Sharing food with loved ones is one of the greatest joys in my life. Whether it's sitting down for an impromptu cookout with friends after realizing I've made way waayyyy too much brisket, or trading sips of cocktails at a swank bar with my husband, the intimacy of communal consumption is a thing I deeply treasure.
But keep your paws off my movie popcorn.
I don't remember how it started, but it gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies to split a bag, box or tub at the multiplex. I'm at the movies to escape, and thus am not especially pleased when called upon the carpet about my lust for pumpable faux-buttery "golden topping" or, heaven forbid -- forego it for the sake of someone else's calorie skimping. And, as an otherwise dedicated sharer of food, I don't want the worry of polite portion equity getting in the way of my movie enjoyment. I just want to sit back, jam crunchy, oily, salty gobs of popcorn into my mouth, and enjoy the show. My solution? I buy us each our own bag.
Yes, I know it's the biggest financial rip-off known to mankind. Yes, I know it's the nutritional equivalent of eating 37 Big Macs and washing them down with an industrial-sized vat of ranch dressing and a 10-liter bottle of bacon grease. I've also been known to sit through cinematic pocket lint like 'Mona Lisa Smiles' and 'The Patriot' just for the butter and salt fix, so clearly I'm not rattled.
What does worry me is the trend of art houses, at least where I live in New York, getting all haute with the formula, offering sugared cinnamon, spicy cheese powder, garlic flavoring and whatnot. Perhaps they're taking a tip from
Salted, neon-yellow buttered popcorn has been a staple since Sam "The Popcorn Man" Rubin began selling it at his
DVDs, surround sound and whiz-bang home theaters are grand and all, but until I can install a butter pump and industrial kettle popper at home, I'm going to keep crunching, munching, and licking my salty fingers while sitting in front of that silver screen. Who knows? I might even be convinced to share.
6-22-2007 @10:58AM halvasnack said... Movie theater popcorn is great but it has to be fresh. What I hate more than anything is when they theater has already popped it all and it's just waiting for you in the bags. This leads to the stale salty corn that is a true rip-off.
I always tell the folks behind the counter that I'll wait for the fresh batch of corn. Heck it's my $5.50 and if I want it fresh, I'll wait for it.
My first job was at a Movie Theater and the butter topping that we used was actually just melted lard. It looked like Vaseline when we put it into the warmer. After that moment I have never put butter topping on the corn. Also, we used Palm Oil to cook the Popcorn. It came in large ice cream gallon like containers and was a solid bright orange color. I had to scoop it up and inevitably it would get on my shirts leaving a greasy orange stain on the cuffs. Oh the secrets of bad food and what goes into them.
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7-14-2007 @7:31PM Harry Pemberton said... An evening out with a large order of freshly popped, salty, buttered popcorn is as important as the movie selection itself. In fact, I purposely choose to watch new release movies in certain theaters expressly because they have better, fresher popcorn & toppings.
My date will sometimes fuss that "the popcorn is too salty or buttery," but that's just fine with me and I'll eat it all by myself. Life is too short to skip the salt & butter. It enhances the taste buds and improves the whole movie theater experience. Besides, it's a treat - you don't eat this popcorn everyday.
If you are a movie theater "salt & butter" popcorn lover, I know you understand...!
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7-20-2007 @5:13PM Harry Pemberton said... An evening out with a large order of freshly popped, salty, buttered popcorn is as important as the movie selection itself. In fact, I purposely choose to watch new release movies in certain theaters expressly because they have better, fresher popcorn & toppings.
My date will sometimes fuss that "the popcorn is too salty or buttery," but that's just fine with me and I'll eat it all by myself. Life is too short to skip the salt & butter. It enhances the taste buds and improves the whole movie theater experience. Besides, it's a treat - you don't eat this popcorn everyday.
If you are a movie theater "salt & butter" popcorn lover, I know you understand...!
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7-18-2007 @9:13PM Susie Lewis said... "Never Make That MISTAKE(?) Again??!!Have you ever tasted that sugary popcorn concoction called "Crunch and Munch"? Simply divine...but expensive when i can make my own popcorn and melt butter with sugar and drizzle over perfectly popped popcorn,,and haul it in tow to the local $10.50 per person local cinema...i know it's not the same..it's better
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7-18-2007 @11:42PM laura laura said... I love the buttery popcorn and feel cheated if i don't get a fresh tub full of the fluffy white stuff. Funny, here in california you can buy the crunch a munch at the local dollar store. Our large popcorn tubs are six dollars and a large drink is 4.50.
