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 |
Steve Worrall
Jam Sandwich Creams Review |
Without wanting to re-ignite the Jaffa Cake/Buscuit debate, I was grazing through my confection cupboard the other day and randomly selected three items to nibble on with a nice cup of tea.
I switched on the telly, had a quick slurp of tea and proceeded to pick up one of my nibbles.
It was with much amusement that I realised that all three items I had selected, whilst being entirely different products, were all based on the same basic fillings, to wit, raspberry jam and butter cream.
The items i had chosen were (in no particular order),
Fox's Jammy Dodger
Mr Kiplings Viennese Whirl
Morrisons Brand Butterfly Cake
This set me thinking. The Jammy Dodger is definately a buscuit and the Butterfly Cake is certainly a cake, but there seems to be a grey area, a sort of transition zone, in which the Viennese Whirl sits, being a sort of hybrid Buscuit come Cake.
After a period of reflection I related this to my wife, Tracy, who informed me that the Viennese Whirl was neither cake nor buscuit but a pastry and that I was stupid.
Does anyone have any comments on the above?
Steve Worrall |
Nicey replies: Right a great deal to get through here. First off that's a Jam Cream Sandwich which Fox's are building there, a Jammie Dodger is not only different not having cream, but is a built solely by Burtons. Its a bit like calling your Dyson Vacuum cleaner a Hoover. Sorry for the pedantic bit there but I would be remiss if I didn't wade in.
Any how the Mr Kipling Viennese whirl is avery undervalued thing, and in a great many European countries would get away with calling itself what ever it fancied. Cake or biscuit they wouldn't really care. However in the UK it would have to be a cake, and not just beacuse as we all know, Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good ones, and he made these, but also because I don't think it can be classed as a pastry as it has raising in it. If it was a pastry I would probably just join a circle straight to cakes in the mighty NCOTAASD Venn Diagram of such things which is always open for a bit of a fiddling with. |
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Maisie |
Dear Nicey,
Hope that you are well.
I got married recently and for our wedding breakfast instead of the usual champagne and three course we went for cakes, scones, with and without fruit, jam and clotted cream, cakes, jam sandwiches, cakes, salmon sandwiches, cakes, wedding cake, cakes and as much tea as our guests could consume. Hoorah! It was a hit with all. However, imagine my horror when I saw my newly wedded husband loading his scone with cream and then jam! Well it was nearly the divorce courts right then. Apparently his whole family do it! Cream, being like butter. But I say, butter is like butter. Butter, jam, cream, it is the natural order of things.
We decided to have a look on your delightful site to see if you have the answer. We couldn't find anything obvious but
I dare say that this debate has raged in the past and as you were so helpful regarding the oat cake, cake or biscuit problem (you informed us it was actually a cracker) we wondered if you could help us here.
Yours, tea drinkingly,
Maisie |
Nicey replies: Actually that was the very first poll we ran on the site and it came down as 72% jam then cream 28% cream then jam. So your old man is not alone just out numbered three to one.
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Dorian Lid
Thin Arrowroot Review |
Dear ncotaasd staff and fellow readers,
I have two things I would like to share with you and visitors to your important and critically acclaimed web site and biscuit information forum.
Firstly I write in support of the oft maligned Arrowroot, unfairly, I feel, dismissed in your review as a "dry tasteless dull excuse for a biscuit". I would suggest that to the contrary the Arrowroot represents an important lifelong companion and comfort food. Introduction to the Arrowroot should be at an early age as they make an excellent teething soother and general comforter for babies - in part because of the structural qualities recognized in your report but also for its unique warming vanilla variant taste. Later in life that taste quickly brings back feelings of security, warmth, homeliness and the protective cocoon that was early childhood. What better way to get over another brutal day in the work world than to come home to a ncotaasd with an Arrowroot on the side. And, if that is not enough, later in life we can look forward to the Arrowroot as a valuable easily digested, nourishing diet for convalescence. The active ingredients are reportedly especially useful in bowel complaints, as they have demulcent properties.
For a special treat I slather the top of an Arrowroot with butter - the real stuff - and a large spoonful of jam. This provides a good segue to my second topic, Jam. While on an all too short visit to Turkey this year I acquired a pot of Penguen brand Gul Receli (the u with an umlaut and the c with a cedilla). This, as many of your fine visitors may know, is rose petal jam. Quite how crafty penguins became a corporate logo for a product made in a country with Mediterranean and desert like climates is a mystery ... but I digress. The delicate and exquisite flavour of this Jam is just like good red Turkish delight. Apart from a few teaspoonfuls gobbed onto Arrowroots we used most of it for jam tarts and this, I believe, is the Jam's forte. The tarts made a good conversation piece, at least until tasted after which household members just focused on grabbing the biggest share and greedily scoffing. A final word of warning, the jam does contains small pieces of rose petal which can stubbornly adhere to teeth, but despite this I heartily recommend rose petal jam as a must try for all. Why not try it first on an Arrowroot !
Regards to all.
Dorian Lid. |
Nicey replies: Well I think Turkey should have that high on their lists of reasons for getting into the EU, "Have Turkish delight flavoured jam, made by Penguins". Good plan with the Jam tarts. Well done for sticking up for the Arrowroot it needs friends because out of nearly 2000 votes in our biscuit poll it's still showing a zero as anybody's favourite, and 00.3% people have them regularly. |
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Marge |
Hiya Nicey
I read your reply to feedback from Melanie about Saltines and your subsequent suggestion to try matzah (pl. matzot or matzos), and the fact they taste ‘grim’. Jewish people traditionally eat matzah at Passover – it is known as ‘the bread of affliction’!
You make matzah less afflicting by spreading soften butter and homemade jam on it! Beware though, this will surely bung on the calories no end!
Incidentally I would like to recommend the Rakusen kosher Digestive biccie (available plain and in choccy variants), it tastes great, dunks well, and even goes well with a little cream cheese on top!
Regards,
Marge |
Nicey replies: Indeed, a liberal coating of butter and jam is going to perk most things up, including a cardboard box. I thought that her diet may we'll preclude spreading butter and jam all over anything a bit unappetising she may be required to eat.
Mind you maybe there is indeed a new wonder diet lurking in there. The 'Butter and Jam' diet where you can eat only unpleasant and nasty stuff but you are allowed to smoother it in butter and jam. |
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Stewart Davies
Tunnocks Wafer Review |
Re Tunnocks products. two friends from work and myself visited the factory three years ago,we were made very welcome,and left with a very generous bag of samples.We then visited the Tunnocks tearoom around the corner and had Tunnocks own mutton pie with beans and chips,triffle, scone with butter and jam,and a mug of tea,absolutely delicious.We have made visits to the tearoom every 8 weeks since that first visit and are now on first name terms with the staff.the staff at both the factory and the tearoom are a credit to Tunnocks,it looks like a happy place to work,they are all so very pleasant.
Stewart |
Nicey replies: Yes, lookout Disneyland Paris, Tunnocks World is here. I wonder if they do weekend breaks?
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