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 |
Ian |
Good afternoon sir, I was recently browsing your "Missing In Action" section and came upon "Banjo" in the list. Coincidentally, a few days later I was visiting a friend in the Emsland area of Germany and chanced upon a biscuit of the same name in the local supermarket. As I remember the Banjo, it was a wafer based chocolate biscuit, a 2-fingers-in-a-pack format, and as I hope you can make out from the attached photo, the German bought Banjo does indeed adhere to this standard. I didn't ask my German friend what the German word for the English word 'Banjo' was, but I wished I had, because if I discovered it was a different word altogether, then this may have established some sort of common origin of the English and German banjo.
This tribute/ counterfeit/ cousin is produced by Master Foods, (Austria 7091 BREITENBRUNN) and the chocolate covered wafer carrying a chopped hazel nut layer is delivered as 2 wafers weighing a total of 31g, and each 2 finger unit can come as part of a 5 multipack.
The colouring of the wrapper is different to as I think back on the Banjo, I get an image of a blue wrapper, but I admit I could well be confusing this with the "Blue Riband/ Blue Ribbon" ("I got those can't get enough of those Blue Riband Blues, Blue Riband's the wafer biscuit I always choose. When my woman......
I am relatively new to the site and I apologise if I am covering old ground here or opening up cases which have long since been closed.
Regards
Ian
P.S None of my Dutch mates have ever heard of the Siroop Wafel coming under a layer of chocolate (recent correspondence). I will ask a Belgian when I see one, there seem to be some regional differences in some biscuits in the Benelux countries.
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Nicey replies: Ian,
I have to cast my mind back to the very early 1970's for my memories of Banjos so I would have been six or seven then. I do remember that the cross section was very square, that the wafer was very light and quite deep with not many layers and that there was a layer of caramel on top with nutty bits in. Also there were two wafers per pack.
Now your German Banjos seem to match this memory in every detail, plus they are made by global food giant Masterfoods, who are well known for Twix, Mars, Maltesers, Milky Way and so on. So it seems that you have indeed found the Banjo's of old safe and well in Germany. This is very exciting news and could dictate our plans this summer as team NOCTAASD forages around on continental Europe. |
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Robin and Danielle |
Hello Nicey and Wifey
We only found your website three days ago by complete accident, and now it’s the most favourite of our favourites. It’s especially appreciated, since we live in Romania, where the selection of biscuits in the shops is dire, and the black tea is prohibitively expensive (they all drink fruit teas here, for their supposed health benefits). Anyway, the way I stumbled across you was that I was trying to do a Google search for a biscuit called ‘Decadent’ that existed for a brief time in Britain in the late 1980’s (I think). It lived up to its name – it was big, loaded with chocolate chunks and other stuff, expensive and superb. Do you (or any readers) remember it and know what happened to it?
Best wishes, Robin and Danielle |
Nicey replies: In the late 1980s my life style was very far from decadent, and I was probably subsisting on large packets of GingerNuts and the odd Digestive. So I never tangled with these biscuits, although they do sound very shoulder pads and loads of money. |
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Ray Blake |
Nicey,
Have been utterly enthralled both by the book and the website. I wonder if the undoubted resutant upsurge in teabag consumption compensates for the fall from those convering to your 'two cups from one bag' advice.
Anyway, my reason for writing is to ask if you can remember the biscuit pictured here in a new guise. I have a hazy memory of these being brought home by the Mummy in my young days and I'm pretty sure they were packaged in some silver paper wrapped about the sort of corrugated cardboard which these days is to be found sat atop the uppermost layer in a box of posh chocolates. This packing was necessary, because these came in Garibaldi-style long megabiscuit format. However, these biscuits being so light and delicate, Garibaldi-style packaging would have presented the user with a bag of crumb and dust. Indeed, whilst one could be quite cavalier in Garibaldi separation, dividing these chappies into their individual form was quite a task; tapping one soundly on the plate, for instance, was likely to reduce the megabiscuit to many thousands of fragments. I'm sure they are of similar constitution to the non-cream part of a Mr Kipling Viennese Whirl.
My wife - who spotted the packet whose scan is attached and brought it home - seems to remember that they were made by Bahlsen, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Any light you can throw on the matter would be welcome, since we have postponed a tasting session until we can find out the original name of these biscuits; somehow it seems wrong to tuck in in our current state of 'tip-of-our-tongue'dness.
All the best.
Ray Blake
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Nicey replies: Hello Ray,
Right I've never encountered the biscuits of which you speak, they do sound like an import. The remembrance of a foil inner pouch is very indicative of Bahlsen as this would be their 'Tet' packaging. However its likely that other continental manufacturers would have adopted a similar format to the market leader, so its by no means certain.
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Catherine Stoddart |
Hello Biscuit Lovers,
I remember cartoonies from my childhood. As they are no longer widely available I have replaced them in my lunchbox with "Hello Panda" biscuits. They meet all Nicola's requirements too, as they are small; spherical; chocolate filled; decorated with a cartoon (fore mentioned panda doing lots of exciting activities, like smelling a flower and driving a car); and they come in a box which has a little foil bag inside to keep them fresh, not that that's a problem in my house.
I'm not sure how easy it is to get hold of them outside Liverpool, but I get mine in Chinese supermarkets. A box costs about 85p, pricey I know, but they're worth it.
To save Nicola from disappointment I feel I must place my hand on my heart and admit that Hello Panda's are not as nice as Cartoonies, this may be because Cartoonies have been elevated in my estimation due to their departure from the shelves, but I think it's probably the inferior chocolate.
Hope this is helpful,
Cath
(By the way, a friend bought me a box of the strawberry flavour 4 months ago, and they are still in my cupboard, enough said.) |
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