When it comes to food, I really, really like to try new things.
A kind of reverse fussy-eater, that's me.
This week, me and three friends tried a new restaurant for lunch. Nothing fancy mind you. No knives, forks or plates - just your chosen lunch options all wrapped up in a soft, floury Mexican tortilla. Brilliant. And they weren't shy either about including things like beans, rice and tomatoes in the wrap itself; a little, self-contained, ready-made salad to go on the side.
Well, inside the wrap, if you follow.
Mexican food, like so many other ethnic foods, is now firmly part of our restaurant and takeaway scene. And while ethnic foods we enjoy here may not exactly taste the same as you would get in downtown Tijuana, Beijing or Bombay, they have broadened our minds (and our tastebuds) to lots of different foods, flavours, great ingredients and wonderful cooking methods.
And given us a nice taster along the way.
Speaking of tasters, we've got a cookery competition running right now for secondary school students. It's really simple and as cheap (or cheaper) than chips.
And you don't need to be a whizz in the kitchen or studying Home Ec to take part. All you need to do is...
- Pick your favourite takeaway dish or recipe
- Give it a makeover to make it healthier
- Tell us about it (post or email)
- Be in with a chance to win great stuff!
It's called "Takeaway My Way" and the closing date for students' entries is next Thursday, 31st March, with the grand final cook-off on May 5th in Sligo.
And if there are any budding Neven Maguire's, Donal Skehan's or Rachel Allen's out there, they can also enter an extra online competition by recording a short video of themselves cooking their favourite takeaway dish and sending it to us; your dish, your way + your video = you could win a prize!
(But post and email entries are good too)
Like my friends who shared our Mexican wrap-fest, this competition wouldn't have happened without the input and support of the good people at St. Angela's College, Sligo, which is the centre for Home Economics on the island of Ireland. Think Masterchef meets Mission Control.
Our judging team will be looking through the competition recipe entries in the coming weeks and I'm really looking forward to finding out what foods are on the tastebuds of the next generation.
Should be tasty. And if you don't have kids in secondary school, tell others who do about it - they might like a pizza the action.
Terrible. Just like my cooking.
Enjoy your weekend.
Dermot