Yesterday I was preparing one of our snazzy gift boxes for a friend visiting from out of town.  I won't bother plugging the gift boxes beyond saying that they're REALLY sexy.  Anyway, they're made out of firm paper (almost but not quite cardboard) that requires a simple bit of folding to turn it into a box.  You poke here, fold there, snap this, link that, and voila, a box, and a nice looking box at that.

It's the simplest thing, really- just carefully cut paper of a certain density.  It's the sort of thing that could have been made thousands of years ago.  The ancient Egyptians, for instance, could have made these boxes out of papyrus, or the romans could have made it out of flax paper.  You could call it a "technology", but it's really just a very simple way of folding paper.

And yet, cutting and folding boxes like this didn't occur till the 19th century.  17th century Japanese folded paper to make origami, but that's not quite the same thing as cutting this rigid paper to make a box.  It's so basic and simple, and achievable by the means of the most ancient of civilizations.  Yet we only got cardboard boxes recently.

There must be thousands of other examples of such "technologies" that could have been made by the ancient Romans or the Toltecs, but didn't surface till recently.  Somehow, innovation comes in starts and fits, and not just when it CAN come, but instead when it DOES come. 

I think about this strange notion right now as I ponder what Peeled Snacks is, and what it adds to the snacking world.  Peeled Snacks have a very simple "technology" behind them that makes them what they are- our 2 bag system keeps the fruit juicy and those nuts crunchy, and allows us to do it all without adding sugar.  Technically speaking, that could have been done 400 years ago in glass or masonry jars, but as far as I know, we're the first to do it.

There's no real innovation there, just smart application.  The result is a snack that's MUCH healthier than most of the crap out there (we just got a big thumbs-up from the American Diabetes Association), and its impact COULD be to greatly improve snacking habits, or coax other players in the snack industry to create healthier products.

But just like folded paper COULD have been made by the Pharoahs but wasn't, Peeled Snacks might not succeed in fighting off the obesity epidemic (or, as we call it around here, the "Pringle Problem").  We're trying to apply simple systems to create better options.  Perhaps if George Crum (the inventor of the potato chip) had spent a little more time back in 1853 considering health concerns, we wouldn't be in this dietary mess.  But we are.  And not enough companies are doing anything about it.  Sigh...

An unfortunate admission- due to a frantic Thanksgiving, I've still yet to see Fast Food Nation.  This weekend, I PROMISE... IF it holds out.  It's done poorly.  Double sigh... 

An Ode to George Crum...

I've flecks 'bout my bib,

greased heavy with mar'grin or lard.

I've salt upon my lips,

scalding me, my gums are  charred.

I've  eaten each chip

that you've layed out before me

and utzered a sigh 

because I'm so stuffed I can't see.

My fingers are peppered

with your kitechen's oil-drenched salt,

and I'm now quite certain

that my innerds have ground to a halt.

Fooled me you did,

to eat your savory crisps,

And from me they'll not soon be parted,

as they've all grafted onto my hips!!!

EN, the Peeled Skinny

Posted by iankusc at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This Friday, Richard Linklater's filmic fictionalization of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation arrives in a theater near you (if you live in New York or LA, at least), and we here at Peeled Snacks just couldn't be more excited.  The material in Schlosser's book obviously is close to our hearts and minds, and Linklater's novel (or novelistic, if you like) approach to the Schlosser's non-fiction certainly deservers some attention.

 As I wrote in a previous blog, I'm a rather orthodox Linklater fan, which means that I've seen all of his films, for better (Dazed & Confused, School of Rock, Before Sunrise/Sunset, A Scanner Darkly) or worse (The Newton Boys, Tape).  I haven't yet seen his latest, but its very creation means that either prominant members of our society are finally taking a stand against the ridiculously awful fast-food industry, OR that someone in Hollywood wants to follow 2004's Oscar nominated Super-Size Me to boxoffice gold (it made nearly $30 million on a $65,000 budget).

