FN Blog - Seven heads are better than one!

When I was in Grade 6, having Chips Ahoy for recess was the equivalent of a 30-something woman lugging a Dolce & Gabbana handbag from the Winter 2008 Customized Crocodile Collection to work. We’re not talking about the basic chocolate chip variant that came in the blue pack: that would have the street cred of a genuine but certainly non-limited-edition basic black Prada purse sold in the Kowloon black market. When it comes to the true badge of baon affluence, it had to be Chocolate Covered Chips Ahoy With Chocolate Stripes, which came in a white pack. And for a long time, the only place in the country you could get this from was a balikbayan box.

Though the Chips Ahoy fever has certainly mellowed out, and most leading supermarkets now carry the brand, they’re not any less snooty on the sticker price. It’s a bitch to shell out a couple of hundred bucks when all you really want is one piece to sate that sweet tooth after a meal.

I was in Robinsons Galleria when I felt the sudden need for a sani-pad. So I rushed to Watson’s on the ground floor and picked my usual brand off the shelf. Needless to say, it was that time of the month, and I usually get a strong hankering for all things sweet and detrimental to my hips. Yes, along with the back pain and the tedious self-stain checks, I get to put on the poundage. Friggin’ fab to be female, huh?

Anyway, I looked at the shelf displaying assorted chocolates and cookies, when a box that promised high-calorie goodness caught my eye: Quickbury Peanut Cookies.

The picture on the box reminded me of the luxurious Chips Ahoy confections in my grade school days. So I got the box (it was the last - always a good sign) and paid for it at the counter. The cashier swung it across the barcode reader and it registered 81 bucks. Wow, I thought, less than a hundred! But I was anticipating it would turn out to be Chips Ahoy outside and Hi-Ro inside.

Mother of all surprises, though, when I got home and opened the box, what I saw was what I got!

Quickbury Peanut Cookies were literally cookies with whole peanuts on them, held together by fudgy chocolate stripes. The cookie itself was buttery, moist, and crumbly, and the chocolate coating was rich in flavor, cool on the tongue, a bit on the dark side, and not at all too sweet (like dark Meiji). I suggest chilling them for about half an hour before stuffing your face or you’ll get choco-smudged fingers (another good sign coz that usually means they didn’t scrimp on the cocoa).

You can’t compare them to specialty cookies the likes of Famous Amos, Mrs.Fields, etc.—it’s the whole apples and oranges thing. The lightly roasted peanuts that layer each cookie aren’t walnuts or pecan, and I didn’t really check if the chocolate they used had any Belgian lineage. But after taking a bite, you know that they’re quite special, and that best of all, they’re a good buy. Aside from being cheaper than Chips Ahoy (which tends to give me sugar fatigue after three pieces), they’re actually also better-tasting…