GeekCast Radio

A Discussion on Childhood and Modern Snack Foods

May 16, 2014 1:04:28 EXPLICIT
GeekCast Radio A Discussion on Childhood and Modern Snack Foods
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About this Episode

The hosts revisit popular snack foods from their childhoods while comparing them to what is available today. They explore the shifting quality of long-running brands, debate the merits of various chips and sodas, and share stories about forgotten items like Orbitz and Ninja Turtle pies. The conversation also touches on the reality of healthy fast food options and the changing nature of snack preferences as adults.

Dinner's just been served, and the kid will stare

at the plate and ask, what's for dessert? And

you answer, jello pudding. And suddenly, your

child loves broccoli. Jello pudding. You can't

be a kid without it. Opening an ice -cold Pepsi.

New generation style. of a new generation. Dankaroos

is the cookie you're drunk for as much frosting

as you want. So how do you do your Dankaroos?

A super duper dip dance. A long distance dainty

dance. You can dank a Dankaroob in as much chocolate

and vanilla frosting as you want. So, how do

you do your Dunkaroos? Now we've mixed yummy

chips of chocolate in a creamy vanilla frosting.

New chocolate chip Dunkaroos. Hip hip for chocolate

chip. Hello and welcome to GeekCast Radio. This

is episode 63 and I'm stealing one from ThisWeekInGeek

.net because we're talking about snack foods.

Yay! I'm your host Dave, you and Mike. Joining

me is MikeTheRedMan .Hello. Word! And Jeremy

Fine, hello. You know, fruit bars, they're good,

but they're ugly. No, they're ugly and taste

bad. They used to stick to the roof of my mouth,

but I enjoyed them at one point. The only thing

fruity I could ever eat is fake Newtons. Oh,

yeah. Um, and basically I... This idea actually

came to us from a friend of mine, Joe Reed, who

is one of the hosts of Off the Cuff here on GeekCast

Radio. He had mentioned to me on Facebook a while

ago about doing an episode about snack foods.

I was saying something about Pringles, for example.

Pringles nowadays, to me personally, do not taste

the same as they did when I was 12 years old

in 1992. They just don't taste the same anymore.

and frankly, Lay's are better. The Lay's stacks

are much better. We're 12 years old and 92? Yeah.

How old are you? 34. You old fuck. Exactly. Anyway,

moving on. Yes. So basically what this episode

is going to be is us talking about What were

some of our favorite foods to snack on as kids?

What are some of our favorite foods to snack

on now? We're also going to look at a little

bit of forgotten snack foods or snack foods that

aren't Aren't here anymore via BuzzFeed a couple

of BuzzFeed links that will be in the post we're

also going to look at healthy snacks versus junk

food and Snack foods we used to eat as kids that

we just can't eat anymore so Mike what were some

of the Canadian snack foods you ate as a kid

there was this type of cheesy I don't think they

sold these in the states, but they came in this

orange and white bag They were called Jack's

and they had a really weird texture to the cheese

it mean they were I don't know they were denser

if that makes any sense than Cheetos and Yeah,

I remember those sharper. I remember those they

had them here for a while My god so good can't

find him anymore. Um, okay. What else did I eat

as a kid? Obviously the big things like Doritos

lays and all that stuff. Although for some reason

I think they've changed They've changed the recipe

on sour cream and bacon and it sucks now What

else I really oh there were these weird cheesies

They're in the States exclusively, I'm pretty

sure. I think they were made by planters, but

they came in a blue tin with a yellow top. And

they were cheesies, and man, they were good.

You're probably noticing a bit of a theme yard.

I really like cheese. Loved Handy Snacks as a

kid. Teddy Grahams. All sorts of soda I was into.

Still am, obviously. Being a diabetic ain't gonna

stop me. Oh, drinking some now. Oh, oh, there

you go. I'm trying to think of what else, really.

I ate a lot of Zoodles as a kid. I remember my

parents always used to send me with cups of soup

as a kid, and I really used to like those. The

Muppet Babies Yogurts were the shit. Yes, they

were. Oh, my God. I'm thinking of what else?

I know. Oh, Hostess Ninja Turtle Pies. Fresh

from the sewer to your mouth. Oh, my God. I would

love to make those! I found a recipe, it didn't

turn out right. I don't have a deep fryer, that's

part of the reason, but still, I fucking fried.

