What I found strange when I moved to the US was that it was damn near impossible to buy just plain milk. The full-fat one almost always has vitamin D added.

I had the same experience during my rather short visits (all to large metropolitan areas, though; perhaps situation is better in rural areas). This added vitamin D does not have to be that bad, though, if thermal treatment is right (see my milk rant).

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

What I found strange when I moved to the US was that it was damn near impossible to buy just plain milk.

Yeah, I found that (and it wasn't helpful on my last visit to the US when the English person I was with told me that "half and half" was semi-skimmed: in fact it's half-cream).

Peter

I was with told me that "half and half" was semi-skimmed: in fact it's half-cream

And to make matters worse, if you go into an Irish pub, a half and half is, of course, Harp and Guinness.

Strange as it may seem, that's how I got introduced to Guinness. It was in an Irish pub in Essen in Germany.

I figured: Well, if I don't like the Guinness, there's some lager at the bottom, I know I'll like that. And, I'll admit, I was intrigued by the concept of floating Guinness on top of the Harp.

As it turns out, I liked the Guinness -- as evidenced by the amount of the stuff that I drank in the same bar on St. Patrick's Day later that year .


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

So... any news on this? Are they ready to ship now

TeeMcBee
Mk2, # 080000143, 12+30 GB

It's 3am in Portland right now - I doubt I'll hear anything for a few more hours!

Rob

those damn waits....

TeeMcBee
Mk2, # 080000143, 12+30 GB

Any more info, it being a week after this post was .. er.. posted? :)

(O|||||O)

Yes, my contact is on vacation, but I've determined from another source that progress has been made. I've been asked not to mention any dates because of past problems, however the schedule looks like being quite reasonable. I will start to contact Mk.1 upgrade clients (who are owed a free tuner) around the end of this week to confirm shipping details.

Rob

Hey,


I 'feel contacted' by this, shipping address still valid... here we go...


bye
[L]

I know this thread is a bit old but I thought some of you guys out there might like to know that I've just seen Oreo's for sale in Costco Watford, England.

...and I saw them last Saturday in Sainsburys, Cobham.

I'll have to have a look in our local Sainsbury's for some. I'd like to see what all the fuss is about but I didn't want to buy a bulk load from Costco.

This is the most bizarre thread. For the benefit of those of you that don't have access to Oreos, let me just state that there's nothing to go out of your way about. It's more of a mass delusion on the part of us Americans. Which is not to say that I can't eat an entire bag.

The cookie -- sorry, ``biscuit'' (what do you English types call what we Americans call biscuits?) -- is a sandwich cookie. It consists of two fairly crispy chocolate wafers with a ``creme'' filling. The filling is basically much stiffer weeding cake icing. That is, confectioner's sugar and lard. (I'm sure it's not really lard, but some sort of heavy shortening.) The consistency, which is sort of like very dried-out toothpaste, would imply that there's a fairly large sugar-to-shortening ratio. There is sort of a religious debate as to how to eat an Oreo. On one side is the camp that one must dunk the entire thing in milk, eating only the part that enters the milk, continuing this in a geometric pattern until you can't really dunk any more. On the other side are people, myself included, who insist that you must twist the two wafers against each other so that the filling is laid bare. Then one must scrape the filling off with the front teeth. What to do with the remaining wafers is undefined. Some people eat them ``raw''. Others dunk them in milk. Many folks, especially children, just throw them away, as if they were just the packaging. Assuming that you are going to eat the wafers, though, nearly frozen milk (I've never heard any Oreo-related debate as to the fat content) is the only acceptable drink. In fact, I almost never drink milk in any other context.

More denotatively, the Oreo is circular, about 1.75 inches (4.5cm) in diameter. The wafers have a fairly inticate design on the external side, including the Nabisco Thing, that is mutable depending on the precise species of Oreo. The wafer is a fairly dark chocolate, about the color of a dark, bittersweet, or baker's chocolate. (I don't know if any of those mean anything to you, so about like this: CHOCOLATE) The wafer is about 1/8" (3mm) thick. The filling is about the same thickness, but leaves about 1/8" border to the edge of the wafers. There's also the Double Stuf variety that approximately doubles the thickness of the filling. Probably a little less that that, really. There are also some other varieties, including one with chocolate filling and several coated ones. For more Oreo trivia, check out Nabisco's Oreo site.

PS: This all reminds me of an extended plot point in the Justice League America comic book in the early 90s where the leader of the JLA, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, became physically addicted to Oreos, having crates of them shipped in. Funny stuff.

Am I the only one who thinks the chocolate wafers of the Oreo are the best parts? I can only eat the icing (it's icing plain and simple) if I also eat at least one of the chocolate halves at the same time.

I also, under no circumstances, can stand WHITE milk of any fat content - except maybe condensed. :) Ugh. As far as milk goes (not other milk products, just "milk") I will only drink it flavoured. 99.9% of the time chocolate. Hence look at the small avatar pic I'm using. This has been going on for nearly 30 years, so I don't think I will be changing my ways any time soon. :)

Now another great thing to dunk are digestive biscuits, such asthe "Maria" brand, in coffee. Mmmmm. Though I will admit I haven't had any of those in a few years.

