Sue Perkins’ Big Adventure: From Paris to Istanbul (Channel 4)
Fried Parisian crickets in passata, served with diced leek and scattered with petals, followed by honey-soaked mealworms with a topping of nougat ice cream… that’s what they call cordon bleuggh.
Exploring the French capital at the beginning of her Great Adventure: From Paris to Istanbul (Chapter 4), Sue Perkins urged us to enjoy a “sustainable” gourmet dinner at a street restaurant.
Chef Laurent Veyet told him: “I want people to care about the planet and we have to be careful about what we eat.”
I couldn’t agree more and I’m especially careful not to eat crickets or mealworms.
This is not the first time we have been urged to adopt a six-legged diet as a solution to the global hunger crisis. However, scientists often praise it for practical reasons: Crickets are full of protein and cheaper to raise than cattle.
Exploring the French capital at the beginning of her Great Adventure: From Paris to Istanbul (Chapter 4), Sue Perkins urged us to enjoy a “sustainable” gourmet dinner at a street restaurant.
Sue Perkins poses with a giant croissant. ‘Sue praised the flavours, but I have my doubts about her reliability as a food critic’
Sue outside the Eiffel Tower. She “must have a craving for glamour, because she also went through a modeling agency where she learned to strut on the catwalk.”
Treating a plate of insects as an epicurean experience is a new departure.
Sue praised the flavors, but I have my doubts about her reliability as a food critic.
When Laurent asked her if she cooked at home, she told him seriously: “All the time.” I love it, I’m obsessed with it.’
Funny thing: she’s scheduled to appear later this month on BBC2 with former Bake Off co-star Mary Berry, learning how to make a basic rhubarb pie.
This show is a travelogue without, so far, any travel. Sue pretended to prefer a tuk-tuk to Orient Express tickets and quoted a family motto: “Lose a train, win an adventure.”
His adventures in Paris weren’t very daring, but he did avoid the usual tourist spots: Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower weren’t on his list.
Instead, he visited a rooftop farm, a cluster of orchards atop the Paris exhibition center at the Porte de Versailles, which produces up to 440 pounds of fruits and vegetables a day.
It even has a miniature vineyard. She then went backstage at the Crazy Horse cabaret, where the walls are decorated with plaster casts of breasts, and received an exotic dance lesson from instructors Lola Kashmir and Etta D’Amour.
Wearing a short-cut blue wig that made her look like the Vicar of Dibley on acid, she attempted high kicks while hanging from straps.
Sue must have a hankering for glamour, because she also stopped at a modeling agency where she learned how to strut the catwalk.
This time, his 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 girl,” she said, until a friend dragged her to a photo shoot in Milan, where the designer spotted her: “Armani said, ‘I love this girl, don’t you?'” So I started to work starting next week.’
Clearly, it helps you stand out from the crowd. If all those protein-packed crickets help spawn a race of super-tall supermodels, maybe insect cooking will take over.