[BITList] cakes n cookies

[x50type at cox.net]

Hugh

As per wiki, American English and British English use the word "biscuit" to refer to two distinctly different modern foods. Early hard biscuits (North American: cookies) were derived from a twice-baked bread, whereas the North American biscuit is similar to a savoury European scone. I like the breakfast biscuit, especially McDonald’s but they are saturated with deadly fat, cholesterol, etc.

but I digress – yes, there are other cookies beside oreos and most of them are unbelievably sweet [for sugar is cheap]. However, I am quite surprised at the relatively small selection of cookies most super markets keep in stock. I have to go to the local purveyor of fine indian food stuffs [Mr. Shah] who, in deference to the raj, also stocks many fine and tasty british made biscuits, McVities Dark Chocolate Hob Nobs,  Burtons Digestives Cadbury's Chocolate Shortcake, Mc Vities Ginger Nut ,  McVities Penguin,  Burtons Jaffa Cakes,  etc.

[incidentally, Mr.Shah started selling indian food stuffs, indian clothing, baubles, bangles and beads about 40 years ago from the front room of his little house in the ‘burbs. He now supplies much of the USA with these items and many,many more from a warehouse about the size 2 or 3 aircraft hangars and has an annual turnover in the millions of dollars.......]



Cake-wise [fortunately they have not managed to screw up the definition of a cake] there are not many cakes in the supermarket which are based upon any other cake but an angel cake. Again, the reason is clear –they are about the cheapest cake that can be made, I call them ‘fluff cakes’, there is little or no substance to them. they are tarted up with various colourings, layers and gooey stuff and again, are overly sweet. The angel cake is the basis of the highly decorated [and highly expensive] wedding cake which the bride and bridegroom are wont to smear on each others face [don’t ask my how or why this juvenile prank started]. The icing sugar for decoration is mixed with cooking oil [again, don’t ask me why] so the decorating medium is this rather unpleasant permanently soft icing.



if we need yet another peculiarity of americans there is no better example than the fruit cake. Excellent, relatively inexpensive fruit cakes are available from autumn on  They are usually shaped like a small brick, are full of nuts, glace cherries and dried fruit and I think they are delicious – but again, a little too sweet . I am the only person buying them, everyone else just hates fruit cake. 

There is no such thing as the traditional christmas cake with or without hard icing and marzipan. If I want one [and I usually do] I have to order it on line and sometimes Mr.Shah gets them in BEFORE Christmas – frequently they arrive after Christmas.



And finally we have pies. Relatively speaking pies are expensive. The pie filling seems to be limited to apples [poor], peaches [tasteless], yams [ugh] and pecans [yummy] however, almost without exception the crust is bloody awful, so it’s good that 99% don’t have tops  – the nearest thing to the US pie crust is cardboard. There are no meat pies.



That’s the US biscuit, cake and pie scene.  From the variety and quality of the products it is clear that profit is the goal not taste – no surprise there.



colin t




From: HUGH 
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 9:48 AM
To: BitList 
Subject: Re: [BITList] Tough Choices

Tell me, Colin,  does the USA have any kind of biscuit other than Oreos?  Any kind of cake other than Angel Cake?  Etc.

Hugh.


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