Deep-fried Mars bar facts for kids
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| Place of origin | Scotland |
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| Main ingredients | Mars bar, batter |
A deep-fried Mars bar is a Mars chocolate bar that is covered in batter and then cooked in hot oil. This unusual snack first appeared in a chip shop in Scotland. In the mid-1990s, news stories began to talk about it. Often, these stories used the deep-fried Mars bar to discuss how healthy (or unhealthy) the food in Scotland was. After that, the snack became much more well-known.
Contents
How It's Made
To make a deep-fried Mars bar, people use regular Mars chocolate bars. The bar is usually made cold first. This helps stop it from melting too much when it's fried.
Next, the Mars bar gets covered in a flour batter. This is the same kind of batter used for frying fish, sausages, and other foods. Then, it's put into very hot oil or fat until the batter is golden and cooked.
Where It Came From
The idea for the deep-fried Mars bar came from John Davie. He created it in 1992 at The Haven Chip Bar in Stonehaven, Scotland. This shop is now called The Carron.
The snack became famous very quickly. On August 23, 1995, a writer named Alastair Dalton wrote about it in the Aberdeen Evening Express newspaper. He said that deep-fried Mars bars were a big hit with teenagers in Stonehaven. The shop owner, Ingram Mowatt, told the newspaper that the craze started when school holidays began.
The next day, the Daily Record newspaper picked up the story. Soon, other big newspapers in Scotland and the UK also wrote about it. Even a TV show called The Big Breakfast did a taste test. The story was even shared by the BBC World Service around the world!
How Popular Is It?
In 2004, the deep-fried Mars bar was mentioned on NBC's The Tonight Show in the United States. After this, a medical journal called The Lancet asked the University of Dundee to study how common this snack was in Scotland.
They called 627 fish and chip shops in Scotland. About 62% of them answered. Here's what they found:
- About 66 shops (22% of those who answered) sold deep-fried Mars bars. Most of these shops had only started selling them in the last three years.
- Another 17% of shops had sold them in the past.
- On average, shops sold about 23 bars each week. Some shops even sold 50 to 200 bars a week!
- The average price was about £0.60.
- Most of the deep-fried Mars bars (76%) were sold to children.
- Some shops (15 of them) were worried about how healthy the food was.
- Many shops that didn't sell them said it was because frying the chocolate bar made their oil turn black.
In 2012, The Carron Fish Bar (where it was invented) said they sold about 100 to 150 deep-fried Mars bars every week. They noted that most of these (70%) were bought by tourists who had heard about the famous snack.
Other Fried Treats
The idea of frying a Mars bar led to other sweet treats being deep-fried too!
For example, Reiver's Fish Bar in Duns sometimes sells deep-fried Creme Eggs around Easter. Deep-fried Snickers bars are also popular, especially in the United States. You can often find them at state fairs and other fun events.
The famous chef Nigella Lawson even shared a recipe for a deep-fried Bounty bar in her 1999 cookbook and TV show, Nigella Bites. In New Zealand, you can also find deep-fried Moro bars, which are a popular chocolate bar there.
A Discussion About Healthy Eating
When the Daily Record newspaper called the deep-fried Mars bar "Scotland's craziest takeaway," it started a big discussion. The snack became a symbol for talking about obesity and diets high in fat. Many news stories used it to discuss the eating habits in Scotland and the wider UK.
In 2012, The Carron Fish Bar wanted to get a special protection for the deep-fried Mars bar, like a "Protected Food Name." But the Mars company wrote to the shop. They asked the shop to make it clear that Mars did not "authorize or endorse" deep-frying their bars. So, the shop put up a sign saying this.
A restaurant owner from Glasgow, John Quigley, said in 2012 that Scotland had been trying to improve its image for healthy eating for 20 years, ever since the deep-fried Mars bar became famous in the media.
See also
In Spanish: Mars frito para niños
