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 |
Alexandra Jenks |
Dear Nicey,
My brother in law used to drink mugs of custard (laced with several sugars) as you or I would drink a cup of tea. I am the only person around who finds this habit absolutely stomach churningly disgusting. He who shall remain nameless used to drink these gooey cups of custard about 7 times a day, made from Birds Instant Custard and hot water...
In response to one of your other emails, when I was kid I also liked to eat raw
Angel Delight
Trifle Sponges
Nesquick
Jelly Cubes
Vegetable Stock Powder...very salty if I remember!
Anyway I'm now off to eat the raw contents of my store cupboard. mmmm
Alex |
Nicey replies: Yes we have received quite a few emails from people now owning up to drinking dilute instant custard. Perhaps vending machines should switch from soup to custard. |
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Keith O'Kane |
Dear Nicey and the Wife,
We have a vending machine in our office which dispenses a beverage described simply as “soup” with no indication of the flavour.
This morning, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself pressing the appropriate buttons for said beverage.
The liquid provided had a frothy top, similar to a whipped coffee. Once this melted away, the actual contents of the cup looked and tasted like vending machine tea with added salt for flavour and some green herby flakes sprinkled on top for a pleasing visual effect. It was not possible to determine the intended flavour. All I can say for certain is that it wasn’t tomato, this judgement being based on colour alone.
The real treat was the multi-coloured slurry at the bottom of the cup which was reminiscent of a particularly traumatic dunking incident.
In future, I will be sticking to the coffee shop downstairs.
Regards,
Keith O'Kane |
Nicey replies: Given how many people you see not drinking the soup you have to wonder how long that stuff has been sitting there. |
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Chris Rayment |
Dear Nicey and co,
Me and m’colleagues have been discussing custard, and have, rightly I believe, come to the conclusion that a drop in sales of ‘proper custard’ is indicative of a drop in the production of ‘proper’ i.e. homemade, trifle. So disturbed are we that we are now bent on the definition of what a 60s, retro, Christmas Day tea, after the turkey sandwiches trifle consists of. There is much dispute over the inclusion of jelly, and the type of fruit and cake to use, but we are all agreed that ‘proper custard’ and 100s and 1000s which dissolve to give a rainbow effect to the topping are essentials, as is the moulded glass bowl bought at Woolworths. We’re thinking of having a ‘trifle challenge’ in aid of charity – as one of the judges I’d appreciate your (and Nanny Nicey’s) thoughts on the matter.
Yours, a trifle excitedly (‘scuse the pun) |
Nicey replies: As you know Chris I'm not one for recipes but here is my trifle construction plan. In a measuring jug microwave one strawberry jelly in with a few tablespoons of water till its melted. Add a tin of strawberries in light syrup a hefty slug of cream sherry and make the whole lot up to a pint with cold water. Bung it in the trifle bowl and allow it to set. Take one pack of trifle sponges (you can use other sponges if you like but trifle sponges are best) and arrange them on top and douse them with a bit more sherry. Next cover in a pint of proper custard (not carton, not tub, not instant made with water, proper Birds custard made with milk), and allow to cool. After it has chilled in the fridge, whip up a pot of whipping cream and spread it on top. Then just before serving deploy hundreds and thousands or grate over some dark chocolate shavings. |
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Geoff Schofield |
Wax cartons of custard... an essential camping all rounder. On muesli for breakfast, with ginger cake for dinner, on dried fruit for tea, and as a good solid drink any time of the day... |
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David Weston |
Dear Nicey
With utter horror I now find a whole year devoted to a childhood nightmare. Only behind blancmange does custard fall at the top in my list of foodstuffs consigned to Room 101. Granted I can appreciate some people find it an ideal pudding accompanyment but as a child on Sundays it would be terrible.
Sunday lunch would often see my brother and I last to finish, in which time my Parents had dished up pudding, invariably some left overs from a cricket tea - Mum's homemade scone drenched in custard. As we struggled through roast beef the custard would cool and slowly the dreaded 'skin' would form. I eventually developed a system of leaving it so long as to scoop the entire gelatinous glob off the pudding so as not to suffer the yellow menace.
Because of the forced endurance of this liquid/solid, when my Parents knew full well my brother and I did not like it, I have denied others this 'treat'. In school I would be terrified when the dinnerladies would wheel out the puddings and those enormous aluminium jugs would be sitting next to some sponge product. Foolishly one lady stopped at my table and I reached up to see what was in it, only to topple the entire contents over. Luckily I was not scarred for life by boiling custard but there were many who gave me dirty looks for not having custard that day.
I'd mention my pink blancmange fiasco too, as I believe in it's final state custard morphs into blancmange, but I am eating now and I do not wish to spoil anyones lunch, as I did, that fateful day in Primary school, the horror! |
Nicey replies: I like custard skin, its a treat. Blancmange is also wonderful, especially when deployed in its guise of pink custard or chocolate custard over school sponge pudding. I'll have yours if your not going to have it. |
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