Square deal was pork purgatory

The world was crammed into Winckley Square at the weekend – the best of British with retro outfits from the Swinging Sixties, Chinese dragons and (very loud) drums and, tucked in behind Duk Pond on Chaddock Street, a slice of South America with a pop-up Peruvian food stand.

Having said that, if you were expecting Peru’s trademark ceviche, perhaps with a cheeky Pisco Sour on the side, you would have been disappointed.

Instead this was all about the meat, a BBQ grill throwing out enticingly smoky smells and a short menu of meat that could be grilled and put inside a sandwich.

Eschewing a steak sandwich or marinated chicken skewers I went for a pulled pork sandwich with lima pickles, salad and a generous squirt of peri peri sauce for £5.

More usually associated with the American Deep South, pulled pork is also popular in Peru, where it tends to be rubbed with spices for a hot and fiery flavour.

The joy of pulled pork is that it is cooked slowly for hours until it is meltingly tender and falling apart, having absorbed the flavour of the spices it has been cooked with. Sadly my sandwich had none of the fiery flavours of Peru, and the meat was dry.

The addition of pickles, salad and sauce made it an acceptable sandwich, but a culinary ride to the exotic flavours, ancient civilisations and forbidding mountains of Peru it certainly wasn’t.

Oh well, maybe I’ll just have to save up and buy a plane ticket instead.

Emma Pearson