This week’s column is dedicated to those dark moments, alone in the kitchen, when only something trashy will do. And why not?
While many of us have aspirations to a healthy eating, clean living lifestyle, myself included (namaste, etc), surely there must also be room for satisfying our darkest, dirtiest and downright filthy food cravings?
We’ve all been there, that late hour at night when dinner hasn’t exactly hit the spot, leaving a seemingly insatiable appetite for something more on the indulgent side of life. If the juices, kale chips and raw salads can hold tight for just moment, please leave your yoga mats at the door, because we are about to get dirty.
No matter how many healthy suppers or wholesome breakfasts I post online, without fail, I can guarantee that a simple toasted cheese sandwich oozing with melted Gruyère, or warm, Nutella-stuffed brioche French toast, is going to do double the numbers.
It can be frustrating, because we all know what this type of food does to our insides. But that being said, there is something in this desire to choose dirty food over healthy food to indulge our cravings, which is worth looking at.
I think a lot of my food cravings are buried in nostalgia, and are the types of concoctions I would have come up with, left to my own devices, in my mother’s kitchen. Bacon sandwiches with butter and white bread, baked beans on hot toast, grilled Superquinn sausages, or better still, crispy crumbed fish fingers, sandwiched together with potato waffles and lashings of tomato ketchup, a particular favourite with my brother and me.
There are common themes to note: intense flavour overkill, extreme convenience and ultimate satisfaction. All of which are prominent in those viral videos that float up and down your Facebook page at midnight-snack o’clock, urging you to make recipes such as chocolate mug cakes or deep fried blooming onions.
Whatever your thoughts may be on these, or the topic in general, it seems there continues to be demand for instant food gratification.
There is a unapologetic chapter dedicated to trashy food in Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites, which praises kitsch recipes such as ham in coca-cola, deep fried Bounty bars and Southern-style chicken. It's here that I was first introduced to The Elvis, an over-the-top fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Nigella apparently came across this recipe in an Elvis-themed cookbook, appropriately titled Are You Hungry Tonight?. This slightly odd combination works and earns its place as the Marmite of the sandwich world.
Buffalo chicken wings are a true guilty pleasure. I believe if you are a fan of all things hot and spicy, having an easy variation such as the whole spatchcocked chicken slathered in buttery hot sauce I’ve included here, is essential.
These recipes are not everyday eats, but when the moment strikes, you will know where to come. Next week, I promise fresh and light, but for now, give in to your guilty pleasures and embrace all things trashy.
