Here are a few interesting junk food-related stories from the past week or so. Enjoy.
Via Bloomberg: Why Supermarket Bacon Hides Its Glorious Fat
Fat is flavor. But we’ve also been taught that fat is unhealthy and unappealing. And this tension may explain why bacon has one of the most unusual and underappreciated packaging formats of any supermarket product.
Via NBC News: Chips So Good You’ll Have to Go to Jail to Get Them
That’s because the chips — which taste like a combination of salt and vinegar, barbeque seasoning, and a little bit of every other flavor ever known — are not sold in stores. They’re “jail chips,” meaning they’re produced and sold exclusively for America’s prisoners.
Via Atlas Obscura: The Rise and Fall of Fruitopia, the Trippiest Beverage of the ’90s
If you were exposed to Fruitopia as a youth, chances are that you remember it vividly. The drink, with its day-glo colors and funny flavor names, was somehow both adult-approved and delicious.
Via The Atlantic: Can Fake Junk Food Truly Satisfy?
Healthy eaters, rather than just eating bland plates full of plants or completely cutting out foods they’ve deemed unhealthy, instead are using fruits and vegetables to create fake versions of the things they crave.
A coworker of mine told me about those chips. She half said she wished her brother would go back to prison so she could have them when she visited him.
They sound like all dressed chips from the description.
I don’t know if it’s now defunct, but a couple of years ago there was a company called California Chip Co that made “earthquake” flavored chips. The story on the bag said something about there being an earthquake, and all the flavoring spices got mixed together. They were super good. People seem to love this “all flavors” variety, I wonder when the big corporations are going to get on board?
I read a different article about The Whole Shebang earlier this week, and also got the impression that they sounded like Ruffles All-Dressed, but maybe with even more seasoning? I want to buy some but twenty bucks for some chips makes me waffle.