Chocolate Jenga

The Christmas period hasn't quite ended yet and I'm still feasting away on a daily basis. On Tuesday, I was invited to a friend's house party and was welcomed by quite an impressive spread. Here is a list of some items that were on offer; cocktail sausages, sausage rolls, sandwiches, home made burgers, pizzas, chicken wings and home made potato wedges. For dessert there was a home made chocolate sponge cake too.

However, despite all that's been mentioned, the item that most caught my eye was the chocolate finger Jenga tower. Constructed from a combination of milk and white chocolate Cadbury's fingers, it was stacked at about 20 fingers high. It was certainly the party piece that caught the attention of all the guests that evening.

After much admiration though, it was time for the game of Jenga to begin. It was suggested that the culprit who removes the finger that causes the tower to tumble should consume the remaining fingers but that idea was quickly dismissed by the majority. It's certainly a challenge worth considering for future parties though. I'd like to add that rather than adding the finger removed from the tower to the top of the tower as you would do in a conventional game of Jenga, we simply ate the finger.

In case you're wondering, I removed my finger with consummate ease, opting for a white chocolate. Unfortunately the girl that whose turn was immediately after mine wasn't so skilled and the tower tumbled in what was only the 6th turn. Everyone then seemed to dive in like vultures and below is what remained. There was an attempt to construct a smaller tower from those remains but it wasn't worth the effort.

The tower was certainly a (brief) talking point of the night prior to it's demolition. I personally think it could actually be used as a ice breaker at a party. Maybe you'll consider creating a chocolate finger Jenga tower in your next party or a variation of it? Feel free to share any other food related party games or show pieces you've seen before.

What's on your chips?

Christmas is looming and for most people they've been winding down with everything done and dusted. Myself on the other hand has just returned from helping out at my parent's chippy for the Christmas Eve rush. You'd have thought that most people would be saving themselves for the big feast tomorrow but it appears as though they favour warming their stomachs alla Joey Tribbiani.

It became apparent to me tonight that despite the fact it's not on the menu salt and pepper chips is requested very often (and we happily oblige). What has become of people and where did this all begin? Is salt and vinegar simply not enough? There are also an array of sauces available; curry, gravy, sweet and sour and even tomato ketchup but yet folk like to be different and creative. Cheese is another popular addition to chips but more commonly served in kebab shops.

Historically, the two condiments of salt and pepper have been used in spare ribs or chicken wings and they are often very popular appetisers in Chinese takeaways and restaurants. I'll admit there is often slightly more to it than just salt and pepper, with the addition of diced chillis, onions and peppers. As you can see in the image above, this is also the case with salt and pepper chips.

In case you were wondering, I did end the night with a portion of salt and pepper chips to share with my brother. So tell me folks, what's on your chips?

Who ate all the pies?

Quite clearly... it's me that's eaten all the pies! Today my dinner consisted of a Pieminister Moo Pie that is basically a steak and ale pie. I first came across the Pieminister brand at a friend's house and at the time they were only available from Ocado. However, recently I've started to notice them showing up in my local Tesco and the Junk Food Connoisseur just couldn't resist.

The Pieminister range is certainly in the Premier League of pies where as Holland's I'm afraid to say would be lucky to get into the Championship. At £2.99 each they aren't exactly cheap and is certainly something you should only be treating yourself to occasionally (read on for more reasons).

The filling within the pie is very generous, the steak very tender and sauce was exceptionally tasty. I generally prefer my pies to be slightly moist but the filling is more than sufficient and additional gravy wasn't required. At 643 calories, the Moo pie is rather epic and with some additional trimmings it can easily top the 1000 calories mark for a single meal.

As mentioned above, the Pieminister range is available from Ocado/Waitrose and most recently Tesco. Their website states that the pies are also available in pubs and restaurants.  They have a large range of different fillings and also produce sausage rolls and sweet pies. I'm having a difficult time deciding which filling to try next, suggestions welcome!

Lady of Leisure

Today was day four of being a lady gentleman of leisure and I'm thoroughly enjoying the time off work. The day began with a brisk run to work up an appetite (as if I need to, who am I kidding?) before heading out for dim sum with my grandparents, uncle and aunt. Remember kids, I may ramble on about unhealthy food and snacks but I want to promote regular exercise in your life you couch potatoes.

My family are regulars at Tai Wu on a Wednesday so it was nice to finally be able to join them for their last visit there this year. Besides, it's been a while since I've been for dim sum and with the knowledge that this day was dawning the cravings had developed.

