Between my weakness for novel new cookies and my love for artificial banana flavor, I had no choice but to buy a box of these limited edition Banana Split Creme Oreos when I spied them on a grocery store shelf tonight. Opening the package gave me a heady whiff of faux banana, recalling Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers and Laffy Taffy. There's something so 1980s about artificial banana; it's the sunny, unabashedly fake Valley Girl of the fruit flavoring world, cruising the shopping mall in a yellow spandex tube dress. The cookies themselves are normal chocolate Oreos, with a canary-yellow banana cream that's softer and slicker than regular Oreo filling. The banana flavor is more subtle than the smell might indicate. I think they'd be pretty good crushed over vanilla ice cream. The Nabisco website says nothing about the Banana Split Creme Oreo, so I have no idea how widely available they are or how long they're here.