The film takes stabs at the sanitation standards and hiring practices of national fast-food chains, and apparently drenches the screen in abattoir gore (the scenes from slaughterhouses are supposedly gut-wrenching, LITERALLY).   One subplot revolves around revalations revealed in Schlosser's book that your average hamburger contains a little (just a smidge, hopefully) poop. 

This territory was dramatically laid out 100 years ago in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which featured sausages instead of hamburgers (there were no burger joints in 1906), and Lithuanian immigrants as opposed to Linklater's Mexican ones.  But the two pieces have clearly similar goals in terms of exposing industrialized food production's impact on people, be they exploited workers, or just sad suckers who happen to fall into the meat grinder and get served to kids in bologna sandwiches.

Taking on fast food today is taking on myriad topics.  Super-Size Me mostly focused on fast-foods impact on an individual's health and well-being.  But there's the exploitation of workers to take into account.  There's the diabetes epidemic and malnutrition.  How about the ethical treatment of animals, or the creation of super-bacteria by feeding livestock anti-biotics? 

On the other hand, there's the economic impact on families- fast food is certain to feed a family of 8.  And if fast-food companies could be coaxed into serving healthier foods, could they perhaps be the most effective vehicles for positive change in the American diet?  In the film, supposedly Bruce Willis comes in to play the devil's advocate, and at least a couple of reviewers have referred to his scene as the film's most thought provoking.

Well, I'll find out this weekend, and write it up next week.  As a bonus, the film features  Catalina Sandino Moreno (from Maria Full of Grace), Patricia Arquette (From Nightmare on Elm Street 3: the Dream Warriors!!!), and Avril Lavigne (from, uh, the Sk8R Boi Video?)!!!  A MUST see, indeed.

-EN, Peeled Skinny 

Posted by iankusc at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How do you like your snacks?  Do you like them salty, or sweet?  Do you like them healthy, or sinful?  Do you snack for flavor, or to fill the belly?  What's your favorite snack, and what's your least favorite? Everyone'll have a different answer, as everybody (and every BODY) has his/her/its own tastes and needs.  But lately, this crazy health-food trend has taken on conventional ideas about snacks and snacking, and those of us trying to help the hungry masses survive from 4pm till the end of work are scrambling to keep up.

Thus I submit to you a noble attempt by our friends at Frito Lay to make a buck off this crazy health stuff.  Please be warned that the following article contains vulgar language...

Frito-Lay Angrily Introduces Line Of Healthy Snacks

Snacking trends are tough to keep up with, so hats off to Frito-Lay for getting on the bland/healthy bandwagon.  For the record, though, this article raises a doozy of a conundrum faced by all of us snack manufacturers- how do you deal with social or cultural trends that contradict basic biology? We are (all of us that might read this blog, anyway) basically overgrown monkeys (or divine creations, if you prefer), and we all somehow are programmed at a very deep level to savor salt, crave fat, and slurp up sugar whenever possible.  And NONE of those cravings are met by particle-board-like parsnip crisps.

In a strange way, I feel for the beleaguered and bitter Frito-Lay CEO Carey as he rails against health nuts and their unwanted impact upon his products.  We struggle right now against the Whole Foods mandate that none of the food they sell (except their red wine) contain sulfites.  Please don't get me started on sulfites.  I'll simply say that 90% of what I hear about sulfites is just wrong, and unless you have asthma, you have nothing to fear from the SMIDGE of sulfites in our products.

And yet, here we are, preparing to roll out a sulfite-free product come January or February, solely to cater to unfounded food trends.  Sigh.

Here at Peeled Snacks World Headquarters we regularly scrutinize our competition (as ought every good corporation).  We comb through snack racks and bins at the check-out counters, looking for trends, new products, and updates to classic snacks (like last January's  "Doritos Bag" update.  Frankly, we're all still in shock).  Everyone here had their own sort of "snack specialty"- there's the trail mix chick, the everything-with-seeds lady, the candy girl; I count as the chips and crisps dude.  Lucky me.

