nosh nook #197 - tuesday, december 15, 2009

orville redenbacher's line of legendary snacks now includes popular popcorn treat (link)
12.15.09 - the times of northwest indiana - by philip potempa

you think you know everything there is to know about snacks? sir and/or madam, that's just poppycock. you can't know everything there is to know about snacks. i mean, i'm like a snack expert & stuff & i just now discovered that in addition to being an awesomely snooty, old-timey word, "poppycock" is also a type of candied popcorn & nut snack that's been around for a few decades now & is akin to crunch & munch or cracker jack. if you believe wikipedia & the merriam-webster dictionary, the word "poppycock" is is an anglicized version of the dutch word "pappekak," which means "soft dung" or "diarrhea." mmm. poppycock.

philip potempa of the times of northwest indiana grew up eating poppycock. he & his family used to watch friday night "creature features" on chicago's wgn-channel 9 & he & his family would snack on popcorn-based products--cracker jack, jiffy pop, fiddle faddle & poppycock. since then, he hadn't thought much about poppycock until a publicist representing con agra (who now owns orville redenbacher) contacted him about poppycock's new branding. she informed him that from beyond the grave, orville redenbacher is trying to get the word out about the fact that poppycock is now being sold under his name & it's now "two great brands but still the same great product." behold! orville redenbacher's poppycock.

potempa's particularly proud of redenbacher's indiana heritage & the late bow-tied popcorn magnate holds a special place in his heart. back in 91 when potempa was at valparasio, redenbacher was "the first celebrity (he) ever interviewed." redenbacher's big in indiana. when you're talking indiana celebrities you're basically talking mj, bird, mellencamp, letterman, johnny appleseed & redenbacher. maybe will shortz. you think i should have included axl rose? that's just poppycock.

anyway, if you think you'd like to give someone you love a lil' poppycock this holiday season, orville has "festive, holiday-themed tins" ready for you to snatch up & wrap up & put under the tree or whatever ceremonial plant your religion requires you to put the presents under. just picture it. it's ambiguous holiday morning & the family's sitting around the ceremonial plant. maybe there's a small child or something at the house so that the act of opening gifts is still overwhelmingly awesome. basically, people are psyched about opening gifts. your female sibling reaches under the plant & pulls out a present from you. "oh, you shouldn't have," she says. you chuckle, possibly guffaw. she unwraps it, stares at it for a moment & holds it up for everyone to see. "it's poppycock." your grandmother laughs to herself. your grandfather passes a bit of gas. at that point, you'll know it's a successful specified winter family gathering holiday & all will be right with the world...thanks to poppycock.

nosh nook #191 - monday, december 7, 2009

coming to a theater near you: the snack police (link)
12.7.09 - smartmoney - by kelli b grant

i have to be honest with you. pretty much every time i go to the movies, i'm at least sneaking in a soda. like most rational human beings, it kills me to pay $4.00 for a friggin fountain soda. it's just insane. are we living in japan or something? i mean, i get it. theaters make a huge portion of their money off of concession sales, so they need to keep that revenue stream pumping. unfortunately, we're living in a crap economy & money's down all around for theaters, concessions included. as a result, theaters are starting to crack down on people cutting into their precious concession revenue by bringing stuff in with them. just last week, the second biggest theater chain, amc theaters, announced that they're ending their policy of letting people bring snacks into the theater. they figure it's time for us cheapskates to start ponying up at the concession stands.

since the movie theaters are trying to milk us for all we're worth at concessions, smart money has a few tips to help us save money elsewhere when we're venturing out to the cineplex during these tough economic times. basically, their tips add up to a bunch of ways to take advantage of discounts. for starters, lots of theaters have loyalty clubs that "offer gratis and reduced-price snacks" at those lame times when nobody goes to the movies, which works out swimmingly because you're also trying to save money by going to a tuesday matinee. luckily, you & your three closest friends are unemployed, so you can easily work it into your schedule. even if you're still employed, you can buy packs of vouchers that offer discount prices on concessions.

their best suggestion is to "pick your movies carefully." i couldn't agree with this point more. there is no reason that you need to rush out & see madea goes to jail in the theater. trust me, you can wait until it comes out on dvd. if you're going to see crap, at least go see something like transformers, something that requires a big screen to really appreciate all the extraneous explosions. it's pretty self-explanatory. stop seeing so many crappy films & you'll save money.

