Comparative Costs for Treats

     During this season of Christmastime splurges, Lewis and I indulged in another purchase from the delightful British Corner Shop website.  

     We got the perfect snacks to nibble on while watching our newfound favorite BBC TV show: Mary Berry's Simple Comforts.  She gives charmingly in-depth details of British regions (and Paris) and their recipes.

     Our shipment arrived from the United Kingdom within only two days, and it was packaged thoughtfully and perfectly.  A hand-signed note was enclosed, providing the name of the employee who packed it (and we went online to give a compliment about her).  We were impressed with the quality of items/service that we received for $100.  Everything that we bought was created with high-quality ingredients, and many were made in sustainable ways with eco-friendly packaging.  We got:

     A mixed assortment of ginger biscuits (cookies) and clotted cream ones.  (Cornish clotted cream earned the kingdom's Protected Designation of Origin criteria).  The biscuits were baked by Furniss (established in 1886) in Cornwall.  

     As an English county, Cornwall is famous for the Duchy of Cornwall, but the duchy is only a small part of that peninsula.  The cookies were baked with locally-made Cornish grains, eggs, butter, and cream--all harvested on the preserved moorland.  As a company, Furniss continually achieves the Gold "Healthy Workplace" Award.

     Lewis adores these cheese oatcakes from Nairn's (founded in 1896), so he got 4 boxes.  Avoiding wheat, their wholegrain oats are sourced from Scotland...

...and they are milled by a Scottish miller (with 100 years of experience).  The baking facilities are in that nation's capital of Edinburgh, and they use 100% renewable energy and do not use landfills for their waste.

From Marks & Spencer, which was founded in England in 1884...

...we got four bags of hand-cooked potato crisps (which is the British term for chips) that were enhanced with vegetarian-friendly flavorings of meat.

From the nation of Wales...

...we tried two bags of Cheddar & Onion flavored (Welsh) potato crisps.  They are amazing!

M&S has a line of products that is Made Without Wheat.  

We loved their Stem Ginger Snaps!  Perfectly spicy and sweet!

We also sampled their "Made Without" Cheese Crackers, but we preferred the tastier Gruyere & Spinach Cheese Twists made by Ardens.  As a small-batch start-up in Britain, Ardens uses the finest ingredients from across Europe.  We bought four boxes!

     A twin-pack of M&S Cheese Twists was affordable (and reminded us of our trip to Windsor, England), so we got them.

    In the dessert category, Lewis enjoyed two packages of Aunty's Sticky Toffee puddings (2 in each).  Their headquarters is in London, and their "puds" can be heated in oven or microwave.  

     One of our doormen was born in Northern Ireland...

...and he is proud of his United Kingdom heritage.  His name is Alan.

     He recommended that we try a package of Mr. Kipling "Exceedingly Good" sponge puddings.  Lewis opted for the Sticky Toffee flavor, for comparison, but he liked Aunty's puddings better.

 

     24 (imported) items--made with upstanding methods--for $100 is a fairly-priced bargain.  We unhappily compared it to the 6-inch Yule Log cake that we preordered from our local NYC bakery, which cost nearly half of that.  Despite its high price (almost $50), it looked terribly sloppy, with an uncaring lack of decorating.  

     It was certainly not appropriate for a holiday that celebrates abundance, festivity, and generosity.  Yet, the pricey baker was not ashamed of it.  Lewis and I wanted a cake for a party at our friends' home, but we felt embarrassed to offer that one.  Therefore, we did not give our money to the baker, and we went elsewhere.  The shameful part of the scenario was that the bakery touts itself as one of the best in the neighborhood.  If that is the "best", then the densely-packed population of Astoria can anticipate a lot of displeasure.  

     After that disappointment, we went to one of the "best bakeries in the county" (not just Astoria) and tried to get a yule log cake to serve on Christmas Eve with Lewis' family.

     Making it worse, the whole experience of trying to buy it from that baker was unpleasant.  He operates two bakeshops in our neighborhood, and he makes yule log cakes during the week(s) preceding Christmas.  Twice, we tried calling to see if they were making them yet, but nobody answered the phone.  We went to one bakery and didn't see any yule log cakes, so we asked the counter-girl...  

