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Your e-Mails

Carola Langford Lidl's Choco Softies Review	Hi Well, I've been eating these for nearly 50 years! The Dickmann quite rightly used to/is still called Negerkuss or Mohrenkopf (Negro's head), not very PC! They used to be (and in some places are still)  freshly made by bakers; sometimes you see them with a sprinkling of coconut on the chocolate. And you can get them with white chocolate and milk chocolate. But the proper ones have a dark chocolate covering, and are big.  When I was a kid in Germany they were not for eating but we'd squash them into some unsuspecting victim's face.   All German kids love them. When I first moved to the UK you could not buy them here, and one year my sister took pity and posted a box to me -  unfortunately this was in the pre-bubble wrap days. I'll admit that I was so desperate that I used a teaspoon to scrape the remains out of the box. Sad or what?! The proper way to eat them is to carefully peel off the chocolate covering, eat that first, and then slowly eat the white stuff. The wafer is just a "tray" and can be discarded. But they are definitely not to be eaten with a cup of tea!  Best eaten on your own, the whole box.  Guten Appetit !
	Nicey replies: Yes I had understood that they changed the name. It sounds like a very similar operation to eating a chocolate teacake.
Liz	I've tried making my own chai before with a sort of loose mixture, and it ended in a (somewhat tasty) disaster. I've just moved to Wisconsin and it's cold enough to warrant a good cup of chai, something I rarely wanted when I lived farther south. Could you offer some sort of recipe? Regards, Liz, USA
	Nicey replies: Liz, Sorry we drink PG Tips.
David Gordon	About thirty years ago when I lived in Germany I was puzzled to discover that THEY DID NOT HAVE KETTLES. This may have been a result of continuing postwar austerity, for what they did have were  electric kettle elements of varying lengths (called Tauchsieder - diving boilers) which you plunged into specially shaped tall narrow metal pots. Someone must have realised the intense danger, as well as the energy-wastefulness, of this as they have now been largely superseded by real kettles - indeed many kettles are now made in Germany or by German firms, another example of a fine British idea that we failed to develop properly. However you can still buy Tauchsieder in Switerland. I was shown a selection in the electrical store in Altdorf only a fortnight ago, although I did not purchase one. There was a British equivalent, known as the Travel Boiler, made (probably abroad) by Pifco. Ours (actually my wife's) has travelled faithfully to many continents, but died in Italy, which perhaps explains why I was prowling around the electrical store in a small but very clean Swiss village. Since I mentioned Switzerland, Lake Lucerne still has a fleet of early twentieth century paddle steamers (www.lakelucerne.ch). My gradually failing memory insists that these are powered by magnificent Sulzer compound engines, the workings of which can be viewed from a special platform at the centre of the ship, and which were designed with an integral tea boiler. It would be my contention that these can lay claim to be the world's most impressive kettles, although the tea-boilers are no longer used for this (or any other) purpose. I last travelled on one of these steamers over ten years ago - maybe one of your Swiss readers could offer an update on this? Nice book - recommend for Christmas presents. David Gordon
	Nicey replies: I had a Czech friend who had one of those travel boilers, which he would reheat tea with. This always made my head spin as I tried to figure out exactly which aspect of this was the most life threatening, death by electrocution, fire, exploding shards of mug, or just really awful putrid tea. Terrific to hear about the fleet of giant floating kettles, I wonder if they have some kind of toaster facility built in as well. You could steam around Switzerland drinking tea and eating crumpets. I want to go every like that from now on, perhaps we can modify our diesel Peugeot 306 to do this.
Ian Stevenson	Dear Nicey, I read with distress the plight of Michele Simkins of Portland in Oregon. Through your fine website I thought I might offer her some suggestions. Decent biscuits are available here, though you will have to do a little hunting for them. The real classics (Hob-Nobs, Digestives etc) can be found at a small shop in Lake Oswego, just off the main street ('A' Street I think it is imaginatively named). It is called "Lady Di's" or some such twee name, but they do have the goods. They also sell some proper choccy, so I would hurry round before I nab it all. There is also a shop on the main street in Newberg (heading East) that has all kinds of things British. I can't remember the name of the shop, but they have a Scottish 'Lion Rampant" displayed in the window. You can also buy decent biscuits at "Cost Plus" in Washington Square, just across from Barnes and Noble. As for tea; Winco sell Tetley teabags. I know they are not the best, but they are light years ahead of Liptons. If you keep your eyes peeled, you can also pick up the odd gem at Grocery Outlet. This is one of the few, though very intermittent, sources of blackcurrant jam in the US. Cheers
	Nicey replies: Thanks Ian very helpful.
Sam	Hi Mr Nicey, First let me say that your website is amazing, this is what the internet was invented for. Keep up the good work.... Now my reason for writing. As an asian born and raised here in the UK, it's fair to say that tea is destined to be in my system. So I would like to share with you my genius invention of making indian tea in less than 10 minutes (It usually takes about 20). Step 1: Boil water in kettle Step 2: Pop your teabag and sugar into an empty cup Step 3: Pour boiling water into the cup and stir 5 times and squeeze the teabag against the inside of the cup to extract the flavour. Step 4: Pop the cup into the microwave for 1 and a half minutes (700 watt microwave). Step 5: Add milk and reheat in the microwave until the mixture looks like its ready to boil over. (This is what the light inside the microwave was invented for). Step 6: Stir the tea and take the teabag out the cup. Step 7: Open a packet of hobnobs and enjoy!
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