Lemon Cream and Whatchamacallits from China

Today's treat amounted to a Lemon Meringue pie sans meringue. Instead of the meringue an ersatz whipped cream was used making it a Lemon Cream Pie.  Basically it was good - who doesn't like a cream pie?  The whipped topping though was similar to that seen on another cake with the defining trait being it was really white.  Although it was lighter than real whipped cream we have always preferred the latter largely because we just don't know what is in these pseudo-toppings. Vegetable oil presumably but with whipped cream you know what you're dealing with. The lemon custard part was identical to that with a Lemon Meringue so no complaints there. 

In addition, today's cake contributor brought some treats from a recent trip to China. We never did get a name for either of them even with Chinese native speakers in attendance. One of them was for all purposes some peanut brittle like thing and it was a hit.  The other was a rather chalky tasting thin strip mad with walnuts.  Judging by how dry it was we assume it is something to be eaten with a cup of tea, perhaps. In that context - or with coffee - it wasn't bad. It was certainly interesting as are a lot of things that come from that part of the world - (see the post about the Durian wafers)!

The Chinese peanut brittle was tasty but in several countries peanuts are contaminated with aflatoxin - a fungus that has been implicated in liver cancer.  So of course someone had to bring this up and implicate the peanut brittle as potentially contaminated. Then again the person who brought it works with the naysayer... and the lab studies liver and the causes of liver cancer. Was this a plot... were we guinea pigs? I suppose that's a little far fetched but there is something coincidental about this. Time will tell!

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