A quick note to all my pals who are Aust or NZ ex-pats: ANZAC bikkies have been spotted at Safeway.
I was walking around the grocery store a couple days ago, and wondering what I might have forgotten this time, when my roving eye caught the word “ANZAC” on a billboard. For a moment, I was lost in time; blanked out, I was wandering around an anonymous Australian supermarket. Then almost as quickly, my mind snapped-to, and I almost ran someone over in my flurry of getting from one side of the store to the other.
I slowly picked up the package. “ANZAC cookies,” it read, on the front. Well, it felt real. The cover crinkled seductively. I knew I had to have them. One last test: I flipped it over onto its belly and looked at the ingredients printed on its butt. Yes: these are the Real Deal. No trace of “corn syrup” (an ingredient Americans insist on spooning into everything). The tagline at the bottom, “Product of Australia” was redundant. Of course it was.
So there you have it. The last time I made Anzac biscuits was several years ago; I had to make a special trip to get golden syrup, and toasted shredded coconut in the oven, in order to make my own “desiccated coconut”. And now I can buy them at the store, for what might be a limited time. The Unibic company is introducing the “cookies” for Memorial day, and sending four percent of the sales to the VFW. They’re right there, in the store. Five minutes away. I don’t even have to drive across town to the Australian Meat Pie Company store to get them.
I better buy at least a case to last me through, in case they decide to whip them off the shelves and hoard them until Labor day. Historically, Anzac biscuits keep extremely well: after all, we used to mail them to soldiers during wartime. Hey, did you know you can make Apple Crumble out of Anzac biscuits? Me either.
