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 |
Matthew Child |
My Dad recently retired from Trading Standards, where he worked in the labsanalysing the various foodstuffs. Always one for telling me amusing, and often disgusting, tales of what they found he told me the tale of the 'Acid Juice'.
A complaint was received about the orange juice dispensed from several machines in the West Yorkshire area. It seems that the orange juice dissolved the plastic cups it was served in. At first it was assumed to be a joke, but they were obliged to investigate. Phone calls were made and a supply of the concentrate was obtain from one of the customers. It was mixed as per the instructions to the correct strength and poured into several vending machine cups. After 10 minutes they returned to the cups to see what happened. Nothing appeared to be amiss so one of the labs assistants picked up one of the cups only to have the rim come away in his hand leaving the cup behind, neatly severed at the surface level of the juice.
Having proved the OJ was indeed disolving the cups they later found out that there was excess amount of orange oil in the concentrate. Orange oil is often found in heavy duty cleaing fluids and boast superb cleaning properties. Imagine if it dissolve a plastic cup, what is it doing to your insides, Consider that next time you go for the 'healthy option' |
| |
Keith O'Kane |
Dear Nicey and the Wife,
A friend of mine has just paid a visit to Eastern Europe and tells me that on ordering a nice cup of tea in a café, she was presented with a mug of black tea with a separate bottle of lemon juice. Is this common practice in Eastern Europe and, if so, is it a perhaps consequence of European legislation governing milk quotas?
Keith O'Kane |
Nicey replies: Yes I've had the lemon thing happen to me, its quite cruel, as the promise of a proper nice cup of tea is dashed by the appearance of the yellow citrus nonsense. |
| |
Peter Turpin |
Dear Nicey,
This morning with tea at elevensies we had some Mr.Kipling Apple pies with custard and a lattice pastry top which were quite superb. But by 3pm they had all gone so we (the management & I) tucked into our biccy tin. Our dilemma is now should we buy more of the apple & custard pies or should we think of our waistlines?
Regarding cream teas in devon & cornwall I can thoroughly recommend the ones served at the Lee Abbey tea rooms at Lee Bay near the Valley of Rocks by Lynton - they are so good that on occasions we have had to opt for the mini-tea which has only one scone if we to reserve room for dinner.
Kind Regards
Peter Turpin
|
Nicey replies: I always advise in these situations just steaming into them in the hope that you'll get sick of them. Mind you biscuit enthusiast Andrew who I used to work with tried that with Double Coat Tim Tams, but the whole thing got away from him. Last I heard he had enrolled in the local gym and lost two and half stone.
I'm sure I had a cream tea near the valley of the rocks years ago, it was a long time ago but it was a good one. |
| |
Keith O'Kane |
Dear Nicey and the wife,
Having looked through your feedback, I notice that there are many items relating to various cakes and biscuits but very little correspondence on the subject of toast.
I imagine that for most people, the phrase "A nice cup of tea and a sit down" evokes an image of afternoon tea. This is perfectly understandable as the 3 o'clock cuppa or a freshly brewed pot on arriving home after work are the most anticipated and well deserved breaks in the average day. On these occasions, a biscuit or a nice piece of cake is exactly the right accompaniment.
There are, however, other tea drinking opportunities, particularly breakfast and supper time, when a slice of toast is more appealing. As a child, one of my favourite culinary treats was hot, buttered toast with a sprinkling of sugar. The toast has to be hot to allow the sugar to melt into the butter. Nowadays, I enjoy toast with butter or marmalade for breakfast. Speciality jams are also provided for the younger members of the household.
For supper, I will occasionally top my toast with peanut butter or something more exotic such as cheese (with a dash of Lea & Perrin's), pilchards, plum tomatoes or mushrooms with cream.
Perhaps you could provide a survey on the best "toast topper", including butter, jam, marmalade, peanut butter, marmite (yuck!), mashed banana etc.
As you can see from this short list of options, toast is extremely versatile and should note be ignored.
Keith O'Kane
p.s. Possibe new icon alert. |
Nicey replies: Kieth,
Our mate Nick Parker wrote a splendid book on toast, he also ran the London marathon last Sunday.
Of course Toast falls within the gamut of tea and sitting down activity. Wifey likes tea before, during and after Toast in the morning. Wifey sticks rigidly to Marmite or cheese. I like Bovril, Marmalade, sometimes a spot of jam occasionally Peanut Butter with sweet pickle or fresh ground black pepper. A spot of Heinz Tomato Ketchup is very good also. The whole team enjoys Sardines on toast and we feel strongly that more people should eat Sardines on toast.
I'll try a sweet toppings poll first, but I think I know the outcome already.
Big Woos for the icon fest nature of this message |
| |
Kathryn Hall |
Dear Nicey,
It's been a while since we last corresponded, though I have of course been following the site diligently - my congratulations on the continued improvements and all the awards also.
I was intrigued by this week's poll regarding pies and tarts. I voted for the 'it depends what size they are' option, however, being more specific, I believe the depth of the article is really the distinguishing factor. My Mother makes a fantastic apple tart (made with Armagh Bramley's naturally) it is the size of a dinner plate, but only about a half-inch thick. In contrast, the related items purveyed by a certain Mr Kipling are most definitely apple pies being at least twice as deep (and also noticeably sweeter), albeit a lot smaller.
On different note, I am off home for a few days this weekend, so looking forward to stocking up on biscuits, decent chocolate and of course Tayto crisps !
My best compliments to The Wife, as ever.
Kathryn Hall, Indiana |
Nicey replies: Kathryn,
Good to hear from you again. The Wife's folks are here this week so we have our giant sack of Tayto cheese and onion crisps too. |
| |
|
|
|