The War

Today a coworker returned to work after her vacation to Italy. It was rumored that she had left food at the secretary's desk (where communal offerings are left) and so I went up to inspect. There, upon the secretary's desk, sat a pile of poo cookies.

Now, I hate the word poo, but really, that's just what we called these cookies: Poo cookies. There are different brands, shapes, flavors, sizes of poo cookies, but the two things they all have in common are they they 1) are inexpensive and 2) come in a bag. Poo cookies would often feature at meetings. The only time I would allow myself to buy poo cookies was when they were accompanied by a jar of Nutella. There was nothing so exquisite as Nutella piled all over a poo cookie.

When it seemed that we'd soon go to war with Iraq, the mission president asked us all to buy enough food and water to be able to stay in our apartments for two weeks if necessary. Among the war provisions in my companionship (there were three of us) were three bags of poo cookies and three jars of nutella.

War broke out two days later, and after we received the phone call telling us to stay in our apartment, we all walked solemnly to the kitchen to bring out our war provisions: Nutella and poo cookies. And it was the best war ever.

15 comments:

stupidramblings said...

Hi Cic. This is your evolutionarily-stunted friend, stupidramblings.

In Spain people were known to mix two ingredients together--crushed maria cookies and condensed milk--to create "caca de vaca." Caca de Vaca translates directly as 'cow crap.'

DEEEEELISH!...

FoxyJ said...

Ooh, I miss Caca de Vaca. It was one of my favorite missionary invented treats...I also miss Nutella. I should go buy some with my birthday money.

daltongirl said...

Poo cookies at our house are those no-bake chocolate peanut-butter oatmeal things. They are called poo cookies because they actually look like poo. I can't comment on the possible similarity in taste.

Roald Dahl said, "Poo is a powerful word in any language."

And let's take a trip on over to the Far East for a second. In Japan there's this delicious beverage that everyone drinks, except it's sort of unappetizing to Americans because the name sounds a lot like "cow piss."

Carina said...

Mmmmmmmmm marias y dulce de leche.

Now all I need is some cola cao and I'm all set.

Th. said...

.

I'll eat anything with Nutella....

Ryan said...

Why would you stay in your apartment in Italy due to a war in Iraq?

Lady Steed said...

Hmmm....must go add some Nutella and poo cookies to our food storage.

Mrs. Hass-Bark said...

In Chile they call no-bakes 'caca de mono'. And they are delicious. Also, we ate them on my mission during the alleged end of the world, aka Y2K.

Ninon said...

But WHY were they called "poo cookies?" Their shape? color? A similar sounding Italian word?

Ninon said...

And, for the record, let it be noted that the "blog police" didn't say one word during the long blog drought.

Cicada said...

The disavowed: We were asked to stay in our apartments because there was strong anti-American sentiment during the time, and the mission president wanted to wait a while to see how Italy would react towards Americans before allowing the entirely obviously American missionary force back on the streets. When we were allowed to leave our apartments, we were not allowed to wear our name tags for a week or two.

Anonamom: They were called poo cookies because they were cheap and not excellent. That's all. We also had poo milk, which was boxed milk that could sit on your shelf (outside the fridge) for years. It was called poo milk because it tasted bad.

Jenny said...

I had never heard nobakes called poo cookies or poo balls until I moved to Utah. I was so grossed out I didn't eat them for like 72 hours. I love those cookies!

redlaw said...

ha ha ha.....great story!!!! wish we had stocked up before 9/11 but i guess no one really saw that coming......

Carina said...

That's why an emergency container of nutella must be in the house at all times. I'm feeling a little frightened as I only have one in my desk drawer. My home is vulnerable.

I do, however, have a half dozen cans of sweetened condensed milk waiting, just waiting, to be turned into dulce de leche. I love food storage.

chosha said...

Wow, you've just alerted me to the severe lack of Nutella in my food storage. How I expected to survive a natural disaster I'll never know. In fact, isn't running out of Nutella on the list of natural disasters? Hmmm. Maybe it's an unnatural disaster...