Sue Perkins’ Big Adventure: From Paris To Istanbul review: She raved about fried crickets and mealworms. . . cordon bleuggh!, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
Sue Perkins’ Great Adventure: From Paris to Istanbul (Channel 4)
Parisian fried crickets in passata, served with diced leeks and sprinkled with petals, followed by honey-soaked mealworms with a topping of nougat ice cream… that’s what you call cordon bleuggh.
Sue Perkins explored the French capital at the start of her great adventure: from Paris to Istanbul (Chapter 4) and urged us to enjoy ‘sustainable’ fine dining in a backstreet restaurant.
Chef Laurent Veyet told her: “I want to make sure people care about the planet, and we have to be careful about what we eat.”
I completely agree, and I am especially careful not to eat crickets or mealworms.
This isn’t the first time we’ve been pushed for six-foot tariffs as a solution to the global hunger crisis. Mostly, though, it’s praised by scientists for practical reasons: crickets are packed with protein and are cheaper to raise than cattle.
Sue Perkins explored the French capital at the start of her great adventure: from Paris to Istanbul (Chapter 4) and urged us to enjoy ‘sustainable’ fine dining in a backstreet restaurant.
Sue Perkins poses with a giant croissant. ‘Sue was enthusiastic about the flavours, but I have my doubts about her reliability as a food critic’
Sue outside the Eiffel Tower. She ‘must have a desire for glamour, because she also visited a modeling agency where she learned to do the catwalk style’
Treating a plate of insects as an epicurean experience is a new departure.
Sue raved about the flavors, but I have my doubts about her reliability as a food critic.
When Laurent asked if she cooked at home, she said seriously: ‘Always. I love it, I’m obsessed with it.’
Funny thing: she’s lined up to appear on BBC2 later this month with former Bake Off pal Mary Berry, and is learning how to make a simple rhubarb pie.
This show is a travelogue that has not been traveled so far. Pretending to prefer a tuk-tuk to tickets on the Orient Express, Sue quoted a family motto: “Miss a train, go on an adventure.”
Her adventures in Paris were not very daring, but she did avoid the usual tourist sights; Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower were not on her list.
Instead, she visited a rooftop farm, a cluster of allotments on top of the Paris Exhibition Center at the Porte de Versailles, where up to 200kg of fruit and vegetables are produced every day.
It even features a miniature vineyard. She then went backstage at the Crazy Horse cabaret, where the walls are decorated with plaster casts of breasts, and got lessons in exotic dance from instructors Lola Kashmir and Etta D’Amour.
She wore a cropped blue wig that made her look like the Vicar of Dibley on acid, and tried to kick high while hanging from straps.
Sue must have a penchant for glamour, because she also stopped at a modeling agency where she learned how to dance catwalk.
This time her teacher was a young woman named Daniella, who stood about 7 feet tall in heels, and who claimed to have learned the technique from Giorgio Armani himself.
Daniella was once a “normal kid,” she said, until a friend dragged her to a photo shoot in Milan, where the designer spotted her: “Armani said, ‘I love his girl, don’t I?’ That’s why I started working the following week.’
It definitely helps to stand out from the crowd. If all those protein-rich crickets help breed a breed of super-sized supermodels, maybe insect cuisine will catch on.