Lewis: "Are you selling yule log cakes?"

Employee: "What?"

Lewis: "Are you selling yule log cakes?"

Employee (with uncertainty): "No."

Lewis: "Do you know they are?"

Employee (with hesitation): "No.  That's why I said we're not selling them."

Lewis (with disapproval and frustration): "Why would you do something like that?  Never mind--can you ask someone in the kitchen."

     The employee was gone for five full minutes; she never returned.  It was enough time for the other employee to make a cappuccino for another customer, and serve cupcakes to the customer after that.  Finally, that employee encouraged us to go to their other bakeshop.  

      So, we walked five blocks to the second bakery.  A counter-girl was aware of what we wanted, but she explained that the baker hadn't made them yet.  She told us to return during the next week.  I asked which flavors were being offered, and she told us.  Lewis asked if he could reserve a vanilla-flavored one.  The employee wrote down his order, and invited him to pay in advance... which he did.  The pretax cost was $45.00 for a cake that was seven-inches long.  The employee asked what day/time Lewis wanted to retrieve his cake, and he chose Thursday at noon.  

     On that day, Lewis' errands delayed him, so he arrived at the bakery at 4 o'clock.  He was dismayed when the baker told him that the cake was not ready.  Lewis complained that they already had four extra hours to finish his order.  The baker blamed his employee for not writing the pickup time legibly.  Lewis proved that the handwriting was clear.  Then, he asked when the cake would be ready?  He was told to wait 20 minutes.  (No, the baker did not offer a complimentary cookie--or even a free coffee while Lewis waited).  Seeing Lewis' angst, the baker offered to have the cake delivered to our home.  

     It's a good thing that Lewis didn't wait for the cake, because it wasn't ready in 20 minutes.  It took nearly two hours.  Then a messenger brought it to our apartment building and left it with our doormen.  The cake looked pretty... but the ingredients were not what Lewis ordered!  Instead of vanilla, the cake was chocolate.  The frosting was also wrong: it was cream cheese, instead of vanilla.  Thankfully, we like cream cheese frosting.

     Alas, even during Christmastime, that is a typical NYC experience.  Purveyors charge 3-times the price, give bad service, provide inferior products, and then ignore your complaints while they lure the next customer.  

     Honestly, some of them have an attitude equivalent to merely telling customers to give them money and leave with nothing.

 

$45 for an underwhelming/frustrating item made in NYC, USA, or $100 for a bountiful amount of treats from overseas?  

Which would you pick?

Every time this crappy city gives us grief, Lewis and I look forward to our next "chapter" in life elsewhere...

*Incidentally, the term "crap" derived from medieval French and Dutch words, but "crapper" originated in England.  In the 1860s, Thomas Crapper was famous bathroom designer, who engineered great toilets, and his name appeared on the flush-tanks.  When American soldiers were in England, they saw the name Crapper and brought the phrase to the USA, "Going to the crapper".

History of the Christmas tree (ha ha, that rhymes)

     My childhood involved Christmas trees.  Each December, my parents took my sister and I to a garden-center or nursery to select our annual tree.  My family often used my erstwhile experience as a Boy Scout to differentiate the types of conifers.  (Conifers are trees that produce pine cones).  

Many people think that they are buying pine trees to be their Christmas trees; they are not.  Looking at the needles and tree-bark, you'll know what species you have.  Most Christmas trees are fir trees, which have flat needles with a pleasant softness.

     As a boy, I often chose a Norway spruce tree.  It was introduced to Britain in the 16th-century, and then it was imported to North America.  It is favored for its sturdiness as Christmas trees.  *To see our trip to Norway, please use this link... https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2023/08/our-trip-to-oslo-norway-karl-johan.html

     As a teenager, I discovered the strength and stateliness of Noble fir trees, and those were my "tree of choice" until I couldn't find them available anymore.

