Take a tin of steak and make a bake (which may look fake)

From Birmingham I carried on north to Glasgow, not for work but a fleeting visit for a friend's surprise 30th birthday. It was my first time in the city, but hopefully not the last, as it really was rather nice indeed.

Two things I noticed which I feel compelled to tell you about - firstly, tinned haggis is far more readily available than it is south of the border. Unsurprising you might think, but I would have expected the Scots to eschew the tinned variety in favour of the real thing. As it was, just about every supermarket or convenience shop I went into had at least one brand on its shelves. Secondly, I don't think I have ever seen so many branches of Greggs the Bakers in one place. There seemed to be one on every other road I walked down, and sometimes more than one, much like the Starbucks, Costas and Pret a Mangers that line and litter the streets of London. Look at this map of their locations from Greggs' website - the centre of Glasgow is a veritable sea of G's.

What would the Man from Del Monte say to this?

On a recent trip to Birmingham for work, I happened upon this piece of street art on the wall of a building a short distance north of New Street Station.

Although more than a little faded and peeling, if you stop to look it is still recognisable as a tin of Del Monte fruit "In It's Own Juice" (shame about the apostrophe), with a mass of skulls arranged in the shape of a bunch of grapes on the label. A comment on Del Monte's human rights record, perhaps?

Squibs and squids

All that talk of Canned Food Week being a damp squib has had me thinking a lot about squid. That's the way my mind works, you see.

It just so happened that a few weeks back I bought a tin of Tesco Finest* Squid Pieces in Salsa Piccante, as it was on offer at the time. That isn't an asterisk after "Finest" by the way - it's just a star that Tesco have incorporated into their logo for the range, for no real reason.* So, with squid on the brain, now seems like the perfect time to give it a try. The tin says it's perfect for tapas; I just fancy a light snack so decide just to serve it up on toast - a single tapa, if you will.

The most exciting week of the tinned food year?

A number of my posts so far have attempted to mark various occasions or happenings of note with a culinary experiment of some kind involving a tinned food product. This week though, the dining tables are turned, as it is tinned foods themselves that will be celebrated with their very own seven-day event. That’s right – from Monday 14th to Sunday 20th April, the humble tin will be getting the recognition it deserves during Canned Food Week. Apologies for not having let you know sooner.

Beanie record breakers and incredible art makers

With the news having been somewhat dominated of late by missing aeroplanes, the Ukraine crisis and various other doom and gloom items, it's quite easy to miss some of the lighter but no less important stories of the moment.

Last week for example, in the humble environs of Haddon Hall Baptist Church on Tower Bridge Road, comedian Rob Thomas broke the Guinness World Record for the number of baked beans eaten in three minutes with a cocktail stick.

Wearing a beanie hat for good luck, he set the new record at 159 beans eaten - just seven more than the previous record set in Jamaica some years ago, so it must have been a pretty nail-biting thing to watch. But did we hear anything about it in the main news, or even the local news? Not a sausage. It was only by chance I found out about it, and I just knew you'd all be very excited to hear the news too. Here's a video of the feat.

And, while we're on the subject of beans...here's an amazing timelapse video of artist Marcello Barenghi drawing an incredibly realistic tin of beans (and various other food and drink items).

So there you have it: two bean-related items of interest for the price of none - surely proof that it's not all doom and gloom, whatever the news night lead you to believe.

I-rish I'd had a bigger lunch

Ah,  St Patrick's Day -  a day on which, as tradition now dictates, people with little or no Irish heritage flock to their nearest watering hole and attempt to claim a free Guinness hat by consuming copious pints of the Emerald Isle's best known tipple.

I had no desire to join the throngs last Monday evening, instead opting to mark the occasion at home, with some traditional Irish fare. Or rather, a tin of Sainsbury's "basics" Irish Stew.

Jamaican' me hungry

Following on from the Winter Olympics, the Winter Paralympics are currently in full swing in Sochi. In a previous post I touched on some of the controversy surrounding the Games, but let’s cast all that aside for now. Both the Games have been hugely successful for Team GB with a record number of medals being won, but for me, even that pales into irrelevance. I will never be able to think about the Winter Olympics without the cinematic classic that is Cool Runnings coming to mind, charting the true-life trials and tribulations of the Jamaican bobsleigh team as they struggle to train, qualify and compete at their first Games in Calgary, 1988.

Partly in their honour (but mainly as I’d had the tins sitting in my cupboard  for ages) I decided it was time to try out that Jamaican classic, saltfish and ackees.