Girl-and-cat cookie ritual worthy of trip to NYC

Whether she first became enamored with biting through the twin chocolate wafers or tasting the sugary sweetness of the creme filling, Danielle Robbins isn't sure. She's just a girl who really loves Oreos.

Every day after school, the fifth-grade student at St. Vincent De Paul School in Cape Girardeau sits down at home with her cat, appropriately named Oreo, to snack on her favorite treat.

"I eat about 20 or 40 Oreos a week," she said.

Danielle's love for the cookies earned her family a five-day trip to New York City this month to attend the Oreo 90th Birthday Bash Celebration held at Chelsea Piers in Lower Manhattan. Her winning essay was about her daily sit-down Oreo feast with her cat.

She entered and was named a grand prize winner of the "My Favorite Oreo Moment" essay contest. Danielle, her parents, Eric and Cathy Robbins, and her older brother, David, were flown to New York City last month by the cookie company, which treated them like dessert royalty.

Her prize package also included a hotel stay at the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue, invitations to the Oreo Reception, an Oreo gift bag, a miniature Matchbox-style Oreo car and T-shirts.

Some people develop highly specialized rituals for how they eat Oreos -- twisting the wafers apart, eating the creme first, or eating them only with milk -- but 10-year-old Danielle's routine only involves her cat. She doesn't put much consideration into it, she said.

"I just eat them," she said plainly. "Sometimes I dunk, sometimes I don't."

mwells@semissourian.com

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