide in Rusholme, with which it has…read moredefinitely got no relation. This one, on Slade Lane in Longsight, has a similarly haphazard way of arranging its range of foods in a completely incomprehensible order. Like the other Worldwide, it too has a few absolute bargains, and some areas of particular excellence. Here the highlight has to be the fruit and veg, which is piled up outside the store in abundance. The selection is absolutely incredible, and stretches from common apples to lesser muched fruits and vegetables such as yams and pumpkins. They even have some miscellaneous fodder, which I cannot name, as I haven't a Scooby Doo what it is. The rest of its stock isn't bad either, with plenty of cheap tinned and jarred goods. Not the kind that should never be in a tin like spaghetti Bolognese and chilli con carne, but things which belong in tins, like olives and pestos. Its much cheaper than Sainsbury's and Tesco, and not terrible quality like Lidl and Asda, so basically, its really good.

The curry is delicious though they didn't sell my favorite dishes, still buy their curry rice from…read moretime to time

Wing's is a Chinese take out within the Arndale Food Market. They have an excellent variation of…read moreChinese meals on offer and they're perfect for lunch times, especially if you're in a rush. You can order from any of the set menu meals on the large board at the back or essentially mix and match anything you want - they even cook some meals to order rather than serving it from the counter. The staff are friendly and I was served and got my food in just a matter of minutes! They do get busy, which is a good sign! My noodles were fresh and had only just bee put out. I took it back to my office to eat and it was well packaged and still piping hot. I'll go here a lot whilst working in the city!