Picture you’re enjoying a lazy afternoon at home when suddenly, your stomach starts to grumble. You saunter into your kitchen, open your half empty fridge and scan the contents for something edible to eat. Your eyes fall upon some macaroni and cheese, French fries, and cinnamon swirl bread. You shrug and grab all three.
You place two slices of cinnamon swirl bread on a plate and layer some macaroni and cheese on top. Afterwards, you delicately place the fries over the macaroni, but you realize something is missing.
You pause and question whether or not you should do it.
You open your cabinet and pull out a jar of Nutella. There will be no turning back once you combine the ingredients. You lather on a thick layer of hazel-nutty goodness and throw your creation onto the stovetop so the ingredients can melt together. Thus, a frankenfood is born!
And no, I’m not talking about genetically modified crops, but rather revolutionary culinary masterpieces that take staple foods and make unexpected food arrangements.
These food mashups result in either heavenly delights or shameful misses. Frankenfoods; they seem like something a desperate fast food restaurant marketing team would throw together to try to entice hungry stoners. But hey, nowadays there are Pinterest boards filled with these food mashups that are inspiring people everywhere to use their stomaches to think creatively and challenge conventional recipes.
In terms of frankenfoods, the playing field is even, everyone can be a gastronomical explorer in the land of questionable food pairings. You can find frankenfoods popping up everywhere from popular TV shows and food trucks to restaurants and county fairs.
A prime example of these rebellious food architects can be found on Spike TV’s Frankenfoods, where future Dr. Frankensteins wannabe chefs concoct unthinkable food combinations in hopes of having them placed on a menu at a popular local restaurant. Some of the concoctions include pulled pork s’mores sandwiches and Fruity Pebble chicken tenders.
After the craze of the Cronut and the ramen burger, the hype to create the next irresistible food staple is on the rise.
FRANKENFOOD TASTE-TEST
In the spirit of science (and morbid curiosity), I got a group of friends together to see what kind of frankenfood we could mash together with the ingredients we had lying around. After consolidating our findings we had the following ingredients to work with: tortillas, cereal, bananas, macarons, eggs, cheese, jelly, Nutella, honey and milk.
Photographed by Julia McKellar
We decided we couldn’t bare to combine stinky cheese with any of the other ingredients, but that using everything else was fair game.
After a quick brainstorming session, we knew what we wanted to make and we started our creation of the Grilled Cereal Wrap!
Everyone has been to that point of desperation where they’re willing to combine the unthinkable out of hunger or pure amusement. For us, the birth of the Grilled Cereal Wrap manifested because most of our ingredients were breakfast related.
We began by pouring a cup and a half of cereal into a food processor. Next we ground the flakes and granola until they became coarse. After we achieved the desired consistency we added one egg, a tablespoon of honey, half a banana, a teaspoon of jelly, the two macaroons, a dash of cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of milk. The outcome did not look super appetizing…
Photographed by Julia McKellar
However, the train was rolling and we couldn’t stop there so we heated some oil in a pan and formed our mixture into burger-sized patties. After placing the cereal patty on the grill it had a vague resemblance to the nasty patty from Spongebob Squarepants.
Photographed by Julia McKellar
While the patty cooked we took out a tortilla and lathered on a generous heap of Nutella.
Nutella: It’s European, it’s sexy, it doesn’t get much better than that. Photographed by Julia McKellar
Next we placed the cooked patty onto the tortilla and folded the edges of the tortilla over the patty for one finally round on the stovetop.
Photographed by Julia McKellar
After a few minutes of frying the tortilla in the oil, it was finally time for the taste-test. I cut a delicate piece out of the grilled cereal wrap and took a bite.
Photographed by Julia McKellar
TASTE
The first bite was gooey and warm, but had a distinctive cereal graininess to it. The texture reminded me of chewing on a warm granola Blondie bar, but softer. The Nutella added the perfect amount of sweetness and it wasn’t too messy because the tortilla kept everything in place. I was surprised to taste a hint of fruitiness from the macarons and raisins.
VERDICT
While I don’t see grilled cereal wraps replacing pancakes anytime soon, this frankenfood definitely holds its own in terms of tastiness. It’s a bit heavy for an early morning meal, but it pairs well with a big glass of milk for a late brunch. Just don’t be offended if you put all your efforts into making something as weird as grilled cereal and expect your friends or family to join you in eating it.
So start creating. Become the master of your own frankenfood destiny. And remember this word of advice: Whatever you make is always better with Nutella.