So yeah, those are the ones I can think of off

the top of my head. What about you, Jeremy? You

know, they have them now in vending machines,

but back in the 80s, they used to have something

with keyboard potato skins. Where they would

shave the potato, and you would have like the

inside and outside of it, but I also remember

there was this microwave popcorn, I think it

was from Jolly Time, I can't remember who made

it, but the butter was colored green and blue

and orange and red, it wasn't candy coated, it

was just the way that the salt was when you would

pop it, and of course, the fruit snacks. I remember

they used to have not the gushers, but they had

something like these little diamond type of fruit

snacks that sometimes they would be shaped like

letters and numbers. But then, you know, nowadays,

of course, they have them shaped like Mario and

Star Wars. But the oh, also, they I know they

have fruit lobs used to have the pudding roll

ups. They don't make those anymore and as for

the ninja turtle pies Mike they actually have

something to like that here with those deep -fried

pies Their chocolate pudding they have vanilla

pudding once hostess would make them for a while

But now there are some convenience stores like

Wawa and skeets that has them But they're not

colored green. I guess if you get green dye,

so yeah, that was pretty much my snacks Oh my

god. See, it sucks. I can't find a Sheetz or

a Wawa within four hours of the border. Which

means I'd have to go to New Jersey if I really

want these. And part of me's tempted. You could

always stop in at Red Bank again. I really could.

Maybe this summer. Off the way and safe. For

me, you know, with potato chips, it was... You

know, growing up in Boston, it was... around

Boston, I should say. It was always kettle -cooked

chips, so it was Cape Cod potato chips, who I

believe Frito Lay owns Cape Cod now, or they

might have owned them this entire time, I don't

know. All I know is once I left Massachusetts,

I never could find them until now. It's so weird.

I go to my local Kroger here in Louisville, Kentucky,

and I see Cape Cod chips on the shelves, and

I'm like... What the hell is this? I still buy

them. But, you know, for like potato chips, like

I don't remember Lay's, I don't remember Frito

having Lay's around back in the early 80s or

mid 80s, I should say. We always used to eat

Wise potato chips, which are essentially the

same thing as, you know, original or classic

Lay's. Either Wise or we would eat Ruffles all

the time. I cannot, outside of Cheez -Its, I

cannot do Cheesy Cracker Smacks at all. Oh, Cheez

-Its are so gross! I love Cheez -Its, they're

the best. Oh my god. I try. I cannot do Cheetos,

I cannot do any of that kind of stuff. It's just

not in me. I used to love, this is more of a

breakfast food than a snack, but I used to, and

I think everybody probably did, my dad used to

spoil me and... We always used to put ice cream

on the waffle on waffles. That was so amazing.

Um, let's see. What else? Uh, I probably couldn't

go one day as a child without eating at least

one Oreo cookie per day at least. Um, and now

a day and we'll, we'll, we'll talk about Oreo

a little bit later. Um, the Keebler, um, not

fudge fingers. Oh God, what are they? Yeah. The

EO fudge, the sandwich cookies that you split

apart. Yeah, they still have those. Yeah, I know

they still have them. I love those. What else

is a kid? I'm trying to think. I used to love...

Every time we would go and get candy, we would

get bags of Skittles and I would take all the

red ones and the purple ones out of the bag.

because i didn't like the yellow i didn't like

the yellow green and and orange ones um uh and

there's so many different uh oh i remember uh

in the 90s um when starburst started to have

more than just one original flavor candies they

started doing tropical they i wish they still

had these ones they used to do all strawberry

flavors oh my god i I would go to middle school

and with whatever money I could scrounge up or

earn throughout the week, I would go to middle

school the next week, every single day, buy out

all of these strawberry packaged Starbursts.

Let's see, what else? How would you like to hear

a story how gumballs cause you to break a window?

I'm sure it's just like baseballs cause you to

break a window, but go ahead. Okay, so in grade

six I remember this specifically um I used to

get busted into a school however If you were

from this town and you lived there you could

leave the property to go home for lunch or something,

right? So I paid my buddy Billy to stop to stop

by the store now all the raids in my school Were

these things called Terminator balls? Which are

these silver jaw breakers more or less and there

were also these this awesome chocolate gum I

don't remember what the fuck it was called, but

they were like it was some think they were called

dairy balls or something. I don't know Either

way, so I give them five bucks and five bucks

in 1993 for candy man, you could get a shit ton

So Billy, here's my allowance money for the week

Bring the fat kid candy. And so he did. So, he

comes back with a big brown bag full of fucking

candy. I'm like, awesome! I can't get this shit

at home, because my parents are old and retarded.

Awesome. So I start mowing down, and everybody

in my fucking class is saying, can I have something,

can I have something? They're like, Jesus fucking

Christ, you people leave me alone! They start

coming at me. I fucking Hulk out, turn around,

punch a window, punch through two panes of glass,

straight through my teacher, and I love her name,

Mrs. Odor. That was her name! On the other side

of the window, it was like, AHHHH! She's like,

oh my god, what the fuck? I'm like, oh Jesus

Christ, I'm sorry. So yeah, that's the story

of how gumballs caused me to punch through a

window. Hi, gumballs. Get your own sandwich.

When you said stuff about people wanting to get

the candy from you all so I can think of is in

fifth and sixth grade We had two guys that would

always bring it was I don't know if they were

rare back then this is um Oh god, 91 92. I don't

think they were rare back then but we had guys

that literally ran in our elementary school the

Jolly Rancher Mafia. I kid you not. I'm not joking.

