My favourite things....

Who has seen the film City of angels? There's a part in the film where the angel of death asks a little girl whom just died (as he was taking her soul to heaven), what was the best part of living......she replies "pyjamas". This has stayed with me for a long time and anytime I think of that question, a constant thing comes to mind...........chocolates! Of course there are many things that make life worth living:- family, friends, public holidays.........and one can't really compare chocolates to one's kids but I have a feeling that wasn't what the question was about, anyway I digress. So back to chocs and when I say chocs I mean anything made from chocs like choc cake, choc ice-cream, choc biscuits and choc bars. Funny enough I don't like choc and pastry, like choc coated donuts, choc croissants or choc coated peanuts, choc waffles (I don't even like waffles, period.) etc, Basically I like my choc pure and unadulterated, i.e, no mint, orange, lemon etc flavoured, no alcohol. I don't mind nuts in the chocs, but not choc flavoured nuts..........


CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:- This are my all time favs.
 I can't say categorically which is the best brand of choc chip cookies but i'm sure if a survey is ever carried out, the Tesco brand of cookies should surely be top 10. I've tried several brands, from the popular American brand, chips ahoy to the Fox's brand with dark choc, milk choc, caramel (not very fond of caramel), and of course the ubiquitous Maryland cookies. Other very good brands are Marks and Spencers (then again what about M&S isn't good),  the Pepperidge farm brands and Sainsbury's brand.
Now, from my limited choc chip experience, I group them into three classes:-

 

 

The "gourmet" class:- this are usually packed individually in compartments and come in small cartons or paper wrappers and are no more than 6 or 8 in number, like they say the best things come in small packages. Infact if you had to choose between biscuits in wrappers or that in a box (containing the same things of course), opt for the better packaged one. They usually taste better. Now of these class, I still vote the Tesco brand, especially the 'Belgian triple choc cookies" or 'half-coated triple choc"........ oh my! this is just pure heaven in a box. Its not too crispy, that it will just crumble, nor is it soft baked (whats up with that? if I want soft biscuits, i'll just leave my biscuits open for about an hour or so and voila.....) its somewhere in between, so you taste every morsel and yet it sorts of melts in your mouth too.
 The Sainsbury's brand of this type is just as good, and frankly i'm sure if I don't see the pack, may not even be able to tell the difference.
 The M&S brand will come a close second, also very good but not quite as decadent as the first two brands.

I've tried some other choc chip cookie brands not even worth mentioning, but I honestly feel no one does choc chip cookies or even biscuits generally like the british.