A Letter to the "Editor"

Dear God,

Thank you.

Love,

Anna

BOTW #7: Fox's Cookie Bars

Today's BOTW is actually a purchase from last week during my weekend trip to Dingle (more information on that should be coming soon-ish). Hope the review isn't too....stale! (Bwahahaha!)

Name: Cookie Bars
Producer: Fox’s Biscuits

Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but what’s the deal with all the hard crunchy biscuits? Huh? What’s the deal, Ireland? As the week’s pass, I begin to miss more and more the soft moist cookies of my youth (and of a couple of months ago!). What I wouldn’t give for a luscious oatmeal cookie right now!* For some reason, the Irish just don’t believe in soft cookies. (I would hazard that it has something to do with the general Irish dislike for anything even vaguely undercooked…don’t believe me? Try coming to Ireland and ordering a steak. You wouldn’t have believed it was possible to make steak so dry and tough and unappetizing without first burying it in a pit of hot ashes.)

Unfortunately, Fox’s Cookie Bars failed to be the exception to the rule I was looking for. The packaging lead me to believe that a large cakelike chocolate chip cookie delight was waiting for me. Instead I found this:


It is indeed chocolate chip. It is indeed a cookie (although more along the lines of biscotti than American-style chocolate chip). It is indeed a bar. *sigh* It tasted good, don’t get me wrong, and it was perfect for dunking BUT it wasn’t what I wanted and that makes all the difference.

That said, the cookie has a good “bite” or crunch to it. The chocolate chips are distinct and add quite a bit of flavor to the basic shortbread-like base. One taste surprise here is the presence of desiccated coconut in the bar. The coconut was probably added mostly as a sweetening agent, but the coconut flavor is definitely present (the coconut is not advertised on the package and it’s only because of the distinct taste of it that I even bothered looking at the ingredient list). While tasty (and I’m normally a huge fan of coconut), the coconut was just another element jarring my geared-for-American-style-chocolate-chip-cookie-goodness mindset.


So all-in-all, Fox’s Cookie Bars are a decent biscuit that are good for tea-dunking and have just enough of a touch of chocolate and coconut to keep things interesting. However they’ve fallen prey to my prejudices against all things overbaked and suffer from crushed expectations. I am afraid I face the biscuit world more jaded than before…won’t somebiscuit save me from the dry crunchy oblivion I currently face? (I dream tonight of snickerdoodles, warm oatmeal cookies, and macaroons).

* - In fact, at the quick stop coffee shop/convenience store in the student center last week I picked up a cookie on the counter billed as an “Oatmeal, fruit, and nut cookie” thinking that surely an oatmeal cookie would be moist and delicious with my cuppa hot coffee…No! That sucker was dryer than the Mojave and harder than a block of concrete! So my disillusionment continues…

BOTW #6: Kimberley

Name: Kimberley
Producer: Jacob’s Biscuits, Jacob Fruitfield Foods Limited

After the surprising success of the Mikado taste-test, I decided to pick up the Mikado’s companion biscuit: The Kimberley. (as a side note, I saw this past weekend black currant flavored Mikados but I was out of town and couldn’t spare the backpack room to haul a package back to Cork).

The Kimberley has many similarities to the Mikado (the soft biscuit base, marshmallow fluff, and overall prettiness) but one bite lets you know that this is a whole different biscuit!



Whereas the main flavor of the Mikado came from its pseudo-raspberry jam and coconut, all the flavor in the Kimberley is focused in the biscuits sandwiching the marshmallow fluff. Soft and moist (a luxury, I’m beginning to realize as it seems the Irish simply do not believe in soft cookies…ah the things we come to miss), the biscuits have a sharp and distinct ginger flavor. The flavor was unexpected but appreciated. I, for one, love the taste of ginger and the addition of the flavor to the soft biscuit gave the Kimberley a lovely mellow spiciness that you can still feel on your tongue after you’ve finished the cookie.

The other aspect setting the Kimberley apart from other biscuits is the coating on the marshmallow center. Just as the Mikado had its marshmallow enhanced with a slightly crunchy coating of coconut, the same affect is achieved here but instead of coconut we have…sugar. Yes. That’s right. Plain ol’ granulated sugar. The sugar adds sweetness and texture to the fluffy-and-delicate-but-kinda-flavorless marshmallow.



The Kimberley will stay in my biscuit repertoire for whenever I feel like munching on a soft biscuit and the ginger flavoring makes it stand out from its very sweet, jam-filled, chocolate-covered, caramel-dipped cookie compatriots.

Four years and some change...

