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Pigeon: Anything but fowl

3 May

Weird food: Pigeon

I’M WALKING through Trafalgar Square as flocks of pigeons swoop onto unsuspecting tourists, flapping their green-grey tinged wings as though they’re auditioning for a remake of Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Defecating on the cobbled streets with gusto or sitting on the fourth plinth like ugly bits of found art, these flying pests are associated with London as much as red buses, the royal family or rain.

Pigeons in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square: A haven for pigeons

While I don’t bear these feathered rascals a grudge, I don’t hold them in affection either so when I’m given the opportunity to sample pigeon at The Hayward, the restaurant at The Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury, I jump at the chance. Weird food number 16, here I come.  Continue reading →

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Guillemot and whale

19 Apr

THE CLOSEST I’d come to a Guillemot was listening to the Avant-Gard Indie rock band with the same name, so when I saw it on the menu at Prir Frakkar , a tiny restaurant in Reykjavik, Iceland, it piqued my curiosity.

Keen to try weird foods, I draw the line at cannibalism, so it was a relief to discover that a Guillemot was a black seabird with a white belly, thick beak and bright red feet, native to Iceland.

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Rotten shark anyone?

12 Apr

Weird food: Hakarl (putrified shark)

THE PEOPLE of Iceland have a lot to be proud of: Bjork (apart from that dodgy swan outfit she wore), eye-crampingly awesome volcanos, gushing geysers and the Northern lights – swirls of pinks and greens streaking across the sky like something from a Disney film. But its most famous dish of Hakarl, otherwise known as putrified shark? Not so much.

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One lump or two?

20 Feb

Weird food: Bubble tea

FIZZING flasks of luminous green liquid, a blackboard covered with scientific squiggles and two men in white coats hunched over a bubbling pot…

Welcome to Bubbleology!  This isn’t a science lab but a cool café in a cobbled Soho street that specialises in Bubble Tea, a Taiwanese speciality of milk and fruit teas filled with tapioca or jelly balls.

I’m handed a plastic cup filled with a murky, mushroom-coloured concoction. Tiny, black balls that look like frogspawn lurk at the bottom and I eye it warily…

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Death by chocolate – almost!

21 Nov

Weird foods: Locusts, crickets, gnu, ostrich, zebra, crocodile, scorpion

THERE aren’t many restaurants where the first words you say to the waiter are ‘Golden Monkey.’ But then there aren’t many restaurants that boast an exotic menu of crocodile, zebra, wildebeest –  and chocolate-covered scorpion for dessert.

Archipelago, a tiny restaurant in North London, has been serving up gastronomica exotica for eleven years. Set up by South African Bruce Alexander, who wanted to move away from London’s ‘samey’ restaurants, it sources its food from all over the world – crocodile from Zimbabwe, Kangaroo from Australia, Gnu from South Africa and locusts and crickets from the rather less exotic Isle of Wight!

A locust dish

“We only use farm-reared animals and of course we’d never use endangered species,” says Head Chef Danny Creedon, who trained as a classical French chef at the Room of Fine Dining. “The meat is often a by-product of other trades, like crocodiles that are farmed for their skins.”

Phew! Conscience clear, we’re free to enjoy the food and the unusual atmosphere. ‘Golden Monkey,’ our secret password to confirm our booking, is all part of the fun – along with the bizarre décor.

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