The only other thing that I like at the concession stand is bon bons or pretzle.
Scary to think that luscious butter is really lard?
Anyone ever tried jalapenos with your butter popcorn? Its good..if you like to spice it up a bit.
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7-19-2007 @12:07AM Lisa said... Yummmm butter on popcorn. The fix for me is as good as donuts are for Homer Simpson. I don't want to hear how bad it is for me. I only get to the movies a few times a years and I am going to have what I want and I want freshly made (not brought in bagged) popcorn that's slathered in butter. And bless that young man's heart that made the gadget that puts in on equally through the entire container. Like I said yummmmmmm....
Lisa
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7-19-2007 @12:20AM Tom said... Who was the marketing idiot who suggested the popcorn companies stop inserting that little bag of seasoning that they use to put in each bag to give it that "Movie" flavor. I remember growing up in the 50's you use to be able to make 'Movie" quality corn at home with this special bag of seasoning. PUT IT BACK IN!!!!!!! Anybody remember Jiffy-Pop.
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7-19-2007 @12:29AM Sean said... I'm at the movies to escape, and thus am not especially pleased when called upon the carpet about my lust for pumpable faux-buttery "golden topping"
Kat Kinsman loses a lot of points by settling for faux butter. The theatres charge as much for popcorn with crappy oil dripping on it as they do for actual butter.
And lately, theatres, at least on Hollywood Blvd, have started serving lousy day-old popcorn, shrivlled, shrunken and hard. But you can pump just as much lousy oil - that never tasted as good as butter - on this packing material they call "popcorn" as you may wish.
Back in the 1950s and 60s popcorn in theatres cost 25 cents - 35 if you had butter, A cherry coke was a dime - 15 cents for the large, I always spent the whole half-dollar. Popcorn at a theatre without butter was gauche. And you needed ALL the coke you could get after all the salt.
"Popcorn" was a great instumental by that superlative group Hot Butter.
Imagine a song called "Popcorn" performed by Hot Palm Oil or Hot Margerine or by Hot Axle Grease ... you get the point.
The day I realized that my youth was undone was when I walked past the Vogue Theatre on Hollywood Blvd back in the 1970s after the introduction of crappy oil "buttery flavoriing" that replaced honest-to-God real, pure butter and gagging at the odor. The stink rolling out of the theatre onto the sidewalk contaminated the air half a block away on both sides of the street.
How anyone could work there eluded me. How anyone could work there and live in a family was an even greater mystery.
That was the begiinning of the end for the Vogue. It's still on Hollywood Blvd but its been boarded up for years.
I remember the signs set atop the glass candy counters: "The Management has substituted a palm oil topping in place of butter. We honestly believe that the flavor is superior."
Bullshit. The oil was introduced solely to save the owners a few cents they would ordinarily shell otu for "butter fat" in large five lb tubs. The very thought of butter in five lb tubs in the the last 30 years of being made to feel guilty about eathing anything not made from soy seems astonishingly foreign.
Ah, for the days when we had so much more personal freedom and we didn't have busybodies monopolizing the airwaves demanding that we conform to their standards.
Eventually every theatre on Hollywood Blvd got rid of the butter. Different oil blends were found and now the crap no longer stinks. It just tastes like 3 in 1 Oil and its inferiority to butter remains an embarrassment to movie theatre owners.
Eventually I went only to independent theatres that advertised "WE STILL USE REAL BUTTER ON OUR POPCORN."
When the El Capitan was refurbished, restored and became the jewel of the post hippy Hollywood Blvd, it served only butter on its popcorn. It actually felt right taking my little son to see "Hocus Pocus", "Alladin" and "Beauty and the Beast" there.
II can't tell you how very gratifying I found it when I read, a couple years ago, scientists announced that margerine - supposedly the Great Yellow Hope - will kill you faster than enjoying the benefice of butter.
It's well known that God invented popcorn to save us from looking like pathetic morons by drinking melted butter.
