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 |
Paul Bishop |
Dear Mr Nicey,
Having not visited your site for some time I was delighted to read your dedication of the year 2006 to the pinnacle of pudding accompaniment – custard. I have yet to find a desert that could not be improved by the addition of lashings of the yellow food of the Gods. Indeed, many main courses would also benefit.
I appreciate your position regarding real custard however I have to admit to a liking for custard in nearly all its forms. The ready made and instant varieties all have their position in the custard spectrum and the world of custard would be a poorer place without them. Nevertheless, there is one feature of “real” custard that these pretenders cannot compete with – the skin. Only real custard, when left for the optimum period, forms the to-die-for gastronomic delight of custard skin.
I fondly remember the many fights I would have with my brothers over that skin. It was well worth a Chinese burn and a few tooth marks to get the first helping after dinner. Even to this day I try to time my visit to the canteen custard bowl to ensure that there’s a good chewy bit to layer on to the jam roly-poly. If anybody could manufacture and package that skin they’d make a fortune.
Bish. |
Nicey replies: Yes Custard skin and Rice Pudding skin are delicacies. Perhaps this is the stuff you would get at a really really posh banquet with the Queen, your own individual giant Custard skin for pudding. I bet she has all sorts of such delicacies at her disposal, apart from caviar and quails eggs, such bacon rinds that have gone really crispy or the really crispy end bits from roast beef joints. |
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James Huckett |
Nicey
A friend of mine has recently moved house and his new local have a tradition of sharing cheese on a Monday evening.
Last Monday my friend made his debut appearance in the said establishment and was presented with a ‘TUC’ biscuit to accompany his cheese. He said “thanks for the tuc biscuit”. To which the reply was “It is a T.U.C. biscuit, not tuc!”
Who is right? And if it is T.U.C. does it stand for ‘tasty under cheese’?
Rgds
Jim |
Nicey replies: It's a 'tuc' biscuit (actually a cracker really).
The strap line is 'TUC in', so it seems pretty wrong to 'T.U.C. in' even more wrong to 'Trades Union Congress in'.
Not quite sure what it stands for but I always thought it was evoking links with either tuckshops or Frier Tuck.
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Enzo
Wagon Wheel Review |
Hi Nicey!
Love the site and the book (only about halfway through).
The reason I'm writing is my dad used to work for Burtons / Westons in Slough, so I have knowledge of the dark arts of biscuitry from these climes.
I'll start with a nice simple one :
The used to sell reject wagon wheels to the staff. They came in bags of 30! And the defects were such things as too much chocolate on, so there was at least 5mm of chocolate on the top or "offsets" where the two wafers were out of whack. We also used to get "test" batches like Strawberry, Butterscotch and other flavours. At one stage our fridge had about 90 wagon wheels in it!
Regards
Enzo |
Nicey replies: What a enchanted childhood and fridge you must have had. I think that comfortably trumps 'My Dad's a traindriver/fireman/astronaut'. |
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Alison Debenham |
Hi Nicey and other fellow custard-lovers!
I think your correspondent Paul should have complained under the Trade Descriptions Act if he only got half a pint of custard. But then I suppose you'd get the Health and Safety Executive saying that it wouldn't be safe to have a bottomless jug in case somebody got scalded. And then there's the Weights and Measures people - it's a bit of a minefield really, isn't it? I suppose one can only hope that, having polished off the first jug-ful, you find another full one appears immediately, as if by magic, on your table.
I suppose the opposite and ultimate disappointment would be to have your pudding fashionably "drizzled" with custard.
TTFN
Alison |
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Paul Coupe |
Hi Nicey,
Last weekend I found myself at a Toby Inn Carvery place in Sheffield, and was tucking merrily into a shivering tower of beef and yorkshire puddings with all the trimmings when thoughts turned to pudding.
Imagine my delight when I spied on the menu a steamed treacle sponge which came with 'a bottomless jug of custard'. This was it, I had found the Holy Grail! Of course I ordered immediately, and regretted not bringing a suitable custard-carrying container with me. A children's paddling pool in the back of the car maybe.
Anyway, it turns out that bottomless means about half a pint. I was disappointed, but at least it saved me the mess of having to empty my coat pockets of custard when I got home. To be fair it was a very nice tasting half pint.
Have any of your other correspondents located the actual bottomless jug of custard at a Toby Inn? It would be worth travelling any distance to see. With my oil tanker.
Cheers,
Paul |
Nicey replies: I think you dealt with that very well, I wouldn't of put up with anything less than about 2pts calling itself bottomless. The younger members of staff can easily see off half a pint each.
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