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 |
John Osmotherly |
Dear Nicey,
I just thought I should keep you and your readers informed of a fearful biscuit with which they could become involved if venturing overseas.
Recently while in Malaysia I had the terrible misfortune to encounter this "biscuit" while searching for something tasty to nibble upon. Actually a type of wafer confection -(yes, I know, always risky) it is all the more dangerous due to it's unfamiliar Malaysian name being entirely impossible to remember. All I can say is that it was clothed in transparent plastic (the warning signs were there).
How to describe this peril?
Ok... imagine a pink wafer that had been banished to the centre of the Sahara for a thousand years. (not a bad idea some would say). In that time it has gained an impressive tan. This is NOT due to chocolate content.
It is so devoid of moisture that even touching it will draw the very moisture from your skin.No doubt its moisture grabbing properties could be put to good use in some field of science, but not that of biscuitology.
In addition, this material has been coated with a couple of coats of brown paint- again this is NOT chocolate.
The resulting item is astoundingly and completely devoid of taste of any sort. How they did it I don't know. It's kind of eery really.
Rest assured that the fine teas of Malaysia are no match for this abhorrency, it is just too dry and too bland to be tamed by a simple beverage.
If you are in that neck of the woods and fancy something wafery and chocolaty try Beng Beng in Thailand which is quite safe.
Yours sincerely
Mr John
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Alison Debenham
Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Hi Nicey, Wifey and YMS
Did you catch the Tunnocks factory on the telly yesterday? I can't remember which channel it was on, but there were some wonderful ladies involved in the manufacture of the teacackes, and there was film of the chocolate being poured over the top of the biscuit/mallow part - most instructive (actually I think it was supposed to be about the election, but I didn't take any notice of that bit). Marvellous. Let's have more biscuit manufacturing shown on TV, far more instructive than politics. Have you considered asking the leaders of the parties for their opinions on tea and biscuits? I think it could help the Nation decide next week (now maybe if they offered cups of tea and sit downs at the polling stations, they'd get a lot more interest.....)
Best wishes to all,
Alison |
Nicey replies: No I'm gutted to say I missed that. Seeing stuff being manufactured is one of the best things on TV. All too often it's confined to childrens programs, in the old days it was Playschool but now we have Tikkabilla which borrows heavily from Playschool. It has a clock with something different underneath each time (the NCOTAASD one always Weetabix under it, but then it is above the kitchen counter). Perhaps even more importantly it has windows (round, square and arched). Is it me or does the really ace stuff always happen through the arched window? The square window is a waste of time, and is only really there to make up the numbers.
Aunt Mabel (really Nurse Gladys Emmanuel), in Come Outside also has her fair share of visits to manufacturing and packaging sites, although she does tend to skip over some very important stages in manufacturing processes, often leaving it for me to explain to the younger members of staff how exactly crisps or some such thing are made. She also flies everywhere in her own light aircraft (with her dog), even to go down the shops which seems excessive as I think she lives not far from Tunbridge Wells.
And while we are on the subject of round windows, why is it that McVities feel it necessary to write the word 'Round' on their Round Rich Teas. Perhaps their roundness isn't self-evident to some people and they require that extra bit of reassurance. I would have thought that the mental prowess involved in being able to read the word 'Round' would presuppose the ability to recognise round things. If it was on there for the blind then it should be in braille like bleach bottles, and again the blind's powers of feeling the shape of round things are probably more highly developed than that of a sighted person.
Then again it might just be there to fill in the blank that would otherwise be there.
It was Teacakes and Politics we were talking about wasn't it? (I suspect I might have lost a few people here) |
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Sue Percival |
Dear Nicey,
I just spotted Jim Fussell's question re: whether anybody else out there sniffs their tea bag before making a brew. Well Jim, you're not alone - I'm very partial to a cup of lightly brewed Darjeeling, one of the delights of which (for me anyway) is the wonderfully fresh aroma. I always prolong the experience by sniffing the teabag on my walk to the kitchen (when at work - at home I keep my teabags handily by the kettle!), and whilst waiting for the kettle to boil. The only problem is that recently I've become a bit of a convert to loose tea (thank goodness for Wittards - tea-lovers heaven!) and sniffing loose tea is potentially a life-threatening experience. You have to be very careful not to actually let your nose come in contact with the tea whilst sniffing, as you would with a tea bag - I'll let you imagine the consequences otherwise...
So, go on Nicey - give sniffing a try!
Sue Percival
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Nicey replies: Considering that I have great difficulty actually tasting the subtle delights of Darjeeling (and no I don't put milk in it) maybe I would be best off snorting it.
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Simon Bartle |
Long live the fig roll I say. I am currently tucking into a 'bag' of these delicious treats by Barilla, under the brand 'Passioni Italiane - Fico' but translations aside, they are without doubt, fig rolls, and tastly too. Small I admit, but very 'figgy', with a soft texture.
Do you know of this brand?
One other point from your site. I would like stand firmly on the side of the pink wafer. I have fond memories as a child of these melt in the mouth biscuit wafers. I admit, each to his own, and me, occationally to my pink wafers.
Cheers.
Simon Bartle, UK, in Paris |
Nicey replies: Yes we have heard of Barrila via the Parvesi Ringo, but we have yet to sample their Fig Rolls. |
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Pete Nottage |
Hi Nicey (and/or Wifey),
Bit of a question for you. We're having a bit of a debate in the office today. Let me set the scene for you:
Four of us having tea, two with sugar so we use two different spoons so not to contaminate the non-sugar takers. I'm fine with this. It's a bit weird, because in my opinion surely everyone benefits from sugar in their tea. But I digress...
One of the newsreaders in the studio (we work in a radio station) says she prefers to have a strong cup of tea with quite a fair bit of milk in. I say this defeats the object of having a strong cup of tea. Surely having lots of milk dilutes the strength of the tea and ends up as have wasted a lot of time waiting for the tea to diffuse and ultimately makes the tea colder? As I like a strong cup of tea I hardly put any milk in the cup at all, so not as to receive a cup of mainly milk.
Just thought if you knew who wins this argument?
We like your book, by the way.
Pete Nottage
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Nicey replies: Pete,
This is a fruitless argument as nobody is doing anything utterly wrong here with their tea making. As we said only a mere twelve emails ago "everybody likes tea the way they like it", and we should respect that. Putting lots of milk in strong tea merely creates milky strong tea, which is not the same same as milky weak tea, neither of which I would go for but I can accept they are both different to strong tea with a dash of milk.
I suggest you stop picking arguments over the strength of each others tea, and move to more debatable subject such as which biscuits you should be eating. |
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