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Ice Cream Cones

Blogged in Cool Stuff, Food, Travel by Tyler on March 15, 2007 at about 18:05

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the first ice cream cone was created at the 1904 World’s Fair by Abe Doumar or that he was also the first to make an ice cream cone machine! Well, neither did I, until tonight, when I stumbled across Doumar’s Cones & Barbecue in Norfolk, Virginia. That first ice cream cone machine is still in use, in fact, and still creates a tasty ice cream cone!

Here it is, along with the product of its labors:

First Ice Cream Cone Machine Doumar

Doumar’s Barbeque was OK, but the Ice Cream was very good!

Note: Yes, I’m still in Norfolk. There were some paperwork issues that have delayed my departure for about a week. Just a few more days…

Raisin Biscuit Update

Blogged in Food by Tyler on February 22, 2007 at about 09:02

The Garibaldi Biscuits have arrived! I’ve been waiting for this day for 10 years… OK, so maybe the event isn’t that big, but I was certainly excited to open the box. My verdict? Sadly, they’re not quite as good as my Raisin Biscuits used to be. While very similar, there are two big differences:

  1. They don’t have as many raisins in them, detracting from the sweetness and texture.
  2. The biscuit is fairly dry compared to the relatively soft biscuit I remember.
Overall, if the similarity/goodness were rated on a 1-to-10 scale, I’d give the Garibaldi Biscuits a 6 or 7. Not quite there.

Oh, well. The search for my long-lost treat continues.

Raisin Biscuits

Blogged in Cool Stuff, Food, Fun, Life in General by Tyler on February 9, 2007 at about 11:51



When I was a kid, I loved eating these thin biscuits filled with raisins - something like a flattened raisin sandwich. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find them for about 10 years now, even though I’ve looked for them in nearly every supermarket I’ve spent any significant amount of time in. I couldn’t even remember who made them or what they were called. Well, last night I decided to find out what actually happened to my childhood treat. Off to Google!

Turns out my biscuits were called Sunshine Golden Fruit Raisin Biscuits. When Keebler bought out Sunshine, they discontinued the Golden Fruit line, which explains why I haven’t been able to find them. The Wayback Machine even has a copy of one of Keebler’s old product pages describing them. So sad.

Or maybe not! It also turns out that my raisin biscuits were actually a variation of a British biscuit first produced in 1861 called a Garibaldi biscuit. While not produced in the US, Garibaldi biscuits are still sold in England and can be found via various importers such as the British Food Shop or the Vermont Country Store. As Bill and Ted would say, “Excellent!!”

I bought 5 packages.

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