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Mini blog: Insect snacks – the new pub grubs

10 May

Weird food: Curry flavoured crickets and barbecue meal worms

Pint of lager? Check. G&T? Check. Bags of Doritos? Check. Insect snacks?

OK, so crunchy baked crickets (acheta domestica) in a thai green curry seasoning and baked, barbecue meal worms (Tenebrio Molitor) aren’t your average pub snack but that’s what I’ve brought with me to Westow House in Crystal Palace, London to be sampled by my team of tasters.

It’s a great venue with draping curtains, wrought iron shelves and orange papered feature walls but, as usual, it’s pouring with rain outside so I’ve brought the exotic with me.

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Mini blog: Tasty Pasty? A homemade Pie Floater

26 Apr

Weird food: Pie floater

RUPERT Murdoch might balk at the thought of pies, following a certain the shaving foam pie incident in parliament last July, but he has more in common with them than you might imagine.

Because the newspaper behemoth forged his career in Adelaide, also home to the pie floater.

If you’re wondering what a pie floater is, I should begin by reassuring you that it isn’t something you’ll find in a train loo, but a meat pie, turned upside down in a slurry of pea soup and topped with a slash of ketchup.

Pie Floater

Pie Floater

Pie carts serving pies and a variety of soups were prevalent in Adelaide in the 1870s and though no-one knows how the first pie ended up in the pea soup, I’m guessing a pie-eyed (sorry, it had to be done) passer-by dropped it in by accident, then had a ‘eureka’ moment.

Adelaideans are proud of this stodgy, carb-laden treat, a fast food dish so famous it was recognised in 2003 as a South Australian Heritage Icon by the National Trust of Australia.

To construct my masterpiece, I heat up a Sainsburys’ steak and kidney pie and a saucepan of Baxter’s pea soup. This is the Brit version, innit?

My plate looks like it’s covered in the liquidised remains of a frog and the sad truth is that the crispy pie crust (my favourite part of the pie) is a soggy mess. That said, the minty flavour of the pea soup and tangy ketchup complement the meaty pie.

So with David Cameron’s plans to tax hot pasties and sausage rolls imminent you might want to consider making your own. After soaking up the authentic Aussie atmosphere and a pint at the Redback or Walkabout, head home and construct this tasty treat!

ENDS

Have you tried a pie floater? What did you think? What other weird food combinations have you tried? Leave your comments below.

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Rudolph on toast

22 Dec

DASHER, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donna, Blitzen and… sorry Santa but Rudolph won’t be leading your sleigh this year.

He’s been pulverized, mixed with spices and garlic to create a delicious pate. Mmm, Rudolph on toast.

Reindeer pate

If you’re worried about piling on the pounds over Christmas, reindeer has one of the lowest fat contents of red meat – a mere two per cent – so it could be the answer. And you can rest assured that you’re not eating an endangered species – the reindeer are farmed in Sweden by Sami herdsmen and fed a diet of moss and lichen.

The packaging of my tin of reindeer pate looked innocuous. A white label announced an arctic delicacy, ‘an indulgent Christmas treat’ and claimed Rudolph’s relative was inside. When I opened it the pate didn’t look very appetising – dark, plummy meat clumped together so it resembled cat food – but it was surprisingly tasty.

I didn’t have any Knackebrod (Swedish crisp bread) so I slathered it onto some toasted not-very-authentic ciabatta.

Smoother than Michael Buble singing Christmas classics, the pate tasted rich and gamey but not overpowering. It  wasn’t as greasy as pork-based pates and was infused with spicy cognac – it definitely had sparkle.

So if you want to treat your family to something exotic, festive and tasty this Christmas, shelve the turkey. Buck the trend and treat them to some reindeer pate instead.

Reindeer pate is available from www.firebox.com

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Corny but tasty

16 Dec

Weird food: Mince pie flavoured popcorn

I HAVE a Christmas confession.  I hate mince pies. The stodgy pastry and spiced, gloopy mixture sends shivers down my spine. A bit unfortunate really as it is only thanks to the pesky pastries that I reached the heady heights of being a  Guinness World Record Breaker. 

I write ‘heady heights’ with a massive dollop of sarcasm because the record I hold, along with former colleagues Luke Chilton and Michael Xuereb, is for eating the most mince pies in a minute. And we achieved…two.

I can hear you snorting with laughter. You’d think wolfing down two mince pies in a minute would be a piece of, er pie. After all, most people manage to shovel a few down at Christmas, along with endless turkey, chocolate log and trifle.

But the pastry dried out my mouth then combined with the mincemeat to create a sticky glue that stuck my jaw together. The tactic was to take small, delicate bites then gulp them down, but it took me at least 30 mince pies to work this out.

Despite being red-faced from the mince pie sweats and  green about the gills (at least I was sticking to a festive colour scheme!) I managed to secure the record. But it left me scarred and the thought of even the tiniest morsel of mince pie passing my lips made me shudder.

So it was with trepidation that I tested Joe and Seph’s Mince Pie flavoured popcorn.  Continue reading →

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