Sam Lister finds a place which revives nostalgia for the culinary delights of home

WHEN I was teenager living within the cosy confines of the parental home, the meal I always enjoyed most was Saturday tea.
 
Sunday lunch just did not do it for me. It seemed like an awful lot of effort went in to making the traditional meat and two veg. And expertly done though it was, it was never going to be an explosion for the tastebuds.
 
Saturday tea, though, was always full of unexpected treats. It would generally be salad with chicken or shellfish and crusty bread.
 
But the bit that made it great was the pots of goodies my parents would bring home from the deli in town after doing the weekly shop.
 
Big, fat juicy olives, hummus, spicy chorizo sausage and stuffed vine leaves all made a regular appearance.
 
The "Saturday tea" became a bit of a standing joke in the house, because it was also the only meal guaranteed to drag my younger brother away from his friends once he hit 16.
 
Anyway it's more than a decade (scarily) since I left home to carve my own way in the world, but I still love that type of meal more than pretty much anything else.
 
So when Delifonseca opened on Stanley Street earlier this year I was really pleased. At last there is a city centre deli stuffed full of great produce, all the types of things that made the Saturday tea so good.
 
The cheeses ranges from Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire to the now infamous - thanks to some Plasticine film stars - Stinking Bishop.
 
Cheshire Smokehouse's air-dried Prosciutto sits alongside Dukeshill Ham's Shropshire Black.