For those that don't know, dim sum is essentially like tapas where food is served in small plates with multiples of each item. The idea is to go in a party so that you can order numerous different dishes and sample many if not all of them as each item is generally bite-size.

I'd say that a majority of the dishes are steam-cooked or deep fried. The most common items are probably the steamed dumplings, steamed buns and steamed rice noodle rolls. The dishes popular with Chinese people are chicken feet and beef tripe. It is also quite common to order a main dish of rice or noodles to accompany the smaller dishes and again this shared between you and your party.

Unfortunately I have no photos to show you as I was far too hungry to remember to take them. Terrible aren't I? Looks like you'll just have to drag yourselves down to Chinatown one lunchtime and visit the various establishments that serve dim sum. The most popular places are Tai Wu, Tai Pan, Glamorous and Pacific with some of them providing a trolley service during certain days of the week so that you see before you pick. Happy feasting but remember to exercise regularly!

An unlikely candidate

It's not often that a new snack hits the market and makes such an impression on me. Especially when it's a snack produced by a company that's renown for making bread. It's my Uncle I have to thank for introducing me to Warburton's New Baked Pitta Chips. Some would say I'm a marketer's dream when it comes to food in particular snacks.

Warburton's claim that they contain a third less fat than regular chips which is a bonus for the waistline especially in the lead up to Christmas. However, fat content has never been a attribute to judge a snack on. As a side note, they are offering two bags for £2 at Ocado so grab them quick. Who says I don't offer money saving tips as well?

I've tried both the Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper and Sour Cream & Chive and must say the latter tastes far superior. The flavour is very intense and from that first bite you find yourself wanting more.

Having done some research, the baked pitta chips are available in the following flavours:

• Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar
• Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper
• Sour Cream & Chive
• Oriental BBQ

Overall verdict, tasty and very moreish. Don't say I didn't warn you but you'll find yourself fighting with your friends over the last chip!

Just another munching Monday

Today was the beginning of my last week in Singapore. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far and the people in the office have been very accommodating.

For lunch today we visited a clay pot rice restaurant. It was a relief to find we were dining in a air conditioned establishment. I've never had to sweat so hard for my meals before.

I went for the chicken clay pot as did most of our group. It's not too dissimilar to a bibimbap except the contents is cooked as the pot is heated. As well as chicken (least that's what they told us it was) it contained Chinese sausage, salty fish, green veg and Chinese mushroom. It's a good mix and the sauce it's cooked in is very tasty. However, a bibimbap would still get the nod over it for me because of the hot sauce, tastier meat and the egg on top to garnish.




Accompanied with this was a plate of Thai style bean curd. Im not a big fan of bean curd unless it's cooked in a sauce so didn't particularly enjoy it. This was simply a plate of plain bean curd garnishes with some nuts, lettuce and sweet chilli sauce. A rather lame effort in my opinion.




After work we made the short stroll over to Chinatown. A few side dishes were ordered that are certainly worth a mention.

First up is carrot cake that doesn't contain carrot and is made from flour. Very tasty and quite "Cheung fun" like.




Secondly we have Rotak which is a local dish that basically contains a lot of random crap in a sauce topped with nuts. This includes cucumber, pineapple, water chestnuts and many others.




I wasn't so keen on this one as I'm not particularly convinced the mixture works very well. Am I being too harsh? After all it's not exactly an episode of MasterChef.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Outram Rd,,Singapore

International delights

It's now been 4 full days in Singapore and although I've not posted until now it doesn't mean I've not been out and about sampling the various delights.

Today's lunch was a bit of a surprise, I left it to the capable hands of one of my colleagues here. We ventured out to the nearby hawker market again where there are 80 different stalls. The sauna like conditions in this semi open food court aren't the best way to spend lunch but the value and choice available certainly makes this worthwhile. There are numerous oscillating fans located around the market but this simply isn't sufficient to prevent you from perspiring (nor any amount of Lynx deodorant).

I'd already been informed it would be Ayam Penyet (Indonesian smashed fried chicken) but had no idea what to expect.







As you can see above it's basically a piece of fried chicken leg accompanied with rice, slice of omelette, vegetables and extremely spicy chilli sauce. If you examine carefully, plastic cutlery (fork and spoon!) was provided. To my surprise I was able to gentally scrap off small pieces of chicken with a flimsy plastic fork. The chicken is well flavoured and coated in a thin but tasty batter. It was also seasoned with what appeared to be breadcrumbs but I'm still unable to determine exactly what this was. This is a very nice alternative to something like KFC and possibly healthier.

