nosh nook #48 - wednesday, may 20, 2009

sweet smell of success (link)
05.19.09 - the beacon news - by mike danahey

it's candy time, people! in chicago, yesterday marked the first day of north america's largest candy & snack trade show--the all candy expo--hosted by the national confectioners association (NCA). it's a three day event where industry folks gather together & just like at E3 or the north american international auto show, show off their groundbreaking new candies & treats. sadly, i'm not in chicago this month, so i'm not attending. also, i'm not an industry member (yet) and it's one of those industry-only shindigs.

as mike danahey explains, around 13,000 industry folks are expected to descend upon chicago's mccormick place for this year's all candy expo. according to the NCA, it's a good time for the industry. last year, sales figures rose for such delights (sugar-free gum aside) as gourmet chocolate, dark chocolate, sugar-free gum, licorice and gummies/chewy candy. i definitely helped contribute to those gourmet & dark chocolate numbers.

like with any trade show, you have a mix of companies at the expo, from industry giants like mars or hershey to little start-ups trying to make a name for themselves. danahey mentions one start-up in particular--illinois-based landgarten usa--which deals in things made with organically grown soy beans, almonds & pumpkin seeds. it's run by thomas gratz, a man who started the company after the economy started sucking. good for him.  on the flip side, the industry giants use trade shows such as this to unveil new products. as a result, we can finally sleep easy knowing there's now a coconut m&m (barf).

#83 - candy pants mcgee.

seriously, what would easter be without the bunny?  that rabbit kicks ass, right?  i mean, rabbits in general are pretty important (see bugs, roger, greg, the trix rabbit & the jackalope), but the easter bunny takes those other rabbits' importance, adds it all together & then does something mathematical to it, resulting in a level of importance quite unparalleled in the animal kingdom.  here's why.

he's been more successful in wrestling easter away from jesus than anyone on the planet.  growing up, we usually celebrated easter with a combination of easter mass, candy & treats for the kids and visiting & dinner with the family.  what part was most important?  the part where i got to down an entire tray of single serving reese's easter eggs or consume the entire head of a rich, chocolatey, hollow rabbit the moment the parents weren't paying attention.

SPOILER AHEAD...before i was old enough to figure out space & time and know that there wasn't an actual easter bunny filling the baskets of children all around the world every easter morning in honor of the resurrection of god's son, that bunny ruled.  when it came to easter, he was where it was at holiday wise. he had the candy & he'd give you some.

if only he had a van he could've lured me into in exchange for said candy, we could've left the world behind & gone on all sorts of wacky, candy-filled adventures.  it'd be just like the baby looney tunes' eggs-traordinary adventure, but with less emphasis on the search for the true meaning of easter, since we already know that the true meaning of easter is four.

#83 - candy pants mcgee.

snack: three musketeers raspberry dark chocolate minis
drink: flying dog garde dog ale


tonight, i'm going to down like fitty of these three musketeers raspberry dark chocolate minis.  they're a limited edition version they've brought out for the spring, with a bag that urges consumers to "bring the spring feeling home" and promises "whipped up, fluffy chocolate-on-raspberry taste."  if there isn't a bit of a pornographic feel to that promise, i'm a monkey's uncle...coincidentally, the monkey's uncle is the second awesomest animal in the kingdom, trailing only the easter bunny.

...so the raspberry three musketeers minis taste reminiscient of a chocolate you'd randomly select out of one of those holiday hearts or boxes filled with assorted chocolates.  as far as new three musketeer flavors go, i prefer the mint flavor to the raspberry, but if a tiny japanese guy challenged me to a eating contest involving the raspberry flavor, i wouldn't turn him down...& i'd wipe the floor with him in the process.  u.s.a.!  u.s.a.!

