Bowlful of Crickets

Sometimes you wish all these "limited editions" of famous brands would go away.

Sometimes you don’t.

I’ve been a big fan of the Mounds bar for years- growing up, it was one of my mom’s favorites, so it was thankfully in the house from time to time. Dark chocolate. Sweetened coconut. Simple- and perfect in my book.

Throw in almonds and the bar is extra special, one would think. But no- Peter Paul just had to make Almond Joy milk chocolate. You had me and you lost me, Pete- if that is your real name.

So not only did Peter Paul make things right (if only for a limited time) when the introduced the Chocolate Chocolate Almond Joy, they did it one better. They made the coconut chocolate too.

Dear reader, this candy bar is sensational. The idea of chocolate coconut, dark chocolate and almonds (lightly coated in chocolate. per the Almond Joy tradition) is my idea of candy bar bliss. This combination is not for everyone, but I’m in confectionary heaven- even if, indeed, it’s only for a limited time.

This is the second 52 Foods entry (see my review of O-Ke-Doke Hot Stuff Cheese Popcorn) to focus on Cheese Popcorn. Yes, I like Cheese Popcorn. The best I’ve had have been from shops like Garrett’s (worth waiting in line for) and The Long Grove Popcorn Shoppe (worth putting up with the pretentious spelling of shop for). My hope is that I may one day enjoy popcorn shop quality popcorn in the convenience and cost-effective method of an over-the-counter product, available at grocers nationwide.

I had high hopes for this- Hey, it "Pops Up Cheesy!" as it says on the box. No pourable solutions, rubs, sprinkles or dusting powders required. This appeals both to my efficient and lazy sides- I don’t want to complicate the already tedious 4 minute popping process further by having to do something extra to make my microwave popcorn cheesy. Hey, I have blog entries to put off, I don’t have time to prepare complicated popcorn.

So yes, this is 1-step Cheese Popcorn. The taste? Less than thrilling. It tastes cheesy, but not super cheesy, which is maybe what I was hoping for. It smells a little like feet, which doesn’t help matters any. Perhaps if I bought the fluorescent orange variety of this product I would think it tasted cheesier, but I didn’t. I had to get all fancy and go white cheddar. I guess I thought I’d enjoy it in the back of my limo with my Grey Poupon.

I have some advice for some variations of this product for the good people at Pop Secret. Consider it a gift- repay me in free popcorn.

1) Pop Secret Obnoxiously Orange and Obnoxious Cheesy Zero-Step Cheese Popcorn: That’s right, ZERO step. I should be eating it already. Microwaves are so 20th Century. It should pop just by me thinking about it.

2) Pop Secret Two-Step Cheese Popcorn: For the Country Music fans.

3) Pop Secret 12-Step Cheese Popcorn: The first step is admitting that you want to have cheese popcorn…

Apparently the recycling pick-up in my parents’ neighborhood is not between Thursday and Tuesday, as my dad still had the Boing! can in his possession and was able to take a digital photo of it (boy, I can’t wait ’til I’m retired! Can you imagine how much I’ll be able to blog?)

Thanks, Dad. Quite the package, eh? I like the way the font used for the word Boing! is true to its cartoon heritage. And the tamarind itself is portrayed in all of its ugliness. Is there an uglier fruit? Probably only this one…

The Ugli Fruit. You have to like a food that has a keen sense of its own shortcomings…

My parents have always been supportive of me and their dedication to this blog is no exception. I was over visting them during my brief vacation last week and my dad had a product for us to split- a can of Boing! Tamarind Nectar from the local (largely hispanic) grocery. Dad would get to try something new and unusual with another adventurous soul and I would have fodder for my blog.

Let me start by saying this- you’ve got to name your company something, why not name it after a cartoon sound effect? Perhaps Boing! means something else in Spanish- if so, I’d like to think that this word is said as "BOY-YOY-YOY–YOY-ING!" when pronounced.

I’d also like to point out that I tried to find a suitable copy of the Boing! logo or a picture of the actual can for posting on the site, but I’ve got say Mexico is lagging behind when it comes to having their products plastered all over the web. I will leave it to the individual to decide if this is a good or bad thing. I did find a picture of Tamarind Nectar poured into a glass- not sure if this is the Boing! brand or not. What I drank looked just like this- which probably leads many of you wondering why I actually decided to drink this. Hey, why not drink it? That could be my famous last words were this a solvent of some sort, but seing as how it was packaged as a beverage, I figured I’d survive the experience. AND now I know what Tamarind Nectar tastes like.

It’s SWEET. Cloyingly sweet. I’m not sure if that’s from the Tamarind itself, or due to an excess of added sugar. Probably a little bit of both. The strongest taste here was sweet, sweet, sweet- and a slight fruity taste, kind like that of raisins, especially golden raisins.

So I guess it’s an acquired taste- I can see people liking this if they were brought up drinking it or eating tamirinds. Which leads me to ask this question: based on the picture of tamarinds on the left, who was actually brave enough to try this? An adveturous caveman who promised his cavefriends to eat 52 new foods in a year?

I wonder if that caveman was named Boing.

I’m a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup guy, so the recent trend of "Limited Edition" takes on this candy classic caught my attention. The title implies a two-for-one review- actually, I’ll start with the two new ones I tried this year and will throw in the other four variations I tried.

Fudge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: I think fudge is best created in tourist town candy shops and grandma’s kitchen. I haven’t found an over-the-counter fudge product that impressed me, and this is no exception. Not bad, but not impressive, either.

Extra Smooth & Creamy Reeses: This one tastes very close to the original, but is, well, smoother and creamier. The peanut butter lingers a bit longer. It’s good, but it does seem like a mutated version of the original- like these were sitting to close to the microwave or something.

