BAOBAB Fruit Powder (Eden Project) [review by @NLi10]

A while back a mysterious package arrived through the post from the Eden Project. This is Baobab fruit powder, one of the more recent super foods, and one that can be ethically sourced from African communities both promoting 'fair trade' and the use of local natural resources for money. This is all good.

The fruit is also pollinated by bats, which automatically makes it cool in my book.  It's essentially a very high source of vitamin C and other essentials that we don't produce naturally.  The back of the packet gave links to recipes, but these were a little vague and not things that I would ordinarily make (smoothies and soups) so I would struggle to test it.

So I sprinkled it over cereal as suggested.  In my infinite wisdom I decided that they had sent quite a lot so it must be used in similar quantities to protein powders.  This wasn't accurate.

It goes a bit gloopy.

What fresh hell is this?! Fizzy Weetabix?

 I ate it, mainly because I didn't want to waste it, but the powder was a lot stronger than I'd anticipated. The cereal companies haven't tried to do many cereals with orange in them for good reason...

Since then I've learned that if you do just sprinkle it on a cereal then it's actually rather pleasant (I had it on my cornflakes just this morning!).  The trick is to sprinkle it on top, then mix the cereal, then pour the milk on.  I'm not sure that I've had a massive amount of health benefits, but it's livened up the mornings a little.  Like a natural version of those vitamin supplements that people seemed to be addicted to in the 80s.

If used correctly and in the right kinds of foods I can see this working well.  They suggested drinks and soups being the main uses, but as I rarely make those from scratch it's hard to do.  And when you do add it to something like Heinz if you do it right it looks identical (but tastes zingier).

If you think that you are lacking in any of the things that this natural powder provides then I'd suggest getting hold of some.  You can order it direct from the eden project, and I'm sure health shops sell it too.

With any luck I'll report back on this in my end of year reviews revue and let you know where else I've managed to use it to good effect.

Bundaberg Diet Ginger Beer [By @SpectreUK]

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks are an Australian family owned business. This 340ml bottle of cloudy ginger beer had 1.2g of sugar per 100ml. It’s ingredients included; carbonated water, ginger root, cane sugar, citric acid, malic acid, preservatives; E202, E211, and sweeteners; E951, E950, E955, ascorbic acid, and stabilisers; E412 and E415. I don’t know about your feelings but possibly escaping from the natural ingredients to be replaced with a bunch of E-Numbers didn’t sit so well with me. There also was not much more than 0.5% alcohol in this ginger beer, which I noticed would be good for anyone who wanted the taste of ginger beer who might be on a diet and also either had to drive that night or was a recovering alcoholic who wanted to live life on the edge! There was a strong bitey ginger beer smell on opening the bottle that quite frankly made the hairs stand up in my nose. I poured the cloudy lemonade coloured ginger beer out in a glass and could smell the pungent ginger from a few feet away. The drink was making my mouth water and my senses wish that I was sat on a roller coaster, rather than just about to drink something that might burn my beer tastebuds away. I took a sip and the carbonated water tickled my tongue, followed closely by the taste of ginger, but this was slightly muted. Maybe I’d built this drink up too much in my head? Maybe the promise of strong ginger from the smell had turned me into a slight gibbering wreck? I wasn’t sure, so I took a good gulp. There was more of a bite in that second intake, but I must admit that I was missing the continuous fizz and fiery ginger bite that I’d experienced in so many of the alcoholic ginger beers that I’ve tried over the past year or so. For a non-alcoholic ginger beer that whatever reason you may not wish to partake in the old fuzzy headed feeling, this diet non-alcoholic ginger beer is for you. It’s got fizz, which admittedly doesn’t last long in your mouth, and a minor ginger bite that was lost a little in the sweeteners that plagued the aftertaste. It’s definitely a ginger beer beverage, but I’ll stick to the boozy varieties for now...

By Spectre

Jelly Belly French Vanilla Milkshake (Tesco @JellyBellyUK) [By @Cinabar]

I found this drink in the refrigerated section at Tesco which I thought made sense at the time but when I got home I realised it was a bit weird as the drink is made with (semi-skimmed) UHT. The packet states that you only need to refrigerate it after it has been opened. I guess they wanted it to be found next to the popular chilled milkshakes like Frijj.
Jelly Belly have really expanded from their core product range of jelly beans with candles, perfumes, lip glosses, ice cream toppings and even fizzy drinks all appearing under the brand so this milkshake is a nice addition. The brand is quickly becoming a collective of flavours available for a number of different products.
Although there iare a lot of flavours they could have chosen for these milkshakes the launch flavours are banana, chocolate and vanilla so I guess they have started rather safe. Having said that there is nothing better than a good vanilla milkshake, so that's what I thought I'd try first.
It may not need to be stored in a fridge but it is certainly best served cold, so just as our large supermarket had done I did chill this for a few hours before consuming. The flavour was remarkably soothing. It reminded me of a mild custard taste, creamy but with plenty of natural tasting vanilla. Unlike a custard the drink was quite thin, and very easy to swig down. It had a lovely pureness to the flavour and it didn't last long at all. This was a simple vanilla milkshake done very well.
I'm certainly intrigued by the other flavours, and looking forward to trying them. What I really hope for is that Jelly Belly go for a few more of their adventurous flavours in the future and we end up with exiting new varieties like Sizzling Cinnamon. Wow, that would be an amazing shake.

