Well, this blog entry marks exactly my 100th published Blog entry, so I thought I'd take a moment and recount how things have gone for me over the past 2 years or so since I began chronicling the slings and arrows of Peeled Snacks' outrageous fortune. 

My first entry went in June, 2006, which means that I've put in an entry just about every week for 2 years straight.  I know that some bloggers add several entries a DAY, but I've tried to make each of my entries count, each one say something precise and as fully as I dare.  I've occasionally entered in a quick little throw-away entry, but usually even those revolve around a joke that could keep you laughing for DAYS.

It's been a while since I added one, but I've added to the blogosphere some poems about which I'm particularly proud.  Note my odes to lousy sodas and odios jingos, input from man-eating martians and wayward cowboyd, and that homage to Shel Silverstein in honor of Halloween candy- you won't find any of THAT on Gawker.  One of my poems took a political bent that offended some people so we took it off the website, but I'll remain privately proud of it, ESPECIALLY that it got me in trouble.

Somewhere along the road I hope that I've established a STANCE, a POSITION which I can consistently present to readers where they can hear one clear take on this world of food and factor it in with other perspectives.  When I think about what I generally have to say, I'd call it "Post post-Food", as in, Industrialized food production moved us beyond recognizable ingredients, and I want to move us beyond that ugly paradigm. 

I've had a couple of guest bloggers, some real (Amanda Arrington, last summer's intern) and some semi-imaginary (Johnny Appleseed, one of my personal favorite blogs).  I hope in the coming year to have more such voices chime in, partly because I really want to have a DISCUSSION about food in America, and partly because I'm lazy and LOVE when somebody else does me job for me.

A last little note- over the year I've taken pot-shots at this manufacturer or that food movement, and occasionally I feel as if I've come across as rude.  Usually when I write this way, in my head it all sounds funny.... but I know that I've actually offended a few people.  I'll not apologize for this, exactly.  Rather, I'll say that I'll simply try to be more concientious of others while writing, and to say what I mean without clouding it in Snarkiness.

Here's to another 1000 blog entries, though by the time I get that many written, the medium will surely change and I'll be telepathically casting my brain-waves into the ether.  Can't WAIT till my job gets even EASIER!

Happy Snacking,

Peeled Skinny, at 100 entries

Posted by iankusc at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So we just wrapped up our 4th Summer Fancy Food Show, and for better or worse we come out with many new deals in the works.  Definitely it's for better because new deals for good food really help everybody.  You might call it for worse because, darnit, why didn't we have those deals going BEFORE the show!?!?!?!?

So every year I look for trends of what's growing in food, what's fading, etc.  2005 had too much frickin coffee, 2006 was the year of Jerky (most of which is gone now), and 2007 was a Hummus-a-thon.  Every year there's plenty of dips and hot sauces, and the world will never seem to run out of Tea companies (SHEESH!) and Chocolatiers.  But 2008 is, in my humble opinion, the year of the MIX!!!

Out of no-where, this year's Fancy Food Show boasted about 12 or 15 companies all selling mixes, mostly for cookies (with a glut of "Gluten-Free" promises).  Being the foodie that I am, I like the idea of people being involved in their food creation, but then again, if the whole world dried its own fruit, I'd be out of a job.  Having tasted pre-baked Gluten Free cookies, I see the sense in this trend- Gluten Free stuff just tastes BAD!

One of Peeled Snacks' best friends, codenamed ND, pointed out the moisture problem of taking Gluten out of baking (Gluten holds in a LOT of goo-iness).  So these mixes help the Gluten-challenged amongst us make cookies to their liking that, hopefully, taste better than card-board.  But ND also pointed out that most of the Gluten-challenged likely already know how to make their own food, so how much of a market is there really out there? 

Another, perhaps more encouraging trend is the tendency of companies to donate a portion of their proceeds to this charity or that one.  Part of me wants to say that Peeled Snacks should jump on that bandwagon, but the other part of me says, "woah, we give enough to the causes we like, and we try not to make too big a deal about it."  Inevitably, I want it to be the FOOD that sells our stuff.

Allow me to bang the drum once more- there are TOO MANY FRICKIN TEA COMPANIES right now.  Tea surely makes a large enough profit margin to warrant some competition, but if any Tom/Dick/Harry thinks that he and his packaging designer can compete in a world with Ineeka in is, Tom/Dick/Harry has surely been smoking too much SOMETHING.... 

Greetings from Brooklyn,

Peeled Skinny 

Posted by iankusc at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)