I go to a lot of different grocery stores - both ordinary and unusual. This is the third such article I've written on the topic. Let's just jump right in and check out some of my newest finds.
My favorite recent discovery:
Green tea pumpkin seed. These are like the seeds you buy at the snack counter, with the pepita in the middle and you also eat the white husk on the outside. But those are just salted.
These are flavored wonderfully, and the two ingredients that really seem to do the trick for me are, yes green tea, but also chlorophyll. What genious thought to add clorophyll to anything we eat? Find these and eat them. I hope for your sake you didn't hear it here first. If so you've been missing out.
Least interesting thing I've tried lately:
Lean pockets
I don't know if Hot Pockets are any good, though I've heard Larry the Cable Guy's review and I think I'll steer clear of them also.
The sauce in these is a sort of viscous goo that makes me nostalgic for Velveeta, which is a much better product. If you eat these, I'd rather not hear about it. They were truly nasty.
Other recent discoveries:
Banana sheets (for lack of a better term)
These are thinly sliced bananas, rubbed with a little flower and water and left in the sun to dry. They form solid sheets you eat like fruit leather. If you think the crunchy "banana chips" are dried bananas, they are not. Bananas don't do that, but rather dry to a leathery consistency. "Banana chips" also do not taste like tree-ripened bananas, while these sheets do. These are pretty obscure, so I'd go to a big Asian market if you want to find them.
Tobacco
I don't smoke, but I saw this in the Suang Hur market in Saint Paul. An ounce of tobacco for $1.59 - and I'm willing to bet it's just tobacco. If they added chemicals to it, they'd have to charge more.
I know it says "chewing tobacco", but the ingredients say "tobacco". If I smoked - and again I do not - I'd risk the buck fifty, get me some Bambu papers and give it a whirl.
Dried "false fish"
I didn't buy it. I don't know what's false about it, but I just didn't feel like reconstituting a fish that night (or any night).
The price was right, but I have affluenza.
Dug Dae
I thought I knew what this was, so I took a picture and did a little research on the web. I found only two references in English, and both of them confirmed it's some sort of bugs. Given the choice between this and Lean Pockets, though, I think I'd be heating up a skillet to make myself a little dug dae tonight.
Wasabi
Mmmm. Horseradish in a tube. I've just been snacking on it. Delicious. My nose hates me.
Seaweed snacks
These are individually-wrapped little squares of seaweed, seasoned with a little chile, soy sauce, msg, etc. I declare them tasty.
You get a whole lot of them - a hundred or so sheets - for less than $3.
Zucchini bread
My god are these good! From the texture, I'd say they are roughly 75% zuccini, 20% wheat gluten, and 5% coconut oil. I know they're neon, but don't let that discourage you. If you see something like this, don't miss out. Eat it, eat it, eat it.
Rosettes
I understand these are also made in Scandinavian households, but these are Asian, and appear to be deep-fried in coconut oil. Very yummy. I had half of one and then took them to the office to clog the arteries of my coworkers.
And speaking of Scandinavian, here is some "strong licorice". Among other things, amonia is one of the ingredients. If you've killed a lot of tastebuds in your time, what with chiles and coffee and other harsh things, I recommend these. They have a rich and satisfying flavor, guaranteed not to bore you.
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In case this becomes a series, I think I'll name it "Ethnic Foodstuffs". The hot pockets are etnic American, (lest we get all superior-like and start criticizing the British cuisine).
Or bugs.
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Comments: 38
When someone says, "guaranteed not to bore you," I know to think twice before not being bored. When it's the best thing thay can say about a food...
Well, suffice to say there are many foods that won't bore me of which that fact isn't even worthy of mention.
As to the banana chips. I make them at home frequently. They are made with green plantains, not fresh eating bananas, sliced thinly and fried as you would potato chips, then salt or not, depending on your preference. You can also make then slicing them thinly lengthwise.....dip them in the Cuban mojito sauce (olive oil, sour orange juice (or half OJ/half lime juice) and plenty of garlic!)
Paula, keep in mind I didn't eat all of this, except the Lean Pockects. That was scary.
Kevin, I try to experience all aspects of food. I know Americans can be guilty of seeing it as fuel, and I'm that way a lot. I try to savor things also. Some things are pure sport though, and the tastes are downright challenging *and* tasty.
Lori, the banana sheets are oh so tasty. Here's one other article. I need to get on the stick and add them to my index. Otherwise I'd send you there.
Sonia, I love mixing garlic with fruit (especially strawberries). I think the banana sheet is made with regular bananas, as they are much sweeter than a plantain would be, and they are sliced lengthwise. They have the same flavor as those little cigarette-sized dried bananas one sees sometimes.
I was confused about the banana chip thing. I think we are talking about two different products. I see dried plantains at the store, and I've bought them. I find them superior to banana chips.
I have had (but not made) chips made out of plaintain. Chip as in potato chip type product. Sliced thicker though. Salted slightly.
I have purchased banana chips in the same section as raisins and dried apricots are. They look like slices of banana that have been through a dehydrator. My kids don't like them, they are really sweet like candy.
