Liquorice Lovers: April 2011

I have written previously about liquorice/flavour combinations but never got round to the planned series, probably because I only think about these things once the craving returns and I no longer have material at hand for reference ;) For the record, liquorice pairs well with honey, chilli, sour fruit and chocolate (but not the way Fazer do it!)

One combination I'd almost forgotten about is liquorice icecream, which I last had in Greenland. I did not expect to encounter this flavour again any time soon.

Before trying this delight I already knew that sweet liquorice pairs well with vanilla icecream, but it took a little bracing to imagine a lightning bolt of salty liquorice at the centre of a glazed vanilla cone. Well, I braced myself and it was worth it. I thought this was pure heaven, although when I told John about it he thought that this is the kind of foodstuff they serve up in hell.

Unfortunately he didn't get to try it this time around. He was at home with a cold—for which I'm sure this would have been the perfect remedy—while, at the other side of London, the temperature soared into the mid-twenties and the sun was blazing from a blue sky. Given the heat, I could not buy more than one of these delectable delicacies (and had to eat it quickly!), but it was the blazing sunshine which made me look in the icecream freezer in the first place.

The occasion was the Easter fair at London's lovely Finnish Church & community centre (it even has a sauna!). When I arrived there mid-morning on the 17th of April I was amazed at the crowds. People had been piling on and off the tube as if it was the Tokyo rush-hour. Surely they were not all on the way to the Easter fair?

They weren't. I was lucky not to be cut off by the tens of thousands of mad, sporty, fun-loving runners who streamed through Rotherhithe hour after hour, like a human river. This, apparently, was Mile 11 of the London Marathon.

I had been to the Finnish Church once before but it was at a very quiet time, a few weeks before the Christmas shipment. The container ship arrives with frozen and dried Finnish groceries twice a year, just before Christmas and Easter. This time around I made up for it, although I feel guilty about buying up most of the supplies... This haul cost me nearly 50 quid!