#169 - b.a.n.a.n.a.s.

remember that sweet ass tv show the banana splits? some of you may know the awesomeness i speak of, but for most of you eat!drink!snack! readers, who i assume skew heavily tween, you have absolutely no idea what i'm talking about. let me lay it out for you. there was this hanna-barbera variety show back in '68 & '69 called the banana splits that featured four animal characters (people dressed in sid & marty kroft-designed costumes) who were in a band called the banana splits. the show was part live action, part cartoons & part segments where the banana splits got into wacky situations & occasionally rocked out. when i was a kid, it was on in reruns & i ate that shizz up. i mean, just check out this awesome opening sequence, where they frolic about an amusement park in their "banana buggies":

the splits are made up of fleegle (a dog who was essentially the leader of the group), bingo (a gorilla), drooper (a lion) & snorky (an elephant). throughout the show, the splits would hang out in their clubhouse for a while & then cut to one of the live action or cartoon segments. the main live action segment, danger island, was a three-hour serial split into thirty-six chapters, each with a cliffhanger at the end. how campily awesome was it? let me put it this way. in the first four episodes, one of the characters fights a pirate, a shark, a jaguar & an island native. you just don't get that level of awesomeness these days. as for the cartoons--arabian nights, the three musketeers & the hillbilly bears--they were equally as amazing.

all told, the show was an hour of romping good fun. it's safe to say that as a child of the mid-70's, i'm still a sucker for campy, psychedelic, slightly subversive 60's & 70's kids shows such as the banana splits.

although my memories of the show are entirely pleasant, to be honest, i haven't thought about the splits in ages. i even missed out when warner brothers apparently revived the franchise a few years back with a new website. the revival also included a new look for snorky, one that i do NOT endorse it at all. it was one thing when, at the end of the first season, they changed him from a mop-covered, vaguely elephant-looking creature to one that more closely resembled an elephant. it's a whole other thing when they go the extra mile & make him into the UBER CUTESY elephant that he is today. it's a friggin travesty. back in the day, between the mop hair & the fact that he only talked in honks, snorky used to have an edge. now he's just somebody who looks like he'd get his ass whooped out on the playground. it just goes to show--when you've got a good thing going, don't mess with it.

snack: nong shim banana flavored snack
drink: wells banana bread beer

in honor of the mighty banana splits, the other day i munched on a bag of nong shim banana flavored snack that my bro picked up for me a few weeks back. it makes sense that he'd get me such a snack, since he was the one who covered the banana for our "the musical fruit" series. i'm kind of against bananas themselves, but snacks that taste like bananas are fine. these ones are made in korea by nong shim co, ltd & according to their website, they're "edible between meals & suitable for infants or old people." infants would obviously enjoy the happy-go-lucky, safari hat-wearing banana on the front of the bag, but he might be a little too in-your-face for old people. i guess old people chooes the banana snacks because they enjoy treats that are shaped like cheese curls, taste like fruit & are easy on the gums.

even before i opened the bag, i was a bit frightened. the idea of a cheese curl-shaped banana snack is weird enough as it is, but the back of the bag suggested that they're "best before: 29.dec.2009," a date that has long since passed. luckily, their consistency is one that starts crunchy & ends with them melting in your mouth, a trait that's perfect for masking staleness. even if they were stale, i wouldn't have been able to tell. they're mostly made with corn flour, sugar, oils & powders, so i guess they keep pretty well as it is. flavorwise, they're fairly aight. they definitely taste like bananas & that flavor doesn't linger as an overwhelming aftertaste in your mouth, which is cool. regardless, i only ate a few of at a time before taking a break from the banana taste.

i paired the banana snacks with a pint-sized bottle of wells banana bread beer. it's made by wells & young, a u.k. company that also makes one of my favorite beers, the young's double chocolate stout, a beer which i covered a few months back. while most of their beers are relatively normal, they have a few interestingly-flavored beers, ones like the chocolate stout, the "wells waggle dance" (a honey-flavored beer) & the banana bread one. the banana bread beer's brewed with mineral water & fair trade bananas, so you can sleep easy knowing that your consumption wasn't the end result of oppressing anyone.

just like with the banana snacks, going in i was already skeptical that a banana flavored beer could harbor any positive qualities, but by the end, i was impressed. for starters, it pours with a dark golden color & a consistency that reminded me of boddingtons ale. it definitely smells & tastes like bananas, but neither the scent or flavor are too overwhelming. there's a bit of caramel in the flavor & along with the banana & the malt, it makes for a tasty beverage. i'm not sure that i could drink more than one or two in a sitting, but if i did drink one or two, i'd definitely enjoy what i had.