Cozen
Last week these magically appeared at my Sainsbury's Local:
This is kind of interesting, as I lived in Maryland for 25 years and never once noticed it to have its own type of chocolate chip cookie. This is a similar emotion to the one I experienced in Tesco a few months ago when I noticed they stocked something called, "Maryland Corn Relish," again, nothing I ever came across in my two plus decades in Maryland.
I'm sure there are legitimate reasons for these product names but I can't shake the nagging suspicion that it's some sort of marketing ploy. By associating with names that are clearly American, what are the manufacturers trying to say? As if we really know our food in America, after all, that's why we eat so much and are so fat? Because our food tastes so good? I don't want to delve into a huge debate, but Londoners are always ranting on about "how fat you Americans are." Right, because I have yet to see a McDonald's here. "Americans may be fat," I always say, "but you Brits sure are catching up fast." As this adorable graphic shows:
As for the cookies, naturally for researching this post I purchased and consumed them. They taste nearly identical to Chips Ahoy. Not great, but will satisfy in the middle of a hormonal and/or stress induced feeding frenzy I'm sure.
This is kind of interesting, as I lived in Maryland for 25 years and never once noticed it to have its own type of chocolate chip cookie. This is a similar emotion to the one I experienced in Tesco a few months ago when I noticed they stocked something called, "Maryland Corn Relish," again, nothing I ever came across in my two plus decades in Maryland.
I'm sure there are legitimate reasons for these product names but I can't shake the nagging suspicion that it's some sort of marketing ploy. By associating with names that are clearly American, what are the manufacturers trying to say? As if we really know our food in America, after all, that's why we eat so much and are so fat? Because our food tastes so good? I don't want to delve into a huge debate, but Londoners are always ranting on about "how fat you Americans are." Right, because I have yet to see a McDonald's here. "Americans may be fat," I always say, "but you Brits sure are catching up fast." As this adorable graphic shows:
As for the cookies, naturally for researching this post I purchased and consumed them. They taste nearly identical to Chips Ahoy. Not great, but will satisfy in the middle of a hormonal and/or stress induced feeding frenzy I'm sure.
Very true, we are catching up, but due to Jamie Oliver and co, hopefully something will be done about it all. We're trying to do some small changes. People are trying to buy alot most superfoods (fish and green leaf veg), they're not just eating turkey twizzlers anymore.
Is anything happening in America about it's weight problem? I live in uk so can't be sure if something has or has not yet.
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:45 am, June 11, 2007
hey, are those marylands? man i love those...
i'm keeding. funny they named it maryland, as many american's don't know much about maryland...where it is, what it's near, the capitol, etc. maybe they should have named them Los Angeles, or New Yorks, or Star Wars...something that screams America.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:18 am, June 11, 2007
Little known fact: the actual Toll House, from which Toll House Cookies are patterned, is just south of your beloved Beltway off of Connecticut Avenue, in the Maryland.
Perhaps it is not as random as you think, then again, not many people are going to make that tenuous connection.
Posted by
Unknown |
12:31 pm, June 11, 2007
American food tastes good because it's FULL of sugar. If it weren't, you'd have to cover it in ketchup, or syrup or anything else which UPs the likelyhood of your going to enjoy it. Must be the Scottish in you!
Chardx
Posted by
Anonymous |
9:13 am, June 12, 2007
Get the ones with bits of coconut! Bits of coconut! Blue packaging!
Anyway, you guys go crazy for Turkey at thanksgiving, and that's not Turkish. I checked. The marketing boffins dupe you too. So it's a draw.
Posted by
Huw |
1:47 am, June 13, 2007
That little chart proves that I'm not the only one who's thoroughly unimpressed by Japanese food.
Posted by
Chris Cope |
4:17 pm, June 13, 2007
You know, when I was in Ireland, I ran into something called Chicken Maryland a couple of times. It was breaded chicken with melted cheese on top. mmmmmmmmm. Oh, and it was good. don't know what it had to do with MD.
Posted by
AER |
8:07 pm, June 14, 2007
Ah-ah! Found it on wiki.com:
"The recipe for Maryland Cookies was brought to the UK from the USA in 1956. It is now the UK's best selling cookie....
Over 12 billion Maryland Cookies are sold worldwide each year. This is enough cookies to stretch right across America, from the Pacific, through the state of Maryland, to the Atlantic Ocean.
There is an average of 18.863 cookies in a normal box."
Posted by
AER |
8:12 pm, June 14, 2007
The Toll House of Toll House Cookies was an actual toll house in Whitman, Massachusetts. What was originally a toll house beginning in the 1700s became a restaurant and the owner's specialty was cookies, the favorite being her chocolate chip cookies. The Toll House is long gone but now there is a Wendy's fast food restaurant and the Toll House Condominiums. Ah, life in suburbia.
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:42 pm, June 16, 2007
How come they don't sell Maryland cookies in Maryland??
-Mum
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:59 am, June 17, 2007
Vaguely related, I believe the French call a certain type of kissing "rollerblading"
Posted by
Huw |
10:04 pm, June 19, 2007
Maryland Cookies rock, I can eat two packs in a sitting. When I was a mere tot, I'd get excited when Man would buy a packet - we were poor then and they would last a week.
Posted by
Gareth |
11:00 pm, June 19, 2007
Having grown up in Maryland (now in DC), and daydreaming of becoming yet another expat to the UK, I'd probably buy those cookies and mount it as ART. Keep it under a glass case. Forever.
The only "Maryland cuisine" I'd miss is Chesapeake blue crab, which seems forever teetering on the brink of extinction; hence the extreme price. Perhaps when the last blue crab dies, that will be my cue to grab the next boat to Britain.
Posted by
IntangibleArts |
7:59 pm, June 26, 2007
Perhaps....the Maryland cookies have Old Bay in it. Booya-kasha!
-SourKraut
Posted by
Anonymous |
3:38 am, July 11, 2007
I hink among women that the UK actually passes the US, or at least in some other study it seemed to
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:26 pm, July 19, 2007