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 |
Kelly Lawless |
I thought Keith O'Kane raised a very good point about "sitting down" activities. When looking at your site I do get very excited at the prospect of eating biscuits (though do not experience same feelings about cakes) but was sent into a trance-like state at the mention of toast. I more or less live on toast. I love it. The best type of toast is lightly done with lots of Anchor butter - no cheap, marg rubbish please. Although recently have been enjoying fresh bread, lightly toasted and absolutely smothered with Philadelphia cream cheese. Heavenly.
My colleague, Jinty, prefers cheese and crackers. How are crackers classed?
Kelly Lawless |
Nicey replies: You are of course right about Anchor butter. I know we make butter in this country but it really seems to taste nicer when its been put in a boat and shipped here all the way from New Zealand. Perhaps we send ours back to them on the return trip, I don't know.
We class crackers by simply drawing a little box and putting the word 'Crackers' on it, I refer you to the Venn Diagram.

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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 |
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Maggie Schofield
 McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Dear Nicey
Regarding the debate on 'to top or not to top' the digestive biscuit: In my family we were firm believers in the addition of toppings, which could be anything from sweet to savoury, or indeed a combination of both e.g. cheese and jam. The most bizarre reversal of this trend that I ever heard is the use of the biscuit itself as a topping. I must say that I have never tried this myself but present it for the delectation of your readers. A former colleague of mine regularly used to top cheese on toast with a chocolate digestive biscuit and to grill lightly to enable the chocolate to melt into the cheese. This person would also, and for no apparent reason, regularly imitate the call of the female ring-tailed lemur. ??? |
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Patrick Grabham |
Dear Nicey,
I was intrigued to read Martin Booth's tale of a little old Hastings lady offering him a buttered McVitie's digestive. Whilst discussing this with a work colleague, I recalled eating digestives topped with a Dairylea triangle as a child. (Obviously a poor relation to the more traditional cheese and biscuits).
What are your views on adding toppings to biscuits. Should they remain 'au natreulle' or is a light spreading of some dairy product permissible? I await your wise words.
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Nicey replies: Well in the quasi democracy that is NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown we defend peoples right to drink their tea and eat their biscuits in which ever way they see fit, unless of course they doing something plainly wrong. As you see we have an icon, albeit rarely used, that denotes cheese on biscuits, so that is grudging acceptance of the practice. |
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Paula Brockhurst |
Thought you might like to know that the man at the animal rescue centre told me to feed my 4 baby hedgehogs Pedigree Chum, and as a little treat.... digestive biscuits. He was very insistent that the dog food was Pedigree Chum 'it's what they prefer madam', but was unable to advise on the type of digestives, so they are getting Tescos own and lumping it. However if anyone out there knows better. Whilst on the subject of hedgehogs ON NO ACCOUNT GIVE THEM BREAD AND MILK IT KILLS THEM.
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Nicey replies: That's lovely.
Its very impressive that bread and milk kills them. Do you know if other combinations of baked and dairy products do for them, say yogurt and croissants or just a cheese sandwich? I suppose it would be cruel to try to get to the bottom of that one. |
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