Indian Biscuits

[Monica Bhide]

woohoo! 

am sitting in bangalore right now,

my kids are learning a cute tamil folk song about mangoes....

milagai

(now where's the drooling hog emoticon?)

In my most favorite city and eating my most favorite fruit...

sigh.. life is so sad sometimes

Bring me back some nilgiri chocolate covered biscuits and my college years.. please

[Vikram]

Bring me back some nilgiri chocolate covered biscuits and my college years.. please

Monica, that's a coincidence, because I just bought a megapack of those Niligiri's chocolate covered digestives (for the bf, not me, he added, unconvincingly). They're easier to get here in Madras than back in Bombay. And they are totally delicious. Are you sure Niligiri's doesn't export them... or are you scared of finding out that they do!

Vikram

[Monica Bhide]

Bring me back some nilgiri chocolate covered biscuits and my college years.. please

Monica, that's a coincidence, because I just bought a megapack of those Niligiri's chocolate covered digestives (for the bf, not me, he added, unconvincingly). They're easier to get here in Madras than back in Bombay. And they are totally delicious. Are you sure Niligiri's doesn't export them... or are you scared of finding out that they do!

Vikram

If they do.. I need to get them.. Oh I love those biscuits.. they are divine. I guess they also remind me of a more carefree time in my life.. sigh

[mongo_jones]

in related news: our local indian grocery has for some reason stopped carrying brittania's bourbon chocolate biscuits--my very favorite thing for dipping into my morning cup of tea.

[Vikram]

Won't you find similar ones, if not from cookie obsessed American companies, but other Commonwealth countries?

I did an article once that attempted an international typology of biscuits and while it threw up certain distinct national types like South African Ouma Rusks or those disgustingly sweet Australian Tim Tams, there were also common types which usually originated in certain ur-biscuits created by Victorian era companies like Huntley & Palmer and distributed by them across the British Empire.

These then became the models for the local biscuits and I think bourbon creams (why bourbon?) were one of them? So if you don't find them in the US, why not check Canada or in Ausralian import stores. Now that import restrictions have been relaxed and we're getting biscuits from Australian or SA companies like McVitie's, I'm finding that they have many biscuits similar to the Britannia ones,

Vikram

[mongo_jones]

there are some similar ones in english stores and the such. but 1) they're expensive and i'm cheap and 2) they don't have that slightly burnt flavor that the brittania bourbons do. plus 3) if you must know the brittania factory was en route to my grandparents house in calcutta (off of taratola road) and eating them is not just a taste thing but also a whole sense memory thing for the aroma as we drove by the factory in a taxi.

[Episure]

they don't have that slightly burnt flavor that the brittania bourbons do.

How true. There are many clones in India today but none have this 'well done' taste.

[nessa]

Mongo, is this what you are looking for?

Biscuits

Let me know. I'll look here at our Taj imports, and If I find any, I'll send them your way.

No man should be without his favorite tea-dipping biscuit!

[Monica Bhide]

These correct? Nessa beat me to it.. but if this is what you are craving.. PM me your address and I will mail you some. I agree tea is sacred and you should have your biscuits!

[mongo_jones]

you people are too good only but i will wait and see if i can convince these people to source them for me. if i get no traction i will shamelessly take advantage of your generosity--though i don't know what i could send you in exchange from colorado: pictures of john elway maybe?

[Monica Bhide]

you people are too good only but i will wait and see if i can convince these people to source them for me. if i get no traction i will shamelessly take advantage of your generosity--though i don't know what i could send you in exchange from colorado: pictures of john elway maybe?

Hey you owe us nothing but good wishes. Send me your address and consider it done

[mongo_jones]

monica, i know it is rude to consistently spurn such generosity but it strikes me that i can just order them directly from namaste.com. they charge $6.99 to ship things weighing up to 10lbs--that's more than 20 of the large packets at 99 cents each! $27 for biscuits that'll last ages. like a miser i only eat 2 per cup of tea!

but i do thank you and nessa for pointing me to the "should have been obvious but wasn't" stratagem of looking online.

mongo

[Rushina]

Those Nilgiri Bikkies sound Good (hint, Hint.... Vikram) Talk about being shameless...

I love the bourbon bikkies...

My son is into opening them and licking off the cream needless to say I get the bikkies sans the cream... Sigh!... thems the breaks of motherhood...

Any body remember those jelly biscuits the oval ones with strawberry cream and jelly centres???? mmmm have not seen them forever, I wonder if the still make em...

Rushina

[gingerly]

i guess these fall in the'others' category-i can't get enough of what are generally know as bakerybiscuits (one word!)in india.the well known pune shrewsbury as well as countless other varieties of sweet and especially the savoury ones flavoured with cumin, carom ,green chilli etc.particularly good are ones i've had from telicherry and kannur(canannore) and also from various 'hill stations' around india.that reminds me of one of those urban legends that pop up with the express intent of taking the edge off your appetite-you know like(dark whisper)"why do you see so many puppies outside xxx chinese restaurant.....?"

anyone heard of 'beggars' biscuits'? no?

[Episure]

There are the tutti frutti laden ones.Then there are the ginger biscuits that warm you as they go down your throat.

I thought beggar's biscuits were the broken pieces left over from the shop's stocks.

edited to correct keyboard error form-from. I am never explaning this again.

Edited June 19, 2004 by Episure (log)

[Rushina]

I am going to Dehra Dun today, They have amazing bakeries and biscuits there.

Will get back to all of you with notes...