These guys had a monopoly on Jolly Ranchers and

they would sell them for a quarter a piece at

lunchtime. And the one that they all like everybody

always wanted for some odd reason was the pink

lemonade Jolly Ranchers. Oh yeah, my school,

we were the Airhead Mafia. I don't know if you

remember Airheads, was that Taffy? Yeah. In junior

high school, we did that too. Yeah, we would

get the, there was specifically, there was like

a Marshmallow Airhead, yeah, we had that, and

Bonkers. I don't know if you remember those.

Oh yeah, I remember Bunker. It's not the cartoon

series, but the candy. Yeah, we would use our

allowance and we would buy, like Mike said, like

$5 worth of candy because you would get a shitload

back then. And the next day in school during

lunch, yeah, we would sell it for like three

or four of them for a couple dollars and split

the profit. And we got away with this for probably...

Seven eight months in the eighth grade, you know

right before I'm ready to graduate as Soon as

we're ready to collect somehow the Dean of our

school I mean that's it now. He never caught

us Thank God, but he did make this quick announcement

saying that if I find that anybody selling anymore

Airheads or jolly ranchers or bonkers or anything,

you know, you're getting expelled So unfortunately,

we had to stop But apparently because he was

pissed off that we had kind of like a snack bar

in our school. But, you know, for like a quarter,

you could buy like, you know, the the stale cookies

and the, you know, the pretzel sticks that were,

you know, you know which ones I'm talking about.

Those those pretzel rods that are always like

three days old and milk. So he was upset not

only because we were selling better snacks, but

they were losing money. So, yeah, that was that

was pretty much how ours got shut down. Yeah,

that's yeah, I think that when Well, that's why

they always sold the pink lemonade and jelly

ranchers because one of the guys his last name

was pink I kid you not his name was Steven pink

But yeah when when they got caught it was It

was kind of double anyone that got caught selling

or buying got a three -day suspension Get the

fuck out of here for candy. I'm not kidding for

candy. Yeah. Oh man better watch out I'm not

kidding Today we have candy stores or you know

that they have like the candy stores you would

see in the subway now There was a place my mom

took me when I was a kid it was in Niagara Falls

New York And it was this huge wall -to -wall

candy store. It was next to a KB Toys. So I'll

never forget this one. I remember my mom. I don't

know why she did this. I came home with a case.

I want you to envision just how big this is.

A case of bubble jug, Hubba Bubba, and bubble

tape. I don't know why this very day she bought

me that much. But I'm pretty sure I had gum until

well through grade 10 or 11. It was awesome.

And you know what? I swear to God, Bubblicious

does not taste the same anymore. It doesn't bubble

up like it used to. Just one of those random

things I sometimes think about at 3 o 'clock

in the morning when the power's out. Alright,

so what are you? What are we snacking on as adults?

For me, I'll say since probably I've got a dirty

answer for that if you want to wait No, even

though this is explicit we do not want to hear

your stories Food Mike food not flesh food Oh,

man. You know what's weird? Blair's got me on

these pita chips that I don't mind, or these

really cool garlic parmesan triscuits. And as

a kid, I hated triscuits because there was just

that really weird texture to them. But now, she

makes this thing called silver platter. You take

fat -free cream cheese or low -fat cream cheese,

or, yeah, cream cheese, right? cream cheese and

this weird spicy Thai sauce that you can get

up here in Canada. And you put that, you put

a little bit of cream cheese and a little bit

of the sauce on the cracker and just go to town.

It is one of the most unbelievably fattening

and most amazing snacks I've ever had in my life.

It's so good. Yeah, for me, I would say since

probably about 90 since I was 1999 Let's see.

Um, I think my biggest ice cream snack is Ben

and Jerry's a lot of different flavors of Ben

and Jerry's ice cream. I absolutely love that

stuff. I never had that till I went to college

Because my parents would never buy it and I never

saw it in my hometown Yeah, because yeah when

I was a kid, we always used to buy Haagen -Dazs

all the time. I didn't even know about Ben and

Jerry's until much, much later. Let's see. Like

I said, I eat cheese. I'm pretty much the plain

kind of guy. I can't do all these dang flavors.

I just can't. I've tried, I've tried, but I just,

I'm not a flavor guy at all when it comes to

chips. It's like, unless they're plain, I don't

care. I don't want to eat bbq bacon cheeseburger

potato chips oh yeah those cheeseburger chips

made me puke on a plane i was flying back from

texas i was doing a convention or something and

i'm flying there and i got a bag of chips in

my like carry -on like all right cool we don't

have these in canna i've been saving them i'm

gonna eat them on the plane and be cool right

in the vomit bag right in front of me like oh

my god these things are disgusting why they taste

like feets oh my god it was like even world war

one trench foot it was so disgusting they smelled

like a footlocker oh man I wish oh I wish you'd

never said that it's why why do you do this to

chips it's a sacrilege I don't know, that's weird.

