As I Xi It

Frugo, on offer at Tesco.

Note: Does not turn you into The Hulk, incredible or otherwise

Things never quite look like how they’re suppose to like on the packaging.

This is what it's suppose to look like

This is how it looks when made. Not quite the same.

The other day, I found a few boxes of stroopwafels which I brought the last time I went through Schipol (in 2009 when returning from Cape Town). They still looked fine, a nice golden brown, caramelly colour and seemed to smell fine too. There were no obvious signs of spoilage that I could see.

This morning I had one of these “vintage” stroopwafels with my coffee and I’ve got to say, it tasted as good if not better than some of the more recent variants! I wonder if perhaps they’re the dutch version of Twinkies.

Expiry date

Breakfast

No problems here

Still can’t figure out blue.

Where's indigo?

Limited edition blue Skittles are out and I just can’t put a finger on what flavour they’re suppose to be. They taste like lavender soap but a Google reveals that it’s a bit of a mystery. Guesses include raspberry and blueberry. Can’t say that I’ve tasted raspberries or blueberries quite like that before.

Feelin' blue

Last night I had a bit of an off-beat dining experience, perhaps an insight into what the future holds for eating out.

I went to the recently opened Inamo on Regents Street, a stone’s throw away from the original one on Wardour Street. I think it’s a pretty safe generalisation to say that those who dine there mainly go for the experience rather than the food itself, which isn’t too bad by the way.

The main “attraction” is the interactive table menu system. Basically, the desktop is projected onto the table and you navigate the menu using a touchpad. The user interface is quite smart and simple to use, when you select an item, it projects the dish onto your plate, however, what you see is not neccessarily what you get as we very soon discovered. Along with food and drink, you can also change the backgroungd, have a look at real-time footage of what’s happening in the kitchen, play games (nothing fancy), look at local transport options, call a human waiter over and get the bill.

The thing I didn’t like about the menu system was that you couldn’t easily see what other diners in your party are ordering, it’d be useful to have a screen with an overall table order list and also to be able to see what has already been ordered.

Food was pretty good if somewhat pricey. I think the worst value for money dish we ordered was the black bean tuna, it was just three small canapé sized portions for £7, that’s like £2.33 a bite! It was good, but not £7 good.  I’d have to put it up there with the 7 salted prawns (gambas a la plancha) for €8 in Madrid (they weren’t even deshelled!) in my list of all time dining extortions. My favourite dish was the pork ribs, they were finger lickin’ good, I just wished there were more of them, “only” £6.75, a bargain in comparison.

Who knows, perhaps the next technological advance in novel dining will be robot waiters. At least there’d be no need to feel bad for not tipping them.

Don’t just reCycle, reuse!

Hurrah for hot choc containers

It’s duck and it comes in a pot!

It is what it is, or was rather

Anything’s worth a shot right?

I’m chewing away and it feel like a Holland & Barretts just opened up in my mouth. On the back of the pack, it says it contains Bacopa monnieri, which for those who know their planted aquariums, is a submerged aquatic macrophyte. Perhaps once I’ve finished the pack, I’ll have a nibble on a few leaves out of my fishtank.

Academic doping

Homer Simpson would be proud.

A plethora of E numbers.