When you write a blog that focuses on celebrity endorsed food products you are occasionally sent a gift from the Gods. This week my God is Peter Andre and his Opa Opa Sauce. I don’t know if it was Iceland or Peter himself that came up with the insania idea of him creating a range of sauces but I sure am glad he did.
Peter went from one hit wonder and writer of Mysterious Girl, to marrying one of the least mysterious girls ever to grace the planet, to national treasure. With that kind of career trajectory it was only a matter of time before he became the face of Iceland and revealed his skills as a chef. For Peter to take on the Iceland advertising deal he must have needed a lot of courage, Kerry Katona is a hard act to follow and not everyone would be up to the job. Peter had to make his mark and take Iceland into the future. It wouldn’t be enough to smile, look pretty and talk about how you can get 50 mini eclairs for a £1, Peter had to do things differently and he did. Peter made sauce. At least he calls it sauce, but when you look into it a little deeper it is more versatile than it first appears as it can be used as “a marinade/dip for meat and fish, a dressing for salad or a sauce for pasta.”. I was torn about how best to apply this miracle liquid.
I bought two varieties of the sauce; Hot Chilli & Herb and Original Mediterranean. Now Hot Chilli and Herb I can understand and have a good guess what that would taste of, but Original Mediterranean was not a flavour I could easily describe. I had a look at the back of the tin and it simply said “Original Greek style flavour” which didn’t get me much further so I thought it was time to get stuck in.
I shook the can and the red sauce glooped out into the ramekin, it smelt of garlic and vinegar and was much thicker than I had anticipated. In my head I was picturing an oil based salad dressing but as Peter already told us it could be used as a dip or to marinade meat and coat pasta so that was my own projection. I decided to try the sauce as a dip and plunged in a bread stick, it was sharp, garlicky, vinegary and sweet, I suppose you could describe the layers as quite complex although definitely not subtle. It was a smack about the chops flavour wise, the issue being that the flavour wasn’t very nice, it tasted like a thick tomato soup that should be served warm but wasn’t. The abiding and lasting flavour was of vomit. My mouth lingered with that bitter, unpleasant aftertaste that’s only experienced after a few minutes gripping the porcelain following a session of emesis.
So with that pleasant sensation in my mouth, I refreshed, drank some water and moved onto the chilli herb variety. Again I shook the can, again the red sauce glooped out and again the scent of garlic and vinegar hit me. To look at it was identical to the first sauce, I was just hoping that it would better. I grabbed the bread stick and went in. It tasted exactly the same as the previous one except it had a hot chilli kick, the heat of the chilli reduced the sicky aftertaste but it still wasn’t anything I’d like to try again.
I’m sorry Peter but whilst you might be good at making mums’ love you, a talent in the music studio and nice at tweeting old ladies your skills in the kitchen leave a lot to be desired.
Peter Andre Opa Opa Sauce £1 for 250ml
3/10
Michelin Microwave 