Grass jelly

Continuing on a food theme, I present today’s treat: grass jelly. It’s a jelly made from grass, in a tin.

For me, that special shade of green on the label evokes many happy childhood summers. The label also quite closely resembles some rare 1950s jazz LP sleeve, which obviously makes it a very cool dessert indeed.

The amusingly tin-shaped block of jelly is rinsed and cut into cubes. Traditionally, one eats grass jelly ice cold with warm sugar syrup but nowadays you can find it served in cafes with fancy stuff like evaporated milk, sago or fruit. I prefer to keep things old school.

The jelly has a kind of herbal savoury taste not unlike root beer or cola which is just sublime when mixed with the simplicity of the warm syrup – it’s quite addictive. Here’s to summer and stomach aches!