Biscuits

[slemslempike]

Does anyone actually like Viennese Whirls? I can see, I suppose, some people not minding them, but the idea of anyone, for example, citing the brittle dust clumps as their favourite biscuit is beyond me. My colleague stays in a hotel during the week, and as she cannot eat gluten she brings in the biscuits they leave for her to put on our collective food area. Occasionally they leave her lovely shortbread with bits of butterscotch in, but yesterday I wasn't quick enough and someone else took them. Today there are just packets of Viennese Whirls, which is frankly not good enough.

The provision of cake and sweets is not as good as in my old division. Technically I think that there is more of it, but it is spread out and I don't know people well enough to go and nick their food. Also we are the very first bank of desks so people walk past us and take our food because that's fine, but I have no reason to go up the room, so I can't casually take food from others. It's a very sad state of affairs.

Comments

[menthe-reglisse.livejournal.com]

No. Also 'nice' biscuits. 'Nice'? More like 'Nasty' but I suppose that might not be a triumph of branding.

[terriem.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say they're my favourite, but I am a bit of a fan of the Whirl. They're all light and melty, yum.

At my current client, an email is sent out inviting people to help themselves to food on various desks. Perhaps if you do that, others at the back of the room will do something similar?

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

I like them a lot. There's Kipling version that's v nice I think. They just sort of melt on your tongue, don't they? (This is the layered version with jam/cream in, rather than single layer boring one.)

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever had one! Aren't they shortbread with goo in the middle?

I am sorry about your confectionery woes.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Now, I quite like a Nice biscuit from time to time, but I would never feel glad to see one, which I sort of feel is the mark of a biscuit.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think I find them crumbly and not very melty. Perhaps I have had bad ones.

No, that doesn't happen! I did ask people to take chocolates from my desk when I first came, but the chocolates all went and there is no reciprocity. It's most unfair. I tell a lie, someone once accidentally bought 2 kilos of pears and told us to help ourselves to that, but no-one explicitly offers their good food.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I do not experience the meltiness! Perhaps I have the wrong sort of tongue.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

They aren't shortbread, although it's a similar consistency. My colleague says they're sort of buttercream icing with flour added, but they are not nearly as nice as that sounds.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I feel similarly about rich tea biscuits. They are the least good a biscuit can be while still being called a biscuit. Who chooses them? Somebody must or they'd stop making them.

[terriem.livejournal.com]

The Mr Kipling ones are pretty good - I tend to like the single layer chocolate ones, rather than the jammy ones. (Just had lunch, but this biscuit talk is making me hungry again!)

That's a shame about the food - not sure of a way round that, apart from making friends with the people at the back...

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I approve of Viennese whirls when they come with jam and cream, or are chocolate dipped, but definitely not the plain ones.

I don't get hobnobs. Just don't understand the delight they cause. I think I'd rather have a rich tea.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think you may be the first person I've ever met who prefers rich tea to hobnob! I prefer a digestive to a hobnob, that said.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I agree! They are not sweet! They are not delicious! The do not have a pleasing texture!

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I like a rich tea biscuit when I'm feeling ill or fed up - there is something nice and soothing about them. I wouldn't choose one from a plate (unless hobnobs or things with chocolate and raisins together were the only other options). I prefer my biscuits to have cream in the middle - I love the rich tea fingers with cream.

I don't know what it is about hobnobs - the oats perhaps? I don't like flapjacks very much either, both give me indigestion.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I like Viennese Whirls. Not my favourite biscuit but higher up the scale than Nice or Rich Tea or Garibaldi or non-chocolate digestives. They are buttery. The only place I encounter biscuits is the break in the middle of choir practice where the sopranos always get out first and pinch all the bourbons.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I like Viennese Whirls when they're fresh, and even more so when my mum makes them. Like shortbread, but lighter and meltier.

I can't be having with the imitation sort that you get it small packets at conferences, though. That sort of treatment would make any biscuit a bit sad, but the Viennese Whirls seem to suffer some sort of terrible transformation into a slightly sweet crumb-dispersal device.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that's what the BBC recipe suggests they are. What a shame - they look quite appealing.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

There are two of us in the rich tea in preference to the hobnob camp. I do not and have never ever liked the hobnob, which I now also can't eat, but I love a rich tea.

I don't mind a Viennese whirl but I find it's quite a lot of biscuit in a single biscuit. And sometimes I want to eat two biscuits and I can't eat more than one Viennese whirls. They seem to be less melty than they used to be but I haven't had a sandwichy one in ages.

It is a very sad state of affairs when there is no reciprocity in the food sharing. There isn't some kind of filing cabinet or communal area (e.g. table near printers) where communal food could be left, is there?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

OH I am just trying to ring you but have no credit - could you give me a call asap please? About lunch tomorrow.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

It's a very large division, and not very well gelled at all. The teams are also quite separate, and there doesn't seem to be much cross-over, which is very different from my last job.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have only been eating the mass produced one, perhaps homemade would be much better.

Oh my god Sam, it's next week now.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

We all have food on the filing cabinets on the end of our desks, but it just doesn't seem to get shared around, and I don't think that I know people well enough to nick their food. Maybe it's for the best.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Damn those sopranos. I do like a bourbon. I like garibaldis, but I always forget about them.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever had homemade, perhaps that's where I'm going wrong.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I keep telling people where I'll be two (etc) weeks today. Shimla!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

"I would never feel glad to see one, which I sort of feel is the mark of a biscuit. "

I find this an excellent analysis of the fundamentals of biscuit-ness.