AN AMERICAN food reviewer was left blown away after trying the classic Scottish deep-fried Mars bar for the first time.
Kalani Smith has been travelling the UK recently and reviewing various British culinary staples as he goes – sharing his thoughts with his hefty 2.8m followers on social media.
One of the Tennessee native’s latest stops though was the Scottish capital, where he opted to review the famous battered delicacy, which he scored an astonishing 9.5/10.
Video shows Kalani, dressed in a black cowboy hat and a Patagonia jacket, stopping off at The Pipers Rest near Edinburgh’s Royal Mile as he says: “Today we’re trying a deep-fried Mars bar.
“I’m an American, this is my first time in Scotland, let’s go inside and get something to eat.”
The 25-year-old then takes a seat in the cosy restaurant and orders the battered good, which arrives on a crisp white plate, where it is served in a much swankier fashion than Scots will be familiar with.
The Mars bar comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream which is garnished with a mint leaf, whilst being dusted with icing sugar and drizzled with an orange topping.
Kalani then prepares to tuck into his grub, explaining: “We are going to try it with no ice cream first, just the straight-up Mars bar.”
He then cuts a section of the sweet off and holds it to the camera, joking: “This looks like a very America thing to do.
“We deep fry candy bars, I mean look at me – come on now.”
Kalani then pops the battered bar into his mouth and is seemingly immediately overwhelmed by the flavour.
He mulls it over for a moment in bliss before chomping down another section of the Mars bar with his eyes closed.
He then comes to an immediate conclusion, announcing: “This is a nine-five. I feel like I can’t give this a ten because it’s just so simple, but this takes me back home.
“We fry candy bars all the time, but a Mars bar tastes incredible, I didn’t even need the ice cream – 9.5.”
The glowing food review left many of Kalani’s Scots fans buzzing after they had begged him to try a deep-fried Mars bar for weeks.
Having since moved on to Amsterdam on his trip around Europe Kalani unfortunately won’t be leaving any more glowing reviews for Scottish dishes for the time being.
Kalani shared his video review to social media last month with the caption: “Heaven on Earth… what should I do next? The deep-fried Mars bar is incredible.”
The clip quickly racked up over 34,800 likes and more than 2,300 comments from thrilled Scots left buzzing with Kalani’s overwhelmingly positive review.
One user joked: “This dude has travelled more of our island for food in the last fortnight than most of us have our entire lives.”
Another added: “Why is watching you eat UK food my new guilty pleasure?”
A third replied: “That’s a very posh deep-fried Mars bar normally in paper out the chip shop, glad you enjoyed.”
A fourth noted: “The way you politely take your hat off before you enter is so cute.”
