10/02/04: Afternoon

Honeycakes and Tim-Tams

While I was running the game for Team Axis, Ellen was arriving in Australia. Mark and Dean met her, and she appreciated the full escort. Despite a brief display of Australian road rage (no, it’s not just limited to America!) in the parking lot, Ellen arrived at the convention center just as Corlin was being incinerated by the third lightning bolt.

After I finished my open session, we explored the area around the convention center: the MacLeod shopping center (I will note that I’m working on an Australian computer at the moment, and as a result it’s telling me that “center” is misspelled, and should be “centre”). We found three “Milk Bars”, which put me in mind of A Clockwork Orange – though these Milk Bars seemed to be convenience stores as opposed to places to get drug-laced milk. Strangely, I haven’t found any Milk Bars in Melbourne proper; it appears that they have been squeezed out by 7-11s, which can be found literally every block or two. Ellen ended up getting a meal at a take-out Chinese restaurant, while I had a burger and chips. The chips were good, but produced in frightening quantities: for $1 AU – about $.75 US – I received easily a pound of chips. Ellen and I couldn’t eat all of them together. The best part? It was a half order!

When we returned to the convention, Wes gave Ellen and I our first Tim-Tams. A Tim-Tam is a chocolate-covered chocolate cookie with a layer of crème (usually chocolate) in the center. They are exceptionally delicious; Wes claims that he’s never met an American who hasn’t loved Tim-Tams. Apparently no less a personage than Jennifer Love-Hewitt sought to have Tim-Tams sold in the US, but the company, Arnott’s, has no interest in foreign markets. And hey, if Jennifer Love-Hewitt can’t make something happen, you just know you’re out of luck.

            While Tim-Tams are exceptionally delicious on their own, there is an Australian tradition associated with them: using a Tim-Tam as a straw to drink coffee. The lovely Ms. Cakes will help demonstrate this technique:

1.   Take small bites out of opposite corners of your Tim-Tam.

2.   Dip one end in the coffee and suck. The hot liquid flows into the cookie and begins to melt the crème.

3.   At this point, the Tim-Tam is quickly losing structural integrity. As quickly as possible, you need to      pop the entire cookie in your mouth; within a moment it explodes in a burst of coffee and chocolate.

Ellen notes that this is a very tasty experience, but that you need to have a big mouth – for her, it’s a bit of a tight fit. Stephen of the Iron Talons says that port is also a good match for Tim-Tams, but warned that hot chocolate could result in dangerous chocolate overload.   

Afterwards I showed Ellen the way back to the motor inn and she caught me up on the gossip from home and the latest news from the WotC boards. My fingers were beginning to twitch from internet withdrawal, so it was good to hear what was going on!

(**note:  Webmistress Ellen would like to add that she believes she should get some kind of special recognition for allowing such pictures to be posted on the internet!)

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