A sleepless night again…! Invariably, lack of sleep makes me hungry (but so does every other thing!) So the best bet is an ‘aaloo paratha’ at Bishu da’s under the stars…with a generous splattering of butter and intermittent green chilies in the bites!
Alas, its close to four and the best option has already been eaten (!) much to my dismay. So up pops the only other grub ready to gulp…A piping hot cup of bada Chai with Good Day butter biscuits…heaven aint it?
So there I come, dexterously balancing a chai in one hand and a pack of biscuits in another and the wallet stacked in between them somehow. The chai is safely placed on the stairs where I am to sit and devour my hunt(for want of a better simile…or no…of course, the early bird gets the worm…so what if it’s the last worm available???!!!) so far so good!
Everything in place, I pick up a cookie…already feeling it melt into my mouth, I dip it in the chai and gently take it out in just a couple of seconds. Having done that I gently pick it up from the cup towards my mouth and as the treat advances towards my mouth, it opens wide in anticipation…I can hear my heart beat…NOW…Plop…
Its done once more…
And I’m left fishing around in the bottom of the cup for the soggy remains of my erstwhile cookie…
Day after day, this ordeal replays in our lives, biscuits, doughnuts and cookies…how can they do that to us…we have to find a way out… so something of the art (or Science!) of dunking here…
To dunk is to dip biscuit, bread, cake, or doughnut into a beverage, especially tea, coffee, or cold milk as in the popular American snack milk & cookies. A biscuit is porous and, when dunked, capillary action draws the liquid into the interstices between the crumbs. Dunking releases more flavor from confections by dissolving the sugars, while also softening their texture. The physics of dunking is driven by the porosity of the biscuit and the surface tension of the beverage. (This ain’t me…its wiki)
So after the formal definition here’s the process for you:
Things you need:
· Biscuits/ Cookies/ Doughnuts (!)
· Tea/ Coffee/ Milk
· Patience (or tact!)
Statutory Warning:
A Hasty dipper NEVER prospers…
Experience Speaks:
· Always always choose a fresh cookie/ biscuit/ doughnut (Even biscuits have expiry dates nowadays!)
· Glucose biscuits/ Good days/ Marie are best for dunking…the kind that offer some resistance when you bite into them… And when your teeth cut through, there is a snap, followed by the sound of musical munching…Bliss…
· However if you are a Cream biscuit fan, open the biscuit, lick the cream clean and dunk…this helps!
· A chocolate biscuit should be dunked flat, with the chocolate side up, to minimize the chance of chocolate bleed into the beverage
· If a part of the cookie/ biscuit/ doughnut happens to drop in the Drink, do not lose heart…use a spoon to explore the unfathomed deeps of your beverage (not that it helps though)
· Take care not to spill your drink on yourself (in case the broken half of your cookie/ biscuit/ doughnut plops right into the cup) as it would sure burn!
· This reminds me…do not try dunking cookie/ biscuit/ doughnut in a cold drink….!!!(may work for a few though)
· Have patience…treat your cookie/ biscuit/ doughnut well…if one breaks, pick the next…Practice makes a man perfect!
Dunno if this makes sense…
Its good to dunk any cookie/biscuit/doughnut flat into the drink only for say 2-6 seconds depending on the sturdiness of the same… now the question that arises is Why so?
I do not know how reasonable it sounds, but a cookie/biscuit/doughnut is but an array of flour, sugar and nuts held together by butter (or maybe something else) thus like any tiles floor, this flour would also have crevices and tunnels that the typical drink would seep into and make way for itself…
Going by this logic, if a cookie/biscuit/doughnut is dunked flat, only one side gets wet and thus the stochastic movement (Broca Ahoy!) of the drink molecules or particles or whatever are curtailed. Also, a thin layer now remains dry to support the weight of the soaked other part. This I guess helps…
Conclusion:
So, what are you waiting for? Run get a pack of your favourite cookie/biscuit/doughnut and your favourite drink to go with it…but let caution prevail…
Make not Haste thou Creature…
The wetted biscuit eventually collapses under its own weigh!!!
Happy Dunking!!!
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