PrintSnapshots from Chile: Negrita Biscuits
From April 13 to 19, I traveled around Chile with two other American food journalists on a culinary media trip. Here's another snapshot from that week. —Robyn Lee
While I was delayed at Newark Airport on my way to Chile (curse American Airlines...curse), I killed some time by calling my friend Diana and asking what she'd like for me to bring back for her and her Chilean boyfriend, Ian.
"Negritas! Get Negritas! They're really good!"
"Get a what?"
"It's a type of biscuit. Ian's mom just brought a few bags back from Chile. ...And we ate a bag."
I wrote down the name in my notebook and made it my major goal of the trip to return back to America with a luggage's worth of this coveted cookie, not just for Ian and Diana but for other food-loving friends. And with a 10-pack bag only costing about $2, I could've filled a luggage without going broke.
Nah, I didn't go that crazy; I only bought ten bags.
The name of Nestlé's Negrita appears to translate to "little black girl." Is that an appropriate name for a little rectangular chocolate-covered vanilla cream-filled sandwich biscuit? No less so than the similar looking and somewhat randomly named Tim Tam or Penguin biscuits. (For more information about the use of the word negro in Spanish, check out this thread on The Study of Racialism.)
So, how were these little rectangular chocolate-covered vanilla cream-filled sandwich biscuits? I wasn't very impressed the first time I ate one, but after the third biscuit, I was sold. And mildly addicted. One cookie made for small, but satisfying sweet finish to a meal. There's nothing complicated about sandwiching a bit of sweet vanilla cream between two not-as-sweet crunchy vanilla biscuits and coating it in a thin layer of milk chocolate, but these types of biscuits just aren't ubiquitous in the USA. It's probably for the best, or else I'd eat them too often.
You can buy them online at Chilean food store, Tu Chile Aqui.
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7 Comments:
Can I be your friend, Robyn?
Also, these remind me of McVite's chocolate-covered Digestive biscuits. Minus the vanilla cream part.
Erin Zimmer at 3:42PM on 05/08/08
I might have ONE COOKIE LEFT! Come to NYC asap and it's yours!...
:D...
Oh man, I love digestives. Or anything by McVitie's!
roboppy at 3:47PM on 05/08/08
@robyn: OM NOM NOM NOM
Raphael at 4:37PM on 05/08/08
these remind me of conguitos (chocolate covered peanut snack) when i was living in spain.. not the same, but the great "politically incorrect" name.. "conguitos" = little congo people?
and oh so delicious!
chlamers at 7:44PM on 05/08/08
Just a tiny thing, but negrita can refer to any "small," "female" thing. In this case, I believe that it's a small, black (chocolately) cookie, where cookie is la galleta (a "female" noun). On the other hand, plenty of things in Latin America are politically incorrect, so it's a possibility. Either way, it looks yummy!
gringuitica at 9:50PM on 05/08/08
I remember learning in a Spanish for teachers class that negrita can also just mean a black haired girl or like the person above noted, little black feminine (as in the ending sound of the word) object.
In any case those look yummy!
cmtigger at 10:17PM on 05/08/08
@gringuitica and cmtigger: Thanks for the info! I don't know Spanish so I relied on my googling skills to tell me what it meant. Doh! "Little female black object" would be appropriate.
roboppy at 10:18AM on 05/09/08