Palm Juice (Emu)

The first item that caught our eye to try in the local 'Costco' supermarket was the somewhat unfortunately named 'Palm Juice'. This was in amongst the beer and wine section and appears to be a preserved version of 'Toddy'. This is a drink made by collecting sap from palm trees and allowing it to ferment into a drink that is around the same strength as beer. I was fortunate enough to try this last year in Kerela. It had a slightly unusual fermented taste to it, but was also reasonably sweet and definitely drinkable. I was told that the best time to drink it was in the morning as it goes off very quickly - the drink we just bought has a sell by date of 2011 on it so clearly they have found a way to make it last longer.



The Palm Juice we bought comes from Nigeria and is subtitled Emu. It is made by Adun Foods and mentions the Kegite klub on the label. The bottle we buy is a little worryingly covered in dust.


We opened the bottle...and Oh my god it smells bad. Like rotten blue cheese mixed with sewer water. We apprehensivly poured it into a glass and it does look really similar to the Toddy I had in India.


Against everyone's better judgement me and Doug both decide we have to try it. Holding our breath and ignoring the tremendous stench we both tried a very small sip.




Verdict: Absolutely foul. The acrid taste would not leave our mouths and required a number of rinses and eating other food to try and get rid of it. I really cannot believe anyone drinks this and am actually hoping that the bottle we had was off as it would scare me if people really liked this. This has to be the worst drink ever - even worse than the legendary Jeera Sip...never again...

Unusual Food and Drink

One of the things that I have always enjoyed most about traveling abroad is being able to try food and drink that I have never had before. You often treat yourself to food in fancy restaurants when you are on holiday or away on business, and that is often amazing, but I find for every gem that turns up on a pricey menu there are several cheap, basic foods that are surprisingly good, and several more that are disgusting, but certainly unforgettable.

I often blog about the food and drink I try whilst away, and also often bring things I particularly like home to let others join in the fun (I have to admit there is occasionally a little bit of schadenfreude going on here). Since moving to Stoke Newington, which has a wealth of independent shops selling food and drink from all over the world I have realised that I don't necessarily have to travel to enjoy this pastime. Any trip to one of the local supermarkets can turn up lots of items that I have never tried. So it is my aim to try as many of these foods as possible and blog about them here. They fall into three main categories:

1) Antiquated British Food and Drink - Items that you may well have seen on the shelves for years, but have never been inclined to try yourself. These are often items that would have been popular 20 to 30 years ago, but are now falling out of favour and are there just to keep their regular consumers happy. Many of these items are close to extinction.
2) Speciality Items and Limited editions - Unusual Pickles and preserves, fine meats and cheeses, Liqueurs, one off new flavours of chocolate bars and crisps. Everybody tries these occasionally so I won't be describing these very often...but occasionally an item will come up that is unusual enough to warrant attention.
3) Everyday items from other countries - There are hundreds of items available in the local shops that would be commonplace in Turkey, India, Nigeria, Jamaica etc but seem hopelessly exotic here.