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 |
Malcolm Macgregor |
Most biscuits and cakes are full of fats, sugar and salt. These will kill you, eventually. I praise you for recommending a nice cup of tea and sit down both for health and pleasure reasons, but I would like to ask you to consider what might be a healthy snack to take with tea. My favourite, which I share with Jonathon Ross, is peanut butter and honey on wholewheat bread.
Nut fats are "good fats" and you can limit the honey to small amounts to keep sugar intake reasonable (plus there are useful vitamins and minerals in honey). Plus it tastes better than any naff biscuit, even an abbey crunch. |
Nicey replies: Thanks for your words of caution Malcolm on the health front.
Of course biscuit consumption in the UK per head has remained largely static over the last fifty years and on average is roughly two per person per day. As I'm sure you know there are many contributing factors to a rise in obesity in the Western world. The amount of salt, fat and sugar we consume as a nation in other processed foods and take aways has increased. Also peoples lifestyles at both work and home have become more sedentary.
This however does not apply to everybody. Here at NCOTAASD we always cook our own meals from fresh ingredients because that's what we like. We always advocate exercise, and a good brisk walk a couple of times a week works wonders. Singling out biscuits for scorn, is a bit simplistic to say the least. I don't believe that consuming them in moderation as part of a balanced diet is going to 'kill you', especially if you steer clear of the hydrogenated fat.
I too enjoy peanut butter on wholewheat bread but topped off with our own homemade green tomato chutney. |
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Jayne Sercombe |
Dear Nicey,
I have been pondering what makes up a nice place to sit down (outside of home). The following factors make it for me, I wonder what others think?
- Wooden chairs and tables- not plastic- yuck.
- Proper cake selection (with 2+ homemade biscuits)
- Warm and cosy
- Friendly and informal staff
- A choice that includes proper tea and not just
smelly stuff
- (A gamble here, I know) If they serve caffe latte
then I beg them not to serve it in a glass cup,
regardless of what they may or may not do in Italy.
My current favourite meeter of the above criteria is The Boston Tea Party in Bristol. Lovely place.
Love Jayne
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Nicey replies: It's got to have enough room to swing a cat. I can't be doing with those places where you don't have enough elbow room to pour your tea. I like a few random or peculiar things scattered around which you can ponder on whilst drinking your tea. Such things as obscure farm/kitchen implements, or pictures of places a very long time ago when they looked different.
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Mark Vandersluis
Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread Review |
Dear Nicey
I think you can guess from the tidal wave of disagreement (well this email makes four anyway!) that something was amiss with your review of Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread. The problem was that you were not reviewing the gingerbread under optimum conditions. We (that is myself, my wife and 3 boys aged 5, 10 and 12) would recommend that you try again half way up a Lake District mountain on a cold day. You'll find that the texture has a very satisfying feel to it, and the gingery taste helps to give you some inner warmth as you battle your way further up the mountain against the elements. Sadly, our gingerbread doesn't usually last much beyond halfway up a mountain, as we start eating just outside the shop in Grasmere. The only downside we find is that 12 pieces don't divide well between 5 people.
Best Wishes
Mark Vandersluis |
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Gnaff
Abernethy Review |
Good Evening,
This is my first visit to your site - it certainly won't be my last!
I was reading the messages about Abernethy biscuits, and recalled an evil practice from my childhood days in the back streets of Glasgow. An innocent victim was chosen and asked to say, with great slowness and deliberation, "ABERNETHY BISCUITS". Now, I don't know why it is, but children don't (or didn't) usually argue about the whys and wherefores of such bizarre requests; they just get on with it. Anyway, when the victim came to a nice, slow 'TH' at the end of Abernethy, with tongue carefully positioned between the teeth, a sharp tap was administered under the chin, bringing the teeth together with unthinkable consequences for the tongue. Weren't we nice?
I don't know why the word 'Abernethy' was chosen; perhaps because it was commonly enough known not to arose suspicion or cause articulatory hesitation.
(I have to say that I always thought of them as terminally boring. I haven't seen them for years and I don't miss them.)
I'll just go now and get the kettle on. I look forward to popping in again.
Keep up the good work.
Gnaff. |
Nicey replies: You should just go an get a packet of Abernethy biscuits and make your peace with them over a big mug of tea. Perhaps you could capture the moment on video. If we got enough people reconciling themselves with biscuits that they have fallen out with since their childhood it could make quite powerful TV, at the very least Channel 5 would probably show it.
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David Taylor |
Dear Nicey,
Due to assorted Buy One Get One Half Price offers on Fox's Creations and Cadburys selection I seem to have rather overindulged on the biscuit front just recently.
I just thought that perhaps I could offer the consequent spare empty biscuit tins to Chris Jagusz in returning for him popping around in his nice little dress to do my ironing?
Yours
David Taylor |
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