     Long before Christianity, European pagans festooned their homes with evergreens to ward off evil and promote abundance during the lean months of winter.  Before them, ancient Egyptians used green palms to venerate the Winter Solstice.  On the other side of the world, Japanese similarly adorned their entranceways with kadomatsu, to welcome their gods in wintertime.  

     Pine, plum, and bamboo are the Chinese symbols of resilience during winter.  

     Ancient Romans observed Saturnalia with boughs of evergreens in their temples and homes.  The fierce Scandinavian Vikings did something similar.  In the 1920s, Turkey disused its Islamic calendar and joined the tradition with something called a New Year Tree.  

     The notion of putting entire trees indoors came from Germanic communities, during the Renaissance.  When German and Dutch settlers arrived in Pennsylvania (USA) in the 1750s, they brought that ritual… which Americans viewed as an oddity.  Americans obstinately continued to snub Christmas trees as anti-Christmas for 100 years...

...until 1846!  (Seeing the recent American presidency, obstinacy and stubbornness remain in America).

     You can thank the (German) Hanoverian branch of the British Royal Family for introducing Christmas trees to England.  The royal trees are globally celebrated.

     During the reign of Mad King George III, his German wife, Queen Charlotte, erected a tree at Windsor.  Queen Victoria’s Germanic husband, Prince Albert, made the notion more popular and widespread in 1840.  Fawning over British royals, Americans finally adopted the custom of Christmas trees, after Prince Albert began using them at Buckingham Palace.

*To see our visit inside Buckingham Palace, please use this link:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2022/09/our-return-to-london-uk-part-4-of-6.html

*To see our Christmasy experiences in Germany, please use this link:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2022/11/our-trip-to-berlin-germany-part-1-of-6.html

     The British Empire made it a global ritual.  That finally convinced Americans to participate.  Naturally—in their world of overconsumption—Americans desired their trees to reach from floor to ceiling...

...whereas Europeans keep them modest-sized for convenience.  

*Relatedly, Queen Victoria’s wedding dress began the global obsession of brides wearing white gowns.  Consequently, a crazed bridal industry emerged… except in places such as Asia, India, Africa, Arabia, and the Caribbean.

     Electric illumination for Christmas trees began in 1882, quickly followed by patents for the first artificial—and fire-resistant—Christmas tree, in 1890.  

     Invented in England in 1927, Bubble Lights were a core part of Christmas tree illumination in America.  As a boy, I decorated trees with strands of them.  Until a few years ago, Lewis and I had them on our Christmas trees (but now they are harder to purchase).  Each Bubble Light’s two-part illumination involves a vial of colored liquid that was heated by a tiny light bulb—in a colored casing—causing the liquid to bubble upward.  It is charmingly snazzy.  

     I also had boxes that cushioned an assortment of “mercury glass” Christmas balls.  Back in the 1500s, German Christmas trees were decorated with fruit, but glassblowers devised their own versions.  Later, glassblowing used a technique of “silvering”.  A mixture of mercury and tin coated the inside of Christmas ornaments… until the proven toxicity of mercury prompted a replacement: silver nitrate.  When the mania of silvered balls wore off, their exteriors were painted with colors.  Sometimes, colored glass was blown, making translucent globes or icicles.  By the turn-of-the-century, ornaments were crafted from everything: wood, resin, crystal, metal, rubber, gutta-percha, Bakelite, strings of popcorn, and even dried macaroni glued to paper.  

     Nowadays, Lewis and I decorate our tree with ornaments that are souvenirs purchased during our global travels.  Others are mementos from childhood or gifts from friends and loved ones.  Each of them offers a fond memory.  As we view them, we are reminded of how much we changed/improved since we saw them during the previous year.  As such, they are lovely benchmarks for our progress as human beings.  

     Lewis and I hope that whatever festivities occur in your home are joyful and wonderful!  Additionally, if you want to see some fancy festivity, please watch this BBC episode: Mary Berry's Country House at Christmas.  As the English would say, "it's smashing good fun", and it highlights the satisfaction of volunteerism, historic preservation, and yuletide merriment.