The Night Mail

[pH]

30 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Now, if that plate was a 65' turntable (or bigger) then those would be considered reasonable samples.

They’re each half of a cake as sold by the bakery.

[polybear]

33 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

What I am about to say @Happy Hippo, @polybear, @Dave Hunt and others may find distressing.

 

You have been warned.

 

Once again iD is on a diet, which is my own fault… but anyway…. Mrs iD is away with the Wolfpack at the Holiday Hovel, so last night I indulged and had a “wee dram” or three. I must have overdone it because I was overcome by the munchies, my will to resist shattered, I had a piece of cake.

 

And it was……..     well……. ……..alright.

 

Pleasant enough I suppose, but certainly nothing more than OK and not much to write home about, let alone post about on TNM.

 

A step up from tinned baked beans (several steps actually), CAKE is, of course, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but definitely nothing to get ecstatically worked up about (let alone go into orgasmic rapturous rhapsodies about). I really don’t see what the fuss on TNM about CAKE is all about (now, a dark chocolate McVities digestive biscuit on the other hand…..)

 

Bottom line, if I am only allowed so many calories/day, then they have to spent on something a bit better than just alright

 

A Dark Choccy Bikky?  Better than Cake?  You need help.....

At least give yourself some chance at credibility and go for milk choccy.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

41 minutes ago, pH said:

They’re each half of a cake as sold by the bakery.

Where's the bakery?

 

Lilliput?

 

To give you some clarification of sensible cake sizes, a Yule log should be the size of a 55 gallon oil drum.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Nah. Won’t need to do any of that.

I’ll just put the clean t-shirts in with the clean Polo Shirts and that will cause enough ruckus as to make her overlook any cake discrepancies

 

Huh?  Is that bad?

 

1 hour ago, pH said:

We have friends coming into town this week, and they will have dinner with us one evening. My wife has decided dessert will be based around cakes from one or more of the artisanal bakeries in town. This has, of course, meant that research is required on the current (and currant) offerings of these bakeries. Here are samples of the products of two of them:

 

 

Lose the nuts - and the cream and things could improve no end.

 

1 hour ago, pH said:

We have another sample to try later today (well, three at a time would have been a little gauche!)

 

Four is fine though.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, AndyID said:

We get this very good and inexpensive jam from Denmark, except it is produced in Poland

 

 😀

 

Bear's Jam offering....

 

 

From, er, Morrisons.....

[Dave Hunt]

Milk chocolate better than dark chocolate? I think not Bear. Dark chocolate digestives or better still dark chocolate Hobnobs are kings of the commercial biscuit trade. Neither, mind you, can compete with my own home made coconut oat biscuits with 70% dark chocolate coating.

 

Dave

[Northmoor]

10 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Useful if you are in a zoo and they ask you if you want to hold one!

 

Here's some bloke holding one. Wouldn't be smiling if he knew.....

 

 

The clue to my intentions was in the ST bit of STI.  Still, what you do in your own spare time, etc.

 

Seeing Vladimir Putin in the background reminds me of the story of a meeting Angela Merkel had with him.  Unfortunately he'd learned that she is afraid of dogs, so naturally for the photo-op where they sit in two separate chairs, he brought on two of his (large) Doberman-like hounds to check her out and she visibly stiffened.  The man's a Bond villain.

[Happy Hippo]

40 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Milk chocolate better than dark chocolate? I think not Bear. Dark chocolate digestives or better still dark chocolate Hobnobs are kings of the commercial biscuit trade. Neither, mind you, can compete with my own home made coconut oat biscuits with 70% dark chocolate coating.

 

Dave

I am a big fan of 70% dark chocolate.

 

Madagascan 70% Chocolate bars from Lidl are very good.

[jjb1970]

Obesity is becoming quite a problem in East and SE Asia. While the Indonesian/Malay people always had a share of obese people  (mainly men) it was rare indeed to see overweight or obese people in Japan,  Korea, China, Thailand and Singapore when I  first visited those places. Now while not as overweight as people from the western world it isn't unusual to see overweight and obese people. 

 

I think various factors are to blame. Probably the biggest contributory factor is wealth. 30 years ago while Japan was a rich country China was basically third world and much of the rest of the region was somewhere in between. Growing wealth is the facilitator of many of the lifestyle choices that lead to obesity (over indulgence, eating out, increased meat etc). Lifestyles are also more sedentary with a shift to office work, car ownership etc. And a much greater prevalence of western fast food can't have helped. The diet in most of these countries was never going to win awards from many dieticians with the carbohydrate obsession (rice and noodles) and a similar obsession with frying everything but traditionally portions were modest, meat a bit of a luxury and life was less sedentary. 

