Review Marks and Spencers Smoked Salmon and Lemon Mousse-filled pearls

 If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know how much of a fan I am of Marks & Spencers food.  And if you have been following recently you may recall me posting about their new for Christmas Gleaming Salmon Mousse Pearls which I was extremely excited to see in my local M&S.

 

Enid and I met today and rather than going for lunch out we decided we'd get some M&S food and stay in and chat in her house.  As we were going in to the shop I was telling Enid all about the Salmon Mousse pearls and we decided we'd treat ourselves to them.  They are not cheap at €8.79 if you recall.

 

Well boy were we happy to find that there was just a few left and that they were reduced to clear at €2.45

 

They just look so impressive don't they!

 

I have posted this photograph to give you the sense of their size.

 

Unfortunately at this point we verge into a horror story,

 

While the mousse inside was just ok (I was expecting similar to the Lochmuir salmon and salmon mousse terrine, but it was a richer tarter flavour and with no salmon on the outside was a different texture).

 

The "shell" of the pearl is something that I can only describe as something that was "cooked up in lab".  While we assume it is a food/for consumption we simply could not eat it (as you can see from the photo).  It felt like an odd flesh like substance when cutting through it.  There was no real flavour identifiable from it.  It's possibly made from a mixture of cream cheese and gelatine...but we're not sure, it's a wild guess.  In fact I have tweeted M&S to ask what it is made from. 

 

All in all very disappointing. 

I'd give these 2/10 - one point for the "ok" mousse, and one point for the cool presentation.  And that is based on paying the reduced at price.

At full price I'd give these 0/10