Scoffing food madly is never a good idea, but it’s an even worse idea when it’s severly dry meringue. Ten minutes before a Jose Gonzales gig, I was just about to get the bill when I remembered the dessert I’d stupidly ordered at the same time as our starters. As I’m a bit obsessed with Eton mess at the moment, I thought I’d love this chain’s twist on it: Ipanema mess. But it was about as far south from a moist, gooey, delicious Eton mess as you could get. It was like they’d bought a pack of near their use by date meringues in Tesco, shoved them in a glass and added a tiny bit of cream and treacle (meant to be guava) in the bottom third of the glass.
That’s a lot of digging before finding anything moist enough to actually put in your gob. The result? Two very scratchy dry throats without time for any liquid before our concert. Dang! Moral of the strory? Don’t scoff your food kids – especially if it is this dessert.