 

A sort of related issue which is storing problems is the little emperor syndrome. Single child families are very common for various reasons and middle class parents can spoil these single offspring rotten, giving them anything and everything. As well as resulting in some obese children it also creates young people with a dreadful sense of entitlement. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

The clue to my intentions was in the ST bit of STI.  Still, what you do in your own spare time, etc.

 

Seeing Vladimir Putin in the background reminds me of the story of a meeting Angela Merkel had with him.  Unfortunately he'd learned that she is afraid of dogs, so naturally for the photo-op where they sit in two separate chairs, he brought on two of his (large) Doberman-like hounds to check her out and she visibly stiffened.  The man's a Bond villain.

She was visibly sniffened just sounds so much better

[PhilJ W]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I suppose they must be importing the oranges. I grew up in Paisley, Scotland and Robertson's used to make a lot of Marmalade there too. I think the oranges came from Spain. The jam factory was right beside Canal Street Station and the aroma when you were waiting for a train could be wonderful 🙂

Heading up to Norfolk on the A12 you pass Tiptree where Wilkin & Son have one of the largest jam factories in Europe. When in full production you could smell it for miles.

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

One of the problems with most commercial jam I'd it is far too sweet for my taste. Yes, it should be sweet but a lot of it is like sugar spread with a bit of fruit. I sometimes buy fig jam imported from France, it's excellent and not too sweet.

Some French jam makers don't use sugar but use grape mast instead. Grape mast is what is left after the grapes have been pressed for wine. One such maker is St. Dalfour whose products are available in the UK.

[Danemouth]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Bear's Jam offering....

 

 

From, er, Morrisons.....

 

All this talk reminds me of my youth ~70 years ago. My father loved the Polish Wild Strawberry Jam from the Polish Deli in Bridge St Cardiff - must be demolished over forty years ago.

 

For the benefit of @Happy Hippo and @br2975 (good Kairdiff lads) it was next door to The Greyhound a decidedly rough pub where urban legend has it that they even had Meths on draft 😁

 

Cheers.

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

A Dark Choccy Bikky?  Better than Cake?  You need help.....

At least give yourself some chance at credibility and go for milk choccy.

That’s a bit rich coming from a bear whose culinary peculiarities makes him eschew a whole wide world of pâtissierie (no cream, no coffee, no walnuts and a lot of other things besides).

 

Scoffing a lot of cheap industrial LDC does not make one a master pâtissier!

 

Come back when you can make a Paris-Brest or a Gâteau Saint-Honoré and we’ll talk

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Bear's Jam offering....

 

 

From, er, Morrisons.....

Is that jam?
 

Looks suspiciously like a jam jar repurposed for less salubrious duties….

 

 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Milk chocolate better than dark chocolate? I think not Bear. Dark chocolate digestives or better still dark chocolate Hobnobs are kings of the commercial biscuit trade. Neither, mind you, can compete with my own home made coconut oat biscuits with 70% dark chocolate coating.

 

Dave

Once again “the boys in blue” hit the target with unerring precision…

 

On the topic of “homemade”, iD - whilst being staunchly traditional and purist when it comes to classic recipes, has been known to get creative.

 

A recent creation of mine, which was scoffed in its entirety within an hour or so of finishing, is what I call my “Cadburys Fruit and Nut Bar cake”. Starting with a traditional boiled fruit cake recipe, a portion of the raisins were replaced by roughly chopped hazelnuts; once baked and allowed to cool, the cake was tidied up (basically cutting off the ends and top to form a nice oblong block) and then covered with a dark chocolate glasur (I’ve also done it with a milk chocolate glasur - though dark chocolate works better)

 

As Cadbury’s made many different types of Chocolate bars, I can look to that long list for further inspiration (maybe Bournville Old Jamaica? Plump raisins soaked in rum overnite for the cake with a bitter black chocolate glasur)

[jjb1970]

Try crepe cake, they're splendid (though I suspect it is best to not even think about the calories). My boss treats us all to a cake of choice at Christmas by sending us a link to one of those corporate gift schemes, they're all high end bakers/confectioners and although I ouldn't py the sort of prices charged I have to admit they're superb. Whether or not they worth it is a value judgement (TBH they're more than I'd pay) but the quality is there. Anyway this year I got a raspberry and white chocolate crepe cake, it's a cake built up by layering crepes, and it was properly good, I'd use an expletive to say ****** good if I was the naughty sort. 