I mean, I really like flavorful chips. Like,

I love Doritos. One of my favorite ones. They

don't make these anymore. But back in 2003, 2004,

maybe even as early as 2002, Doritos used to

make a flavor called Italiano. They tasted like

tacos. But not shitty tacos. These tasted, they

were spicy. You got just the right amount of

heat with them. Just the right sharpness of the

cheese and this is what South Park had just aired

the episode Where Jennifer Lopez was a hand puppet?

And for like a year me and my friend Tyler just

go back and forth like taco flavored pieces with

our hands and fucking Doritos Now, I can eat

Doritos. I'm talking about regular chips, like

Lay's, like Lay's potato chips. I cannot eat

any of the other flavors other than original.

But Doritos, I love Cool Ranch. That's my favorite.

I used to eat the nacho cheese as a kid, but

I grew out of that, thankfully. What about you,

Jeremy? What do you eat nowadays for snacks?

Well, if it came down to chips, it would be the

baked. It would be the baked Doritos or the baked

Lay's. I'm glad they came back because for a

while they had come and gone like they weren't

doing too well. And then all of a sudden they

made this huge comeback. But for some reason,

Lay's had this contest last year where they had

three different flavors, garlic, cheesy bread.

chicken and waffles, and cilantro. And chicken

and waffles is pretty much barbecue maple syrup

chips. They've had this before, but now they

call it chicken and waffle. And I kind of think

that's kind of a little bit offensive in a way.

But the cilantro, I don't know, it was very spicy.

And the garlic cheesy bread, you really couldn't

taste the garlic but the cheese. So I just go

back to, if I have Doritos, yeah, they did have

a Taco Bell flavored Dorito. But you know, it's

in my neck of the woods now, because I'm in Pennsylvania,

and I'm like 40 minutes away from Philly, so

my supermarkets are very conservative. So they

just have stuff from like 20, 30 years ago. So

they just have the original stuff. It's very...

hard or rare. I have an Acme and a Giant supermarket.

So between Acme and Giant, you'll be lucky if

you can find anything new. Sometimes at Wawa,

you'll get like the little bags of the new stuff.

But between that, even Slim Jims now, starting

when I go into Wawa, they have this huge aisle

dedicated to dried beef. So I'll get like the

beef jerky or the Slim Jim's or those sausage

snacks. But, you know, now that, um, you know,

heart failure runs in my family as well as diabetes,

I've been eating tofu and mushrooms. Oh, okay.

I'm pretty sure I killed myself. That's all I

could eat. All right, you know what's weird you

cannot get Slim Jim's in Canada Really or at

least yeah, or at least if you can it's rare

I don't run across them too often when I see

them up. It's weird in Canada Especially for

weird for pops and shit like that. For example,

you have to specialty order them. We used to

have vanilla Coke up until about Three or four

years ago, maybe a little bit longer than that

before it was everywhere now I actually wrote

Coke and I asked them, why can I not find this

in Canada? And they're like, we've decided the

Canadian marketplace does not have this. That's

why we continue to offer a variety of blah, blah,

blah, same bullshit, whatever. And it's so weird

because you guys have such a large population.

You guys get some really cool shit. And Jeremy,

I went through Pennsylvania probably about two

years ago, maybe three. Pennsylvania is the only

state that I could find where I can get diet

Barks root beer in a can. Oh, yeah, we, yeah,

we're known. It's funny. It's funny that we're

known for the Barks root beer, especially since

I'm near the Amish. You know, they make their

own root beer. But even with soda, you know,

they don't even have vanilla. They actually have

vanilla Coke and vanilla Pepsi for a while. And

you can't even find that anymore. Yeah, like

I was the tops a couple of weeks ago and it's

weird because you're popping chip out Just be

full of all sorts of really weird and cool stuff

It's kind of funny how we're I think it's starting

to balance out or at least near the border cities

because if I want to go shopping I go to Buffalo

and I go to Amherst or I might go to Niagara

Falls This is the closest border city to me And

I don't know it's weird like hell. I didn't even

know until like last year there were different

flavors of Mountain Dew, like live wire, voltage

and all that shit. You know why? Because they

were promoting for Halo, so they decided like,

oh if you're gonna play Halo, then you gotta

play with this new flavor, and if you unlock

the cap and unlock the code, then you get all

this Halo shit. Oh my god, I ripped them off

so bad! See, I was one of those douchebags. Me

and my wife, we'd go into 7 -Eleven, and 7 -Eleven

used to have these Mountain Dew cups for Halo

4. So I'm like, cool, the white Mountain Dew,

it doesn't taste like shit, whatever. And they'd

have the code where you could enter that into

the Halo website, you'd get an XP boost for the

next 10 matches. You could do this up to 500

times. We did this in just a little over three

and a half weeks. Oh my god. I was so awesome.

Like, I actually entered into the Halo website.

You've entered the maximum amount of whatever.