Having sweated from a combination of the hot surroundings and spicy sauce I felt the need to cool myself down before the short walk back to the office in the midday sun. What better way to do this than to opt for a dessert containing ice. I've had variations of the strawberry sago in other locations throughout Asia and unfortunately this didn't quite meet those standards. Still, it was refreshing and just what you need in the humidity.

Stay tuned for more regular updates. With less than a week left here I've still plenty on my list to sample.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Moh Guan Terrace,Singapore,Singapore

Mamma Mia

Pizza has become the nation's favourite party food with Domino's with consistently seeing increase in profits. It has to be agreed that it is the ideal food to share with friends or in my case to consume all by myself.

This week my colleague described this new frozen pizza he had tried as "fit" but then he does have a way with words. I've often found that we both have similar taste in food (and women). He was the one that introduced me to the Dr Oetker Ristorante thin based pizza range and when he informed me of a new range I just had to try it for myself. It'd be rude to not to when it's been described as "fit". Their website describes it as "The Ultimate Homemade Pizza Taste".

With the above in mind, I popped down to my supermarket and picked up two frozen Casi Di Mama Daviola pizzas as they were on offer. There's always the likelihood when purchasing two that I might not like it but then there isn't much to dislike with a pepperoni pizza. As with most pizzas it takes around 15 minutes in the oven but where it differs is there is a baking sheet attached to the base.

The crust had risen during the baking giving it quite a authentic fresh look to it. This certainly gave it a restaurant style feel to the crust and was considerably soft like fresh bread. There's a nice kick to the pizza thanks to a few chillies.

Overall I'd give this a 9/10, a stuffed crust would probably make it a mind blowing perfect ten. I'm in Singapore now for the next 10 days so hopefully there will be a few updates.

Variety is the spice of life!

We all love a bit of choice in our life and I'm no exception, especially when it comes to food. It's one of the reasons why I particularly enjoy buffets, tapas and dim sum so much. When Tesco had an offer on for Gu desserts last week I couldn't decide which cheesecake option to purchase. Eventually I purchased both Chocolate and Vanilla and the Lemon flavoured cheesecakes. To be fair, you wouldn't expect any less from me now would you?

The best way to compare the two flavours was to consume them side by side on the same evening. The 300+ calories in each (about 700 in both) didn't deter me one bit. If that wasn't bad enough I couldn't help but eat the remaining two on the following night. It's a good job I enjoy exercising almost as much as I enjoy my food.

If you've never had a Gu cheesecake before they are packaged in a glass jar that can give your dinner guests the impression that you made them yourself. They can also double as a sauce container or candle holder afterwards. I decided to begin with the chocolate & vanilla flavour and with the initial bite you immediately hit with the richness of the chocolate. It certainly overpowers any vanilla flavouring that exists. I quickly demolished this to move on to the lemon flavour with a hope that the taste wouldn't be so strong. It's certainly not as rich as the chocolate flavour and the lemon rind that it's topped with certainly helps balance out the sweetness.

Overall I'd have to say the lemon flavoured cheesecake gets my vote but unfortunately I refuse to purchase these until they are on offer again. I do like to get value for money and at the time of writing, approximately 700 calories for £1.64 (Tesco) is pretty good going!

Everything in moderation

It's Fat Friday today! This often involves a trip to a eaterie nearby to the office. Today, was a trip to Wasabi, the sushi bar in The Printworks. Sushi is probably not considered junk food but they do serve "fried things" such as gyozas and fried pork cutlets which are extremely tasty. Experts often suggest that everything in moderation is perfectly fine. However, this rule often doesn't apply to me and the 11 plates I consumed is moderately more than is recommended, especially for a lunch.

How can one refuse tasty gyoza dumplings and fried pork cutlet? There is a very reasonable set meal available at Wasabi that consists a choice of one main dish and three plates of sushi. However, the lunchtime offer of £1 a plate is too good to ignore and I often find myself opting for this over the set meal.

It was a very respectable effort from me today but my eleven plates still falls a little short of my thirteen plates consumed one lunchtime. On that note it's time to go to a meeting and possibly spend the rest of the afternoon struggling to remain awake! Fat Fridays....embrace them!

Buffet Slayer

There's nothing more challenging to a junk food connoisseur than an all you can eat buffet. So when the opportunity presents itself everything and all ties are abandoned. This even resulted in me ditching a colleague on a pre-arranged lunch for a more appealing offer. It was also a simple case of "bros over hoes" but I do admit that I am very much a lunch whore too.

