This article was first published in Stuff.
What’s a strange food combination that you swear by?
Roe in Auckland’s Parnell is an eatery that’s “built around seafood and the classics done right”, but there’s one dish on the chip shop’s menu that has people talking about its unique combination of flavours.
It is soft serve ice cream finished with fish sauce caramel and crunchy pretzels. Yes, fish sauce, a concentrated liquid made from fermented fish and salt.
The combination of sweet and salty brings a good measure of surprise.
People are sharing their reviews of the unorthodox desert on social media, describing the sauce as salted caramel with extra umami.
Often the secret of odd combinations tasting good boils down to flavour chemistry: balancing contrasting taste profiles like sweet, salty, umami, and acid.