 

Another one which was very, very good was a friend of my wife gave us a champagne and truffle moon cake for Chinese new year. Usually I hate moon cake (there is more great food than you can shake a stick at in Chinese cuisine, personally I wouldn't include moon cake in that) but this one was superb. Again it wasn't cheap, she got it from the Raffles Hotel bakery but in fairness it had the decency to at least make quality commensurate with the price.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear's Jam offering....

 

 

From, er, Morrisons.....

 

Good lord!

 

That looks to be at about the same level as Aldis cheapest "fruit" jam.  You have to read the ingredients list, in small print, on the back, to determine which cheap fruit was used to concoct the particular batch.  I suppose that Morrisons offer contains just over 50% mushy strawberries. What else would be up to the imagination and the ingredients list...

 

Good luck!

 

Just thought, it would be ideal for making wasp traps...

 

Edited June 2 by Hroth
an extra thort

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Huh?  Is that bad?

Even I wouldn’t mix the t shirts and polo shirts!

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Milk chocolate better than dark chocolate? I think not Bear. Dark chocolate digestives or better still dark chocolate Hobnobs are kings of the commercial biscuit trade. Neither, mind you, can compete with my own home made coconut oat biscuits with 70% dark chocolate coating.

 

Dave

 

Out of interest Dave have you ever had to bang out?

Just wonderin',,,,,,

 

41 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Even I wouldn’t mix the t shirts and polo shirts!

 

I'm assuming that's in a washing machine?  What's the big crime?

[Happy Hippo]

It's a lovely sunny afternoon, and I have a great desire to sit in the garden and consume alcoholic grape juice.

 

However, having just returned from the local builders merchant where I've ordered in some bulk bags of 20 mm pink granite gravel and collected some bags of compost, I suspect I might be called upon for some quiet gardening duty.

 

Escaping the the garage might be a wise move where I can make a start on the 'North End' cassette table for Pantmawr North.

 

Perhaps it ought to be given a pet name:  'Preston' springs to mind!

 

 

 

 

[Northmoor]

Reading through some threads and status updates on RMWeb and surfing Youtube.

I seem to be one of the declining proportion of people who attends model railway exhibitions without any intention of filming the event for their own Tiktok/Youtube channel.

[Happy Hippo]

Just now, Northmoor said:

Reading through some threads and status updates on RMWeb and surfing Youtube.

I seem to be one of the declining proportion of people who attends model railway exhibitions without any intention of filming the event for their own Tiktok/Youtube channel.

You are not alone as I never have any desire to take copious amounts of pictures or film stuff.

 

When I do it is usually for reference purposes, and layout owners are somewhat taken aback when I ask for permission to take a snap or two.

 

And I thank them afterwards.

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, pH said:

We have friends coming into town this week, and they will have dinner with us one evening. My wife has decided dessert will be based around cakes from one or more of the artisanal bakeries in town. This has, of course, meant that research is required on the current (and currant) offerings of these bakeries. Here are samples of the products of two of them:

 

 

We have another sample to try later today (well, three at a time would have been a little gauche!), plus another bakery to visit before making a final choice. 

 

Have you been drying the dishes in your tumble dryer again?

[SM42]

Biscuits, you have to go a long way to beat at chocolate malted milk. 

 

Back national diets. 

 

I can't help but wonder if today's mass processed food industry goes some way to explaining the seemingly endless list of food allergies people have nowadays. 

 

I don't recall such things being that common 40 years ago and only seems to have developed in the 1990s in any significant number. 

 

We must be doing something wrong somewhere.

 

Anyway, 7 hours ago I was sat at the in laws. 

I'm now back at home in Blighty. 

 

The security queue at Brum Airport trailed almost back to the car park 4/5 covered walkway. 

I thought it was all supposed to be better after yesterday.

 

It took 25 minutes from plane to pass through passports,  at one point the ground despatcher was trying to move things along so he could clear the queue off the apron. 

 

Just glad I was arriving not departing. 

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

The Big Galah was looking for a home a while ago.

 

 

 

Failing that, maybe come up with your own Big Thing, they are a license to print money  thats why there's heaps of them here - see how they draw in  the tourists. 

 

 You could have The Big Noel Gallagher, or the Big Rainy Cloud  just for starters. 

Can you wrap it in brown paper, bung some first class stamps on it- making certain that there not Chinese knock offs of course, and then stick it in the post. Given the fact that Royal Mail just been sold and that they don't like delivering things, except when there's an 'r' in the month and it's not a work day it'll probably arrive in time for the next but one, plus fifty years election.

[Winslow Boy]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

That would be most unusual!

True.