my beer of choice on this sacred easter night is a flying dog garde dog ale, a french "beer de garde."  that's french for "beer for keeping."  i'm not sure why that is exactly, because i'm definitely not keeping it around for very long.  it's flying dog's spring beer & has a light, fruity sort of taste, which is odd when juxtaposed with the snarling, ralph steadman dog on the label, but it's all good.  it has a feel somewhere between a pilsner & a cider, so i'm pretty sure that means i'm getting servings from both my bread & fruit groups all in one beer.  yay nutrition.

so yeah...happy easter, all you pagans.

nosh nook #8 - wednesday, march 25, 2009

when economy sours, tootsie rolls soothe souls (link)
03.24.09 - new york times - by christine haughney

holy crap! did you hear that the world economy is totally in the shitter? it's true. everybody's getting bailouts. it's so bad that just the other day, the good people of aeg touring had to band together & create a bailout package for michael jackson. only took them a few hours to get that plan in action. all he has to do is play 50 shows at london's o2 arena. if he actually survives to the end, it'll set the record for the longest residency by one artist at one place. take that prince! pfft. 21 shows.

one area of the economy that doesn't need a bailout is the candy industry. they're doing just fine, thank you. you know how i know? because the ny times said so & they would never ever lie to me. according to christine haughney, who wrote the article, gives us a wide range of perspectives from candy store owners around the country. no matter who you ask, whether it's candyality in chicago or economy candy in the lower east side, things are as peachy as those yummy gummy peaches. people need their candy, y'all.

she goes on to note that the economic stability is also seen amongst the manufacturers & in fact, cadbury, nestle & hershey have all seen recent profit growth. thank god for that, because the last two are working with multiple billions of dollars in revenue & as we all know, companies of that size are just too big to fail.

#62 - obviously funny.

since i'm in love with tv shows again, in return, i've decided to give them a valentine's day gift today, with a display of devotion beginning with the first of a month's long theme of snack blog entries, all with a tv-centric focus. what can i say? when's one of the best times to snack? when you're engrossed in your favorite tv show...or your favorite 20 tv shows, so for the next month, that's what i'm going to be up to...my v.d. gift that keeps on giving...a whole month of the gift of v.d., you might say.

i guess i had heard the name "demetri martin" in the past and i recognized his face. then i came across some ads for his new comedy central show, important things with demetri martin & then he showed up in my mailbox & bathroom on the cover of new york magazine & then i noticed a few friends had watched the show...thanks to facebook status updates! the greatest thing that has happened to this country since whatever it is we used to go to myspace for! spam? it was spam, right? that's why we went there?

i decided to watch last week's premiere episode of important things today. i'm a sucker for self-referential comedy & deadpan comedy or "smart" comedy & i love charts & diagrams and mr. demetri (communist name?) also loves that stuff. some of my favorite shows are sketch-based and made up of short comedy bits (the state, kids in the hall, pre-norm mcdonald snl) so i feel like i'm solidly in the target market for this show. this week's theme was "timing." it's funny most of the time & i'll definitely watch it next week. next week's theme is "power." luckily, comedy central tends to stick with shows like important things (see the sarah silverman program), so it'll hopefully have time to grow on people, since it's not typical comedy.

#62 - obviously funny.

snack: wonka tinglerz
drink: bawls guarana cherry

on 42nd street on friday afternoon on my walk back from picking up thai food & looking to get a drink to enjoy with it, i stopped in the 7-11 across from port authority & grabbed a mountain dew from the cooler & started toward the register when i was stopped in my tracks by a shiny purple bag of wonka tinglerz. they're simple to explain...pop rocks + chocolate = tinglerz. since willy has never steered me wrong, i grabbed a bag. these things are friggin wacky & fun & all but i can't help but feel like the pop rock tingliness is actually my teeth being eaten away at. that sort of freaks me out, but in a yummy, chocolaty way.

