The Deep Fried Mars Bar!

No shit! I do have to admit to thinking this was a joke when I first heard about it. It is an ordinary Mars bar normally fried in a type of batter commonly used for fish and chips. It originated at chip shops in Scotland as a novelty item, but was never mainstream. Since various mass media have reported on the practice since the mid 1990s, in part as a commentary on urban Scotland’s notoriously unhealthy diet, the popularity of the dish has spread.

Rumour is that it was invented in the Haven Chip Bar in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, in 1995. The first recorded mention of the food was in the Aberdeen Evening Express following a tip off phone call to their journalist Alastair Dalton that a chip shop in Stonehaven had been deep frying Mars Bars for local kids.

Here’s the recipe if you are perverse enough to want to try this. I have the “luck” of having a chip shop that makes this nearby if I ever have the urge (that was the “inspiration” for this post).

Ingredients:
* 1 Mars bars or 1 Milky Way bar
* 1 cup plain flour
* 1/2 cup cornflour
* 1 pinch baking soda
* milk or beer
* oil (for deep frying)

Directions:
1. Chill the chocolate bar by keeping it in the fridge, but don’t freeze it.
2. Mix the flours and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) together.
3. Add milk (traditional) or beer (which gives a lighter result) until you get a batter with the consistency of thin cream.
4. Heat the oil until a small piece of bread will brown in a few seconds, but don’t allow to smoke.
5. Remove wrapper from chilled chocolate bar.
6. Coat completely in batter.
7. Carefully lower into hot oil and fry until golden brown.
8. Serve, with ice cream or french fries, if you’re so inclined

One restaurant that serves this calls it a “A serious indulgence! For health and safety reasons, we can’t give you seconds of this.”

I can’t imagine wanting seconds of it.

But, it would be an interesting St. Andrew’s Day after!

And you thought Haggis was disgusting!

Eating Right for Health, Weight Loss or Moral Principles

The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article on nutraceuticals, broadly defined as ingredients that are derived from food, and added to other foods as fortifiers. The ever-increasing trend began in the 1990s with garlic pills and similar products which were taken as supplements.

Now Kraft, Dannon, General Mills and many other companies are adding nutraceuticals to existing foods: "fat-burning waffles" made from a newly developed corn flour, cheese that kills intestinal parasites, even ketchup that regulates digestion, are on the shelves or in the works. New technologies in food processing, and a landmark 1999 court decision giving the makers of supplements broad leeway to advertise their health benefits, have brought this new class of enhanced foods to supermarket shelves.

One problem is that along with this growing trend, there's an increasing awareness that some of these tricks just do not work. Studies have shown recently that some extracted supplements, long used for cardiovascular health such as vitamin E, beta-carotene and folate (all of which fall into the broad category of "antioxidants") surprised everyone by showing no benefits whatsoever. It seems clear that the body's way of benefiting from these substances is more complicated than we thought.

All of this is of particular interest to me since I'm a vegetarian. The reason for that is ethical. I object to the treatment of animals on the mass scale necessary to fill the supermarket shelves. I admit to eating some cheese and eggs, the production of which is guilty of the same abuses, but let's just say I'm not a fanatic about the whole thing, and I certainly don't question or criticize other people's eating habits.

My problem, I'm afraid, is achieving proper nutrition. Perhaps these super-foods are the answer.

What do you think?