My Name is... And I...

Let me start this by saying that I am a junk food junkie.

I love food and the whole experience that surrounds all aspects of eating; buying the materials, preparing the ingredients, the cooking, the eating, the refining of the recipe and/or method for next time, all of it a joy.
But it isn't all about lavish meals which one has to hunt for ingredients and slave over a chopping board then cooker for hours. It isn't even all to do with "real" food. Baking and home-made is trendy right now and it is easy to dismiss all of the junk that we used to eat as kids that as adults some have come to discriminate against, all for the pursuit of being a "foodie".

There is no shame in liking cheap food.
I spent a long time searching for the perfect cheese to go into a burger. Now, I love cheese and being in London, I have access to a lot of good cheese both from the continent and from the UK. I can pop into my local supermarket and have a pick of six UK small production cheddars and amazingly, three types of Italian hard cheese (Paresan, Pecorino and Grano Padano). That might not seem that much of a big deal but that reaction is just an indication of how normal it is now to get good quality products easily.

So yes, I tried a lot of cheeses for my burgers.
Aged cheddars that I eat straight from the fridge, gooey Gorgonzola that was aged in a cave 600 miles away, melty Emmenthal from 640 miles away.
Which one does the best job?

Some processed slice made in a factory somewhere in the darker regions of Britain. Probably not touched by a single human hand at any stage of its production. No other cheese comes close. The fact that Heston made his own cheese slice to go into his "perfect" burger just goes to show how "perfect" that processed cheese slice was to begin with.

Junk food has a place.
That isn't to say that all junk food is good. In fact, a lot of it isn't but that isn't because of the food item itself, rather, it is because of how the producers have chosen to make it. There is nothing wrong with the principle of ready meals except the practice is to load it up on sugars and fats and salts. Would I like more people to be able to cook and make their own little pots of deliciousness; of course but in lieu of that and in recognising that not everyone has the time, one should accept that ready meals have a place.

Put it this way.
I love to cook.
If I can buy a ready made version of what I like, made how I like it, I would be first in line to buy it. I mean, who wouldn't really?

But that's not my addiction.
My junk food addiction is snack food.
Biscuits, chocolates, small cakes, ice-creams, anything that fits in your hand and can be eaten with your fingers. That includes all things sweet as before but also savoury like barbequed chicken wings or grilled prawns and yes, even a slice of ham carved from a cold joint counts.

It is an equal part the enjoyment of just having a little bite to eat as it is the taste of the food itself. Snacking, that which is often said to be oh so bad for you because it ruins your appetite (although I have yet to meet a person like myself for whom snacking does anything other than make me want to eat more) is without doubt so good for the soul.

My particular weakness is bicuits.
In truth, I like most baked goods; biscuits, cakes, pies, pastries savoury and sweet but there is something very complete about a biscuit that not much else comes close to. A similar savoury snack always leaves me wanting more than the mouthful (yes mini scotch egg, I'm looking at you) but a biscuit always feels, well, as I said complete. Paired with a suitable hot drink to clear the pallate and the experience is heightened even more.

I've tried to pin down what it is that I like so much about it and I think it is all down to the unmistakable crunch. In fact, looking at the list of other baked goods, the common denominator is that one way or another, they all crunch but in so many different ways.

And that is why biscuits are so good.
Depending on the accompaniment to the biscuit, the same biscuit can be a different eating experience. Eaten with  a sip of hot tea is a world away from the same biscuit that is now topped with chocolate.

It's such a small thing, the biscuit, but it can hold so much joy.