Any irony you might find in a bunch of healthy-snack peddlers eating blatantly awful snacks, please keep to yourself.  It's important to know what the kids are noshing on these days, and insights gained from seeing the bright colors behind the glass at a vending machine simply DO NOT COMPARE to actually tasting the lurid staleness within.  Most of the snacks we buy to try go uneaten, either because we have other snacks to try, or because they're just gross.

One final note- congrats to the Democratic Party, who (thanks to the endless campaigning and leadership of George W. Bush) have just taken over 1/3 of our government.  I recommend that, whatever happens in the next two years, you all DON'T SCREW IT UP!!!!

An Ode to Frito-Lay

I'm pretty sure that they put that salty powder on there

on purpose.

They coat their chips and curls with grains of flavor

and salt,

and after every cheetoh moves from oranged fingers

to mouth,

I must wash my cheetoh grabbing digits clean with my lips

and tongue.

Should perhaps I worry about my saliva-coated fingers

and thumb,

when sharing my Doritos, Cheetohs, or lime-drenched Tostitos,

so addictive?

Or does that orange and yellow dust somehow cauderize

all hands?

I think I'd rather not know, and just finish

my bag. 

Posted by iankusc at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It's a big day here at Peeled Snacks headquarters as we all try to get our work done amidst the promise of an election day (and more importantly, the promise of the day AFTER).  We have a somewhat unwritten policy here that on election day, you either vote, or you recently got run over by a semi and are hanging by a thread at death's door.  You could, if you wish, see it as our version of bigotry or racism, except that we're prejudiced against non-voters.

Technically speaking, you don't HAVE to vote.  According to the constitution, voting is a RIGHT, as opposed to a privelage or a responsiblity.  It's something that every couple of years or so, you can feel free to partake in, much like the Olympics or James Bond movies.  You don't HAVE to go do it, though it certainly has its fans, and, oddly enough, its haters.

I certainly know plenty of people here in New York that insist that voting doesn't matter. One friend of mine insists that since New York is so overwhelmingly democratic, there's no need to vote (to him I say, Pataki?  Guiliani?).  Another says that since New York doesn't matter in the presidential races, it's not worth the time (to her I say, all politics is local; that, and move to Florida).  Today, one buddy of mine offered an interesting arguement that I found difficult to challenge- he gets nothing of value out of voting, so his time is better spent working.  Hmmm....

I wonder most of America feels about the time it wasted voting for Republicans in 2002 and 2004.  Given the costs of those votes (cost of waging two wars, cost of indulging the rich, cost of a bloated government, cost of the reputatution of the U.S., cost of the LIVES of our troops), I wonder if Ohio thinks that was all "time well spent."  Apparently, George Bush has a special mission for democrats today, and I'm sure for him that'll be time VERY well spent...

Traditionally, when it comes to fixing elections, Democrats seem to be the party guilty of fraud, whilest the Repulicans are guilty of extortion.  4,000 dead Chicagoans notoriously voted for Kennedy, while 40,000 Ohioans just didn't get to vote against Bush in 2004.  Somehow we preach the virtues of democracy abroad, but fail to implement them at home.  Our nation is actually led by a guy who didn't win, and who got his job by bullying millions out of their right to vote.  And we're trying to export this democracy stuff?

Actually, though here at Peeled Snacks you'd BETTER vote, we don't really care who you vote for.  That's  the glory of our silly little system- providing nobody cheats, eventually the kinks will work out. The pendulum goes to far that way, people will vote it back.  If it comes too far this way, WATCH OUT- it swings back the other way.  So vote, Vote, VOTE.  The system only works if you do.

But I sure do hope that the current government goes down.  Anyone still assuming that this government is doing its job hasn't been paying attention.  This congress only worked 93 days this year, an all-time low, and they spent more than any government, anywhere, EVER.  They loaded the budgets with pork, stole money when they could, and blocked any dissenters out of the political process.  Worst of all, they rubber stamped this disaster of a war, that has put some of my best friends into completely insane, life-threatening situations.  This all needs to STOP!

But whether or not that'll happen with a new government, I can't say.  I assume, though, that it's be a good start.

Posted by iankusc at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)