Foodie Penpals - Spicy, snacktime goodness

This month's foodie penpal was eagerly awaited as I'd been paired with Jules of Good Gobble Blog; a local mancunian and fellow blogger that I've been following for a while. Jules lives near my old neighbourhood of Rusholme, that's choc full of Asian stores and little foodie dens, so I was really excited to see what she was going to send me.

I'd told Jules that I've got a bad habit of snacking and that I was looking for something to sate my appitite whilst at work, that wasn't too naughty. I'd also mentioned my obsession with spicy food and that I love unusual things from around the world.

Juls didn't disappoint - when I opened my box, out popped a cornicopia of foodie bits and bobs from around the world. My box was packed full of; Turkish coffee, halva, coconut and pistachio snack bars, tabasco sauce that's not Tabasco, harissa, methi (fenugreek), banana cornmeal porridge and a cosmo mix from Funkin.

Pow! What a full box of food related fun

The coffee is great; really deep, chocolatey flavour off set with a little bitterness. I don't have a traditional Turkish coffee pot, so I had to use my french press and just make sure I didn't upset the fine grounds in the bottom when pouring. This went exceptionaly well with the pistachio bar - I have to find myself a ready source of these; I love pistacheos and this was nutty, sweet and still retained the unusual taste of the pistachio. Forget your salted caramel peanuts/cashews/almonds - pistachios are the way forward.

Turkish coffee and pistachio bar - new snack de jour

The harissa and the chili sauce are firey little cooking companions that I've been adding to everything. The tabasco is quite smokey, whereas the harissa has a wonderful, aromatic flavour thanks to the unusual addition of caraway. None of the harissas I've eaten before have included caraway and this added a fragrant, lifting taste. The old-skool illustration on the package is so asthetically pleasing that I'm going to save the pakage once I've finished.

Old skool graphics on Tunisian harissa

I've not managed to try the porridge yet, my mornings have been a little rushed and all over the place so I've been munching through the halva and bars instead. This looks like quite a random thing to eat, I love banana flavoured things but I'm not sure about cornmeal porridge - is this going to be banana polenta?

And what about the funkin? Well I drank that as soon as I got home. Jules and I are both 'old lady vodka drinkers' as she puts it. Here's one to you Jules, thanks so much for a great package!

What did I send you're asking? I was paired with another Juls, aka Pepper and Sherry the trainee chef. Juls told me she preferred ingredients to whole foods, so I sent her all the bits to make a Punjabi garam masala and a few Punjabi recipes that she could use the masala in. I also sent her some gram flour, as one of the recipes was for pakora and some chana so she could make one of my favourite dishes, chana dal. I included some pomegranate powder - for no other reason than I thought it was really random and I also liked the wording on the box 'NOT curry powder;' just in case you were confused!

Punjabi garam masarla for Juls.

Here's to the next box - why not get involved yourself and head over to RockSalt to join up.

Foodie Penpals Month Two - Middle Eastern Maddness

So month two has come along in the Foodie Penpals experience. This month I was paired with Made With Pink, or Andrea as she's otherwise known. I was particularly excited as the last box Andrea had sent out to a penpal was a pandora's box of American ingredients, brought back from a recent trip there.

Contact was made and this time I was a little less specific about my likes and dislikes, I think in the first month I had bamboozled my penpal with all my 'what I don't eats' and 'this is my ethical stance' - I still got an ace box, but I felt sorry for my penpal, so I went easy this time and explained my interest in Middle Eastern food.

Andrea took this brief by the horns and when my box arrived it was chock full of treats. This time round I got extra presents as Andrea had been ill and felt sorry for sending my box late (in fact it wasn't late at all!! She's very organised!). So what did I get?

First off were some of my favourite things - sesame snaps. I've grown up snacking on these, my Mum thought they were much healthier as they sold them in Holland and Barrett's (along with Panda liquorice, but that's another story). Andrea sent me some interesting flavours, such as yogurt and coconut - not sure I liked the coconut one, bit suntan lotion, but good to try something else.

Carrying on in the Middle East there sweet treats in the form of rose Turkish Delight - delicious and a good quality version. Rose is my favourite flavour, so I immediately jumped on this and it was gone within about three seconds. Included in the box was also some Lebanese (?) nougat - full of pistachios and fruit leather: fruity, sweet little mouthfuls of gooey goodness.

