10 bizarre flavor combinations that are tastier than you’d think

Do you enjoy a bit of adventure (on your plate, that is)? Do you think combining sweet and savory is totally ordinary, casually pour your M&M’s into your bucket of salty popcorn at the cinema, and never put together a cheese board without some fruit or jelly? Then you may already be more inclined to give the combinations below a try!

But even if you normally prefer to stick with the familiar, there are some great entry-level options here too! I mean, you can already try the first suggestion as a test run at the first fast-food chain you come across:

Fries in a milkshake

So not simply piling a mountain of fries onto the paper on your fast-food tray and taking a big sip of milkshake every now and then while you eat. No, in your milkshake. Seriously: take the lid off the cup, grab a fry (skip the mayo/ketchup for now) and start dipping. Salty with sweet, hot with cold – it’s actually a wonderfully layered and complex gastronomic masterpiece…

Chocolate and avocado

Avocado is deliciously buttery and creamy, which makes it a great match for chocolate. Because come on, a thick layer of the best butter beneath a thick layer of chocolate spread is hardly something to turn down either. Avocado also has a fairly neutral flavor, so don’t worry that you’ll suddenly taste something ‘healthy’ running through your chocolate. A good starting point is a ‘milkshake’ with cocoa, honey, banana and avocado – and then you can use it to dip fries in too.

Vanilla ice cream with olive oil

Yesss, that’s an interesting one, isn’t it! But in Mediterranean countries, using olive oil in sweet dishes is completely commonplace. Italian ciambellone, for example, is a fresh lemon cake made with olive oil instead of butter. And the step to ice cream is actually an easy one; try a thin drizzle of the best olive oil you have, with a pinch of Maldon salt, over your vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

Strawberries with balsamic vinegar

Very Italian too, and a combination that really works. The umami in good balsamic vinegar brings out the sweetness of strawberries even more, resulting in something exciting, juicy and delicious. Don’t use too much—a teaspoon over a full bowl of strawberries is enough. And balsamic glaze with banana is another winner! Really, everyone should have balsamic vinegar as a standard item in their kitchen cupboard.

Chicken and pickle juice

There are people—believe us, we know from experience—who would happily slurp leftover pickle juice straight down with a straw. Officially, it isn’t juice but brine, of course; we’re not talking about freshly squeezed pickles here… But even if you can resist drinking it, that doesn’t mean it has to go straight down the drain (or through a little sieve): it’s actually great for brining chicken! The liquid is already nicely seasoned (#nospon but I think Jumbo’s sour pickles are excellent, with lots of dill sprigs and mustard seeds), and if you add some salt, you’ve got the perfect brine for the juiciest chicken breast.

Virgin Mary steak

Here too, it’s not simply a Bloody Mary without the vodka served next to your steak—the steak goes in it. Before cooking, that is. Otherwise it would be weird. The acids from the tomato juice and lemon, along with the heat of the Tabasco, make a perfectly good marinade. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and bonus points if you also mix in a teaspoon of horseradish. Put the meat in it and leave it covered to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before frying or grilling.

Mango with chili powder

Perhaps you’ve already spotted or used chunks of mango in a stir-fry, and while opinions on fruit in savory dishes are divided, we can say wholeheartedly that a pinch of chili powder over your mango (or mango sorbet!) is delicious.

Fries with honey

Whaaaat, you may be thinking, but when you consider that McDonald’s honey mustard sauce with Nuggets has been a huge hit for decades, the combination of honey and deliciously salty, greasy fried food may not seem so crazy anymore. And admit it, this perhaps doesn’t go quite as far as dipping fries in your milkshake, right?

Sour apples with salsa

Again, this isn’t the same as fruit in your food, but just like with mango, it’s a delicious way to combine something fresh and sweet (actually sour, in this case) with something spicy and, here, pleasantly salty too. Rujak is another classic example: an Indonesian snack dish in which fruit (preferably slightly unripe) is dipped into a mixture of kecap manis, sugar, sambal and spices.

Apple pie with cheese

We’ve written about it before, but this really belongs on the list too. I admit, even this one goes a little too far for me. But it really is a thing! Cheddar mixed into the batter for an apple pie is quite normal in parts of America, where it evolved from serving a piece of cheddar alongside the pie to simply grating it into the pastry. I’ll pass, thank you very much…

Also read:

• 10 foods that are disgustingly delicious #7
• Cream cheese tea: insanely popular and a lifesaver
• The most bizarre orders baristas receive

Source: Eatthis