as a service to my readers, i'm going to offer up a movie savings tip of my own: just keep sneaking snacks in. laws are meant to be broken, people. it's not like a theater's going to pat you down on the way in, so you can easily smuggle in a candy bar & a couple of nips no problem. it's no $10 jumbo popcorn/soda combo, but you don't need that crap anyway. from what i hear, that combo has as many calories as a small baby. nobody should eat an entire baby during a summer blockbuster. it's just not healthy.

nosh nook #189 - thursday, december 3, 2009

one of america's most POPular snacks is a corny holiday treat (link)
12.2.09 - nj.com - by carly romalino

hey, have you guys/dolls ever heard of this snack called POPcorn? it's CAH-RAY-ZEE! what it is is corn kernels that have been removed from the cob, dried out & heated up until they've POPped! apparently you just take a bunch of corn kernels, toss them in a microwave or a pot or something & heat them on up. after a while, because of science the kernels POP & puff on up & the next thing you know, BAM! you've got yourself a bowl full of snack, slugger! you can even toss some flavoring on it if that's the way you swing. i know! it's absolutely mind-blowing that i'm just learning about the stuff.

when i first read about POPcorn yesterday in an article on nj.com, i was like "how have i never heard of this POP-corn? i need to start living more." then i got on the internet to blog about it. the article, by carly romalino of the gloucester city times, is TOTALLY informative, thanks to the fact that she was able to get a bunch of facts from "wendy rappel, of the non-profit popcorn board funded by u.s. popcorn processors." it's no national corn grower's association, but it's something. since rappel's with the popcorn board, you have to assume that she knows what she's talking about & everything she says is 100% true.

for instance, i learned that POPcorn is "america's favorite movie snack." until i read this article, i thought that it was quail. i also discovered that even though it's a snack, it's "surprisingly nutritious." that's the kind of surprise i like & my rock-hard abs do too! until i read this article, i thought that a tub of buttered movie POPcorn was "the nutritional equivalent of three quarter pounders topped with 12 pats of butter." education! i also learned that corn is called "maize." the indians native americans called it that. fact! the article's not just here to teach us about POPcorn though. it's also here to teach us about what we can do with it this holiday season, despite the fact that "it might seem really tough to expand upon the way that popcorn is prepared." luckily, wendy rappel & the POPcorn board are experts on POPcorn & they're full of good ideas.

since X-mas is right around the corner, it's all about finding ways to fuse your POPcorn into something festive, like a snowman or a wreath. all's you have to do is choose & prepare "what rappel called the 'liquid portion' of the recipe--or the marshmallow, chocolate, or corn syrup" & when you're done doing that, you mix it with the POPcorn & you've got yourself a bunch of sweet-ass sweetened POPcorn. from there, shape it into whatever you want. the POPcorn board suggests making their "holiday popcorn snowman," but POPcorn is "very flexible," so you don't even have to worry about being creative. you can just mold it into balls. it's up to you. it's your POPcorn. do with it what you wish...& enjoy. i know i'm going to enjoy mine. i mean, now that i know about it, i am SO going to buy some POPcorn this holiday season. thanks nj.com!

nosh nook #114 - thursday, august 20, 2009

popcorn a hidden source of antioxidants, study says (link)
08.19.09 - abc news - by joseph brownstein

apparently smartfood has been on to something for quite some time now. for almost twenty-five years now (twenty of them as a frito lay company), they've been churning out a white-cheddar popcorn that's both tasty & relatively healthy (free of trans fats, gluten, msg). as such, folks often tend to think of it as a "healthy snack alternative." popcorn's obviously better for you than a bag of cool ranch doritos or barbecue pork rinds, but it turns out that it's even healthier than we thought.

as abc news reports, this tuesday, researchers released a study that found that popcorn has "more of the dietary fiber and antioxidants than any other snack food." take that fictional pomegranate-blueberry-acai barley buckwheat blasted snack bars! joe vinson, a university of scranton chemistry professor who was the study's lead author, breaks it down. "in the case of popcorn, the antioxidants are protected from the sun in the drying process, and the corn loses only a little bit of them when it is popped. additionally, through the whole process, the fiber provided by the whole grain is not removed."

dr. david katz, from yale university's school of medicine, brings up a good point though. "the real issue with popcorn is what gets added to it, and frankly that's often an issue with foods in the modern food supply. if you add a lot of butter and salt to popcorn, it merely becomes the delivery vehicle for a lot of bad stuff." he also notes that "one of the nice things about popcorn is that it's a 'fun food,'" which essentially means that it's both "enjoyable" & "provide(s) nutrition." too bad that popcorn sans salt or butter or caramel is also sans fun. unless someone comes up with a plain popcorn that actually tastes good, i'm going to keep pouring on the butter because as the study shows, even popcorn coated in a pound of butter is popcorn high in antioxidants & fiber...& i can poop better knowing that.