Thank you for your participation. Like, fuck

yeah, I did. I mean, I was, I think when I stopped

playing I was level 87. And I think I was probably

among the first couple thousand in the world

to have done that at that point. Mostly because

I cheated doing that I'm kind of a horrible person

Yes, thank you for bringing up the worst in me

All right, let's see here for me other snacks

that I that I kind of nibble on nowadays I I

used to love wheat thins Those are another one

that I think change their flavor at some point

for the original wheat thins Oh, I'm trying to

think. Did they make a veggie one? Yeah, probably.

Because I think I used to like those and I tried

them recently and they kind of suck now. Yeah,

probably. Yeah, they made it multigrain. They

made it multigrain and it looks like a hexagon.

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Those suck now. There's

this one flavor and I always see it advertised

on TV and they're trying to promote this healthy

living bullshit and it's like... it's like we

fins or it's triscuit or something and it's like

we make it with red with red beans and sweet

potatoes now i'm thinking if there were ever

two flavors that do not belong together is that

it's like that joke from wayne's world if if

he were flavor he'd be prey leads and dick and

that's what those crackers taste like All right,

so since Mike brought up the healthy snacks When

I think of healthy snacks versus actual junk

food, I'm thinking like, you know carrot sticks

celery sticks apples grapes You know Yeah, pretty

much And it doesn't like I don't know this is

one of the reasons Why I wanted Dustin van Coor

on this episode because he used to one up everybody's

life with healthy snacks and he could make it

sound really cool. But sadly, um, his wife and

child keep him prisoner except for one night

a week for podcasting. Uh, but, um, you know,

I've never and, and see now for me, I would rather

eat a meal than snack on something. Like I would

rather have, you know, Three or four chicken

strips and a plate of french fries that could

you know take me from noon till about 8 p .m

Then sit here and snack on a on a bag of chips

all day But do you guys have any healthy snacks

that you either used to eat or still eat rice

crackers celery sticks I drowned my shit in blue

cheese though, so it's probably not healthy.

No! Oh my god, it reminds me of an episode of

Phineas and Ferb. I have all this fatty content,

Dr. Newfoundt Schmert says, and I'm gonna dip

the celery in it. And then it just looks like

a candy coated celery stick. It's like, it defeats

the purpose of it being healthy. That's pretty

much how I do it to be honest with you. Although,

I do like... As a kid, I loved white bread. Then

my parents transitioned me into whole wheat or

multigrain or just brown bread basically. Sometimes

I'll make some peanut butter and jelly. I love

brown bread toast. I'd say a snack I love that's

healthy -ish. Cereal with some strawberries and

bananas cut up on it. In fact, I think I'm gonna

have my wife make that before she goes to bed

for me. of it um got a burp real bad sorry um

i love uh blare will sometimes have me eating

grapes or stuff i'm kind of like i've really

i'm healthy shit she feeds me um sometimes uh

i'll take pitas and i don't know it's it's not

super healthy but it's a lot better than what

it could be i'll take a pita I'll cover it in

tomato sauce and one or two cheese slices and

I'll microwave it and make a little dippable

mini pizza. Wow. It's so ghetto college pizza,

but it's so ridiculous. Oh, wow. That's funny.

Yeah. Um, I can't think of anything else. I mean,

I guess for healthy. I drink a lot of 1 % skin

milk and I used to drink nothing but 2%. See,

I'm still on two percent. I can drink skim every

now and then But it skim basically tastes like

water to me. It really does actually That made

me think of something. I'm sorry to keep interrupting

I've just got this stream of consciousness going

on right now when I was a kid fucking hated water

would only drink two percent milk because it

was thick it was creamy fucking good now that

I'm older I drink a shit ton of water like literally

I have a gallon jug in front of me right now

I drink about two of those a day at least and

I will only drink skim milk because it tastes

close to water while I'm still getting a little

bit of that dairy goodness it's so weird because

my taste buds as a child have really changed

like I just I used to hate the stuff and now

I'm thinking man I can't picture my life with

without it See see that's the funny thing with

me is I used to I grew up on skin and Now I can't

stand it. I just can't when it comes to soda

as a kid I used to be able to drink grape soda

all the time. I can now you can't I can't stand

it now And this kind of transitions into the

kind of final topic here about snacks that we

used to eat as kids that we can't now as adults

But like I said before I truly believe Pringles

has done something to their chips Because I just

the original Pringles do not taste they I don't

know if it's the texture they changed or if it's

the flavor. They do not taste like they used

to in the 90s. They just don't. I prefer the

Lay's Stacks to the Pringles because it's a more

flavorful chip and there's actually more there.

It doesn't just crumble in your hand when you

pick one up like most Pringles do. Let's see.

I can't... Like I was saying earlier, I... Not

only with regular chips and regular chip brands

like Lay's having alternate flavors like sour

cream and onion or whatever else I can't get

into all these cookie flavors like Oreo having

red velvet cake cookies or Peanut butter Oreos

used to be amazing when I was a kid nowadays

They taste like crap the only ones the only Oreos

outside of the original chocolate cookie white

white cream Oreo that I can eat are the golden

Oreos and the chocolate cream filled Oreos. Every

other flavor Oreo does now. Just no. I don't

know why they give watermelon flavored Oreos.