Today a group of us went along to the Red Hot World Buffet in the centre of Manchester. This is a buffet chain that recently added a new branch on Deansgate and more importantly within walking distance from my office. The website claims to have more than 300 dishes and that it's a food lover's fantasy, the latter I certainly don't disagree with.

They serve all types of food including Oriental, Italian and Indian hence the World in it's title. Unfortunately, I didn't encounter anything that was red hot but I do have a rather high threshold for spicy food compared to the Average Joe. More about the food though, after all that's why what I was there for. The starters seemed to be fresh unlike other buffet places where they quite clearly use frozen produce. The mains are quite hit and miss with curry dishes being very watery. The desserts option though, is quite immense with a selection of around 30 different options.

Overall, it is precisely what I expected from a buffet place offering foods from around the world. Kids and dessert lovers will certainly enjoy the place but for those that aren't you'll still be slaying away. Just don't visit on a lunch hour when you need to return to work in the afternoon, especially when you have an uphill walk. Alternatively don't have four plates of food but it would be rude not to!

You Scream, I Scream!

Great news, the Oreo McFlurry is back. I don't particularly like McDonalds but you have to (well I do) make an exception for the McFlurry. Ice cream is up there as one my favourite foods and I'm often reminiscing the gelato I had in Italy several years ago.

There is some significance in the title of this post. I was watching a pirate copy of Insidious earlier this week with my brother and cousins. My brother kindly picked up a delightful Oreo McFlurry on his way over to mine for me. Insidious is a surprisingly good horror film and certainly one of the better ones that have been released lately. There are considerably more frights than say Paranormal Activity and it's certainly not as static when it comes to the flow of the film. I'd certainly recommend it if you enjoy your horror films but unfortunately my experience was ruined by my chicken of a brother constantly screaming his head off in fear.

Unfortunately the timing of the Oreo McFlurry return coincides with my holiday as I'm heading to Asia on Monday. Keep an eye out for posts of fascinating snacks and food I may encounter on my travels.

Yum Yums

Lunch is one of the things I often think about as soon as I get into work on a morning. It's the one thing I look forward to if I know I'm going to venture out at lunchtime that day. Working in the centre of town I'm quite spoilt for choice but even then there are times I struggle to find something appealing.

The title of this post isn't referring to the dough based product, as much as I do enjoy them. It actually refers to a restaurant in Manchester city centre. Yesterday lunch time I took the plunge and went along to Yum Yums which is a Chinese buffet. For £3.80 you are given a takeaway box to fill with whatever is available. The rules are of course, that you can shut the lid at the end. Cramming as much as you can into the box is a bit of an art form and requires some tactical awareness. For example, a spare rib consists of very little meat for the amount of space it consumes. Ideally, you'd scrape the meat off and leave the bone although there are those enjoy sucking them dry like a dog. My box was packed with spring rolls, rice, noodles, chicken curry and beef with green pepper in black bean sauce. Considering I'm such a greedy connoisseur, I had no trouble closing the lid, something I later regretted as I demolished the contents within a few minutes whilst my colleague was only half way through his.

The food itself was what you would expect from a buffet. The food was quite high in salt content and tasted exactly as it does from any other Chinese buffet. As it was lunchtime a lot of the items appeared quite freshly cooked though. My verdict is that it's far from spectacular but is an extra option for lunchtimes at work despite the salt content.

Monday Muffin Munching

It's Sunday evening and no one likes the thought of going to work the next day. Thankfully the pain will be eased a little knowing that there will be free muffins to go around at work tomorrow. With flavours from Sicilian Lemon to Triple Chocolate I'll have a tough time deciding what to go for. The truth is I'd be delighted if I could have one of each. In true junk food fashion it does makes perfect sense to go for a triple chocolate though.

We've already had a "Fruity Friday" at work but fellow junk food connoisseurs will probably agree that the mention of the word "fruit" alone in this blog is pure blasphemy. However, it's not so bad if combined with the word tart or cake so always bear that in mind. Other suggestions that have been going around the office have been Meaty Monday, Chewy (Chiuy) Tuesday and my favourite, Fry-Up Friday. Alright, I'll be honest, these have been the ideas going around my head.

For my colleagues that are reading this, don't forget to grab your muffin before Snack Hitler gets there first!

Sweaty Juice!

