Pop Food

The more I look at that headline the more it looks like a story from The Onion, but it's true.

Fredric Baur, a chemist who worked for Proctor & Gamble and designed the Pringles Potato Chip can, died earlier this month at age 89. His request was that part of his ashes be buried in one of the Pringles cans, and that request was granted. The rest of his ashes were put into a regular urn. Both containers were buried at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield, Township, OH.

Baur created many products for the company, but he'll probably be best remembered for the Pringles can, because it didn't just allow for the chips to be stacked, it really became part of pop culture.

I have a faint recollection of eating Spam when I was a kid. I know that my mom bought it once in a while, but I tried it a while back and I don't think it's something I would try again (that film on top...gah). I think the only way I would try it is if it's in a recipe where it's cooked a lot or smothered with other flavors.

Like the recipe after the jump. It's for Spaghetti Carbonara and it comes courtesy of spamrecipes.net.

Like Gael over at Pop Culture Junk Mail, I didn't even realize that Hostess got rid of the magician guy who was on the front of their pies since the early 70s. I don't usually buy snack pies anymore, though I do love them (both Hostess and Drake's).

I know that products and companies and logos have to change over the years, but I always feel a little sad when a classic character or design is changed. Really, did the change improve sales? You would think that keeping a classic character would endear a company to loyal customers even more.

Now if someone could answer this question. What exactly was the magician? Was he human? The body shape suggests a banana, or some sort of legless apple slice. Or maybe the Penguin from Batman.

If you're from New England, then Cape Cod Potato Chips are probably a staple in your cupboard (or wherever you may keep your chips). The original kettle chips are quite tasty, but let's talk about the various flavored chips that Cape Cod also sells.

The Sea Salt & Vinegar chips are strong and crunchy, while the Beachside BBQ chips taste a little different than other BBQ chips, as they have molasses and chili pepper. The Jalapeno & Cheddar chips are very strong when you open the bag but taste great. The Cheddar Jack & Sour Cream are so flavorful that you don't need any kind of dip to go along with them (Cape Cod also makes a new Honey Dijon chips and Buttermilk Ranch, but my local store was out of them).

We've had X-Men and The Fantastic Four, so why not a movie about cereal mascot superheroes?

Our sister blog Cinematical has news about a new computer-animated film called Cereal Heroes. It's about cereal box mascots that are accidentally brought to life and have to go on the run and stay safe in the modern world.

This sounds so crazy that it just might work. I'm not sure if I want to see it as an animated film or try to get actors to play the mascots. But if the writing is sharp, this has great satire potential. Imagine the Quisp guy flying around and Tony The Tiger saving the world and the Rice Krispies guys getting into trouble. Maybe Cap 'n Crunch can have a cool speed boat that he pilots to save the day.

Which cereal characters would you like to see come to life in a movie like this?

It's hard to get excited about gum. I mean, really, what can be done with it? You can try a different shape or a different flavor or a new ad campaign ("the flavor never stops!"), but in the end it's something you chew for a while, it starts to not taste that great anymore, and then you throw it away. But once in a great while you find some gum that's a little bit different.

Take Orbit's Lemon-Lime. I can't remember if I've ever had this flavor of gum before (maybe Fruit Stripes had this flavor?), but this is quite good. It's actually refreshing, in a lemon-lime drink sort of way, and you can even squeeze out some intense flavor even late in the chewing game. That's all I really look for in my gum-chewing experience, and Orbit succeeds in a big way.

(Hmmm....Nicole reviewed this a couple of years ago and didn't like it. Oh well.)

People fall into two categories: those who think that food that looks like people is cute and those who are creeped out by it. If you fall into the latter category, this site is not for you.

It's Ice Cream People, a site devoted to pictures of ice cream that have faces and sometimes bodies. You'd be amazed at how many different pictures there are of this, from ice cream truck signs to carnivals to food packages. I like the freaky ice cream monster above, and you can get it as a t-shirt!

[via Pop Candy]

I've never been a fan of frozen bagels. I don't care if you can toast them and they get all crunchy, I still like the bagels you get in the bread aisle, not frozen. They just taste better to me for some reason, and you can even eat them without toasting them.

So when I saw Kraft's new Bagel-fuls in the frozen food section, I was already thinking they might not be that great. But I bought them to see how they'd taste (for science and you readers, of course). First of all, if you store these bagel tubes filled with cream cheese in the freezer, you have to microwave them. You can't put them in the toaster unless they've already been thawed a bit, so if they're frozen you have to nuke them for 20 seconds.

How do they taste? They sorta taste like fried dough, not exactly bagel-ish. They're not bad, they'll do in a pinch I guess, but give me a regular bagel and I'll toast it and spread the cream cheese on myself.

After many years of reading fortune cookie messages that are not so much predictions as truisms, such as "Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own," many dismiss them entirely. To counteract this boredom with fortune cookies edgy, depressing messages have begun cropping up.

But there are still fortune cookie romantics who save their favorite little scrolls. I count myself among them. When I stand in front of the fridge at 2 a.m. eating roast beef with my bare hands I close the door and take comfort in reading, "Believe in your abilities, confidence will lead you on."

And then there's Bob Bjarke. Not content to post his favorite fortune cookie message on his fridge or elsewhere, he created The Best Fortune Cookie Ever. What could motivate someone to throw up a one-page tribute to a fortune cookie? Perhaps Bjarke is a frustrated would-be astronaut with plans on living into the 2100's and takes solace in the fact that there's a chance he might still be able to snag that Earth-view villa. The only thing I know for certain is that he found his favorite fortune at Chicago's Papajin. I'd love to know what the Jennifer 8.Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles makes of this.
[via SFoodie]

Source

I think Jack in the Box is trying to out-creep that creepy Burger King guy.

They've put up a web site called MakeAJackSandwich.com, where you can upload photos to make a "Jack sandwich," which isn't a real sandwich but a viewer-generated threesome you can place in a hot tub. I guess they're going for that "fast food/swinger" demographic you read so much about (don't worry, the site is fun and G rated - OK, maybe PG).

You can watch the ad for their Sirloin Steak Melt, which is sirloin steak, grilled onions, and three different kinds of cheese on sourdough bread.