5 Weird Food Combos That Actually Work

Having been a food writer and restaurant critic for a few years now, I have come to realise that food is less about tasting good and more about defying expectations. It’s more about the dining experience, rather than just a good meal with delicious food. It’s not necessarily something I agree with.

However, there are a few instances where both good food and defying expectations have happened at the same time. Based on my experiences, I have come up with a little list of totally weird food pairings that nonetheless tasted awesome.

1. Black Pudding & Raspberries

Yes, you read that correctly. Blood and fruit sounds like a totally repulsive combination (especially when worded like that). This is actually a combo that you will not believe until you try it. The best place to find it on your commonplace dinner plate would be in a posh salad accompanying a rich meat like duck, or to place a sweet note to a shellfish starter such as scallops, in lieu of pea purée.

Read the full review of a meal including a duck confit, black pudding, and raspberry salad here!

2. Pumpkin & Coffee

If Starbucks have taught us anything, it's that pumpkin and coffee marry very well. Their Pumpkin-spiced Latte is nothing if not a bestseller. But why stop there?

If there are any Italians reading, you had best stop now, but any pastry chefs might enjoy the idea of applying the pumpkin-spiced idea to, perhaps, a tiramisù? I can’t personally bear the dessert—it may be a classic, but it’s done to death. A bit of pumpkin-spicing might do the trick and even convert me!

3. Vanilla Ice Cream & Olive Oil

"Where are we getting these ideas from?" you may well be asking. This next entry is actually a tried-and-tasted phenomenon. London restaurant Osteria 60 has a dessert called the Chocolate Mondrian, named after the artist Piet Mondrian.

Part of its composition is a thin stalk of glucose, with a bubble in the middle, containing a couple of drops of olive oil, resting on a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The idea is to eat them at the same time. It is strange, but you come away thinking that the pairing is not wrong. This one comes highly recommended.

Click here to read the full review of Osteria 60 in Kensington.

4. Steak & Blackberries

So many questions apply to steak. How well do you have it cooked? What's your favourite cut? Chips or mash? Peppercorn Sauce or Blue Cheese? Very rarely does one ever question what else comes out on the plate. A Portobello mushroom and perhaps a grilled tomato or two.

Sweet fruit, blackberries to be more specific, probably never enter a person's mind when it comes to steak. They are oddly enough not an unheard-of combination. They are also good with other dark meats, such as venison.

If you’re interested, take a look at one of our restaurant reviews featuring a steak and blackberry dish!

5. Salmon & White Chocolate

Salmon is a vehicle for such a lot of other ingredients that otherwise do not have much of a look-in when it comes to savoury dishes. Oranges, for example, have been used to accompany it for centuries—since the 1600s, to be more exact!

More recently, though, another sweet ingredient has encroached its way onto the entrée plate—white chocolate. There's something about that sweetness and the saltiness afterwards (or maybe vice versa) that a lot of foodies find so appealing. Maybe that's why salted caramel took off so well.

Fancy cooking salmon with white chocolate? Here's a great recipe to try!

Have we missed anything?

These entries have been influenced by UK restaurants only. You must let us know if you know some other peculiar food pairings that tasted amazing all the same. Get in touch on social media with your ideas.