Baked-bean pizza and deep-fried Mars bar supper, anyone?

Food comes in all shapes, sizes, tastes and smells. But what's hot and what's not, when it comes to culinary combinations?

Writing, as I did yesterday, about Tesco’s lasagne sandwich – the “Lasandwich” – got me thinking about other unusual food combinations. When I was a kid, a favourite snack of mine was “smoky-bacon-flavoured crisps smothered in vinegar”. Basically, I’d open a packet, sprinkle some malt vinegar into it, hold the packet shut and shake it up and down. As long as I ate the crisps immediately, they wouldn’t be too soggy. When I’d eaten all the crisps, I’d drink the remaining vinegar out of the packet … Delicious! Another culinary invention of mine as a kid was to add some milk to a glass of dandelion-and-burdock fizzy pop. I tried it once, promptly threw up, and vowed never to do it again. In my late childhood and early teens, I would always smother my Sunday roast in tomato ketchup and HP sauce, much to my Grandma’s annoyance. At school, I found a liking for boiled white cabbage smothered in gravy and cheese, after the time when that’s all that was left in the cafeteria, so I had to combine all three. A few year’s back, I remember trying Heinz Baked Bean Pizza – which was rather so-so – and cheese-and-pickle sandwiches dunked in tomato soup – which was rather better. Looking on line, I see that today’s Chicago Tribune reports its readers enjoying delicacies such as “mango and balsamic vinegar”, “peaches and cheddar” and “peanut butter and sriracha on toast”. I have never dared try one myself, but if you ever find yourself in Scotland, perhaps you could try a deep-fried Mars bar, which was invented, in 1995, by the Haven Chip Bar (now the Carron Fish Bar), Stonehaven, Aberdeen.