culture clash

Isabel is currently enjoying a cartoon called Phineas & Ferb, one of the characters has a distinct British accent. While she was watching the show she commented to noone in particular that she "thought British accents are "sooo coool". Pete and I smiled knowingly to one another and let her enjoy her newfound Anglophile-y ness (Not a big surprise actually considering her 'rents.) The show itself is less nauseating than most Disney pablum... --dear ones, NOTE: we are NOT going to discuss the Wizards of Waverly Place. No. We are not. Of all the crap Disney has produced I find that even more offensive than their gendered stereotypes of female victimization. We are however going to make a big loop from Harry Potter to cooking--you ready??

Ok, so Carol got us a treat. She brought Zander & Ule-dawg over last Friday and we played and bummed around--watching the dogs romp and trying to convince them to act like old cats instead of rambunctious GSD puppies. They of course wanted to nothing to do with knitting or watching movies--well Luna did (post her recent surgery) but Ule was ready for some tag--thankfully it was soon lunch and we warmed up leftover Chinese fud and started talking cooking. (big surprise) And Carol produced the treat-- a packaged British import from Hillers!! YUM! previously I had asked her (knowing full well she too is an Anglophile of the highest caliber) if she was familiar with "treacle tart" which is supposedly Harry Potter's favorite pudding. She-- in an effort to remove some of my provincial attitudes-- was helping me broaden my horizons--we nuked the dessert. As we tasted it she immediately proclaimed it CRAP! and was not interested in further tasting. I personally wasn't offended and ate mine right up!-- unlike she and Pete I have never BEEN to England so I kinda liked the honey undertones of smoky sticky syrup, happily I didn't have a true experience with which to compare this little cake. She however, was disgusted and we launched into a full scale online search where she told me all about Delia the Brit version of Martha Stewart and we giggled about the hilarious blog we stumbled across here.
Our search led us to the various KINDS of treacle and of course the various brands. Including the famous rotting lion mentioned in the blog we found.
We read about Spotted Dick (Andre...hush) and Golden Syrup vs. Black Treacle, sponge cake vs angel food and generally had a lovely afternoon. While we briefly wandered off to Savory puddings such as Yorkshire et al, we didn't really reach any conclusions but we did enjoy pointing out to one another the whole "pudding" thing as being decidedly separate from American ideas of dessert.

So, upon my most recent restocking of the family pantry I purchased (from Hiller's they do have a great import section) a can of Lyle's Black Treacle. I am not sure why..or what I am going to do with it exactly --but the lion is definitely rotting and has flies buzzing above it and the motto on the tin sez..and this is a direct quote,

"Out of the strong came forth great sweetness."

What the....??? EWWWW!!! If I understand the "adVERTisment" correctly--I am supposed to believe that the sticky goo IN the can is rotted lion slime?? That is supposed to be appealing??? I'm s'posed to eat it??? As dessert??? What about the "treacle mines they taunt their children with???"--Decomposing lion??? ummmm No. I don't care if Harry Potter likes it...I'll stick to my familiar American sweetness--like Disney princesses and dessert w/out flies.