Food and drink review blog with an ethnic twist. Focus on new, unusual and seasonal products
bought in the UK.

Friday 4 October 2013

Marks & Spencers Haul, Fruit and Treats Review

My lovely Mum handed me in a delicious selection of messages from Marks and Spencers.  The local M&S, has recently started selling more exotic fruits.  It is great to be able to sample such unusual items and was delighted to see kumquats and star fruit (which I've not seen sold in stores for a-few years).  A childish delight befell my sister and I as we dug into a fruit platter, trying out a fruit new to us in mangosteen.  It is a fantastic ending to a meal and also way to encourage children's curiousity trying out these unusual fruits. Morrisons supermarket is also very good for their exotic fruit options and that extends to veg too.


Lemon, Black Lentil and Quinoa Pecan Salad With Allspice Dressing 

Loved this salad, it is full of lots of little bits, herbs, nuts and is so full of flavour. Within the salad there are wheat berries, quinoa, black lentils, pecans and other grains.  It is ready dressed with a lemon and allspice dressing.  This has a citrus zing, freshness and an aromatic peppery flavour from the spicing. The combination of ingredients makes this salad so palate tingingly delicious!




Crunchy Spiced Slaw With Mango and Coriander

This crunchy salad is full of texture.  There are popping pomegranate seeds, fresh coriander, crisp fennel and cabbage slivers- as well as bright batons of mango.  It is quite heavy on the cabbage and would have preferred there to be a bit more fennel (luck of the draw?).  The salad comes with an accompanying pot of lime and chilli dressing.  It is a lovely light salad which is just bursting with flavour. 


Teriyaki and Sesame Noodle Stir Fry

It is a ready made stir fry mix.  It comes with ribbon noodles, a pot of sauce and of course the veggies.  It is a new product in Marks & Spencers Modern Asian range.  The world food, prepared meal sections have recently been expanded and there are plenty more new and interesting items to discover in store.  Unfortunately, did not get a picture of this.  It has a good mix of veg: green cabbage, pepper, red onion and carrot.  The sauce is thick with a delicious salty-savoury taste from the teriyaki and is full of toasted sesame seeds.  It is a very generous portion and did me twice very comfortably. Enjoyed it very much, particularly the thick flat noodles.  The sauce itself was delicious also.


Raspberry Mousse and Meringue White Chocolate Bar


This is a delicious white chocolate bar which has the flavours and textures of eton mess. The fresh and zingy taste of raspberry cuts through the sweetness very well, making it non-sickly. Had thought it would be overly-sweet due to the combination but it was very nice. The mousse inside is light and whipped and the whole bar is enrobed in Belgian white chocolate. Overall it has an indulgent taste to it, which is certainly in keeping with M&S foods.  Think that if I have the bar again, I'll probably try it chilled from the fridge.


Fresh Figs

First time trying figs. Had always been intrigued to taste them but never bought them for some reason. Mum has recently started buying them and thought that I'd like them too.  Sure did, they don't have a really strong flavour but are unlike any other fruit. They are quite dry, yet juicy and are full of seeds. They have a pleasant squishy jam like texture. They also look beautiful. They were bought from M&S and were bigger than I have seen sold elsewhere, they were so plump. Enjoyed them just as they are but have a-few figgy recipes bookmarked that I'd love to try out.  

Mangosteen

These are the most unusual fruits I've ever tried. The exterior is the same colour as a passion fruit.  They are round, with a thick outer casing, quite reminiscent of a horse chestnut. Inside are small white cloves that are easily prised from the shell.  The segments are very juicy, a bit slimy and similar to a lychee in texture. Soft, they ate like a tangerine. The flavour was subtle, tropical and a little perfumed. Such a unique taste, like a combination of many different fruits.

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Canyland Sweets



A new product to the supermarket shelves, so far spotted in Morrisons and Tesco.  There is a choice of three and they come in eye catching green share size bags.  The range includes: Joosy Berries (strawberry & + blackcurrant, orange & passion fruit), Sourberries (lemon + lime, raspberry & rhubarb) and Fizziberries (blueberry, cherry & apple).  The sweets themselves are small, colourful fruit shaped jellies.  They are suitable for vegetarians and contain no additives and real fruit juice.  Vegetarian gums and fruit flavoured sweets can have often have an unusual texture.  These being so small makes a difference and the variety tried had a much nicer texture than other available sweets.  The flavour and appearance of the sweets was especially good.  I tried the Sourberries type, flavours of these were delicious. Rhubarb isn't a flavour you often find and it is so good in sweeties, the other flavours of raspberry and the citrus were lovely too.  They were sugar coated, very sour, juicy and full of flavour- definitely recommend them. For more veg friendly sweets please click here .


* Apologies for poor quality of photo's, I used my laptop web cam. It is a logistically interesting means to use!

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