Sugar Savvy

In the book Toast by Nigel Slater, there is a scene in which he describes, in great detail, the eating of a Walnut Whip, his favorite candy bar as a young boy growing up in England. I read this book several months ago, but the image of this particular candy and the manner in which Slater consumed/inhaled it seems to have resonated in my memory.

“Dad continued buying us sweets to eat in the evenings. A Cadbury’s Flake for Joan, a Toffee Crisp or Walnut Whip for me. He would usually just have an Aero and his pipe….”

One night, Nigel takes his candy and heads out for a walk with his dog. After awhile, he ducks down to eat his Walnut Whip while engaging in a bit of voyeurism, looking in on some illicit amorous behaviour taking place inside a parked car:

“I must have stayed there seven or eight minutes, heart pounding, mouth parched, licking the filling from my Walnut Whip, wishing it was an ice lolly and praying the dog would stay away.”

Only now that I’m rereading this section do I recall that his frenzied enjoyment of the candy was linked with the “gettin’ busy” of the couple in the car. I, naturally, remember only the candy-eating. Hard to believe, I know.

So, a couple of months ago, I was chatting with Gary, a visiting English friend. I asked him if he knew about the Walnut Whip. Sure, of course, he told me. They’re still around and they’re quite nice. I think he said something like this, although I could be creating false anecdotes simply for the fact that I fancy an English bloke saying the words: “quite nice.”

In any case, Gary travels frequently back and forth across the pond, and on this current visit, he’d taken the trouble to expressly tote not one, but TWO Walnut Whips over here for me to sample. I was touched, indeed. They did get a little misshapen during the journey, but mangled or not, the vanilla cream-filled beehives delivered all that I had imagined. It’s fun to eat and the crowning glory of the whole walnut on top provides a nice protein balance to the straight-up insulin rush. I found myself trying to mimic the tongue-digging-into-the-cone method described by Slater. The chocolate is “too sweet” (whatever that means) and so is the filling, but it was delicious nonetheless. Basically, winding up with marshmallow goo on my chin is never the result of a bad candy experience.

Thank you, Gary, for your research assistance! It’s a fine mate who comes through with the trans-Atlantic candy schlep.