Guinness Sauce #TheSauceOfGuiness [By @SpectreUK]

I often wash a good steak down with a good pint of Guinness. Brown sauce is also a good complement to a steak, though I rarely find a bottle in the house... HP and Guinness had a popular partnership with their HP Guinness Sauce for a relatively short time. Unfortunately this partnership came to an end, but it didn't mean that was the end of Guinness Sauce, only that incarnation.
This new incarnation has some leanings towards that sauce, but has been produced by AB World Foods in Lancashire for Guinness. I poured a can of Guinness into my beer mug and dolloped a decent blob of this sauce next to my steak and chips. Sort of like a liquid Guinness steak sandwich. I could identify the Guinness Beer in the sauce, especially the barley as it washed around my mouth whilst chewing my succulent steak. There was also a sweetness mixed with the molasses that drew out the flavours in the red meat as well as complemented my chips. There was an almost dark barbecue sauce flavour to this rich Guinness Sauce that reminded me of an American steak sauce that I was lucky enough to sample sometime back. Now we have just the sauce for your steak over here, and I reckon it would go rather well with a rack of ribs or some chicken wings. In fact I'll give it a try with them as soon as I am able. It's a very versatile sauce. Lip-smackingly rich, sweet, tasty and enjoyable by anyone! Cheers!

By Spectre

New Muller Bliss Corner - Strawberry Compote (Waitrose) [By @Cinabar]

I’ve seen these new yoghurts from Muller advertised a fair bit on TV and was keen to try them out. The idea is that it is Greek yoghurt is whipped, so it is a change of texture. Although I’m pretty sure other flavours have been advertised our Waitrose only stocked the strawberry, but that seems a good enough place to start.
The Muller yoghurt is a split-pot dessert, ie you get yoghurt one side, strawberry compote the other, and then mix the two. I thought with the Greek yoghurt being thick it might be a bit awkward to mix the strawberry compote section but it was fine, still easy to lightly stir or fold in.

The texture of the yoghurt is lovely, it does feel wonderfully fluffy in the mouth, thick and substantial but somehow still light. The flavour was what impressed me the most, this is a lower calorie dessert, and somehow they managed to make it take so very creamy. It is surprisingly rich, and it felt almost naughty to be eating. The strawberry section was sweet and fruity and the whole thing reminded me of a bowl of strawberries and cream. It was seriously summery too, but without all the guilt.
I’m looking forward to exploring some of the other flavours on offer, when I can find them.

By Cinabar

Knor nudl - Pomidore amore (via Poland) [by @NLi10]

On one of my many trips to one of our local Polski Sklep Polish Grocery shops I spotted this exciting little packet of noodles.  Ordinarily this wouldn't be something to startling - the discount stores get familiar brands from other countries as it's cheaper - but someone had taken the time to import these specific noodles so I wondered if there was anything particularly special here. 

The pack looked exciting and I'm assuming that the title is 'tomato love' and that we can win something to do with a concert.

unless kod promocyjny is a new weird flavour then this is the code to win tickets to a gig in Poland. Feel free to try!

The noodles looked and smelt identical to the English super noodles, but the sauce was quite interesting.  The tomato flavours were stronger - maybe due to the larger sachet - and it actually did taste like tomato! I'd certainly pick these up again - especially as a quick look on the website revealed quite a few other flavours of interest.  And they were only 50p!

Chabaa Grass Jelly Drink (Pinoy Foods, Birmingham Indoor Market) [@SpectreUK]

I pick up some weird things on my shopping trips around my favourite import shops in Birmingham. This definitely sounds like one of the weirder ones. Chabaa Grass Jelly Drink actually smelled a bit like grass on opening the can. Not that freshly Spring like just mown grass smell that haunts our neighbourhoods each Sunday, but the actual grass I chewed when I was a small boy stupidly trying to eat anything that I came into contact with, until a friendly soul would say don't chew on that a dog has probably peed on it!

A still black coloured drink with black bits of jelly popping out of the can opening into my tall glass as I poured, this Chabaa Grass Jelly Drink tasted surprisingly like a medium sweet iced tea. In fact better than some iced or cold teas I've tried in the past that cut at the back of my throat taunting; "Well, you should have drank me when I was hot!" I actually liked this drink. It felt healthy, refreshing, not too sweet and in no way painful to drink. The jelly congregated at the bottom of the glass giving me something fun to chew on too. I see grass in a new light. It's difficult just to see grass as something people mow, grow, sit on for picnics, play sports or smoke if you're daft... now I want to drink it!

Information on the can;

230ml can has 100 calories, with 0g of fat. Ingredients included; grass jelly juice (30%), jelly flesh (15%), and sugar (12%).

By Cinabar

Afternoon Tea (Patisserie Valerie) @valeriecafe [By @Cinabar]

Afternoon Tea is definitely becoming more popular, with the leisurely afternoon treat seen as the perfect way to spend a Saturday or afternoon off. Prices vary quite substantially, and I’ve decide to have a bit of taste test and review of some of the popular options. It’s on trend at the minute and I’m happy to put myself through this food experiment, being a food blogger can be so tough sometimes! :-D
We decided that we would try out Afternoon Tea for Two at Patisserie Valerie. I don’t often mention costs on the blog, but as the prices can vary so much I feel that it might be worth noting, it costs £12.95 per person (correct as at May 15).
We sat down at a free table and explained we wanted Afternoon Tea. We were asked which type of tea we wanted, and we both asked for Assam. Sadly this wasn’t on the options list; English Breakfast, Earl Grey and a selection of fruit teas were available, so we went for Breakfast tea.

After a short wait a fabulous three tiered stand arrived packed with goodies. The bottom plate contained the savoury options and seemed very generous. We had finger sandwiches which consisted of spicy chicken, cucumber, salmon, egg and ham and mustard. There was also a mini quiche each. The sandwiches were on a mixed selection of breads and as per tradition had their crusts cut off. They all had generous fillings, including a generous helping of english mustard on the ham sandwich - woosh!

We went for the scones next and each had a pot of jam and tub of clotted cream to share. There were two plain scones and two fruit, both were small, but certainly large enough given the context of things! They were lovely and fresh and perfectly buttery.

The cake selection on the final tier was impressive. There were two mini eclairs, a berry slice, chocolate cake, Victoria sponge and a piece of carrot cake. Yes this blogging is hard work. The cakes were just so nice, every bite was a delight and the selection exceeded my expectations. It is the kind of thing just made you smile. The chocolate inparticular was out of this world. I thought we wouldn’t never be able to finish everything but when the cakes are of this standard how can you not?
I thought that the quality of food was excellent, you’d expect nothing less from the cakes from Patisserie Valerie but the savoury goodies too were top notch, I loved the addition of the mini quiche. I thought that there was quite a bit of food for your money, and even with the teas they brought two pots even though both of us had the same variety. The staff were lovely too checking that we had everything we needed and keeping it special. Definitely a worthy treat, especially if you have a sweet tooth.

By Cinabar