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.