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Ah, the snack food! Is there anything more wonderful, more indulgent, more gratifying in the moment than our favorite snack foods?
Trying to pin down just one favorite’s really hard for me. Most of the time, I’m a savory/salty sort of guy, so I love me some salty, crispy snack foods. Chips, most notably, but there are certain crackers that are amazing too, and hit just the right spot.
Other times, though, I like my snacks sweet. In those instances, I tend to be more a cakey kind of person. I love chocolate … well, almost anything, so chocolate cake-type things are ambrosia to me. For a great change of pace, I love Otis Spunkmeyer (and how disgusting is that name for a product?) chocolate chocolate-chip muffins. If that’s not a personal-sized cake, what is? Oh, and I vacillate between Ho-Hos and Suzy-Qs being my favorite of the Hostess snack cakes, although back in the day when they made Devil’s Food Twinkies, that was the SH*T. And what’s is up with their fruit pies going down the crapper, too? In my day, those things were frosted on BOTH sides and were STUFFED with filling, AND they were BIGGER. Hmph.
There’s been a dramatic change in the way snack foods taste to me over the years. Back when I was a kid, snack foods — and soda pops, for that matter — used actual white sugar as their sweetening agent. Sometime in the ’70s or ’80s, sugar was dropped in favor of fructose, or high-fructose corn syrup, as the sweetening agent. The taste changed, but so did things like the texture and consistency of the products. Twinkies, now, are flat awful. The cupcakes are waxy and sticky, not crumby and delectable. I don’t remember exactly when the change happened, but when it did, it was noticeable. And sad.
I remember being introduced to salt and vinegar flavored chips for the first time back in the ’80s, too. A girl I was dating took a tour of Europe and the UK after high school. You know, that whole “backpack-and-hostel” thing. Anyway, she discovered salt-and-vinegar “crisps” (those crazy Brits!) then, and when they (finally) started showing up on US store shelves, she got a bag and let me try them. I’ve been an addict ever since, but I have to get them in small doses or my tongue gets all messed up and sore from the powerful chemicals used to flavor them. Ick.
Snack foods. Is there anything better? I mean, besides sex, which is always better.
What’s your favorite?
-JDT-
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DarcKnyt 
My Twitter comments were the impetus for this post yesterday, n’est ce que pas?
Maybe, I can’t remember when I wrote this post, but it’s entirely possible.
I think we’re secretly snack food soul mates. I too am hopelessly addicted to Hostess Ho Hos and salt & vinegar potato chips. I eyed the fruit pies yesterday and was disappointed because they only had apple and cherry. Plus, they were much smaller than they used to be.
It’s sad what they’ve done to those delicious, proud pies, isn’t it? I almost weep.
I was very disappointed in my Ho Ho experience; this removal of transfats from everything is going to be the ultimate ruination of junk food as we know it *sigh*.
Ah, but being so much younger than I, you missed the true heyday of the snack food, darling. It’s already ruinated. ;(
Not that I’ve ever tried, but how about snack foods and sex. There’s a reason donuts have holes, ya know.
Most disgusting thing you ever read, huh?
OH, hardly. I’ve written worse than that, bud. But I’d never hump a donut. Nevah. Donuts have holes, but women have three.
The saying is something like “you can never go home again” but I used to think ho-hos would always be Ho-Hos, and that I could return to that round chocolatey goodness of my childhood whenever I wanted. It was sort of crushing to find that isn’t the case.
I know, it’s heart-breaking isn’t it? You really never can go home again. If you do it’s changed, different, shifted … or you yourself are. *Sigh*
Three holes… One… Two… The third… Oh… That’s icky, just plain icky.
What? One topside, two below … pretty standard sexual stuff to me. Which holes are YOU coming up with?
anything sweet and salty…I like a mix! 🙂
Yeah! Why choose when you can do both!