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 |
Damon Rostron |
Dear Sir,
I was just reading through all the e-mails on your excellent website when one happened to trigger a suppressed childhood memory. I can now vividly remember how I went to school with Grey Dunn's Caramel Wafers in my tupperware box, and as I sit here typing I can almost taste that firm, succulent combination of caramel and wafer. I was a child of the 70's so I can testify to their existence around that time. Perhaps regional distribution patterns are the reason for your unfortunate lack of familiarity with these satisfying wafers? Then I lived in Doncaster (South Yorkshire) if that helps matters? As to why this memory has been suppressed for so long...I have no idea. I will never forget how I often ate entire packets of Blue Ribands, and Custard Creams (I still do actually)-so Im not sure why Id forgotten about Grey Dunns wafers?
Im off to Sweden for 5 weeks shortly, and if anybody had some biscuit recommendations, Id appreciate it, as I cant afford to make mistakes in such a pricey country...Thanks -Damon.R |
Nicey replies: Thanks for the Grey Dunn wafer info. I was in South Wales in the '70s so maybe that is my excuse.
As for Sweden, I did once have some thin ginger biscuits from Sweden, which you were supposed to consume with a sort of pre-bottled mulled wine called Glurg I think, into which you dropped large raisins and almonds. They were quite nice, a bit delicate, and possibly a little vulnerable if they were to find themselves in major biscuit eating session where there was tea present. If you see any attractive biscuits whilst in Scandinavia then we would be delighted to hear about them, photos would be good too. |
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Paul MacFarlane |
Would you believe....
I literally just stumbled onto your site after just now making a cup of Kashmiri chai tea and having a ginger snap here late, late at work tonight and thought--wouldn't it be cool, if there was a site CALLED www.nicecupof... and up you popped! : D
Would you also believe, I'm a happy 43-year-old American-born Anglophile who detests coffee, loves tea and biscuits, cakes, the lot, you know... and supports the England squad and several English football teams that I've loved ever since..ahhhhh....sniff, sniff... 1966!
Been over there a couple of times--and my wife and I would love to disappear in the back of any of a hundred country pubs-- anytime!
Really, Nice one.
I'll be hitting your site rather a lot I should think, p'raps 'round 4?
Cheers
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Nicey replies: Excellent and also a coincidence that we were reviewing Ginger Nuts this week. We were going to use nicecupoftea as our domain name by that was being cyber-squatted so we went for the the more correct and full nicecupofteaandasitdown. It was only a matter of time before somebody typed it into their browser.. Hoorah! Right I'm off down the pub.. |
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Maddalena Feliciello |
My dearest Nicey,
my regards to you and The Wife plus a brief explanation that the Xanthan gum replaces the gluten missing as a result using the suggested flours. Wheat flour has been such a successful crop because of the elasticity and bonding this protein imparts to dough. Unfortunately there are some who have an intolerance or true allergy (Coeliacs) to the peptides it produces.
Hence the flour substitution plus Xanthan gum as a bonding agent and stabiliser. Without it the biscuits or any baking made this way will fall apart or not rise as well.
Sainsburys' now stock it !
NB: Sunny Delight is the Devils' Urine!...True
Love
M |
Nicey replies: Yay, you know you have found a serious biscuit oriented web site when discussions turn to Biochemistry. |
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A T Lewney |
Dear nicey,
i like to cook, and i like to bake, biscuits and cakes (tho really im crap at anything thats not sponge, but thats ok, cause i dont like fruity cake anyway much) but ive never come accross xanthan gum, can i ask you or her or whoever, what it is and can i get it in my local londis/spar/moronisons etc? and whats it used for other than the recipe provided, it all sounds very exotic
cheers
Al
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Nicey replies: Good question. Stuff beginning with X is rocket science by definition. I have never seen Xanthan gum for sale, but I have seen it in stuff, Sunny Delight for instance as you might expect contains it (I once read the ingredients of Sunny Delight to try and figure out if it was indeed as sinister as it appears to be). Whether or not they simply added it because it begins with X and they were working through the alphabet in some kind of sick ingredient stunt or maybe it is to do with 'mouth feel' which I think is the term for industrial chemists would use when building vats of Sunny Delight. Maybe it is part of the emulsification of the vegetable oil in the solution of sugar, and chemicals which is central to the production of Sunny Delight. Perhaps it is a by product of the production of Sunny Delight, which spontaneously gives rise to stuff that begins with X, and Sunny Delight itself is presumably a by product of detergent manufacturing.
You could try Holland and Barrett. |
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Barry Newman
 Tim Tam vs Penguin Review |
Nicey, you are a gentleman and no mistake to ascribe so many virtues to the Tim Tam, however we New Zealanders, living as we do in constant biscuit imperialism directed at us from the other side of the Tasman sea, know all about the shortcomings of Australian products which are continually foisted on to our shelves to replace superior local and British products. The Australians are even extending their usual cultural rapine to claim that fine original New Zealand products, such as the Anzac biscuit, the Pavlova and Hokey-Pokey ice cream are their own! We are quite content for them to claim Rolf Harris, but wish them to own up to their greedy colonisation of talent and inspiration. However, it was nice to see your tongue firmly in your cheek when you claimed to be aware of modest Australians. Cheers, Barry Newman |
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