Lancashire Food & Drink round-up: award-winning pies, Dubai chocolate, Wendy's & orange wine

A North West pie has been included in LoveFood’s list of the tastiest pies in Britain, which provides a comprehensive list of the very best pies from across the country, broken down by region. Technically in Greater Manchester but part of the historic county of Lancashire, Baldy’s Pies in Wigan earned top-spot as the North West’s best pie and came in 4th overall.

With holiday bookings to Dubai having increased by nearly 40% in the past week, according to luxury holiday provider Destination2, the surge in interest is being attributed to ‘taste tourism’ and people’s desire to be ‘influencers in their own right’, according to one expert.

The famous Dubai chocolate was first invented by British-Egyptian UAE resident Sarah Hamouda, who - inspired by pregnancy cravings - created a new chocolate bar with a pistachio cream filling, tahini, and knafeh, a Middle Eastern dessert consisting of shredded filo pastry, syrup, and cream cheese.

It’s finally happened, they’ve merged two of the best things to ever exist: crisps and garlic bread. Calling all snack lovers, this is not a drill. Aldi’s garlic bread crisps are back and, after three unsuccessful visits to local stores in an effort to get my paws on a pack, I was losing hope. As the Specialbuys slogan at Aldi goes, ‘once they’re gone, they’re gone...’

Then, when I was meandering through the shop looking for something else entirely, I spotted them. There they were -Specially Selected Garlic Bread Crinkle Cut Crisps in all their glory...

With Danny Dyer already making waves by dousing his fish & chips in hot sauce in his role as ‘The CodFather’, Frank’s RedHot Sauce kicked your Friday chippy tea up another notch by giving away free grub to who could prove their name was either Harry, Harriet, Frank, or Francesca on Friday 11th April.

ASK Italian, one of the the UK’s best-loved national restaurant chains, has officially opened its doors to its latest branch in Preston.

Located in the Animate leisure complex in Preston city centre, the restaurant - the group’s 67th restaurant across the UK - opened its doors on Monday April 7th with a brand new Spring menu, promising Prestonian customers a ‘signature flair, Italian escapism and warm welcome.’

I went to the grand opening of Lancashire's newest Wendy's on Blackpool Promenade to see what all the fuss was about...

With hundreds queuing up in the April sunshine for the chance to grab themselves a free burger, Blackpool certainly turned out in force for the opening of the town’s newest fast food restaurant: Wendy’s.

The warm weather over the past couple of weeks has been glorious, and sunshine calls for one thing and one thing only - refreshing beverages. With that in mind, I decided that today was the perfect day to sample Aldi’s new Specially Selected Rosorange Rosé wine...