I do wish to argue your title... pockets are not "food". Those things, regular or lean are not suitable for human consumption =)~
LOL!
there are alot fothings though that I catorgize in the "if I were starving" list though..hot and lean pockets....well to me....poo poo....lol....I am definately a slow food type....I tried the breakfast ones once and I believe I looked like a dog who just bit a toad...felt like one too...
my newest"thing" is seed pastas....and unusual and new to me grain
Nicole, bananas naturally turn rubbery as they dehydrate, so they do something weird to them to make them crunchy banana chips. It's not exactly frying, because I know the fried plantains people are referring to, and those are a bit too hard for the delicate and fickle mainstream American palate. Whatever it is they do it takes much of the flavor out of the banana, which is then replaced with a banana flavoring that may or may not be natural. Fried plantain snacks are delicious, though again a little too crunchy for some tastes and plantains don't taste as much like bananas, more like a potato, so it confuses the average US consumer. I think that's why they haven't caught on. If banana chips are indeed green plantains with banana flavoring, then I stand corrected. I do think they are different animals.
Missy, thank you for the great new turn of phrase new to me! To "have the ovaries" is a wonderful thing. I understand your appreciation for hot pockets. If they weren't tasty to a lot of people they wouldn't sell. To each their own.
Ishbel, what is exotic to one person can sure be ordinary and boring to someone else. I got the same reaction after moving to Minnesota and telling people I'd "discovered" dried mutton. "Mutton" they muttered . . .
Lou Anne, seed pastas may be new to me. Do you mean orzo, or those little buckshot sized pastas a person can buy in Greek markets? Sorry, I know not everyone is familiar with the size of buckshot, but I couldn't think of anything else round that size, about a quarter the size of a BB.
Laura, I like tamarind, but it's so darned sour it takes a ton of sugar to get it sufferable (for me), and I try to avoid sugar.
Angela, I think my primary objection is the Lean Pockets. I don't want to buy the "full fat" variety of Hot Pockets, and the Lean Pockets suffer from the tendency of "diet food" versions being wretched. Enough fat, sugar and salt can make anything taste good. In fact a lot of ethnic candies are nothing more than fat, sugar and salt - maybe a flavoring added and maybe not. I've quit trying almost all candies I find in Asian markets for that reason.
Tamara, I woud have skipped it if the subject of the post wasn't strange food. Hmmmm, I like that title, "Strange Food".
Deb, I'm still eating it out of the tube. I'll get around to considering it a condiment eventually.
I also use fried plantain chips for making a cream of plantain soup the same way my Cuban grandmother did and her own mother did and so down the line....and many other Cubans do. No added banana flavor. It doesn't need it. A squirt of lime at the table will finish it off nicely.
We also make something out of green plantains called "Tostones" - you peel the green plantain, cut it in chunks about 2 inches long, fry it until golden all over, take out with a slotted sppon and drain off - then put between to layers of brown paper sack - yes, like grocery bags - and smash them down flat, then refry until golden - sprinkle salt and eat while hot.
With ripe plantains you wait until the plantains look completely black on the outside, the blacker and softer the better. When you think they are ready to throw out, peel, slice them at an angle, fry them until they caramelize at the edges.........Heaven on earth! They will be sooooo sweet! This is not a dessert, this is a side dish to go with all that roasted pork Cuban style, black beans and rice......!
Ripe ones can also be cooked in the oven in au gratin dishes........
'
None of these dishes call for "banana flavoring" to enhance their taste.
Nothing with licorice in it is sporting. Nasty stuff. I'd rather eat crickets.
Jennifer, I've only found the green tea pumpkin seeds at one market but I haven't looked anywhere else. The packaging is very "slick" so I think these are being rolled out to the general American public. You should be able to find them eventually.
Judith, thank you, but to be anything like Tony Bourdain I'd need to 1) travel, and 2) eat the bugs. I actually am surprised that insects have not been tapped as a commercial American food source. They are absurdly easy to farm and harvest, they're high in protein, and once it's turned into a cracker, who cares? Heck, we eat hot dogs . . .
Kevin, Lori - though I like black licorice, red licorice makes me wierd. There's some chemical in it that does bad things to my head. How Kevin feels about licorice is how I am about focacia(?) bread; it's some evil, overly seasoned stuff; never have liked it.
Jennifer, I think I'd start with grasshoppers. At least they're familiar. On the other end of the comfort scale would have to be dung beetles. Rhinocerous beetles would be pretty rough. And tarantulas (but I guess they're not technically bugs).
Lastly, chlorophyll is not necessary (health wise nor otherwise) for humans unless they photosynthesized.
Dorine, spoken like a true downtowner.
Dalal, the Lean Pockents are more of a joke than anything, though I would call them a neo-Scandinavian hot dish snack to go. On a more serious note, I couldn't agree with you more. Recent discoveries about the unregulated nature of Chinese food imports is very concerning to me, and may be enough to have me stick to those foods made in the traditional way, but packaged in the U.S. I must say though, the way our government has been going, it's only a matter of time before a bunch of people turn up dead from some unregulated American product.
I'd love to have Teddy Roosevelt (the environmentalist, big-business-busting Republican president we have to thank for the Pure Food and Drug act) come back and kick George Bush's whiney butt.
I'm pretty sure the chlorophyll was added for taste. If it has no nutritive value, that would be okay with me.