DEAR SUN SPOTS: I flew to Chicago recently on a United Airlines flight and was given a crispy cookie with a thin caramel filling for a snack. It looked a bit like a waffle. I loved it and saved the wrapper but now I can’t find it. Can you help me find where to buy these? — Charlie, no town

ANSWER: You were served a Daelman’s Stroopwafel, a Dutch-made cookie added to the airlines’ free snack line-up in early 2016. When the airline discontinued providing these sweet treats as part of their snack line-up, customers had a lot to say about it and the cookies were brought back into the fold permanently.

Stroopwafels are especially delicious when placed on top of a mug of steaming tea or coffee and left to soften a bit. This allows for the caramel filling to get all melty and gooey.

I think it’s really cool that United made the choice to serve these cookies to hungry passengers because it’s brought more awareness to this old-time treat.

The Dutch invented stroopwafels in the late 1700s or early 1800s when they sandwiched a thin layer of caramel syrup between two thin wafers. Now there are a few companies in the United States that make them and have branched out to include other flavors like chocolate and cinnamon.

The cookies can be found at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walgreens, Starbucks and Dollar General. There are also recipes to make them at home. I’m going to give it a whirl.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Does anyone remember Sim’s Diner in New Auburn where the roller rink is now? — No name, no town

ANSWER: Patricia Lightman, formerly of New Auburn, and now living in Waxhaw, South Carolina, shared this information about the diner: “My cousins Lee and Charlotte Levesque and the rest of the family were from the New Auburn area. Dad and Charlie, with the help of my uncle Carl Simmons of Rockland, opened Sim’s Diner in New Auburn. It was an institution and featured lobster rolls with clear meat for only 15 cents. Another specialty was their fried clams with the belly. This was a delicacy in the north, and not found in the southern part of the United States.

“My father, Paul, was not in the business but his brother, Lucien, started the Sim’s location on Minot Avenue.

“As one gets older, we often ask ourselves whatever happened to this and that.

Sim’s was part of New Auburn, along with our family history, and many of the Levesque’s are no longer with us.

I now live in North Carolina with my husband, Ira, but my heart will always be in Maine, missing all the good people and times that were part of my life. How time goes by, and what we remember about the good old days!”

Thank you for sharing this, Patricia. I hope other readers will write in about their memories about Sim’s and other local “institutions.” These stories are an important part of our history and I invite you to use Sun Spots as a conduit to keep the conversation going.

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