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2,000 hamsters can't be wrong.

31 August 2005

The Mystery about the Vanilla Sugar 

It took me a short while to realise that vanilla sugar is something that is quite odd to any Brit, apparently. I need vanilla sugar for my homemade caffe latte, but the prospect of a nice glass of that seemed bleak. I went online (I actually paid for half an hour's internet time in order to check this) and wanted to find out if it was called something different. But no. All I could find was recipes where you'd either have to make the vanilla sugar from scratch (fat chance of my doing that) or just buy the stuff from Sweden. Weeks later we were in our local store (which we don't like that much anymore, thanks to a series of "Dispatches" on Channel 4); I was looking at some canned fish or something, when my flatmate (I don't know why we do the shopping together, but we usually do. She says it keeps her from buying all sorts of unhealthy stuff and I end up buying lots more because I'm waiting for her) stopped in her tracks and just stared at a glass jar of something. I grabbed it and smiled. It was a jar of so-called vanilla sugar...under the "International Food" section. Hooray! Something I use weekly is considered exotic. How refreshing. Now, the vanilla sugar itself was of course not entirely what I had hoped for, but at least it had vanilla in it and it worked well with the caffe latte. I just don't see how they manage to live without it. I use it for cakes and such, too. But then again, they think "prawn cocktail" is a nice flavour for crisps. And why on earth haven't they discovered paprika or salt & pepper crisps yet? It's driving me mad, trying to find a nice substitute for it, because there is none! I'm thinking of setting up my own import business; importing lots of Norwegian crisps to my flat...and eating them!

And then the other day a four-day-long fire at the local waste disposal facility was finally put out. That must be a record.

Here's to the people of New Orleans moving back home very soon, and hopefully not find out that thy have been robbed of everything they own while they were away. Cheeky bastards. (The burglars, not the owners.)

Current track: Nothing.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 03:18
Comments:
If by ‘Caffe Latte’ you mean the new urban version i.e. strong espresso coffee with a topping of frothed steamed milk (the original version used merely for breakfast in the Latin world should be without froth, just boiled milk, sugar and coffee in a bowl really), you might try cinnamon and sugar instead of vannila sugar.

Even better, take out the milk and vanilla sugar entirely and replace it with grappa. It may not deserve the name Latte anymore, but would serve you better in the cold autumn mornings now on the horizon ;-)
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 07 September, 2005 12:21
 
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