Pigs In Blankets Flavour Noodles (Sainsbury’s) By @SpectreUK

Last Christmas I had easily the best Christmas meal I've ever had. Strangely I've never liked Roast Turkey meals and we used to eat it at lunchtime too, which I found pretty overpowering for my poor tastebuds. I prefer massive gravy meals, especially if they have lashings of onions, at dinnertime rather than lunchtime where I seem to prefer just a good sandwich.

On the evening of last Christmas I had a pork belly roast with crackling on top served to me. It was just about the best thing I've ever tasted on Christmas day, and the leftovers took me a couple of days to get through afterwards. Of course there has to be ubiquitous roast potatoes, sprouts and other veggies, but also my favourite accompaniment has to be Pigs in Blankets on the side. I usually have quite a few too!

This Pigs In Blankets Flavour Noodles was produced for Sainsbury's. I can't tell whether Cinabar bought me the pot for a joke or not. What seems to be even more funny is the Vegetarian friendly sign on the front of the pot. So no meat in here then? However, I endeavour to persevere when I'm served up something like this to write about. I've already had a bacon sandwich for lunch, so I'll have a quick piece of buttered toast, which should go well with my quick Pigs In Blankets Flavour Noodles.

On pealing back the foil top there was a pile of dried stringy noodles and some herbs dotted around them in the pot. After pouring freshly boiled water into the pot and having a really good stir, I could smell the sage and parsley mixed in with the gravy. I couldn't detect any meaty flavours, such as bacon or sausage in the flavour of this Pigs In Blankets Flavour Noodles. It was tasty enough and after that good long stir the sauce become quite thick.

This was a filling and flavoursome noodle pot, but to me it just didn't taste of Pigs in Blankets at all. I'm not going to tell you Porkies, and say it did, because to me it didn't! Anyway the best news is that there is a pork belly roast in the freezer ready to cook for Christmas Day 2020, and I've also seen some trays of real Pigs in Blankets in the freezer too!

Have a very Merry, healthy and safe Christmas, One and All!

Information on the pot; The 80g pot contains 294 calories, with 2g of fat, 9.9g of sugar and 1.87g of salt. Vegetarian friendly! Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pigs In Blankets Mayonnaise (Sainsbury's) By @Cinabar

I had a little look back at the items we have tried before flavoured with Pigs In Blankets, it almost all completely crisps. It works as a flavour for crisps too, meaty bacon, a hint of sausage and a few herbs this all works with crunchy crisps. This year Sainsbury’s have decided to go to the next level, I give you Pigs In Blankets Mayonnaise. What can I say, I didn’t know I needed it until I saw it!

As it happened we were having chicken, salad and sliced potatoes for tea so deiced to try this out on the side. I sort of realised as I was dipping my sliced potatoes in the Pigs In Blankets Mayonnaise I had accidentally recreated the crisps idea, but again it did work. I have tried ‘Baconnaise’ before and enjoyed it, I have to admit I thought this might be the same. I was pleased that although similar there was a softer flavour, less salty but still nice and meaty Tate that worked well as mayo. The twist of herbs was good too, and especially nice for potatoes and I’m looking forward to trying it with chips. I’d buy this again as it was a good flavour, I’m aware I many have to wait a year to find another tub!

Tomorrow though Spectre is reviewing another product flavoured with Pigs In Blankets, one that doesn’t so easily translate to the flavour.

Greggs Festive Fabulous Bakes (Iceland) By @Cinabar

What says Christmas dinner better than a Greggs bake filled with roast dinner flavours? I actually bought these Greggs Festive Fabulous Bakes in Iceland not Greggs but had them in the freezer for a quick lunch. They oven baked easily and the pastry browned off nicely in the oven.

 

The first thing I noticed about these Greggs Festive Fabulous Bakes is that the meat inside the bake is chicken not turkey, I like chicken but if you are going to go for festive theming I fell this was a missed opportunity. Everyone knows it is turkey at Christmas. The bake itself though was still lovely and tasty. The pasty was soft and crispy with a a nice buttery edge. The flavours inside were good, the chicken was moist, the bacon was a nice touch and I loved the herbs giving a stuffing like flavour. I’d happily have these Greggs Festive Fabulous Bakes again and keep some in the freezer for quick lunches, there isn’t really any need for the ‘festive’ label it is just a nice chicken roast dinner flavour in a bake.

Krispy Kreme Khristmas 2020 (@NLi10)

 It's a Christmas tradition at this point to get hold of this years festive variations of the Krispy Kreme, partly to see if they've run out of ideas yet - and partly because we love these things.

The Reindeer one I didn't eat - it's the standard caramel ring with a clever red nose plonked in the middle.  Very inventive but not really to my tastes.

The tacky Christmas jumper is a chocolate crème doughnut with a green iced top and gingerbread man and nice sprinkles.  I really approve of this - sure I'm more of a raspberry glazed kind of guy, but this has a good balance of icing sweet and more doughnut sweet and chocolate sweet inside.

We shared the remaining Santa's belly doughnut.  The doughnut itself was surprisingly empty.  Maybe they forgot to squirt this one, but the flavour of the top was very fruity so it may be deliberate.

Overall a success!  I'm not brave enough to go into town to try the fresh KK ones (and Tim Hortons which is great when you've visited the German market - but that's not here this year either) so these will have to do.

Merry Khristmas!

Greene King Ice Breaker Pale Ale (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

I'm rather excited about this pale ale. This Ice Breaker Pale Ale was create by Greene King Brewery's Apprentice Brewers. I'm expecting something quite innovative from the "new industry talent" and also from the tuition of the World's youngest Master Brewer. The label states that the Apprentices were given the "freedom to break the boundaries of brewing" to create this unfiltered fruity hoppy pale ale. So breaking the boundaries with Ice Breaker - nice!

On opening the 330ml bottle of this 4.5% volume pale ale there was a definite fruitiness coupled with a floral herbal hoppy bitterness, and a hint of sweet pale malt at the back of the aroma. On taste this deep golden coloured Ice Breaker starts with a smooth almost creamy quality, I presume this creaminess resembles the "Ice". This is quickly followed by a sharp bitter herbal hoppy flavour which I presume is the "Breaker". That sharp herbal bite merges with fruity flavours and then mixes perfectly well with the sweet pale and possibly crystal malts which travel into the aftertaste.

Ice Breaker is indeed a well thought out and innovative craft pale ale. It's a credit to Greene King Brewery, and the Master Brewer and not forgetting the Apprentices. They should be very proud of what they have created here. I feel the Apprentices will be the Master's very soon indeed!