Palm oil can go back to lubricating ball bearings.
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7-19-2007 @2:37AM Maribee said...
HI!~ I know all you speak of. The Movies/Popcorn thing. But altho' it started way back when 30's or 50's...they have changed. The butter USED to be REAL. And it also wasn't so expensive to go eithers. I also resented having to smoke in a certain area...then to not smoke at all.
So now...I have a 55'' TV....and I use the microwave type...with butter...real butter....and then I put on Butter Buds...it is like the salt in the theatres... And I am a happy camper!
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7-19-2007 @2:33AM jj said... what you really need to try is dumping a bag of peanut m&m"s into a large bag of really popcorn...HEAVEN!
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7-19-2007 @3:48AM Gay Lynn said... Thought......What if the theatres went back to selling popcorn for the 1950's, heck even the 70"s prices. I bet they would get even more families into the theatres! That way a family could have a nice evening out without it costing them a whole paycheck! We recently went to a small ole time theatre in a small Ca. town where they had popcorn, in smaller bags of course, for $1.00 a bag. It was fresh, they were selling it as fast as they could pop it, and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg , even buying 2 bags each! At gas prices the way they are, and the price to see a movie, popcorn soda or even water....no wonder Netflix is doing so well! Might as well stay home! They're loss!
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7-19-2007 @4:30AM JJ said... Whoever thought of puttign butter on popcorn is a freakin idiot. thats just nasty.
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7-19-2007 @12:25PM Kat K. said... >>Kat Kinsman loses a lot of points by settling for faux butter. The theatres charge as much for popcorn with crappy oil dripping on it as they do for actual butter.
Hey - point me to a theater that's using actual butter, and the next tub's on me! We just don't have 'em here in New York (at least that I've ever found), or where I grew up in Kentucky, or where I lived in Baltimore or Philly. At home, I pop in a wok atop my stove and usually sprinkle in a little butter and kosher salt, or sometimes Parmesan cheese if I'm feeling all wacky.
And Susie - I looooove Crunch & Munch and other sweet, chunky concoctions like that. This popcorn just seemed to have sugar on it and nothing else. It was a little unbalanced, and being at the movies, my palate was set on salt.
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7-23-2007 @8:52AM Terri B said... Boy, I'm a threatre popcorn fan as well. The salt, the faux butter, the corn, the krunch! I also hate the pre-made bags at the threatre. I will ask for a fresh bag every time. For the cost I should get what I want. I did go to the drive-in recently and to my surprise they had the old time popcorn from way back when. The cost of the movie was actually cheaper as well, only $5.00 per person. I'll admit that nothing beats the silver screen but for the 'real popcorn' taste I can endure the drive-in.
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7-24-2007 @6:39AM Kathy Gregory said... Go ahead all you butter lovers, clog up them arteries.
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7-24-2007 @7:08AM Lauren said... I LOVE M&M's with popcorn. But... not at the movies.. I love layers of the butter stuff. Yummy!
Yes I remember Jiffy Pop! That was fun but 9 times out of 10 it burned... what the heck I ate it anyway! lol
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7-24-2007 @7:48AM Garyaja said... M&M Peanut is good I've tried it but the real good stuff is a box of Snow Caps or Raisenets with Pop Corn it is really out of this world.
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7-24-2007 @8:42AM JUDIE A. SAGER said... I NEVER KNOW IF I LIKE THE MOVIE TIL THE POPCORN IS OVER!!
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7-24-2007 @11:36AM Stella said... I LOVE going to the movies, but at the same time, the cost is outrageous. I make my terribly fattening but delicious popcorn with REAL butter at home and take my soda, at about 40 cents a can and watch movies now. Once in a while, I hit the theatre for a movie, but smuggle my drink in, in my purse. Two people going to the movies can easily cost $50.00 now.........for a movie that lasts 90 minutes. If the concession stand prices were not so expensive, we would go more often.
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7-24-2007 @8:02AM Virginia Fusco said... One of life's greatest mysteries, why the nosiest food (popcorn)is eaten
at the movies, where you disturb others concentration???
Just plain self indulgent, rude and lacking in respect for your fellow movie watcher to be making rustling and crunching noises. amen.
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