"corn curls" news and stories

As many of you already know, I'm a huge fan of strange snack foods of many lands. Fishy junk food is a particular favorite. But when I tell you that the long, crunchy sticks pictured here are among the wierdest junk food I've ever eaten, it's not because they have an especially pungent or intense flavor, rather it's the lack thereof.

I'm not even sure whether Paleczki Kukurydziane qualify as food. For one thing, there's no nutrition facts panel on the package. Their texture resembles biodegradable packing peanuts that dissolve in water. To be fair, this Polish take on corn curls that translates to "Sweet-corn fingers," does have flavor: a vague hint of low-fat popcorn.

Obviously I know that these mutant corn snacks aren't packing material, but they might work in a pinch. I couldn't help hoping that when I visited the manufacturer's web site, I'd find that Unopol's primary business was plastics or industrial foams. No such luck, they seem to be a junk-food concern.

So the question remains: Why on earth would anyone eat these things? The only reason I can think of is that they can't stand Flips, Polish corn curls that have a more pronounced flavor: strawberry. The light-pink morsels taste disturbingly like Crunchberries.