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 |
Brendan McGarry |
Hi
According to a report on the radio just now, the Pope is well on the way to recovery from his latest operation, having eaten breakfast this morning. He apparently had a latte (which I know is anathema to fans of your website) and some biscuits. But the reporter didn't say what kind. What kind of biscuits would the Pope eat? The obvious answer seems to be some kind of biscotti, since he's in Italy. But is there a biscuit that's known to be a bit more holy, or pure? Would he eat Rich Tea because their simplicity and unpretentiousness matches the values his faith professes? Or is he more likely to be a Jammy Dodger man, because the reward for the hard slog of eating your way through the outer biscuit is the jam in the middle (metaphor for struggling through life before reaching heaven)? Might he favour a Penguin, as an ironic reference to nuns?
I'd be interested to hear what the biscuit experts think.
Regards
Brendan |
Nicey replies: Well as the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church, and given the amount of suffering he has already endured, I hope at the very least they offered him some decent biscuits. Being an old Polish fella who had a tube inserted in his neck last night, then I'm thinking he would probably give the biscotti a miss and go for something a bit easier on the throat. I would have thought something light, devoid of tricky to swallow bits an bobs and not too sweet, I think a nice shortbread finger or two.
Maybe in a day or two if his physicians think he's up for it, he might want to see off a whole pack of Jaffa Cakes, which are a popular tea sort of thing in Poland.
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Nancy Bea Miller |
Dear Nicey (and Wifey);
I loved your book. It was my favorite Christmas present.
If you lived in the U.S. I am sure the title would have been: "Nice Cup of Coffee and a Rush Off" I am a painter who often paints cups of tea, coffee, doughnuts and biscuits (only I call them cookies, being American).
Here is my most recent cup of coffeee painting:
Best,
Nancy
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Nicey replies: Nancy,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the book. Your paintings are very nice too. I suppose if you painted a mug of proper tea and some Jammie Dodgers or Custard Creams it would be a bit like when Monet painted scenes of the Thames, or Turner of the Grand Canal. |
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Geoff |
I woke up this morning thinking, "Do Nice biscuits really come from Nice?" We live in Canada now, but my wife is originally from Nice so I asked her, and after we'd sorted out why the frig I was waking her up at half past six on a Sunday - she didn't actually say 'frig', her English is that good now, but I know there are sensitive ears out there amongst biscuiphiles - she thought about it for a minute and said, "What the frig is a Nice biscuit?" So, I set out to find out, and lo and behold I discovered your Internet site. Thank you, a gap well filled. Anyway, my point is this. We all know
how appalling the French can be when they try, but if we must have a go at them, let's leave it to their predilection to vote for lunatics. On the biscuit front I'd guess the "Nice" is an English creation made especially to undermine the image of France as a land of the sublime. If you really want to face the issue head on, try tackling the Lu Petit Ecolier, dark chocolate. A biscuit as remarkable as it is simple, and yet another reason to have France allowed to remain exactly as it is, unchanged from this point forth, given protected status and declared a world cultural theme park.
Geoff, Toronto |
Nicey replies: Glad we could help out with your biscuit query. The main thing to realise about Nice biscuits is they are vile, regardless of who is responsible for them. Your Wife is wise to distance herself from these biscuits by denying all knowledge of them, and all citizens of Nice would be do well to follow her example.
France is indeed a lovely place, I go there when ever possible to ski and drink tea at altitude. In the summer I like nothing better than to visit the Loire, Charante and Vesére valleys, where I have any amount of very enjoyable sit downs. French food and wine is fantastic, they've got some outstanding cakes. I work with a bunch of French folks and one French Canadian, all lovely people and many have developed a taste for digestives, Jammy Dodgers and other fine biscuits.
Regrettably, however French biscuits in general are crap. I've had those Petit Ecolier jobs, Milk Chocolate and Caramel Choc, and indeed refer to them in my Biscuit FAQ, they are an attempt to make Petit Beurre palatable by putting a big old lump of chocolate, on top. They nearly succeeded but the Petit Beurre underneath detracted from it. They also had to stack them in some sort of tray insert thing 4 compartments of 3 if I remember correctly. |
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