Rushina

[Vikram]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bombay's flaky khari biscuits (though they are perhaps a pastry rather than a biscuit). Mongo will presumably defend to the death Bourbon's as the best biscuit for dunking, but perhaps kahris could count as the best savoury biscuits for dunking,

Vikram

[mongo_jones]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bombay's flaky khari biscuits (though they are perhaps a pastry rather than a biscuit). Mongo will presumably defend to the death Bourbon's as the best biscuit for dunking, but perhaps kahris could count as the best savoury biscuits for dunking,

Vikram

i am willing to acknowledge a splitting of dunking biscuits into "sweet" and "savoury" categories. this will presumably prevent fiascos like jethro tull winning best heavy metal and hard rock over metallica. however, my own preference, when it comes to tea dipping is for the "sweet" biscuits. bourbon is actually the only cream biscuit that i dip into tea--other than that my preferences are for thin arrowroot, glucose biscuits (glucon-d!) and butter biscuits.

[rummate]

Biscuits remind me of some delicious ones made by the Jewish bakery in Calcutta called Nahoum.They also sold some handmade chocolates . I donot remember the names.Anybody out there can throw some light?

[Edward]

I love the salty and sweet 50/50 (is that the brand name?) crackers. They saved my life in Puri. On the train from Cuttack to Puri I hesitatingly accepted a gift of ice cream from some nice boys. I didn't want to be ungracious. The ice cream had that look of having been melted and refrozen many times. Well, I almost died!!! The only thing I could stomach for days were 50/50 biscuits. Now, I think of them as comfort food.

[gingerly]

break-ing news!

ok not quite but this

Indian consumers’ appetite for biscuits is enormous,”

is surely an understatement!some years ago i read that the results of a survey showed that vast numbers of indians eat biscuits for breakfast hem!hem!

after breakfast-tea and biscuits from the drum

from'a house for mr.biswas'

And for most, it is a food supplement rather than an evening snack. “In mid-income households, kids averse to dal chawal are often given glucose biscuits to make up for the cereals,” 

great substitution!

salt/sweet biscuits are something i really associate with india.i wonder if they're as popular elsewhere.again ,the bakery versions-like salty/sweet shortbread are really delicious.

Edited June 20, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[gingerly]

I did an article once that attempted an international typology of biscuits and while it threw up certain distinct national types like South African Ouma Rusks or those disgustingly sweet Australian Tim Tams, there were also common types which usually originated in certain ur-biscuits created by Victorian era companies like Huntley & Palmer and distributed by them across the British Empire.

reminds me that a good part of the attraction for me lay in the packaging.long after the original contents were demolished,those tins lay in cool,dark store rooms ,filled with upstart' native' eats!

can't quite figure what the nabob is attempting with that hapless fish!

[Pompollo]

QUOTE (gingerly Posted on Jun 20 2004, 10:21 AM)

salt/sweet biscuits are something i really associate with india.i wonder if they're as popular elsewhere.

To answer about salt/sweet biscuits: I live in Japan and there is a sandwich-type biscuit which has sweet, white cream sandwiched between two salty crakcers. For lack of a better description, the crackers remind of of Nabisco Ritz crackers and the white cream is like the stuff in the middle of Oreo cookies. EG members in the States will know what I mean.

I am not familiar with Indian biscuits at all, so I a wondering if the biscuits I describe are what gignerly is referring to when talking about "salt/sweet biscuits".

And now the next step is to check out if there are Bourbons in Japan. But as a coincidence (maybe not?) there is biscuit company in Japan called Bourbon. I am wondering (assuming) that they must be either the same company or at least some how affiliated with each other. Is Bourbon a purely Indian company, or is it a transplant from another country?

Now I am curious and will have to go into dangerous territory and risk the temptation to buy such goodies, as I examine at all those Bourbon biscuits on the shelves.

[gingerly]

I am not familiar with Indian biscuits at all, so I a wondering if the biscuits I describe are what gignerly is referring to when talking about "salt/sweet biscuits".

And now the next step is to check out if there are Bourbons in Japan. But as a coincidence (maybe not?) there is biscuit company in Japan called Bourbon.  I am wondering (assuming) that they must be either the same company or at least some how affiliated with each other.  Is Bourbon a purely Indian company, or is it a transplant from another country?

now this is the life!

Pompollo,the most widely sold and consumed salt/sweet biscuits are manufactured by the larger biscuit/confectionary companies and are very much like sweetish ritz crackers-(maybe a little denser-no cream though) with a little salt on the surface.the shortbread kind i love are really from small bakeries and vary from place to place.bourbon is a type of biscuit that's made by several companies but as you may have noticed,some have a cult following!

found this-

1924

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Bourbon's direct ancestor is Kitanihon Seika, which originated from Mogamiya, an old Japanese-style confectionery store in the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture. The founder of Kitanihon Seika, Kichizo Yoshida, decided to establish a local factory for the mass production of confectionery after witnessing people's plight in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which temporarily halted the supply of confectionery to local communities. The factory commenced biscuit manufacture in front of Kashiwazaki station in 1924 with capital of 100,000 yen.

[Monica Bhide]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bombay's flaky khari biscuits (though they are perhaps a pastry rather than a biscuit). Mongo will presumably defend to the death Bourbon's as the best biscuit for dunking, but perhaps kahris could count as the best savoury biscuits for dunking,

Vikram

i must the only one in the world who does not like khari biscuits.

So is no one sending me the Nilgiri ones