Continuing with the oriental theme from my previous post I thought I'd mention one particular drink I'm fond of from the Far East. It doesn't have the most appealing name given to it. After all it is a Japanese based drink and they're renowned for their grasp of the Engrish language. The beverage in question is called Pocari Sweat and contrary to the name it does not contain human sweat or sweat of any living organism, not that this would be any more acceptable. I'm pretty certain that Lucozade or Powerade wouldn't be so popular had they been appended with the word sweat to their products.

Pocari Sweat itself is actually a sports drink and the name is derived from the notion of supplying the drinker with the nutrients and electrolytes lost from sweating. Despite it's unappealing name it's quite a pleasant drink with a distinct taste. On visits to Hong Kong, I often purchase this is powder form that I can add water to which I drink before and after exercise.

Pocari Sweat has been around for three decades now and they don't appear to have branched out into other flavours or products. I'm sure a Pocari Urine and Pocari Faeces would add some dimension to the range.

Tastes of the Orient

As a person of Chinese origin it's only right that I mention a snack from my country of origin. Last weekend I was in the Chinatown area and popped into one of the many Chinese supermarkets. With time to kill whilst waiting for a friend I browsed the aisles and reminisced with sweets and snacks I happily indulged in as a child. We're quite fortunate that in Manchester the Chinatown isn't just a handful of shops on one street and there are multiple restaurants and bakeries offering some delightful delicacies.

One of the items that I purchased this weekend is a sweet snack called Sachima from the supermarket. The Wikipedia definition states that Sachima is "a common Chinese pastry found in many Chinese-speaking regions". It wasn't until they were handed out to my colleagues that I realised I wasn't aware of the English name given to a snack that I've eaten from young age. It maybe of interest to some of you to know that using Google Translate, one of the many the Chinese names given to them (馬仔) actually translates to "Cowboys".

If you're interested in sampling some Sachima, just head down to your local Chinese supermarket where they are available in egg and sesame seed flavour. So put down that Mars bar and try something different.

One too many?

Have you ever purchased something from the shops and hoped that the packaging contained more than the number specified on the label? Perhaps you had ten Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds rather than the nine you asked for. After all, most the staff there probably don't have basic numeracy skills. Regardless of what item you've purchased, it's always a pleasant feeling to get more than what you paid for. This is always the case with a pack of 10 pork cocktail sausages from Marks & Spencers.

Today I purchased a pack of 10 pork cocktail sausages to accompany my chicken, bacon and sweet corn pasta from Marks & Spencers for my lunch. The pasta is never quite enough for my lunch and I always like to push the boat out and make it a three meat pasta lunch. Despite the fact that Government scientists have recently warned us to eat less red meat I will not be persuaded to cut down. Some would question how much meat these sausages actually contain.

Anyway, back to my original point. My packet yet again contained 11 pork cocktail sausages. It's some what become an expectation of mine and I will be disappointed when the day comes that the number on the packaging matches the number of items within it.

Initially I thought this anomaly was an isolated problem with Marks & Spencers but one of my colleagues purchased the product from Boots today with the same problem. It does make me wonder how much revenue is lost because of such a minor discrepancy.

So if you're feeling like you want a little extra, pop out and grab yourself a pack of 10 11 pork cocktail sausages from Marks & Spencers or Boots.

Monster Cuppage

It's been quite a while since I've posted and several people have been reminding me of this recently. Don't fret though fellow junkers, I haven't committed to a new healthy regime since the new year. If anything I've been eating out a considerable amount over the last few weeks and I'm sure those who have seen me have noticed a fuller rounder figure lately.

On to the important stuff, last weekend I enjoyed a casual dinner party hosted at my cousin's. We were all invited to prepare a dish for the occasion and as well as cooking a Carbonara I brought along a selection of muppet cup cakes that I purchased. I'd like to highlight that I haven't been asked to plug the site in any way nor do I expect any freebies in return. However, more information can be found at There For The Baking. If they do require a guinea pig, I am always available at short notice.

Anyway, that's enough plugging. Below is a an image of the cup cakes purchased, I'd opted for the muppets themed cup cakes over the more traditional looking cup cakes. It was a big hit with all the "big" kids including myself. Although they were heavy on icing, surprisingly they didn't taste sickly at all. The icing wasn't overly sweet and had a pleasant buttery texture to it. The cake themselves were still very soft despite being made three days earlier.

Overall they were a nice touch to a pleasant dinner and were a big hit. After all cup cakes have been the "in" thing recently. Move over doughnuts, they're for fat police officers.

The important question now is, what to order next time?