The Dirty Louisiana Burger (KFC) By @Cinabar

I first heard about this new KFC burger from an advert on facebook that made me laugh. It was a tongue in cheek pieces about “clean eating” (ice cube relish anyone?), and it is worth a google if you like that sort of thing.
I wasn’t sure if the new KFC Dirty Louisiana Burger would be available in the UK, adverts online can sometimes be specific to the USA, but our local branch of KFC had a big sign up advertising the new burger, so we decided to go in and give it the taste test. Now to say I had been sold on an advert becomes more significant when you hear that at the point of ordering I had no idea what I was actually ordering. Yes I knew it was a big burger, and if boiled spiralized chicken was considered “clean” then this was at the other end of the scale.

The burger came in a nicely themed box and was wrapped in paper inside that too. I opened up the box and found a burger with a large piece of chicken, two pieces of cheese, a hash brown, salad, gherkins, and most importantly lots of sauce, and different sauces at that. It soon dawned on me that the dirty part may well refer to the state of your hands after eating it! All of these goodies were packed into a toasted bun.

I found this to be a bit of a flavour sensation. As there was several different sauces it meant that every bite tasted different. There was rich barbecue sauce, a cheese based sauce and a cooler black pepper mayonnaise. The mix of textures was spot on too, with the gherkin slices holding their crispy texture, the salad and the soft hash brown. As I was eating I noted that my mouth was heating up a little and realised that somewhere mixed in was also some chilli heat, this burger really does have everything. As predicted my hands were dripping in spilled sauce and those little clean up wipes they give just didn’t seem big enough! This might be a bit of a novelty burger, but it certainly works, who would have thought having all the sauces could produce such a fantastic mix of flavours.
 The only problem is that The Dirty Louisiana Burger is only available for 4 weeks, so get in quick if you want to give it a try.

The Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Company Competition (@ChocPizzaCo) By @cinabar

The lovely folks from The Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Company asked if we wanted to try out one of their fantastic looking chocolate pizzas, and also said we could give one away as a competition prize! Details on this are below.
I can’t hep getting excited when the post comes and brings a parcel but receiving a pizza box in the mail really did make me smile. The box looks very authentic but you can see the chocolate pizza showing through. Although this is a chocolate pizza in name, there is not doughy base, the whole thing is chocolatey goodness. This particular one is called a Crunchy Munchy and has a milk chocolate base topped with white chocolate curls, fudge pieces and chunks of chocolate brownie.

I was worried for a second about removing the pieces from the box but was pleased to see that there was a handy thumb slot to ease the slices out and each one had already been pre-cut. You can see from the side view that the chunks of fudge are embedded fairly deep into the chocolate pizza to stop them from falling out.

I have written a few times before on here about my love of a mix of textures and this chocolate pizza completely satisfied that. The chocolate base has a thick melt that coats the tongue well, but the curls and soft fudge and brownie pieces all just mix things up perfectly. The chocolate is of a lovely quality, with a good defined taste and plenty of sweet creamy flavour. The fudge pieces are buttery and sweet and a pleasure to stumble on, as are the richer brownie pieces.
The Gourmet Chocolate Pizza brought a smile to everyone who shared it and it would be perfect for sharing with friends during a night in. It is also a bit of statement gift, sure to make the recipient smile from ear to ear.

If you want to buy one for yourself see: http://www.gourmetchocolatepizza.co.uk

If you would like to try and win your very own Gourmet Chocolate Pizza please enter using the RaffleCopter form below - Good Luck!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unicorn Carrots [Oaklands - @Lidluk] (by @NLi10)

 While looking for green veggies to halt my cravings (settled on sprouts - even though it's not Christmas) I came upon this wonderful little package for £1.

 

This is just essentially a box of smaller carrots of a variety of varieties but where they are all pointy ones.  As baby carrots go we tend to just get the orange ones.

 

Here we have a lot of orange, a few white (parsnips really) and some dark and light purple ones - like carrots originally were in the wild!

 

They look very aesthetically pleasing, especially on the trendy green chopping board.

 

And inside they look particularly cool.  I didn't really need carrots, but I've been enjoying this little bit of variety in the veg. 

Branding healthy, whole food in a way that appeals to children and makes the adults job a little easier is a great idea.  'Eat your veg' isn't really appealing, but 'do you want unicorn carrots tonight?' is a much more tempting proposition.  Can we think of other ones? Can we find a way to rescue the broccoli princess? Would boys want to eat Goblin Sprouts?  More creative ideas in the comments please!

At £1 these are reasonably priced too, from the UK and something I've not seen outside of Lidl so a reason to pop in to pick up the fresh stuff (the blueberries were amazing this week - yum!).

Farmer Ray’s Ale (Cosford Food Show) By @SpectreUK

I picked up this Farmer Ray's Ale at the Cosford Food Show some months ago. Corvedale Brewery produced it just down the road at the Sun Inn between Ludlow and Much Wenlock, in Shropshire. This dark brown 4.5% volume ale was made from locally farmed hops by Ray Morris, hence the ale's name, and British Malting Barley. On opening there was a very fruity smell from the mixture of hops, such as pear, banana and pineapple, which made me worry slightly on the taste, as I can't stand banana in beer. I do, however, love pineapple on cheese sticks, on pizza and especially on top of a good large piece of gammon. Anyway, unsure I'd like the taste of pineapple and banana in beer, I tried to tell my brain that it was the hops playing tricks on my nose. There was a sharp bitterness on first taste, followed by strong fruitiness from the hops that fortunately didn't taste of banana or pineapple, and mixed well with the sweetness and roasted flavours from the malted barley into the aftertaste. This is a fresh crisp summer ale and certainly not just for farmers. Cheers!

Easter Fudge (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

I found this wonderful sounding bag of seasonal fudge in Marks and Spencer. Easter fudge isn’t the most specific description of a product, the flavours of Easter range from chocolate eggs through to Simnel cake, but this particular new product is fudge with a Hot Cross Bun flavour.
I’ve mentioned on the blog before that my favourite spice is cinnamon, and as Hot Cross Buns contain a decent amount of cinnamon I knew this was going to be a hit with me.
| opened up the bag and let the mix of spices fill my senses, and its sweet and heady tones filled my nostrils with delight. If it tasted half as good as it smelt I would have been quite pleased.
There were quite a few pieces of fudge in the bag and they were cut into fairly large cubes, each of which took me more than one bite. The texture was firm, but still in the realms of soft. They were dotted with raisins, but there weren’t as many of the currants as I would have liked, I think this is my only negative comment on the fudge.
The flavour was an absolute delight. First and foremost the taste was predominantly buttery and sugary, but as I’m remarkably sweet-toothed this was not a problem. What came next was a fabulous hit of warming spices, and yes there was plenty of cinnamon so I was in heaven. The next flavour are the lemon peel giving a pleasing amount of sourness on the odd bite and then there was the secondary warmth from nutmeg. If you have any love for cinnamon, and a highly tolerant sweet-tooth then I can’t recommended this enough. I’m going back for a second bag.