Peanut Butter Outside Reese’s, or Reese’s Inside Out: It strikes me as being a bit odd that they had to explain what this product is twice on the wrapper- either one of the explanations and the picture would work fine. I really dug these when they came out- it was indeed more peanut butter tasting than the original, a nice twist. I think I had too many, as now it pales in comparison to the chocolate on the outside original.

White Chocolate Reese’s: If you dig White Chocolate, well, here you go. I can take it or leave it, so that was my thought here. Interesting enough, but not one I would keep returning to.

Reese’s Big Cup: Ever see a Giant Twinkie? How about a bra with one giant cup instead of two? Some things were meant to come in pairs…just ask Noah. The mini Peanut Butter Cups work better than the maxi cup, but the classic two pack knows no rival.

Finally, the best of the variants…that’s not the reason the graphic is larger, though (it’s the best I could find). Dark Chocolate Reese’s is the only one that improves on the original- and I must admit I strongly prefer dark chocalate to milk in any context. So I’m definitely biased here, but this is my favorite, with the original close behind..

So here’s how I rank ‘em:

1. Dark Chocolate Reese’s
2. The Original Reese’s
3. Extra Smooth and Creamy Reese’s
4. Peanut Butter Outside/Inside Out Reese’s
5. Reese’s Big Cup
6. White Chocolate Reese’s
7. Fudge Reese’s

Mind you, the Fudge Reese’s is still better than most candy bars out there. The merging of chocolate and peanut butter must be the greatest culinary accident of all time.

Yeah, I know I just did a 52 Foods posting on Monday- but I’m at only 6 write-ups and we’re on week 11 of the year, so I’m playing catch-up…and, no, I will not be reviewing plain ketchup (gosh, am I clever…)

For oh so long has man tried to bring greasy bar food into a portable format…well, not really. But since TGI Fridays dominates the globe with their family-oriented take on bar food, they might as well expand into the bagged snack market. What better way to do so than to take their famous appetizers and re-invent them as salty snack treats that can be enjoyed on sofas or in motor coaches.

I’ve seen their Potato Skins on store shelves for a few years now- and have enjoyed them upon occassion. Decent flavor, texture a little bit too Pringle-y for me, but not bad at all. My lovely wife surprised me with their Onion Rings recently- having not seen them, I am inclined to think they are relatively new.

Some of you may have looked at the graphic of the bag and thought, "They look a lot like Funyuns." You would be correct. Here are the major differnces:

1) Friday’s rings are more uniform in shape. It should be obvious to everyone that both Funyuns and TGI Friday’s Onion Rings are machine-produced, but there is a bit of randomness to the Funyuns size and shape. These Friday’s Rings are definitely from one mold…

2) Friday’s rings are smaller. They are small, tight calamari-esque hoops, while Funyuns are big, oval, Burger King onion ring sized.

3) They are much saltier than Funyuns- and that’s saying a lot. I don’t have a bag of either in front of me to check the sodium content, and that’s probably just as well.

America, you now have the facts. Choose the Onion Ring shaped snack that best fits your purposes.

Note: I am aware of Wise Onion Rings as well, but have had limited exposure to them. Debbie says they are far superior to both Friday’s and Funyuns, and why would she lie about a topic as serious as that?

If anyone knows where to get a hold of these in Illinois, Wisconsin or Iowa, please advise. Yes, we would drive that far for them.

Update: We have a bag of Wise Onion Rings in the house now, thanks to my father-in-law, who never shys away from packing foodstuffs in his suitcase when he hits the East Coast. A side by side by side taste test may be in the works…

I’m not sure why the folks at Kellogg’s had to get all fancy and pull out créme to be used in this product’s name- Vanilla Mini-Wheats would have worked just fine. Until ALL programs have convenient "insert symbol" functions, I would kindly request that people, when using English, refrain from umlauts and other characters that cannot be banged out on a standard keyboard. Call me an ugly American for the comment if you will, but I’m just trying to review a cereal over my lunch hour and I don’t want to spend half of that time trying to type an é.

With that off my chest, I happily report that a delicious new cereal has entered the world. A little vanilla never hurts, and this product does a great job improving on the original mini-wheat. The vanilla flavor is sweet and smooth, but the best part I’d have to say is when the cereal is gone. The milk the remains in the bowl goes down like a melted milkshake. Other waste products, take note- you don’t have to be the featured food to shine.

Kellogg’s, I forgive you for getting all fancy on me. Keep making variations of your products as good as this one and I’ll spend the extra time to dig up any special characters you can come up with. Hell, call something if it tastes this good…

Cheese popcorn is a fine, fine food. I will not entertain any arguments to the contrary.

Were I forced to choose one food to eat for an entire week (hey, you never know), it would most likely be cheese popcorn. Cheese popcorn is no rival to bacon, of course, but if I eat bacon for a week, well, that would be my last week. Cheese popcorn isn’t a health food, but it ain’t going to kill you either…

So certainally a food a noble as cheese popcorn would benefit from getting "kicked up a notch", as a famous toothpaste spokesman has been know to say?

The fine people at Jay’s added their Hot Stuff seasoning to their popular O-Ke-Doke Cheese Popcorn. What should be a match made in heaven is unfortunately almost inedible.

Why? It’s SWEET. Hot and sweet may work in Chinese food, but it sure doesn’t with cheese popcorn. It’s a real letdown. I actually threw away most of this bag, something I thought I’d never do with cheese popcorn.

When Donna Summer sang that she was "looking for some hot stuff", surely she wasn’t talking about this.