I came across these cookies when I was first went to Sydney almost ten years ago. They were in almost every coffee shop and snack shop and in many restaurants too--always in jars near the cashier, meant to be an impulse buy. Of course I always bought one. Two shortbread cookies with cream in between, they were so good! I would look forward to having one after lunch or an afternoon coffee (tea?). My cousin who lives in Sydney was surprised I was so thrilled with something so ordinary. Of course I know the shortbread cookies that come in a tin, or a box (Walkers?)--but these always looked so tempting. How can anyone resist?
I'm familiar with chocolate chip cookies in a jar, but not shortbread cookies named "melting moments". In other places they were called "soothing moments" or something similar. It's probably a British thing? I've only been to London a couple of times and I didn't particularly notice them in jars at the checkout counter there.
Another thing i noticed in Australia then was the toasted sandwiches which were toasted on George Foreman type grillsl. This was ten years ago and before paninis became common in the States. (Paninis in Italy were hardly the toasted sandwiches we know paninis to be. I remember seeing paninis in Italy laid out in trays--a few slices of salami folded inside ciabatta-looking rolls, sitting out there for at least a couple of hours. They were hard!) I usually like my sandwiches on toasted bread, and I remember being pleasantly surprised when I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich from a kiosk in a Brisbane mall and it was a hot toasted sandwich. Simple grilled ham and cheese. Yum!
So probably very ordinary to the mates down under, but toasted sandwiches and melting moments made quite an impression on me! And I haven't started yet with the coffee...
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