They I could have sworn I saw something like

that here recently. Yeah, they exist. And I'd

like to know what marketing genius decided this

was a good idea. Like, oh, my God. There's something

as a kid. I used to really like watermelon. Now

I can't stand it. Two reasons. One, it just,

it tastes really weird now. But when I was a

young lad, got my first bachelor apartment, I'm

living the dream, whatever, I decided to leave

a watermelon on my kitchen counter. Just kind

of forgot about it. One day I decided to move

said watermelon. Watermelon exploded on me with

a face full of fruit flies Thought I was going

to die Oh Yeah, I don't like watermelon anymore

and I used to love cream soda for some reason

as a kid It seems special when you could have

cream soda Same with grape soda. Now. I have

it Mike. Why the hell do people like this? You

know, it's funny you mention that because there

used to be a... Used to be a seltzer water flavor

called birch beer. And I used to friggin' love

that. And I don't even think I can find it anymore

now. But, uh... Like, for me and sodas, like

I was saying a second ago, the grape soda, I

just can't do anymore. And here, you know...

Don't even know who owns hires root beer anymore.

I don't know if it's Pepsi or if it's coke Well,

if it's Pepsi, I think they might have Changed

over from it or not. Don't use it anymore because

I used to love diet hires root beer and that's

Close to the real thing. Mm -hmm. That's the

other thing. I will only drink diet sodas now

and I've only drinking diet sodas since I was

probably 16, 17, because regular Coke has way

too much sugar in it. It's got a bite to it.

Yeah. I mean, and I know this is going to sound

stupid and Mike's going to make fun of me for

saying this. When I drink Coke, when I drink

Canadian jackass, when I drink Coke, it's like

for me going down, it's like drinking alcohol.

It is that strong to me. Wow, I don't know what

I don't know what it is that and you know You

were saying earlier that that you drink a lot

of water and I'm sure you buy bottled water,

correct? actually, no, I use a Operative filter

because okay you use a filter every time I've

either done bottled water or My mom used to have

a filter even if it was filtered Water to this

day still. I don't know why when I drink it like

out of a glass still makes me Choke involuntarily

after I drink it. I have no idea why it closes

up my throat for some odd reason No clue. That's

really weird. Yeah, it is very weird I can't

drink diet soda too often and I know I'm supposed

to because I'm a diabetic. It's it's this weird

Aftertaste I can't get by however, though I find

with root beers and orange sodas, it's less noticeable.

And that's why I brought up Diet Barks. Diet

Barks is the one root beer, when you put it side

by side, regular root beer, unless you know what

you're looking for, you can't tell. You can't

tell the difference. And here's the shitty thing

now, for me especially. I don't think I like

root beer anymore. It's weird. I'm in this weird

transition phase. I'm kind of noticing things

I like and don't like anymore. As Blair says,

I'm becoming a really picky eater now. It's so

weird though, because I noticed this happens

about every 10 to 15 years. Like, my tastes just

change for no real reason. Like, I used to love,

like I was saying before, grape soda and all

that shit. Now I'm like, ew, this is like drinking

battery acid. Pretty much. Yeah For me drinking

root beer. I sometimes I'll go with the store

brand. So here it's Kroger So it's big K and

I had been drinking over the last couple of days

Since this podcast has been up. I've been drinking

big K regular root beer Which I know I shouldn't

because as I said before there's way too much

sugar in it The screwed up part about it is after

because I probably drink maybe two cans a day

So one can in the morning one can in the afternoon

or evening uh... so it's like i'm drinking like

i'm because i'll pop up or in the glass and just

you know set the glass all day long uh... the

last three days i've had the worst friggin headache

and the only thing i can think of is it's coming

from it's a side effect of drinking the root

beer it's the only thing i can think of it depends

how much caffeine is there because those can

be caffeine headaches and those suck yes they

do I'll have to look. I know the sodium is 35,

the sugars are 45 grams. I can't see the caffeine

on here. But what about you, Jeremy? What are

some stuff that you used to eat as a kid but

can't eat now? Well, definitely the stuff that

I used to enjoy eating that I can't anymore.

… are the hostess snack cakes. I think it comes

down to the texture. They don't taste the same,

and Twinkies went away. They came back. The cupcakes,

you know, they just don't – they're not as good,

and even the Chips Ahoy cookies aren't as good.

And as for the Oreos, you know, they do have

some weird flavors, including birthday cake and

cookie dough. And cookie dough wasn't too bad.

It was a limited time, but at the end of the

day… I've just been substituting for pudding.

