nosh nook #6 - monday, march 23, 2009

what next for the beloved, beleaguered peanut? (link)
03.22.09 - houston chronicle - by ted anthony (a.p.)

man, people have been friggin' freaking out over the peanut recall for a good while now. my mom's allergic to peanuts & i know salmonella's some pretty serious stuff when it's all up in yo belly, but does it really deserve this much of a panic? the legumes are out to get us! i'm not usually one to say "trust the government," but this time, all you've got to do is pay attention to the f.d.a.'s recall list. something's on there, don't put it in your mouth. something isn't on there, go ahead & eat it. you probably won't get salmonella. i mean, the folks at the f.d.a. even took time to make a peanut recall widget! i tested it out & learned that there is actually a candy called "bear poop." it's on the recall list.

because everyone's freaking out, the industry's suffering & is forced to work extra hard to convince people to chill the f out. as ap writer ted anthony notes in his article, earlier this month was "peanut farmer appreciation day" at a nascar event in atlanta (where half the u.s. peanut crop comes from). at the event, they handed out 64,000 bags of peanuts. he goes on to talk about the uphill battle the peanut industry has had to fight, even before the recall. it's ridiculous how people freak out over the peanut. as an example, the seattle mariners declared a "peanut-free baseball-watching zone" at two of their home games. i'm pretty sure that qualifies as overkill.

i've seen that same sort of "peanut farmer appreciation day" spin on the new york subways. the peanut council is a regular advertiser on the trains, but there's a new series of ads up in the cars, reminding you that peanuts are actually good for you in a lot of ways. i bet the ad sales dude who has the peanut council account was ready to pop cristal within minutes of the first panicked cnn announcement of the peanut recall. lucky stiff. as anthony hints at in his article about the beleaguered peanut, unfortunately for ad sales dude (& luckily for the peanut industry), america has a short attention span & will eventually chill out about peanuts & move onto something else to panic about. i vote for snuggies...before it's too late.

nosh nook #5 - friday, march 20, 2009

'grocer' offers late-night snacks (link)
03.19.09 - daily pennsylvanian - by travis winkler

u. penn students have always had it pretty sweet. back in 04, they were the recipients of the first cereality cafe, a cereal restaurant chain. it's since closed, but there are several other locations across the country. as of a few months ago, they now have "the lazy grocer," the online brainchild of two u. penn students, offering late night snack delivery to lazy members of the u. penn campus.

according to travis winkler, in his article for the u. penn newspaper, the business students originally developed the service for a class. then they decided to actually make it a reality & rolled out the service last november. so far the top selling item is dunkaroos. according to one of the founders, "it's probably the top selling food because it's the best snack you haven't had since elementary school." wow. has it been that long? man, i need to get me some dunkaroos prawn-toe.

the article goes on to say that the founders hope to extend the service to other penn colleges and eventually create "penn smokes," a delivery service for "cigarettes, cigars, tobacco and hookah supplies." it sounds like a good idea in theory, but i assume there are already a few people on campus who sell late-night "hookah supplies," if you know what i mean...& they might be a little peeved about you muscling in on their territory...& they're not stupid enough to advertise it on the internet. anyway, good luck & godspeed, boys.

nosh nook #4 - thursday, march 19, 2009

school snack program meets needs (link)
03.18.09 - ourvalley.org - by frances stebbins

eating it up (link)
03.18.09 - san diego union tribune - by caroline dipping

here in brooklyn, i see it all the time--kids on their way to school in the morning having a bag of cool ranch doritos & a tiny blue drink thingy for breakfast. of course, once they're done consuming this nutritious breakfast, the majority of them toss the containers wherever they feel, but that's ok, because the adults do it too. the point is, low-income kids often eat like absolute crap.

oh quaint feel-good news. the first piece, by frances stebbins, talks about $1,670 in donations in salem, va made to the "area churches together" project, who then bought snacks (things like fruit cups, whole grain bars, pretzels) at a discount store & distributed them to elementary schools. if other people want to get in on the free food, they need a referral from a service agency or church. it's a homey little piece of "journalism," pretty much just information on different donations & how to give them. how quaint.

the second piece, by caroline dipping (great name!), covers a san diego organization responsible for preparing 10,000 meals & snacks for 4,000 low-income kids. last year, the organization got a new director, who came on & noticed that everything was canned & frozen & processed, so over the last year, she's totally overhauled the program with increased culinary skills amongst workers, more prepared foods & less processed foods. now kids can get three meals & a snack for $7.98 a day...& they get bombtastic snacks like yogurt parfait with granola & berries and sweet potato yogurt with graham crackers. sweet potato yogurt! holy crap! you stay classy, san diego!

nosh nook #3 - wednesday, march 18, 2009

snack attack: new 'mac snack wrap' from mcdonald's — who needs the big mac bun? (link)
03.17.09 - the national post - by karen hawthorne

i consume a hell of a lot of snack wraps. the bright, flashy, multi-floor 42nd st times square mcdonalds is right at the base of my office building, so it's extremely easy to just hop in the elevator, take it down twenty-four floors, pop out into the chaos of time sq like a cute lil gopher, procure my snack wrap (grilled chipotle is the current fave) & head right back into the building & back upstairs, pausing only ever so slightly to admire the large ecko sign across the way, which features girls in bikinis making ecko jeans for the world.

starting next tuesday, canadian mcdonalds will start serving the new "mac snack wrap," which is basically a half big mac with all its important ingredients wrapped in a tortilla. i enjoy big macs, but as karen hawthorne notes, "the special sauce oozes into your mouth" & "the flavour is creamy comfort on your tongue." that just sounds plain pornographicly disgusting.

i suppose the mac snack wrap will be a lo-carb alternative to the three-bun big mac, so it's sort of half way in between the full-on big mac & what they tried to do a few years back when they devoted a whole portion of their menu to atkins-style versions of their burgers. that was just plain ridiculous. at least this has some semblance of reality to it. after all, everything tastes better when you wrap it in a tortilla.

nosh nook #2 - tuesday, march 17, 2009

tasteful germans' tasty obama snack: frozen chicken fingers (link)
03.16.09 - the guardian - by daniel nasaw

people sure do love president obama. back in november, on the night of his election, i was in the fort greene area of brooklyn & people, as they did in various locales all over the country, basically took over the streets & did the happy dance, while the cops just stood by & watched. that same sense of happiness & hope from obama's election has apparently spread to other areas of the world.

in germany, as the guardian's daniel nasaw points out, they've transferred their love of obama to the world of snacking, with "obama fingers." these delights are made by sprehe, whose representative noted, in der spiegel, that the chicken fingers are "an homage to...the new president." hmm. fried chicken...first black president...homage?

i can't say that i fault the german company for associating chicken fingers with obama. first off, americans do love chicken fingers. my youngest brother sucks them down like it's his job. second, is the negative stereotype of fried chicken & black people that prevalent that it's made its way over to germany & now also applies to chicken fingers? third, those chicken fingers look friggin' good. you can call them anything short of "crusty dung treats" & i'd eat them.