Now I'm starting to feel I should look for an Oreo milkshake during lunch...

Bruno

I also, under no circumstances, can stand WHITE milk of any fat content - except maybe condensed.

"Pooh was so excited that when Rabbit asked him if he wanted honey or condensed milk on his bread, said 'Both!', and then, not wanting to appear greedy, said 'But don't bother about the bread, please...'"

Peter

Am I the only one who thinks the chocolate wafers of the Oreo are the best parts?

You are not alone.

However, I will state that it is absolutely critical that the Oreos must be abolutely fresh in order for the chocolate part to be any good. The chocolate must have that special fresh-out-of-a-freshly-opened-package crispness.

If the Oreos have gone stale (a process which only takes about 30 minutes of exposure to the atmosphere) , then significant amounts of dunking are required to cover up the mushy-ness.

I would also like to re-iterate the critical nature of the milk temperature. Fat content isn't important to me (don't care if it's whole milk, 2%, or nonfat), but it must be absolutely ice cold. It must be so cold that it almost hurts to drink it in gulps.

Ohhhh noooo... what have I resurrected?

Okay, from the sound of it this is a lot like the things we call Prince Biscuits. Two wafers (biscuits), either with chocolade or plain with toothpasty vanilla filling (als in chocolate filling form available).

They are not bad, just the marketing is mainly childish (childish in nature and directed to kids).

Cheers,
Hans

Hmmm I must chime in here and state that I purposely let my Oreos get "stale" before I eat them. I love the aforementioned "mushiness" of the chocolate. I'm not talking totally stale, but I do prefer Oreos that have "aged" enough for the cookie portion to be a little soft.

How one eats one's Oreos is a very personal thing.

Nope, you're wrong. Your personal tastes for stale Oreos are totally irrelevant. Fresh Oreos are the only true Oreos. Your kind should be rounded up and medically treated to remove this medical aberration from your brain chemistry.

()

This is Oreo discrimination. You'll be hearing from my lawyers.

Leave him alone Tony! It's not his fault that he's suffering from a calcium deficiency and anything harder than a prune reduces his teeff to splinters. As for the cold milk, anything stored in a fridge is waay to icey. When he was a lad the only good refridgermarators were the ones that had to be stocked twice a week by the ice man and even then he'd have to let the milk warm in the sun for half an our. Oh no, none of this new fangled self cooling anti-frost hoosamywhatsit, no indeed!

I was introduced to Oreo's by my wife who grew up in Florida. Don't like them too much though. They make them smaller now too.

When I visited the US in October I saw a funny Oreo commercial where this six-year-old kid gets a hold of one of the new mini-oreos at school. He runs home as fast as he can. Into his room to check his size against the markings on the wall (or doorframe?), because he thinks he grew two sizes, now that the oreo in his hand is suddenly so small.

Btw., they make them with chocolate filling too. I like that more, but still I prefer the German "Prinzenrolle" - a "normal" cookie pair with soft light chocolate filling - over any kind of oreos.

Anyway, TTFN.

Georg

Anolther ad I saw in NY was a big boardroom meeting where all the execs are trying to decide what to call the new cookie. They turn to a guy right down the end of the table to ask him, and he has him mouth full of them. He just shrugs and muimbles "I dunno" but because of the mouthfull of cookies it sounds like Oreo.

I guess you have to be there.

thanks to wierd al

In Jonathan Lethem's novel, "Motherless Brooklyn", there's a vignette about an Oreo enthusiast whose tastes are so refined that he can identify which, of two, plants the cookies were baked at. According to him, one of the plants has a master baker, and the other is not so talented. The result is a disparity in cookie quality that Nabisco obscures by mixing cookies from both plants in every package. This character would reportedly open the package, and then examine the cookies one by one, dividing the acceptable cookies from the unacceptable cookies. This was all related to the protagonist by a woman to whom this fanatic was her former boyfriend. It all made for a very vivid and amusing impression. It's all the product of Lethem's imagination, I assume; although I wouldn't know since the delights of the Oreo escape me.

Canadians have an analog to the Oreo, which they find superior. The name escapes me at the moment, but it's oddly reminiscent of strong chemicals. Something "-ox", I believe. And you Canadians and Brits also have your version of the M&M, the Smartie (?), which is also by reputation superior.

But then you guys ruin perfectly good french fries with vinegar, so I'm dubious. My ex-wife, a Canadian, was confounded when she wasn't able to get vinegar with her fries from McDonald's here in the SW US. On the other hand, most people I know ruin their fries with a glob of ketchup, so the American palate is clearly perverse, as well.

I'm an extraterrestrial.

I'm browsing this thread, by the way, since today I'll receive my tuner module via FedEx. Anything I should know?

Hydrox! They exist in the U.S. too. Mentioning them in the same sentence as Oreos should be a capital offense though -- Hydrox cookies are terrible.

I'm pretty sure Hydrox were invented before Oreo's. Oreo is the imposter.