snackdown! - 1.22.10

during a week where the entire country was going apeshit over the special election in massachusetts for the late ted kennedy's former senate seat, there were a number of food-related stories that provided a bit of a distraction from the bombardment of political coverage. whether it was the demise of the deep dish or the death of a taco magnate, anything was a welcome relief from the constant "coakley is totally going to blow it" cycle of news.

• story numero uno...mamma mia! there's a trouble down at the pizzeria! on wednesday, boston-based restaurant chain pizzeria uno announced that, in an attempt to save the company, they were filing for bankruptcy. it's been rough going for them recently, what with the poor economy & rising cost of ingredients & whatnot, but i think we all know what the real reason behind their downfall is though...deep dish pizza is lame. (boston globe)


• on sunday, the world was saddened to learn of the passing of taco bell founder glen bell. at the same time, they were surprised to learn that taco bell was named after its founder. mr bell, who founded the chain back in 1962, saw the need to bring mexican food of sketchy origins to the american public. over the years, he achieved that dream & in the process, made a great impact on american cuisine. without him, we may have never known what the hell a "gordita" is...& that would just be sad. (npr)


• with this weekend's afc championship game between the ny jets & the indianapolis colts only two days away, the ny daily news' matthew lysiak has already headed out to indy for the big game. while out there, he's worked himself into a tizzy because he can't find authentic ny style food such as bagels & pizzas & egg creams. to this i offer a hearty "duh." you're in indianapolis, dude. you don't go to brazil in search of sushi. (ny daily news)


• since i'm a glutton, i shove food into my mouth all day long, pretty much right up until the point where i fall asleep. apparently i shouldn't be doing that though. according to lar rune foleide, some science guy who studies dreams, if you wolf down a couple of slabs of roast beef or a bucket of deviled eggs just before heading to bed, there's a good chance that you're going to have some messed up dreams. i guess that explains my "wall street banker/astronaut dog with the head of cuba gooding jr" dream from a few nights ago. (tahlequah daily press)


• monday may have been MLK day, but it wasn't the only important holiday this week, as tuesday was national popcorn day. the holiday, which celebrates the wonders of the air-popped corn kernel snack, is a rather mysterious one, as the national popcorn board doesn't even know how it got started. they do know that the average american eats a quart of popcorn a week though, so if you haven't had any yet this week, you've got a lot of catching up to do. (phoenix new times)

nosh nook #164 - thursday, october 29, 2009

sanchez donates dogs (link)
10.28.09 - ny post - by mark cannizzaro

i don't follow pro or college football all that much, but i do follow the news & if you're a new yorker who follows the news, it's almost impossible to have not heard of the NY jets rookie quarterback mark sanchez. for now, the new york papers friggin love him. before he'd even stepped foot on the field for an NFL game, he was a multi-millionaire with a $50 million contract. since he's one of those uber-sexy quarterback types, he appeared in GQ back in may & had been dating sports illustrated swimsuit hottie hilary rhoda, who'd appeared with him in the GQ spread. in my outsider's opinion, he's basically tom brady, but not as good & with less super bowl rings and, at the moment, less swimsuit models. i'm confident he'll one day get a swimsuit model of his own.

this past weekend, sanchez & the jets were out in oakland for a game against the hapless raiders & since the raiders are awful, the jets ending up blowing them out 38-0. by the fourth quarter, the jets were relaxed, so much that the tv cameras caught sanchez eating a hot dog on the sidelines, which is apparently a sports ettiquette no-no. he's young & didn't know any better, but according to the ny post, he's trying to take his silly mistake & "turn it into a positive" by donating "500 hot dogs and 500 hamburgers through a&p supermarket to the community soup kitchen of morristown, nj." i'm not sure why he chose morristown of all places, but he's probably made a lot of folks happy. i can't wait to see what he donates when he gets caught out late one night with a hooker.

head coach rex ryan feels that sanchez has handled the hot dog incident fine, but since he's "an old-school football guy," he's still sort of disappointed in his rookie quarterback. "it is unfortunate. we have a great game, run for 300-some yards, have a breakout game, a 38-0 score, get a shutout, and now the focus is on the hot dog." don't pat yourself on the buck that much. you were playing the raiders. i heard that they lost to a high school team two weeks back. can you really blame the media for focusing on a hot quarterback eating a hot dog?

nosh nook #137 - tuesday, september 22, 2009

stadium food? not so bad; in fact, many relish it (link)
09.21.09 - dallas morning news - by laurel laurentz

down in texas, if you're talking pro football, you're talking the dallas cowboys. sorry, houston, but you have a problem. your former team made it to a few conference championships, but your current team has yet to put together a winning season. the cowboys have been average at best recently, but they've won five super bowls & are "america's team." you're just the "texans." it's no contest, really. it'd tell you to put your hometown love behind the astros, but they've lost eight in a row & just fired manager cecil cooper yesterday. two weeks til the rockets preseason begins! oh wait. yao ming's out for the season. man. you houstonians can't catch a break, huh?

on sunday in dallas, the cowboys played their first game at their new stadium, an architectural behemoth that's the largest domed stadium in the world, capable of seating up to 111,000 people. since a live football game is even stupider without burgers & nachos & beers, the team has to be able to feed a ridiculous amount of cowboys fans for hours on end. according to the dallas morning news' laurel laurentz, a crowd of that size drinks/eats "about 7,000 gallons of soda; a ton (yup, 2,000 pounds) of nacho cheese; 40 tons of ice; and 7,500 pounds of beef for cowboys cheesesteak." there's even "the biggest beer cooler in texas," which holds "about a quarter-million bottles." i swear to god, they'd better have a legit recycling program at the stadium or i'll totally bust one of those stupid plastic bud light bottles over owner jerry jones' head.