Cobh (pronounced "Cove"), Co. Cork: Statue of Annie Moore, the first registered immigrant in the books at Ellis Island, outside the Cobh Heritage Center on the harbor her ship for America sailed from.


Summer, 2004



Fall, 2008

BOTW #5: Fox's Chocolate Chip Crunch Creams

Name: Chocolate Chip Crunch Creams
Producer: Fox’s Biscuits

So if last week’s BOTW was “purty,” this week’s is just plain adorable. As you can see below, the biscuit of this week is a chocolate chip sandwich cookie and what makes it adorable is its size. I tried to take one of those awesome archaeological-style photos of the biscuit next to something familiar to everyone for scale purposes (you know, like when they have meter sticks next to trenches? No? Okay. Fair play to you.) but I didn’t really have anything around me to help…I have coins, but they’re Euro coins so that doesn’t help. My cell phone is also larger than my phone back in the states, so that was a no-go as well. Suffice to say, each biscuit is about the size of a Nilla Wafer. I think? Yeah.

So anyways. Chocolate Chip Crunch Creams are of the frequently found sandwich variety of biscuit and feature two chocolate chip cookies layered with a chocolate cream. Not quite as decadent as Club Milk but considerably fancier than HobNobs, the CCCC (c’mon…it’s a long name and I’m lazy!) is a bit spendier than I would normally invest in (they were on sale in the supermarket this week) but a fun and different treat.

The cookies on the outside are incredibly crunchy (the Brits and the Irish are not quite so fond of the American trend of soft cake-y cookies) and have a distinct oaty flavor studded with mini chunks of chocolate. The overall impression from the cookie is one of a healthier, not-quite-as-sweet version of a full-size chocolate chip cookie.



The chocolate cream filling is really the star of this biscuit. With the consistency of Oreo filling (firm but creamy) and a flavor like when you eat pure Nesquik powder (without the milk) the majority of the chocolate in the CCCC comes from the cream. The combination of crunchy, oaty, and relatively unsweetened cookie and rich chocolate cream is perfect.



As I said, Fox’s biscuits run a bit higher in the price range than I’m normally willing to shell out for a small tube of bikkies but my awesome shopping skills snagged me a deal this week and I am glad I had a chance to give these babies a whirl. I like that they are not overly sweet and of course their relatively small size is just so cute as to be irresistible. The company’s commercials, however, leave something to be desired…but don’t take my word for it! Check out this vaguely creepy New York panda mobster (seriously. His name is Vinnie. And he mispronounces “biscuits”. The English are strange.) shilling the company’s wares…

Out and About: St. Anne's, Shandon, Cork

In the spirit of posting things a bit late, I’m going to try and share some pictures from a couple weeks ago.

On the morning of Saturday, September 20, I got a call saying that my godson had been born. Being filled with anxious energy to burn after the great news, but not being able to call and share the news with anyone back home (darn you, eight-hour time difference!) I decided to head out and explore Cork city a bit more on my own.

I made my way up to the north part of the city, called Shandon. I paid my five euros and climbed the bell tower of St. Anne’s. Now, if you know me you know that I tend to wind up on bell towers a lot when I travel. It just sort of happens. I’m not a proficient climber nor a hunchback and I’m not overly fond of heights (I’m not afraid, mind you, in fact I want to sky-dive some day but I’m just saying that if I could choose to stay as a human or be turned into a bird, I’d probably pick human. You know how it is) but if there’s a bell tower anywhere around and if access is granted, I’ll probably end up on the top of it.

The St. Anne’s tower is fun because at the first landing you stop at as you climb you can ring the bells. Yes, you too can be an amateur campanologist (from the Italian “campanile” for “bell tower”…er, or so I assume) for a mere pittance. There are even little laminated cards right next to the ropes so that you can sound semi-sorta knowledgeable (or maybe just to prevent the residents of Shandon from going batty listening to random bells all day long).






After ringing the bells, you’re prompted to put some ear protectors on (shooting range style!) to…you know…protect your…ears… You then continue up the tower on the spiral stairs. They look like this:



Inviting, no?

You pass a bit of machinery on the way up. There weren’t any interpretive signs (something that fills the museum studies part of my heart with desolate sorrow) but I’m assuming these monstrous green contraptions are responsible for running the clocks (there are four separate clock faces, one on each side of the tower. St. Anne’s tower is also called the “four-faced liar” because the clocks never give the same time except for at the top of each hour).