And as for soda, you know, sometimes it depends

of what syrup is put in. For the root beer, I'll

drink mug. I have no problem drinking mug. But

the cream soda is just so sweet now that I don't

enjoy it. It's like it just makes me thirstier

and thirstier and then it bloats me. So I've

been substituting my soda with uh, seltzer water

and i've been getting polar seltzer water and

they have this creamsicle flavor and they have

this vanilla flavor and it goes down a lot better

other than that um i mean there's a lot of things

that i don't miss eating anymore like i'll pass

the cookie aisle and i'll look at it as a kid

and i'll go you know i used to eat like even

malamars i don't know if i remember malamars

oh yeah Yeah, they're well, they're always gonna

be a big thing and what's crazy about them is

is that in the winter They have coupons like

if you buy five boxes, it'll be a dollar off

because like six bucks here for some reason They're

like bigger than gold We got a box and the texture

just changed. It wasn't what it used to be. So

I don't miss half the stuff that I get. My mother

is like, it's because I nagged you. And I said,

no, it has nothing to do with that. It's just

that you're right. Things don't taste. I don't

know if it's because they got rid of trans fat.

I don't know if they're putting more of the syrup

or the fructose syrup or whatever in or taking

less down. I don't know. But what I do know is

I it just doesn't bug me anymore. Not to have

it. Before we get into our final topic which

is kind of reliving supposedly according to BuzzFeed

some snacks you can't find anymore. What do you

guys think of fast food places now introducing

healthy you know specifically let's just let's

just talk about the damn golden arches mcdonald's

saying hey you can get chicken nuggets and apples

in your happy meal lawsuit you know why you know

why was weird because it was that one kid wait

wait jeremy wait mike what were you gonna say

it's weird up here in canada i don't know where

where they do this in the states right now anyway

you can get you can go to mcdonald's and get

these vegetarian wraps yeah and they're fucking

huge But I don't see the point. I mean, yeah,

it's great. You want to offer a healthy alternative,

but you don't go to McDonald's for a salad. You

go to Subway. You go to, I don't know, Boston

Market, I guess. Or, you know, you go to other

places for that. And although one place that

does healthy and can do it well, if you know

how to order it, is Taco Bell. If you order shit,

I think it's called Alfresca, or something. You

can get, like, reduced cheese and reduced other

stuff, but they give you more lettuce and tomato.

And you're still getting the same amount of alleged

meat. But it's not that bad, though. I like the

healthy options at places like Subway. Honestly,

veggie subs taste better to me now than they

ever have before in the past, because I don't

know. I think even Subway is changing where they're

getting their their chickens from or something

because even that stuff started to suck now.

What about you, Jeremy? What were you going to

say? Well, as you probably know, with McDonald's,

they changed it because of that lawsuit with

the kids claiming that supersizing made them

fat and that documentaries supersize me. But

at the end of the day, you know. McDonald's I

used to have to go to at work because when I

was working in Brooklyn all there were were fast

food places there weren't that many salad works

and even then they didn't wash the salad so I

didn't get one but you know more and more the

fast food places around here are closing I mean

There are more with the supermarkets with the

sal bars or like I said, the wah -wahs, they

have some healthier stuff. It's just that, again,

but even with the fast food places, the stuff

is not as good as it used to be. No, not really.

All right, so... Now I don't know if this article

that I'm gonna link in the post I know the one

that Mike sent me is 90s snack foods that are

no longer around I don't know if the 80s one

is the same because this just on BuzzFeed it

just says 80s food Stuff like Yankee doodles.

I do not remember those. I honestly don't Airheads

we talked about them a little bit earlier Airheads

for me. I loved the strawberry ones, but they

were always so hard to find Let's see Oh Yeah,

no, they're still around Batman's surreal it's

basically just Captain Crunch that looks like

Batman They sold that at a combo convention last

year for $300. Oh my god, yeah, that's so stupid.

I saw the box at the secret stash and I went

there with the box of zero I bought. Oh, did

you? Yeah, I'm like, I kind of want to try some

too, but I don't want to die. Bubble gum cigarettes?

I was never into those. Never. It's only later

in life that I started to appreciate those. Dunkin

Donuts cereal I okay growing up in Massachusetts.

That's all we had was Dunkin Donuts places all

over the place I've never heard of Dunkin Donuts

cereal. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was Captain Crunch,

but it was glazed Okay, that would be awesome

Was not believe me ET cereal no, thank you. It

was good Fruit roll -ups. I was able to eat these

as a kid, but I know I'm actually on a quest

to buy some this week because of this article.

Oh my god The Nabisco giggles I used to love

these damn cookies Yeah, it's it's like a knockoff

Oreo accepted as a giant smile cut into the chocolate

cookie of the further So it looks like a face.

It's kind of like member They were like this,

but they were fries. They were called smiles

Yes Ghostbusters cereal as much as I love the

Ghostbusters. I'm so glad I never had this It

was so good, man! It was Froot Loops with Marshmallows,

right? Yeah, yeah, if I remember right. And I

think there were two different kinds, because

I think there was a cereal for Ghostbusters 2,

as well. Ash, I think there was a cereal for

the real... There was Ghostbusters cereal, the

real Ghostbusters cereal, and I think one for

Ghostbusters 2. I think. I think, yeah. I remember

Slimer Cereal. Now, here's the thing. You know,

I would say maybe 20 years ago, I think Little

Caesar's kind of died off, but ever since, I

don't know, maybe seven, eight years ago now,

it's come back because I see ads for Little Caesar's

all the time now. Yeah. They had chocolate ravioli.