when i grabbed the tinglerz, i figured i should pair it with some beverage i'd never had before & make a blog out of it & when i checked the first cooler, i found my choice, a choice based on pure, blatantly obvious comedy...bawls guarana cherry. would you like some bawls with your tinglerz? yes, yes i would. i would also like it if you made my comedy simple & spoon-fed so that i can shut my brain off. it's just easier that way & i have a feeling that it might keep production costs down. anyway, i'll follow jay leno & whatever he does off a cliff like a lemming, as long as it keeps production costs down, especially if i've got bawls coursing through my veins.

plus, i like to live life on the edge. remember the urban legend about eating pop rocks with soda? as it went, by consuming both at the same time, you would totally explode. a big-ass energy drink is ten times more dangerous than that, right? it's a clear beverage & gives me the eeriely unsettling feeling illustrated through the comparison of bawls is to energy drink as grain alcohol is to alcohol, without having to drive to nh to get it. it's mostly odorless & tasteless & i have a feeling that when i'm finished with this can, i'm going to be TOTALLY AMP'D. bawls to the wall!

anyway, being amped on bawls & tinglerz is wicked funny...WAY funnier than this stupid snl episode. didn't i swear these snl bizznitchez off? i'm watching it for the jonas bros. that's it. & i won't watch the whole thing...so it's ok. obviously.

#21 - x = _.

i listen to a lot of npr. you might call the amount of npr that i listen to in a given week "disgusting" or "irrational" or "humanly impossible," but i do it. it's just that, by nature, i'm curious about everything that's going on at all times everywhere. a typical week by my calculations:

all things considered (weekday) - 135 minutes x 5 days = 675 minutes
all things considered (weekend) - 50 minutes x 2 days = 100 minutes
all songs considered - 30 minutes x 1 day = 30 minutes
morning edition - 105 minutes x 5 days = 525 minutes
day to day - 50 minutes x 5 days = 250 minutes
fresh air - 50 minutes x 5 days = 250 minutes
news & notes - 50 minutes x 5 days = 250 minutes
talk of the nation - 110 minutes x 5 days = 550 minutes
tell me more - 50 minutes x 5 days = 250 minutes
weekend edition (saturday) - 105 minutes x 1 day = 105 minutes
weekend edition (sunday) - 105 minutes x 1 day = 105 minutes
car talk call of the week - 5 minutes x 1 day = 5 minutes
this american life - 60 minutes x 1 day = 60 minutes
studio 360 - 52 minutes x 1 day = 52 minutes

TOTAL - 3,217 minutes (53 hours) = 32% of my time

it's really not as hard as you might think to listen to this much npr. i have the ability to slap on a pair of headphones whilst at work, so i usually end up spending half my time there listening to npr. between walking, subway & whatnot, i usually get in another two hours of listening a day. then, the rest of my listening is done whilst at home, which comes out to...

3,217 minutes per week
work listening - 240 minutes x 5 days = 1,200 minutes
travel listening - 120 minutes x 7 days = 840 minutes
home listening - 1,177 minutes (19.6 hours per week/2.8 per day)

two facts you may have gathered about me:
1. i love math
2. i am slightly o.c.d.

#21 - x = _.
snack: e. frutti x-ray fish
drink: snapple goji punch

with my math, i've decided to break out the gummy x-ray fish that i got when i was up in boston weeks ago for the radiohead show. check out this (hastily photoshopped) bad boy:

obviously, everything gummy is good, so we don't even have to go there. the best part about gummy things is that they contain gelatin, which means that i'm getting my daily fill of connective tissue! yay! as you can tell, the skin comes off to reveal the best parts of the fish--the head, spine & tail. mmm. fish spine.

to wash this fishy down, i'm having a snapple goji punch. apparently a goji is basically a wolfberry & according to the back of the label, this fruit "just might be the world's most powerful food." why is it so powerful? according to the front of the label, the beverage offers immunity to the drinker. this excites me to no end. if i am ever attacked by infection, caught in a foreign land with contraband, or on a reality show, i am so going to drink another one of these. the bonus? it's tasty too.