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Lin Gilbert |
Hello, Nicey.
I'm delighted to see from Glyn's email that I'm not alone in my dunking habit. Putting butter in tea is part of Tibet's cultural legacy to the world and should be embraced by us Westerners.
In fact I'm happy to dunk anything that I could eat with a cup of tea. Victoria sponge cake is a particular favourite, but needs a bit of hand-eye coordination and a fast mug-to-mouth return.
Yours with soggy crumbs all over the table, Lin. |
Nicey replies: Yak's milk butter at that. Some friends of ours about ten years ago walked to the base camp at K2. They camped each night in their state of the art tent and sleeping bags, after a nutritionally balanced re-hydrated meal. Meanwhile their Nepalese guides fashioned a shelter from a few rocks a sheet and stick and brewed up tea with lumps of melted yak butter in it. |
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Glyn |
Hi Nicey,
I have always extolled the virtues of dipping hot fresh buttered toast into a lovely hot cup of tea. Over the years I have come to suspect that I might be alone in this fetish and I am looking for like-minded adults to share my experiences with. I have always dipped my toast into my tea for as long as I can remember. I now feel ashamed to do this in public as I have had many rude comments from people over the years. Have you or any of your readers ever taken part in this toast-dipping-love that dare not speak its name?
I just cannot enjoy tea and toast any other way - to me it is truly delicious.
For newbies who might want to give it a try I would suggest the following.
- Make a satisfying brew to your usual taste in a wide-brimmed, non-tapering mug (workman style).
- Try to make your toast to coincide almost exactly with the hot fresh brew (this might require a double power adapter in your kitchen if you cant plug in the toaster and the kettle at the same time)
- Heavily butter the toast - margarine is just fine.
- Cut each round of toast in half (NOT corner to corner) and then fold each half into a quarter (buttered side folded in) and dip the toast quickly but most of the way into the brew and snaffle down fast.
If you're a white bread lover I suggest thick Warburtons Toastie bread for the toast as it has the best absorbency.
Two hearty rounds of toast will absorb a good one third of a brew so you should have another ready if you go for the 4 round option. The spead at which one can consume toast using this technique is mind-blowing!
I absolutely swear on my life its the nicest thing in the world - my friends will not try it and call me a pikey but they are missing out. For real dunking aficionados its a dirty but satisfying pleasure to be discovered. The greatest benefit is that the brew ends up with just a little butter in it and tastes gorgeous (reminiscent of when you make a brew with extremely creamy "Farmer's quality" milk).
I'd love to hear from other like-minded adults who share this pleasure.
Regards
Glyn |
Nicey replies: Toast is well supported with NCOTAASD, you see there is a little toast icon. Use this to find others who enjoy hot soggy toast. |
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Phil Dennison |
Dear Nicey,
I'm an Englishman abroad in California. I've just looked in the fridge and a stick of butter is indeed 4oz. Bizarrely, the paper wrapper has markings to show some kind of spoonful conversions, and cup conversions. It is very odd that people do not weigh ingredients here. And of course they use a 16 fluid ounce pint rather than the 20 ounce pint which used to be used in the UK.
I try my best to confuse my colleagues by using the 24 hour clock and metric measurements.
I've attached a photo of our kitchen tea station, as we found a rather fetching cup of tea sculpture in a local bargain store.
The best local biscuits that we buy are Graham Crackers. Quite light and suitable for regular consumption, particularly the honey flavoured kind. More serious biscuit enjoyment is restricted to imported products.
best wishes,
Phil.
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Nicey replies: Phil,
Thanks for the butter info. You seem to be doing splendid work out there in California getting the tea making sorted out. That's a very nice mug you have there. Wifey says she's concerned about which teabags you are using in it. I trust from time to time you have baked beans on toast for lunch to further unsettle the locals.. |
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Sue Northcott |
I think a major problem with the toast polls is that you haven't mentioned butter anywhere yet. Surely this is the single most popular toast topping? (That's what I meant when I voted 'other' in the savoury poll). |
Nicey replies: Sue, Sue, Sue,
Butter is a given. |
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Helen Rees |
Dear Nicey
Mmmm Toast. I've wondered idly on and off for years what Sting was on about in that song where he sings " I don't like coffee, I take tea my dear, I like my toast done on one side. tumte tum te tum etc I'm an English man in New York". So is this an English thing - doing toast on one side? What's the point of that then? I've asked various Englishmen of my acquaintance and they've never heard of it. I was there myself only last week in sunny Bournemouth and they definitely served the toast done on more than one side in my hotel. My colleague Sue says the song's about Quentin Crisp and speculates it might be an euphemism for something else what ever that means but she's a Welshwoman from Pontardawe and has her toast done on both sides with salty welsh butter so what would she know? It's Marmite and a mashed banana for me.
PS we wondered whether you'd seen this shocking story from the South Wales Evening Post
Helen Rees |
Nicey replies: Morning,
I'd always assumed that Sting was projecting some weird Geordie Toast making practice on to the rest of England. Maybe his toaster is knakered. He's got a lot to answer for as many Americans now use that song as their stereotypical cultural summing up of the UK having finally ditched Mary Poppins, I know I have the emails.
As for that article, I remember going on a school trip to the British Tissues factory in Maestyg, and seeing various sorts of loo rolls being built. The same stuff was going into Dixel and Maid Marion (another corner shop brand). It also appeared to be the place where they make that pink toilet tissue with the little pictures of roses on it, which always seems to be the stuff people resort to when taken short in laybys. I think we all got a four pack of loo rolls to take home, and I remember Nanny Nicey was thrilled with it. |
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