By Cinabar

Father Christmas Bauble - London Gin Truffles (@Prestat) [By @Cinabar]

I remember when I was a kid and we used to get foil covered chocolate decorations for the Christmas tree. They were always nice, but it was always more about them looking pretty that the quality of the chocolate. Prestat have upped the game with their new Christmas tree decorations, and taken it to the next level. Inside the smartly decorated cardboard bauble are the very finest of chocolates.
The bauble pulls apart into two interlocking card semi circles. Inside that, wrapped in hot pink tissue paper, is a bag of five London Gin truffles. They have a thick white chocolate coating which enrobes the chocolate gin ganache. They are trying to recreate the flavours of a gin and fizzy tonic with a lemon slice, and all of those flavours shine through. The alcohol taste isn't too strong, there is just a pleasant tang from the gin mixed in with the chocolate flavour. The ganache in the centre is silky smooth with a hint of darkness from the cooca, and cracking the creamy thick white chocolate to get to the centre is a real pleasure. As you eat the gentle flavour of the lemon finds its way onto the scene, and adds a lovely citrus tang.
My favourite part though is that these very grown up looking chocolates have an element of free child to them. The fizz from a glass of gin and tonic is recreated using one of my favourite fun ingredients, popping candy. There is a tingle in the background and then the feeling of bursting bubbles appears on the tongue - ace!
These fab Prestat baubles come in a variety of other flavours too, and as much as they'd make an excellent stocking filler I would advise just buying them for yourself. Decorate your tree with them, and come twelfth night when all the decorations are coming down you'll be rather glad you did. ;-)

By Cinabar

Pizza Express - Autumn Menu (Restaurant Review) @pizzaexpress [Review by @NLi10]

We got invited to try Pizza Expresses new Autumn & Christmas menus recently, so we timed a visit so we could go to our usual Pub Quiz afterwards and went along to the Harborne branch.  We set ourselves the restriction of only things that had a 'new' tag on the menu and went to work.

It really doesn't hurt that they sell decent soft drinks.  This always helps put me in the right mood - some restaurants look down on the non-alcoholic section but it isn't hard to keep us happy.  The table of ladies behind us all had the raspberry version of these so a clear headed night out was on many people's cards.

First up was this mighty sharing starter.  I got the best deal here as the red sauce at the bottom left is a sausage based tapas thing so Ms. NLi10 didn't get to share.  The dough balls were perfectly fluffy and not too filling and the pesto was a nice touch.  I really enjoyed the red stuff though ("spicy n’duja sausage & olive oil") and would happily have a main course version of this.

For my main I had Toscana Romana which is 

"Fennel and chilli sausage, tomato, baby mozzarella, Gran Moravia cheese, basil and extra virgin olive oil."

I liked it - it wasn't too spicy (in fact only the meat was spicy) and had some interesting flavours going on.  The base was crispy without being hard (while lacking the Zafirellis texture) and the cheese was non-offensive to a cheese hater like myself.  Overall this was a good solid choice and one I'd eat again - but there are other exciting things to have so I'd probably continue to explore the new.

My partner had the new Calzone Verdure, which she described as "spicier than expected, liked the topping, could have had more cheese". The menu lists it as "Goat’s cheese, chargrilled vegetables, sweet baby onions, spicy arrabbiatta sauce, baby fresh spinach and pesto." While I am a big fan of anything that describes itself as arrabbiatta (personally I think Italian food has my level of spicy nailed to a T), she found it a little too warming (second drink territory) but did really enjoy it.

We also had a portion of Polenta chips which turned out to be a bit unnecessary after the starter too, but I did manage to finish them all.

I think that the new options on the menu are a lot more exciting than I'd expected, and I've spotted a lovely sounding Pizza on the Christmas menu which means I'm going back sooner than I would normally have.  We ordinarily only eat at Pizza Express when we can't find a nice indy restaurant when we are out and about around the UK, but there are three or four other things on the menu that I want to try so maybe we will treat ourselves a couple more times.  Certainly at least once with the Christmas menu's pork & apple pizza!