Next out was Moroccan spiced cous cous - I've had the plain version and love it, so this version was an eye opener and a product I'll definitely buy if I see it round here. It's been great for lunches as well as dinner and I've purposely made extra just so I have some left overs. Andrea wrote in her (obviously) pink notecard that she was excited by my box as she really wanted to try the Asian store just up the road to her office - glad to have been of service.

What were my extra treats? Some cute little jubilee cupcake cases, jubilee trivia cards and some writing icing in red, white and blue. Great for the upcoming celebrations and something she's been sent by Waitrose - this is what Foodie Penpals is all about, sharing the love.

This time I opened my box with people all around - all my friends were very jealous and I wonder if some of them have signed up for the forthcoming month. How do you sign up? Follow this link or click the Foodie Penpals button on the side of my blog bar (to the right).

So who was I paired up with? My penpal was The Wee Mouse Caroline Clark who told me she had a perchance for Japanese food - music to my ears as I love Japanese and eastern cuisine and wanted an excuse to go to the Asian supermarket (so it wasn't just Andrea who got to go), we have a lot in Manchester and one of the biggest in the UK. What did I send? Head on over to her blog to take a peek....

Bring on month three!

Foodie Penpals - random food love in the post

Last week, when feeling sad and lonely (get out the violins please) I got a wonderful package in the post - I'm not going to say it was a surprise, as I knew it was coming, but I had no clue as to what it contained - other than it would be something to do with food. Unwrapping a package, even if you know what's in it, it always gratifying - so this was made doubly amazing by the fact I had no clue as to what I find.

What is this you ask? Do randoms just send you packages from the good of their heart or have you paid for this lucky dip service? Well it's a bit of both really. Let's start at the beginning - the scheme is called Foodie Penpals and in the UK it's organised by a lovely lady called Carol Ann. I'd come across the scheme after some Twitter activity lead me to reading the Rock Salt blog and thought it sounded right up my street as a) I like food b) Like surprises and c) I love writing letters, I'm a bit old fashioned like that.

 The concept is thus: you sign up and each month Carol Ann does lots of jiggery pokery and emails out a spreadsheet. On this sheet you're assigned someone to send a package to (and someone is assigned you - this changes every month), then you send them a box of foodie treats by the 20th of the month. The idea was originally started in America by the Lean Green Bean and has been running in the UK for a couple of months now - some of our European cousins have joined in too, so there's a good chance you'll get paired with someone a little further afield that down' th road, opening up all sorts of adventurous foodie possibilities.

Simples? Yes it is. There are a few stipulations such as you must get in touch with your assigned person within 72 hours and ask them some basics eg. are you allergic to anything and where do I send your treats - then it's up to you to go find some scrummy surprises for about £10, box 'em up and send them off.

Enough of the background, you can find more out using the links littered about this blog - back to my package and me, me, me - so what did I get? A lovely lady called Helen Costello who runs Aardvark Cakes in St Helens was assigned me and sent me the inspired gift of Prestat dark chocolate buttons, some fruit and nuts and the most amazing mini tagines for sauces and dips and... well whatever other amazing things I put in them. And just the colour for me too. Brilliant. I opened the chocolate immediately and the taste is heavenly; really rich and fruity. As it's in the form of thin buttons it's just enough chocolate to deal with cravings without being too much of a naughty treat.

Helen also wrote me a lovely note explaining her love of the 'dip dishes,' saying that she was thinking about buying some herself - I wonder if she did? They're an ace addition to the kitchen and have already come in handy loads. I can't wait to have people over and make them the focus of a dish. Helen's choice of notelet was also pretty spot on for me and pretty apt seeing as she makes cakes for a living: I'm obsessed with anything floral flavoured - not only is the picture of lavender cakes, but there's a recipe on the back too - can't wait to get baking!

So did I send anything? I'm a good girl so I did indeed - I was paired with Emily, aka Bristol Bites, the don of knowing what's good to eat down Bristol way. As she was down South I decided I'd send her some great local produce from Cheshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester; basically where I live, work and play. So what did I send? Well why not check out her post and see if you think if it I did us Northerners proud.

Sounds fun? Well why not get in on the action? All you need to do is submit the Foodie Penpals form on the Rock Salt blog or press the Foodie Penpals button in my side bar (eyes right) and get yourself registered - you don't have to be a blogger either. Who knows what will be winging its way to you next month? Well, that's all part of the fun!

Ps you can see what everyone else got here and if you live across the pond, then you can sign up to Foodie Penpals here.

Pps Yes, I know the photos are back to front. I'm sans phone/camera and am using the web cam for these. Better photos next month, I promise!