Your Views

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Your e-Mails

Andy Jenkinson	I read, with interest, your opinions on fig rolls - and the bake-then-cut / cut-then-bake debate. I am currently favouring Sainsbury's-own (bake then cut) complete with ridges. This delightful temptress or a biscuit has a fine dunking consistancy and is ideal as the base for my own 'chocolate coated fig rolls'. [If there was every a biscuit waiting to be made, this is it.] Along with the chocolate garibaldi this is my only attempt at 'home cooking'. (Although I am not exactly sure if melting-chocolate-and-coating-stuff-with-it can count as cooking). The ridges on the figrolls act as a splendid trough for the chocolate, biasing the coating to the top, and allowing for a relatively thin coating all over, yet both the fig roll and the chocolate get a look in when vying for your tastebud's attentions. [Compare the chocolate covered garibaldis - when coating only one side is all that is possible before the chocolate taste dominates]. Perhaps one day my chocolate fig rolls [fig-o-lates?] will be commercially avaialble, and cast before your expert eye/mouth. Do you know any 'Dragon's Den' style venture capitalists looking to break the biscuit market?
	Nicey replies: Aren't fig rolls terrific! Given my current diet status all fig rolls sound brilliant whatever is going on with them, so I'm in. I don't know what Theo, Duncan, Deborah, Peter and the new chap think. Duncan Bannatyne could flog them in his health clubs to people as they leave the gym.
Hiromi Miura Japanese McVities Digestives Review	Dear Nicey,Wifey and YMOS Some Mcvitie's biscuits seemed to decide to spend summer season in an ice-cold place in Japan! The other day, I found some Mcvitie's biscuits being in an ice-cream case ay my local "Queen's Isetan" supermarket. How wise they are! They must see that summer in Japan is humid and hot, well. Therefore, I suppose that some Mcvitie's' determined to move into such a paradise, away from the usual biscuit shelf. Inside the red box, you can see six ice-cream sandwich biscuits individually wrapped. If you rule that the side of "Mcvitie's stamp" is its face, you might see six pairs of biscuits taking a peaceful snooze, cooling their oven-baked biscuit backs on/under the chocolate ice. The chocolate-flavoured ice-cream is smooth and rich. However, the Mcvitie's biscuit looks like losing their original crunchy texture of plain Digestive biscuits on/under the ice-cream. They are soft, moist and soggy. But it is enjoyable for me to eat such loose Mcvitie's biscuits once in a while in hot summer. The ice-cream Mcvitie's is approximately 5.8cm in diameter. Thank you for reading. Sincerely, Hiromi Miura (Tokyo,Japan)
	Nicey replies: Hiromi, Yet another exotic Japanese Digestive. I wonder if chocolate digestives would fair better? The layer of chocolate might help stop them going soggy?
Trina Fitzalan-Howard	Hiya Nicey I was fumbling through my old Delia Smith book the other day and came across a Neiman Marcus Cookies recipe which came on an email in 1998 from a friend. With the recipe was a story about woman who had enticed by the cookies to ask for the recipe, was given it and charged $250 for the privilege. It would seem disseminating the recipe was her revenge on the Neiman Marcus corporation. Anyway, long story short I made the cookies (halving the recipe because it claimed to make 112 cookies per batch). They were delicious and soon disappeared at work, at home, with friends, with neighbours etc etc. Fine crunchy biscuits made with nuts and chocolate chips and (substituted by Cadbury) Hershey bars! So here’s the thing – was the Neiman Marcus Cookie recipe email a true story? Does anyone else remember getting this email or hearing about it on the web about 10 years ago – and would anyone like me to transcribe it in full. (Beware the biccies are more-ish and horribly fattening).
	Nicey replies: Hiya Trina, Yes somebody did forward on that mail to me. I remember thinking that it was entirely fabricated for many reasons. How could they just charge her all that money without her permission and if they did then she should have taken them to court. Also she must have been a bit mad to write to a company and seek their recipes as they are subject to change and not disclosed to anybody. Also the company must be mad to do that, for the two reasons stated. Finally people receiving recipes in unsolicited messages was basically the plot for the monster movie Species.
Keith O'Kane	Dear Nicey and the Wife, Further to my recent e-mail on the subject of Tifin, I have made further enquiries and found the definition on Wikipedia to be much more helpful than my own dictionary,giving a full account of all of the various uses of the word. Regarding Tiffin the cake (and I use the classification loosely), my colleagues and I decided to embark on a quest to find the finest example of the breed. Samples from Waitrose, Tesco, Bon Viveur and a home made version were offered for comment and the general consensus seemed to be that the Waitrose version was slightly superior to the others. The best comment came form Vicki who said, on the subject of classification, "It's trying to be a brownie, but someone's shoved a cherry up it". This sums up the whole Tiffin experience very nicely and has led me to conclude that cheries are an essential ingredient in distinguishing between Tiffin and "Chocolate Refrigerator Cake", the latter being the closest thing to Tiffin I could find at M&S. Interest in the subject is running high in the office, so it was decided that we should have a Tiffin "bake-off" next week to find the best Tiffin recipe. There wil be 6 entrants and a judging pannel consisting of the more noteable cake / biscuit eaters in the department. The contest has been scheduled for 11:00 in an attempt to revive the fine old tradition of "elevenses". I will endeavour to send you some pictures of the winning entry after the event.
	Nicey replies: Your cause is a noble and just one.
Keith O'Kane	Dear Nicey and the Wife, There has been a degree of confusion in our workplace recently over the exact nature and meaning of the word ‘tiffin’. A number of shops, including Tesco, Waitrose and our own local Bon Viveur sell a small, chocolaty biscuit / tray-bake under the name of ‘tiffin’. This varies in both content and appearance with some varieties containing cherries, some containing nuts and others topped with a layer of chocolate. They all contain broken-up biscuits of some description along with raisins, all held together by a sort of cocoa based mortar. The dictionary definition however states simply that ‘tiffin’ is an Indian word for lunch, possibly with a drink involved. I had always thought that ‘tiffin’ referred to a sort of afternoon or early evening tea with a little something, possibly cake, to go with it. I was just wondering whether you had a view on the subject and whether the dictionary should be updated to reflect the modern usage of the word (i.e. the chocolaty cake thing).
	Nicey replies: Morning Keith, Happy New Year to you. I have seen both usages of the word Tiffin, although neither really fell within my own vocabulary. The first was by friends in my youth who hailed from Lancashire, and was definitely of the Lunch type. I think they used to call their Lunch box Tiffin or maybe they were referring to the contents I was far too young and care free to enquire further. The second was in Ireland where I feel sure I have seen bars of Cadbury's Chocolate Tiffin, along side their other sorts of Chocolate bars. Again I never investigated further, my head too giddy with thoughts of Kimberlys no doubt.
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