Free Postage for orders over £100
Posted by Ann
Turns out, surfing is good for business and your health!
On one of my recent business trips to Bristol, I managed to squeeze in a couple of Surfs at the Bristol wave pool. There I was minding my own business, earwigging someone’s conversation, when I heard the word “Helford” and ended up chatting with said Cornish chap, who was a big fan of our pasties. I’m always equally surprised and flattered when I get a mini fan moment over our pasties. When you’re head down in a kitchen day in, day out you lose a lot of the customer reaction. That chap was Xander, the creator of Hub box, who started in Truro and produce my favourite burger!
Feeling particularly rigorous from all the flattery, I decide to go for another surf a little later on and was approached by another guy on a board asking if I was the “Ann’s Pasties guy”. Turns out, it was Patrick the owner of ‘Eaten Alive’, they produce Kim Chi (fermented Korean vegetables) and ‘Live’ sauces, as it says on their website both Pat and his business partner Glyn are “obsessed” and his sheer enthusiasm won me over.
On dry land, we carried on chatting and he asked whether I’d consider making ….. steady yourself, a Kimchi pasty. Cue mental imagery of my mother flogging me through the streets and pushing me down a mineshaft, cue thoughts of beef farmers snubbing me at the bar in my new yoga gear. Actually, nothing could have been further from the truth. Pat soon snapped me out of it, he pointed out that it would be a great thing to try out for Veganuary, and having done some research, we should all be adding this gut perfecting jar of magic to our diet, whether you’re meaty steak and Ale type, a veggie, a fish lover, it really is magic.
It’s not some highfalutin hipster snack, fermentation has been a staple way of preserving food in nearly all cultures for millennia: The earliest record of fermentation dates back as far as 6000 B.C. in the FertileCrescent—and nearly every civilization since has included at least one fermented food in its culinary heritage. From Korean kimchi and Indian chutneys to the ubiquitous sauerkraut, yogurt and cheese, global cultures have crafted unique flavours and traditions around fermentation.
In some cases, fermentation is a critical component to food safety beyond preservation. In West African countries, garri is an important food source. It is made from the root vegetable cassava, which contains natural cyanides and, if not properly fermented, can be poisonous.
Other foods, such as the Tanzanian fermented gruel togwa, have been found to protect against food borne illnesses in regions that have poor sanitation. (Food and Nutrition.org 2012 winter addition)
Anyway, I digress, back to the story. So fears allayed, we arranged to meet up down at pasty HQ for a making session, where we tried a vegan Kimchi pasty and for a mix up a cheese Kimchi pasty, and I have to say, they were bleddy ansum! So that was that, we sealed a deal to make the vegan version for Veganuary. Please do try them out with their equally banging live hot sauces, like I said, whether you’re already a fan of fermenting, or sticking to your traditional diet and just want to add something healthy and delicious to your shopping list you can’t go wrong with the Ann’s pasty and ‘Eaten Alive’ collaboration.
