Top 3 Weird Food Combinations

This week we found ourselves inspired by the unusual combination of bananas wrapped in bacon, from the guys at SORTED and it got us thinking about other weird and wonderful food combinations.
For most of us, our most "creative" food combinations tend to arise when either when the fridge is looking rather empty and we are scrambling to put together a snack or meal with very limited resources, or when we accidentally mistake sugar for salt, oil and vinegar, balsamic and soy sauce etc.
But, some people take flavour combinations much more seriously and base food pairings on scientific flavour analysis. The theory goes, that foods which share some major flavour components. For example, consider some unusual flavour combinations found on Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck menu. By whipping out your chemistry kit, you can find out that pork Liver and Jasmine flower share a key flavour compound, indole, and similarly the combination of white chocolate and caviar share amines, making these winning duos. If you are feeling inspired to check out some new flavour combos then you might enjoy this demo of a food pairing tree, an interactive visualisation for each ingredient.

After much long and hard deliberation, we at Dinnr bring you our top 5 weird and wonderful food combinations. They really shouldn't work, but they do!

1. Olive Oil and Ice Cream

Put down the bottle of caramel sauce, and grab a bottle of olive oil. Take a moment to get over how weird it might seem to eat ice cream with olive oil, and then give it a shot. It adds as much richness as any chocolate or fudge sauce!


2. Salt and Coffee

Ok, so this is probably one of those cases where someone confused salt and sugar, but it really works! A pinch of salt in your coffee can enhance the flavour and add depth. Restaurants use salt in almost every dish, even desserts, and they know what they are doing so why not give it a try.

3. Smoked Salmon and Dark Chocolate
So often associated with cream cheese, the combination of smoked salmon and dark chocolate has been overlooked for too long. The saltiness of the fish combined with the sweet bitterness of the chocolate might just be a match made in heaven. Find some exciting recipes using these ingredients here

Now we have shared ours, what are your favourite and unusual food pairings?