Finally, you see the bells themselves. Still hanging from the thick timber cross-beams you are struck by the rustic charm. And then you realize that the only way to the top of the tower is to climb over the beams. They’re less charming then. You’re also grateful for the ear covering. See the beams in the picture there supporting the bells that are each about half the size of a person? Yeah, I climbed over, around, on top of, and through those. I’m extreme like that.



After the harrowing beam-crawling episode, you are rewarded by gusts of cold fresh Cork breeze and amazing views of the entire city. Cork is the Anglicization (or, as the Irish would write, “Anglicisation”) of the Irish word corcaigh, meaning “marsh.” The city center of Cork is built on a series of low-lying marshy island-y things and the whole city is surrounded by low hills. You don’t really notice that when you’re in the city center, but the view from Shandon tower makes it obvious.

In this picture (looking south and east), you see that tall building kinda in the left third? (if you don’t, you’re blind. It’s the tallest thing for kilometers!) I live not too far from there. I’d say it took me around 30 minutes walking to get to St. Anne’s.



And, again in the grand tradition of me being on top of bell towers…here’s a picture of me. Like many other photos in my library, this one is distinguished by the awesome self-portrait style of execution! Hoorah! (The view is south by southwest and the green-roofed building behind me is the Franciscan church).



And to finish, a bit more trivia about Shandon and St. Anne’s. The top of the St. Anne’s tower (which I, unfortunately, could not get a photo of) has a weathervane…it’s a gold-colored salmon. Seriously. According to the church literature, the salmon not only symbolizes the idea of the apostles being “fishers of men” but also the “rich maritime heritage of Cork city.” So yeah. In the charming Cork dialect/accent, you’ll hear people talking about living under “da goldie fish” when they’re from Shandon. Shandon is also famous for a poem written by Father Prout. I’ll conclude by copying the most famous verse from this poem below:

With deep affection and recollection
I oft times think of those Shandon bells,
Whose sound so wild would in the days of childhood,
Fling round my cradle their magic spells,
On this I ponder when'eer I wander and thus grow
fonder sweet Cork of thee,
With thy bells of Shandon that sound so grand on,
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.

BOTW #4: Mikado

I find myself again apologizing for the lateness of this post. I was away all weekend on a homestay in the town of Carrigaline and when I came back I had to deal with second-week-of-classes craziness. Hopefully this was worth waiting for (yay! pretty biscuit!) and I’ll try and be a bit more punctual next week!

Name: Mikado
Producer: Jacob’s Biscuits, Jacob Fruitfield Foods Limited

I’m not ashamed to admit it. I am a shallow person when it comes to delicious treats. And it is this shallowness that resulted in me buying the pastel pink things of beauty known as Mikados. Lightly rose-colored and coated in coconut, Mikados are gorgeous little biscuits worthy of the flittiest of fairies and they taste far better than they have any right too.



The basic construction of the Mikado is a simple affair. A biscuit base is topped with two lines of pink marshmallow “dollops” outlining a ribbon of raspberry jam and the whole thing is topped off with coconut.

To begin with, the biscuit base is very soft and almost cake-like. There is no crunch anywhere in this biscuit, but that’s ok. When you bit into the Mikado, your teeth sink into the soft pillowy marshmallow and the cakey biscuit underneath.

The marshmallow, though colored pink, does not seem to have any distinct flavor of its own. Again, the texture it provides to the overall Mikado is the most important aspect. This marshmallow manages to be light and fluffy without being overly sticky. It’s easy to bite one of the little blobs in half without pulling the whole line of marshmallow off the biscuit base. Clever, that.

The jam running along the center of the biscuit is where most of the flavor of the Mikado comes from. The jam has a beautiful light raspberry flavor, but after a bit of poking ‘round the internet I discovered that I had been fooled! The jam is apparently raspberry-flavored APPLE jam! Boy, Jacobs, you sure got me! Why they flavor apple jam like raspberry jam rather than just using raspberry jam I really have no clue. But it tastes good.

The coconut is both untoasted and unsweetened so it does not add much in the flavor department, but after the soft biscuit and the airy marshmallow, it’s nice to have the light coating of coconut to add a bit of bite.



Overall, the Mikado is a light and tasty biscuit. It’s not terribly satisfying (as opposed to, say, the HobNob or Club Milk) but you can’t really help but smile when you look at it. The Mikado would be perfect with a tiny cup of tea in a pretty china teacup on a pretty china saucer (not really my speed…I’m more of the Big Gulp mug consumer of tea: Barry’s Gold Blend, no sugar, milk if I’m feeling decadent).

All I know is that I enjoyed my Mikados and felt very dainty nibbling away at the little pink beauties. If I ever have to throw a fairy princess tea party, I know what biscuits I’ll reach for…