laurel did the rounds at the stadium to find out "what's really good?" let me sum it up for you. ultimate nachos = great. bbq chicken sandwich = pretty decent, pretty good. truffled mac & cheese dishes = relished. angus burger = uncomplimentary reaction. chili cheese fries = really good. black angus burger = good. chili cheese fries #2 = really good. kobe burger = very good. philly sandwich = nothing but praise. green chili kobe burger = pretty good. pizza = good. bbq chicken sandwich #2 = good. seriously, cowboys fans. it's time to learn some adjectives. two-thirds of you described your football fare as "good." didn't you at least pick up one food adjective from one time texan melissa d’arabian on this past season of the next food network star? it only makes the fact that the cowboys blew the game on a last-second field goal that much worse.

nosh nook #131 - monday, september 14, 2009

why frito-lay is returning to its super bowl playbook (link)
09.13.09 - brandweek - by elaine wong

it's football season, bitches! i'm not really one for the football myself, but i actually watched an entire giants game yesterday at a friend's place, so i'm still slightly AMP'D. we went the partially-delayed tivo route, which meant we benefited from a condensed viewing period. that meant no waiting during instant replay or halftime, but it also meant no commercials, so i'm not sure if there were any cool opening week ones. no matter, because it's not even offically ON commercialwise until next week's monday night game between indianapolis & miami. well, at least it'll be ON as far as frito lay is concerned. CAMPAIGN LAUNCH!

brandweek did an interview with frito-lay VP of marketing ann mukherjee ahead of monday the 21st, when frito lay will launch the brand new website for their brand new "crash the super bowl" contest. there's a splash page up right now & i am confident in saying...that shit is both X-treme & inspiring. for those not familiar with it, last year's contest let amateurs create a doritos commercial for the super bowl. the top rated one took home a million dollar prize.

two amateurs won with this amazing commercial. it's friggin hilarious & everybody i showed it to in my office let out a mighty guffaw. i guess that means they hadn't actually seen the ad before today though. this year's prize is five mil & there are some sort of rule changes that make it harder. they have to change it up. frito-lay's all social media savvy & whatnot...although ms mukherjee wouldn't say as much. "i don’t know if we’re savvy. i don’t know how to measure savvy." she said. "what I do know how to measure is engagement." she is PR savvy. i'll give her that.

during the interview, ms mukherjee covers a lot of topics. she gets into the "engagement" part of frito-lay marketing through the story of frito-lay's sun chips, who are converting to fully compostable bags by 2010. they ran one ad, demi moore tweeted about how cool of an idea it was & the word was out. she talks about the fact that she has a background "in religious theology, not in marketing. (she) actually wanted to be a minister...and so, one of (her) greatest passions is to collect buddhas from all over the world." cool. here's what she thinks is the key to doritos' marketing:

"the core of the idea with doritos is these are young adults who want to break the rules and be in control. that will never change. what kind of ideas and entertainment can we give them? what opportunities can we offer to help them discover themselves? whether it’s running a contest for the first consumer-generated Xbox game or giving them a never-been-done-before gaming experience via our interactive haunted house online or a personalized concert in your hand with blink-182 that leverages augmented reality, these are all things we leverage the digital space for because that is where our consumer lives."

well jargoned, ms mukherjee.

nosh nook #112 - tuesday, august 18, 2009

new mexico state introduces snack attack offense (link)
08.17.09 - fanhouse - by clay travis

there's no two ways about it. you have to feel bad for new mexico state football program. this decade, they've stumbled to a record of 34-73, with only one winning season (in 2002). they've had four winning seasons in the last forty years, haven't won a conference championship since the carter administration & haven't made a bowl appearance since the johnson administration, the longest such drought in division one college football. with a history like that, they're pretty much destined to play second fiddle to the university of new mexico. they're not even the most famous aggies in college football. that distinction belongs to texas a&m. you'd think that being in the land of enchantment would be good for something, but nope...& it gets worse.

as fanhouse's clay travis explains, the football program is currently struggling with a $1.5 million budget gap. as part of their efforts to close the gap, they recently sent an email out to fans asking them to donate snacks to the football team. folks have already donated peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watermelons, and trail mix to help the cause, but in the words of travis, "they've made the program look ridiculous." well, yeah. i hope they have other ideas for fixing the budget, because $1.5 million is a lot of snacks. luckily, travis has a ten hilarious suggestions for how to close the gap.

the team could start with corporations. they could bring back their old "pistol pete" mascot & get the NRA or a gun manufacturer to sponsor him. they could change the fight song lyrics from "we'll buy a keg of booze" to "we'll buy a keg of <insert beer sponsor name here>." they could get rid of the "aggies" nickname & sell the naming rights to a corporation, because quite frankly, "aggies" is pretty lame, especially compared to UNM's "lobo" mascot. my favorite suggestion is to "bring back nazi POWs and have them work on farms growing snacks for the football team." apparently las cruces (home to new mexico state) "put nazi POWs to work on farms during world war II." travis wonders "why did they ever allow these people to leave?" i'm pretty sure a lot of those dudes are dead by now, but let's be honest...they're probably more alive than the new mexico state football program.