Travel The World In A Box With Kitchen Trotter*

Last October it was suggested that I review new foodie subscription box, Kitchen Trotter. Of course, I jumped at the chance and duly researched the box. The concept is simple, each month a selection of ingredients are pulled together around the theme of one country and sent, beautifully packaged, to subscribers alongside a handful of recipes to help you make the most of the ingredients. So far, so good.

There were issues with delivery but when New Year and the box finally arrived it looked great. The pattern is evocative of the Far East with its deep red and Palm trees, Russian dolls and colourful stamps. Excited, I unpacked the tons of styrofoam peanuts that appear to be the MO for anything involving food, and began to uncover the treasures inside.

It became apparent that the country du jour was Indonesia and I put aside the recipe cards to look at later. First out of the lucky dip was a small metal tin containing lemongrass powder. Interesting. What can I use that in? Next up, repeats of my store cupboards, shrimp paste and fish sauce. They're different brands to my usual ones so I'll be interested in seeing how they compare. Gado Gado powder is in the box; it's a type of peanut powder that I can use as a cheat satay sauce. I also find combava leaves and kemiri nuts under the styrofoam peanuts. Turning the box upside down to check I hadn't missed anything, an egg timer and a tiny bottle of pandan flavouring fell out. Pandan flavoured cakes were everywhere in Singapore so I'm really excited to experiment with it myself.

The reason this post has taken so long is because I really wanted to give you a full review and make one of the recipes, Ayam Ayam. However, the nuts (an integral part of the recipe) were out of date a month before the box arrived and respite emails no replacements have been sent so there go my plans!

The box costs £29.99 a month inclusive of postage and packaging (with a 3 month subscription at £89, 6 months £174 and a year £336) from www.kitchentrotter.co.uk.

I'm going to be brutally honest here and say that I could have bought all of those ingredients for about half the cost in my local Chinatown and if I want to try new cuisines I can just google the recipes. In fact, a friend suggested I did my own version, choosing a different country each month to cook at least 2 recipes based on their cuisine.

Bottom line? If you want to try new foods but don't have time to do the research and shopping yourself (and you have the money), then go for it. Otherwise, make yourself a DIY box like I plan to.


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