What I ate and drank for the first time in 2022

[squirmelia]

Savoury things:
Vegan calamari rings
Sweet and sour pickled plum crisps
Natto

Sweet things:
Happy toast
Toast with mochi in it and matcha ice-cream
Horlicks ice-cream bao
Cadbury mystery bar 1
Cadbury mystery bar 2
Panadoro
Happy stick

Drinks:
Swedish Christmas drink, Julmust
Mystery Fanta

I think these are the new ice-cream flavours I ate:
Pino Pinguino
Panadoro
Brown bread
Achta
Turmeric
Soya sauce
Baked bean
Mayonnaise
Prinzenrolle
Augustiner beer

Here are some other unusual ice-cream flavours I ate, but not sure if they were new or not:
Pear and blue cheese
Thumbelina (violet and rose petals)
Yellow peach
Grape, strawberry and ginger
Hokkaido pumpkin
Wasabi
Basil
Marsala
La Dolcevita
Apricot sorbet
Pineapple sorbet
Buontalenti pistachio
Cactus fig
Horlicks
Marzipan and poppyseed
Golden syrup
Chocolate and peppers
Apricot tart
Naughty
Hot cross bun
Damson and sour cream
Breakfast in Turin
Gianduja
Salty hazelnut praline
Rhubarb panna cotta
Plum crumble
Strawberry basil
Kulfi
Mulled wine

What did you eat and drink for the first time in 2022? (No animals please!)

Previous years:
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013

Comments

[laurenthemself]

I'm always so impressed by your ice-cream list, because some of these I don't think I'd even be able to find in Australia.

[squirmelia]

London has become quite good at ice-cream these days, which I am glad about. :)

In the summer, there was even a boutique pop up selling strange ice-cream flavours such as baked bean, etc, with matching handbags which were about £900. I heard that some days there were queues of over an hour for the ice-cream!

[ewt]

A cross between Jerusalem artchokes and a sunflower, which tastes pretty much like Jerusalem artichokes.

Edible chrysanthemum. (I don't like it, though, it falls into the "soapy" taste family for me; oh well)

Mustard greens -- maybe I had eaten these before and not realised?

Wasabi rocket. I think. Maybe I had this for the first time in 2021.

Dryad's saddle fungus. Beefsteak fungus. Lion's Mane fungus. King oyster mushrooms, yellow oyster mushrooms, white oyster mushrooms, black pearl oyster mushrooms, and blue oyster mushrooms that I fruited at home (on purchased fruiting blocks). Wild oyster mushrooms (I forget exactly what kind and don't have the information to hand). Giant puffball powder.

Cashew squash. (Didn't like it.)

Sorb-apples, that is, fruit from the true service tree (not to be confused with wild service tree).

Several varieties of cheese.

Mulberry wine (homemade). Sloe wine (ditto).

Broad bean greens.

Butter tarts.

[squirmelia]

Ooh, I am impressed by those!

What were sorb-apples like?

[miss_newham]

BAKED BEAN ICE CREAM??!! Dear God!!
Happy Christmas Jodi. Your food adventures never cease to surprise and (usually) delight!

[squirmelia]

Happy Christmas!

The baked bean ice-cream was a much sought after delicacy to be found in the upmarket boutiques of Chelsea. It tasted nicer than mayonnaise at least. I could not bring myself to try salad cream though.

[nou]

I made baked bean paté the other week (lunch was going to be beans on toast but I wanted to eat it on the sofa, so I needed the beans to be in a format that wouldn’t fall off). It was actually quite nice, but I can’t remember what I put in it other than garlic salt and olive oil (and mashed baked beans, obviously).

[blue_mai]

I saw mystery chocolate bar in the co-op today and thought of you :)

Pickled plum crisps sound good maybe. I need more ice cream in my life.

[squirmelia]

The mystery chocolate flavours were revealed and I was totally wrong.

I definitely recommend more ice-cream.

[miss_newham]

I forgot to say what I tried for the first time: several new kinds of tea via a Bird & Blend gift box, of which I think rhubarb and custard tea was a highlight. And I made and ate a Platinum Jubilee trifle which was a bit sickly.

[squirmelia]

Rhubarb and custard tea, ooh! Sounds good.

What was Platinum Jubilee trifle? My grandmother used to make a wonderful trifle with butterscotch angel delight on the top.

[miss_newham]

It was a trifle recipe that I think won a competition to be the official dessert of the Platinum jubilee - what nonsense! But my mum enjoys that sort of thing so I decided to make it on her birthday. I think it had lemon sponge, lemon jelly, amaretti biscuits and white chocolate shards in it, as well as the usual custard and cream. The main problem was that I had to eat it for three days straight as I made too much; also I couldn't get any lemon jelly so I used orange which was a bit sickly. But I learned that making your own amaretti biscuits is very straightforward and quick! I'll just do that for future jubilees.

[nou]

Many of my crisps challenge crisps were new flavours to me — the best one was salted egg yolk flavour.

Where did you get the vegan calamari, and would you recommend them?

[squirmelia]

Salted egg yolk, curious!

The vegan calamari was at Unity Diner. It was okay, but not amazing enough that I feel the need to try it again. I have never tried real calamari though so was excited to try it.

[nou]

I googled for some recipes and found they all seem to use rings cut out from the stems of king oyster mushrooms, which feels like a bit of a faff (though I do have a very nice thing to do with the rest of the mushrooms, which is spicy king oyster mushroom salad, vegetarian if you use vegetarian oyster sauce).