Pot Noodle: gift of god or spawn of satan?

The Pot Noodle snack first made its appearence in the UK in the early 1970s. It was quite an innovation at the time and the ritual of adding boiling water and seeing it come alive was a big departure from processed cheese sandwiches for lunch. 'Chicken and Mushroom' was the one to go for...probably because that was the only option at the time.

Now, a 90g Pot Noodle is available in 19 different flavours including 'Original Curry', 'Southern Fried Chicken' and 'Christmas flavour'. The 21st century version of 'Chicken and Mushroom' contains: dried glucose syrup, chicken flavouring, E635 (which is 4 times stronger than monosodium glutamate) 4g of salt, another 10 E numbers and a sachet of soy sauce.

On the positive side, they are very light in weight and therefore seem to find their way into the ship's stores of many racing yachts. All you need to do in the middle of the English Channel or Celtic Sea is to boil a kettle, add boiling water and a few minutes later, you can tuck into something hot. A quick survey of my regular sailing buddies revealed nothing good to say about the actual eating experience and the case against the Pot Noodle is as follows:

"the only good thing is the hot water" - Juno
"I had one forkful and had to throw the contents overboard" - Pure Magic
"a pot full of chemicals which has no place onboard" - Freelancer
" good for creating a percusion section during a crew sing-song but little else" - Just for Fun

Special protection for Cornish pasties

Cornish food manufacturers have won a nine-year battle to win special protection for their most famous snack - the Cornish pasty. This means that any products made in Devon, Wales or the rest of Britain are now banned from being called Cornish pasties.

From now on, only products made in Britain's most south-westerly county will be allowed to be called Cornish pasties. As well as this geographical restriction, there are other elements to consider. Products that include carrots and which are crimped on the top – rather than the correct Cornish style of on the side – will be banned too from claiming to be the real deal.

The ruling, issued by the European Union, puts the Cornish pasty in a select group of products including Champagne and Parma Ham, as well as 42 British specialities such Kentish Ale, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Arbroath Smokies and Cornish clotted cream.

We love proper Cornish pasties and always buy some at Rowes Bakery when we're in Falmouth. These are very different from the pale imitations seen in the large supermarkets so hopefully the supermarkets will have to have rethink now and consider buying their supplies from smaller producers who are located in Cornwall.