#110 - bro.

i have two bros & one sis. the younger bro (tim) came along my final year of high school, but i grew up with the sis (aimee) & one of the bros (chris). in fact, i shared a bedroom with chris until i moved out for college. through the years, we had our share of sibling squabbles, but it was two times that we were playing together that led to two scar-inducing injuries for him.

the first came when he was about four. our basement had been leaking, so my parents decided to weather treat it & had folks dig up around the foundation, leaving huge piles of dirt & rocks in the yard. since kids love playing in dirt & i was a budding MLB star, the two of us were running around on the mounds as i heaved a random rocks about...until one connected with his forehead. the second time came a few years later, on a rainy afternoon when we really wanted to play wiffle ball. despite our mother's pleas to stay inside, we went out anyhow. during the game, he hit a booming shot to the outfield & i gave chase. by the time i got to the ball, he had already rounded 2nd base & was headed for 3rd, which was a large boulder. as i reached him & went to apply the tag, he slipped on the wet grass, smashing his head on the boulder & reopening the scar from years earlier. playtime fun!

luckily, a forehead scar isn't that serious of an injury, so he grew up to be a relatively well-adjusted individual, despite all the death metal he listened to during high school/college and the fact that he initially went to college & earned a degree in funeral services. it worried some of our relatives, but for the most part, i saw it as him getting into a unique & respected profession. eventually, he went back to school for a degree in industrial design, allowing him to both better utilize his amazing creative talents & get away from dead people.

he's always lived in cool neighborhoods--jamaica plan, somerville, greenpoint--and lived in austin for a few years, which is totally hip. these days, he's just moved into a sweet apartment in greenpoint & has a ton of tattoos & builds bikes & rides them all over the place & designs custom cabinets for hot shot NYC folks. on the side, he works with kaiju big battel, which means he's been on friggin' MTV.

my bro's a good guy. i'd like to say i taught him well, but he's obviously cooler than me. if not for him, who would've introduced me to dirt, gish or dirty? who would've gave me the set of drums i tried to use on my first home recorded album?  who would've brought me back a bag of gourmet popcorn from austin? nobody...that's who.

#110 - bro.
snack: cornucopia dill pickle popcorn
drink: lakefront brewery wheat monkey ale



...so the bro took a trip back to austin a few weeks ago & returned with a gift bag of cornucopia dill pickle popcorn for me. cornucopia's a popcorn store with two locations in austin & this particular bag came from the locale that's housed in an airstream trailer in the trendy soco (south congress) neighborhood.  it was started by two friends who are obviously big fans of the pun.  at cornucopia, there's no such thing as hours of operation.  nope. instead, they have hours of poperation. how punny!

the dill pickle flavor's not as weird as it sounds.  in fact, it's the "house favorite" at cornucopia. it's basically like regular butter popcorn with a buttery/salty taste that's complemented by the dill flavor. when compared with cornucopia's range of flavors, which includes everyday flavors such as smores, texas chili & cinnamon toast and seasonal flavors such as pumpkin pie & pomegranate, dill pickle's rather tame. regardless...really tasty.

to try keeping up the texas theme, i went to my local fancy beer shop (where the coolers are arranged by state) looking for a texas beer. i didn't see any, so i went up to the counter & asked the guy if they had any. with a smirk, he responded, "nope." i had a feeling that was going to be the case. after all, texas is known for beers like lonestar & shiner bock. instead, i went for a bottle of lakefront brewery wheat monkey ale, out of milwaukee. the label has a crazy, clearly drunk cartoon monkey with a piece of wheat for a tail! i love monkeys! they're even spelled cool plurally! :(|)

as for the contents of the bottle, it's your average wheat ale with a hazy look, but it's apparently infused with a lil bit of monkey love, which never hurts.  it's a great beer for the summer--not too heavy but not too bitter, with a slighty fruity taste.  plus, when you're drinking it, you'll have nothing to hide...& your monkey won't either.