Stella D’oro
October 31, 2007
This is an entry about Food with 1 comment
There is a market around where I work (below Telegraph Hill) that seems to sell the Stella D’oro product line. They produce the cookies and “Breakfast Treats” from my childhood and I thought they were either unavailable on the west coast or the company went out of business. But then I heard Patton Oswalt do a bit about Breakfast Treats and then they suddenly appeared on the “please take” table at work.
I was just going about my normal daily business when “Lady Stella” herself arrived. You know those chewy, homemade cookies that are the output of a happy childhood kitchen? These are the opposite. They are hard, almost to the point of tooth-chipping, and they taste like hardtack. The selling point: some have tooth-destroyingly hard sprinkles and/or some sort of industrial epoxy that stands in for frosting. When those alpha cookies are gone, you are left with the terrible three: the brown, the white, and the half moon.
Kevin said on September 10th, 2008
I got a great laugh with your comment about the ‘terrible three’! That half moon one is probably my least favorite in the whole box. Except for the chocolate ones they all taste the same, slightly sweet and very, very bland. The colored glaze is tasteless and for looks only.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s I remember my father used to bring these home from the grocery store occasionally as a treat! Stella D’oro has severely reduced the assortment in the Lady Stella box from what it was 25 years ago. They used to have some Anisette Toast in there as well as cookies with a small red hard jelly in the center. There were ones with sesame seeds on top, round ‘white’ ones with a random pinkish dough streaked through them and some in the shape of suits of cards (heart, spade and clubs). There may have been one or two other as well.
I’d say the assortment has been cut down to about half of what it was, which is why you get so many of the ‘terrible three’ in every box.