Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Mr Hands |
Watcha Nicey,
Forgive me Father Nice, its been nearly two years since my last NCOTAASD confession, and as I am tieing the knot next year, I thought that I should get in touch. Nothing like a wedding to rekindle those biscuitty memories.
Anyway, ever since getting back from America I had been meaning to get in contact but the bladder of time has been forever pressing and so my apologies. What better reason however than to show off my new tea set that I bought whilst on holiday on the Isle of Skye.
Indeed, whilst in the town of Portree, in the quirkiest shop in the world, I stumbled across this stunning collection of handcrafted delights. The Tea Pot is an absolute gem, I am sure you will agree.
Price = £60 for the lot. Excuse the absence of a lid for the sugar bowl, but we had a very upsetting incident prior to it containing anything at all, let alone sugar. Please also forgive the almost squadron formation and the flamboyant use of chocolate Hob-Nobs in the picture, I just felt they would help to set the scene.
If you should fancy a set like mine, they are handmade by sofieb.com, and are well worth the money, although it would be nice if they would fashion some small plates to wollop a few slabs of battenburg on to,
Well, all the best, and well done on the award,
Mr Hands |
Nicey replies: All is forgiven Mr Hands, good to hear from you again. Well done of the teapot which looks a lot like a space rocket, so I'll exercise my ultimate executive power and use that icon for this message. Good luck for the wedding I hope your sister doesn't get too out of control. |
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Brian Barrett |
Dear Mr Nicey,
If Monika Duhig lives in Melbourne, she'll find lovely hand-made Eccles cakes, made by a pastrycook from Lancashire, at JT's Bakery, Pinewood Shopping Centre, Mount Waverley.
Can't eat 'em meself, now, because of diet restrictions.
Greeties,
Brian |
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John Rooney |
Hi again Nicey…
I’ve been giving Anne’s recollections some tea-induced fantasy consideration. I think she may be referring to “Carnival” biscuits. I too remember the lady-with-parasol design and the odd echo when tapped. Bit like an iced shoebox lid. And just as unpalatable. Does anyone else think so too? And how did the manufacturer achieve that stone-like texture and brittleness? I suspect the presence of tinted quick-setting cement powder in the icing mix. Even a 10-second dunk at 90 deg C failed to soften/wetten the icing, although the immersed Rich Tea-like base disintegrated and subsided into a nasty sludge at the bottom of the cup.
But perhaps my memory is at fault as no doubt by now I’m getting senile (I am 58¾)…the Wifey here says this is indeed so. And as anyone who has listened to Ruth will appreciate, she’s NEVER wrong.
Most biscuitly yours
John Rooney |
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Monika Duhig |
Dear Nicey,
Thanks for the great site (and thanks to contributing readers/authors). As an Aussie living in your wet islands I came to adore the eccles cake and a hot drink, practically anytime, really. I wanted to know if any Brit company distributes eccles cakes down under - please, somebody......it is too tragic that I and my recently converted sister should be EC free. Specifically the Lancs company that makes them in Manchester and stacks them in a cellophane wrapping - can't think what the brand is and manufactured in Manchester is probably dodgy but whatever they had in them was utterly addictive (heroin?) but really, any EC of comparable quality will do
Ta
Monika Duhig
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Nicey replies: Monika,
Regrettably I don't think thats a likely scenario. Still maybe somebody knows different. As for the secret ingredient, I think its simply our old friend butter which makes the pastry so tasty.
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John Rooney |
Hi Nicey
Hope you and The Wife and the rest of the NCOTAASD crew are fine...not too bloated from onerous cake- and biscuit-sampling activities.
Please could you open a review thread on Cheese Footballs (for the more sporty types out there) and also Cheese Sticks? I think Cheese Footballs were made by Huntley & Palmer but I don't know who made their slender cousin, the Cheese Stick.
They used to remind me of Andre Maurois' most excellent children's book "Fattipuffs and Thinifers". It was about two neighbouring tribes of people. One tribe was short, round, fat and jolly and the other was tall, thin, stick-like and morose. Bit like their cheese-filled biscuit relatives, really. Quaere: Can biscuits be jolly? Or morose? I think we may need a philosopher of the Biscuit World to rule on that one...
The Cheese Footballs (spherical - about 20mm dia) and the Cheese Sticks (cylindrical - about 10mm dia x about 75mm long) had significant things in common. Both were constructed of a wafer covering (a bit like Askey's cones and wafers for carrying ice cream) with a very salty, slightly gritty and VERY moreish and strongly cheese-flavoured paste inside. The wafers sometimes were faultily moulded so that a careful and dedicated deconstructor could part the two halves with thumbnails judiciously inserted, and expose the yumulicious filling which could then be consumed "neat", so to speak. This salty, cheesey paste would really go for any slight abrasions in the roof of the mouth, rather like over-liberally spread Marmite soldiers do. The filling did smell a bit odd, though. A girlfriend of many years ago claimed they made my breath smell "fusty". Or could she have meant "lusty"? No matter. But nothing that a Nice Cup Of Tea couldn't wash away pronto.
I haven't seen either of these masterpieces of the savoury biscuitmaker's art for years. This could be because they're out of production (like Chocolate Olivers - Hallowed be their Blessed Name - and Abbey Crunch) or because I'm getting too short-sighted as I've got older to see them as I slowly surf the supermarket aisles. Have any other NCOTAASD readers spotted them recently? I think we should be told.
***Technical Note***
The volume of cheese-flavoured filling within a standard Cheese Football can be found by applying the formula V = 4/3 x ? x r3 (where r = 10mm) giving a result of 4190mm3 (4.19cc) of cheese-flavoured filling per football
The volume of cheese-flavoured filling within a standard Cheese Stick can be found by applying the formula V = ? x r2 x L (where r = 5mm and L = 75mm) giving a result of 5893mm3 (5.893cc) of cheese-flavoured filling per stick
Both calculations make no allowance for the wall thickness of the enclosing wafer, and assume there are no voids within the wafer; i.e. each artefact is perfectly filled and, in the case of the Cheese Sticks, each stick has circular ends square to the length
Best wishes
John Rooney |
Nicey replies: John,
I certainly remember cheese footballs and concur that Huntley and Palmer were the main protagonists in this regard. I'm sure Marks and Spencer also had their own label ones. I think that could get cheese and celery ones also, at at Christmas time they liked to travel in tins. From what I remember of them the smelt quite a lot like rampant foot odor. This meant that unless you really liked them you had to get yourself quite psyched up or moderately drunk before tucking in. Much the same thing is true of oysters, I feel. There was also a round cheesy potato snack, cheese balls/puffs with bright orange cheesy stuff on it which smelt worse, so much so that I won't even mention what it reminded me of.
I haven't seen them in years, I think they were displaced from their ecological snacking niche by Scampi fries, much in the way Grey Squirrels have kicked out the red ones.
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