According to new research, many Edinburgh locals are creating ‘food hacks’ - adding a simple twist to their favourite dishes to make them even more enjoyable.
The poll by Just Eat revealed that the top combinations - real or imagined - were wild and wacky fusions of Britain’s most loved takeaway dishes.
Dishes included chicken katsu, dessert pizza and southern fried duck.
Top of the list was the Japanese-American hybrid, the chicken katsu burger, which takes breadcrumb chicken in a rich Japanese katsu curry sauce, served in a toasted bun instead of rice.
It seems the people of Edinburgh would forgo traditional pizza toppings such as pepperoni for sweeter ingredients as dessert pizza also made the top 10.
Picture: dessert pizza, Just Eat
Other fusion dishes in the top 10 included; southern fried duck – a cross between southern fried chicken and Chinese favourite Peking duck pancakes; Mac 'n' Cheese balls – mac 'n' cheese rolled into balls and coated in crispy breadcrumbs, and a Bhuna Burger, made with succulent beef burger fried in Indian spices and served in a bun with fried green peppers and shredded onions.
According to the report, Chinese and Indian are the favourite foods to mix and match, creating a new fusion cuisine dubbed “Chindian” by eaters.
Professor Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, who helped carry out the research, remarks that food hacks are not surprising as many of our favourite foods stem from hybrids.
Picture: southern fried duck, Just Eat
Professor Spence commented: “As a city, Edinburgh has been receptive to new ideas and flavours for centuries.
"Most food we eat today is actually a fusion of cuisines. Our very own fish and chips for example is mix of Jewish, French and Belgian cuisines.”
He continues: “As the world gets ever more closely linked, so do the cuisines - and so inevitably we are going to see more hybrid dishes such as a fusion of Indian and Chinese – “Chindian”, it’s a really exciting part of modern culture."
“These combinations show Edinburgh’s two obsessions: love of food and love of wordplay. Conversation and words are very much associated with food in this country and having clever names for dishes is not just amusing – science shows it actually improves the taste.”
The list of the top 10 most popular fusion dishes as voted for by Edinburgh include:
1) Chicken katsu burger - also the nation’s number one fantasy food dish
2) Mac n cheese balls
3) Bhuna burger
4) Hamburger-rito
5) Dessert pizza
6) Fried chicken and sweet waffles
7) Southern fried duck
8) Jal (frezi) zone
9) Terk chicken
10) Fish and chips tacos