No, there are just certain things that chocolate

should never be on. You know what's weird? There's

a place up here in Canada. I don't know whether

you guys have it. It's a bar restaurant called

Wild Wing. And you can get hot chocolate flavored

chicken wings. Oh my god. Now here's the weird

thing. It's not that bad. But you could only

have like five of them. That's what you thought

about the chocolate covered bacon. And then I

was wrong, so, so wrong. Why don't you tell that

story? OK, so Blair's away at her, I think it

was her bride's, her bachelor party. So I'm like,

you know, awesome. So I get the idea in my head

at like three o 'clock in the morning. I'm going

to go to the grocery store. I watch a lot of

epic meal time. You know what? If he can do it,

I can do it. Why the hell not? So I go online

and I find recipes for chocolate bacon. Somehow,

someway, I managed to fuck it up so bad, it was

like eating shoe rubber that moderately tasted

like chocolate and burning. It was so disgusting

and I bought the best bacon I could, but somehow

I torched it. Bought the best chocolate I could

I might as well have been scraping the inside

of a porta potty. It was terrible And finally

we're gonna talk about 20 snacks that'll make

you miss the 90s Now they say these are 20 snacks

that'll make you miss the 90s It doesn't say

that they're no longer around Some are no longer

around, not all of them. Kid Cuisine, I still

see these in freezers. I used to love those as

a kid. Those commercials were just so tempting.

With the stupid penguin? Yeah. They were okay.

Crystal Pepsi, again, I'm not a flavor guy. It

was really syrupy. Yeah, it was interesting.

It was it was pretty much just taking out the

syrup actually it was it was almost like sprite

but with Pepsi Yeah, the the squeeze it's now

these were made by Betty Crocker Mike do you

know off top of your head who owns Kool -Aid

I? Want to say it's coke Okay Whoever owns Kool

-Aid back in the 90s had a battle on the store

shelves with Betty Crocker and Squeez -Its because

I remember when Squeez -Its came out the Kool

-Aid bursts came out like immediately right after

it and I would always see the two different ads

for Squeez -Its and bursts like back to back

of each other like a friggin juice, you know,

exploding bottle war. Dunkaroos, I miss Dunkaroos,

I really do. Dude, we, I actually, I was in the

store the other day getting my passport photo

taken and I saw them on the shelf looking, huh,

still around, huh? If you want them, I'll totally

send you a box. You should've checked the expiry

date on them first. Oh no, in Canada, they've

been making them consistently. Just really weird,

because I figured they'd be so much more popular.

Down with you. Now I've never had choco taco

I never have either I have Choco taco it's the

shell is a waffle cone on the outside and on

the inside. It's just regular It's chocolate

and vanilla ice cream and you know on the on

the top. It's you know It's the fudge coating

and it's the nuts. They're not terrible. It's

actually one of the better creations from Taco

Bell Between that and the Baja Blast Mountain

Dew, which are finally going to take that out

of Taco Bell and put that on shelves. But yeah,

actually, no, I'm sorry. Choco Taco, I think,

is from Klondike. Oh, OK, yeah. I don't think

I've seen those here. OK, so off air a couple

of weeks ago when we were trying to get this

episode recorded, but had a bunch of technical

difficulties on my end and Jeremy's end. Mike

and I are going to do an argument over French

Toast Crunch because I could have sworn I saw

a box of French Toast Crunch here in the States.

I have since gone back to the store. They have

Cinnamon Toast Crunch. They have Chocolate Toast

Crunch, which I do not recommend at all. It is

nasty as all hell. and they had peanut butter

toast crunch. When we were talking about this

a couple weeks ago, this is what I was thinking

of, even though I know I've seen french toast

crunch before in the past, but the peanut butter

toast crunch is what I was thinking of when you

mentioned the french toast crunch. Fruit gush,

I've never eaten gushers. I've seen those ads.

Oh, they're so good! I've seen the ads all the

time. I used to see them in the 90s, but I never,

I've never eaten gushers. Handy snacks. Again,

if I want a Ritz cracker, I'm gonna actually

just buy Ritz crackers. You know what food will

make you miss the 90s, man? Do you remember Soda

-licious? Yes. Oh, they were the shit. Yes, yes

they were. Fruit by the Foot. I hated those commercials.

I really did. I think I tried this once. I think

I always this is so stupid. I always get these

and bubble tape mixed up because I think at one

point fruit by the foot tried to advertise themselves

as bubble tape. As far as you know, you know,

rolling it up and whatever else. Fruit roll ups,

like I said before, they were never my They're

still around, but they were never my favorite.

I don't think I've ever had Lunchables. I honestly

do not remember them. I lived on these from grade

6 to 8, and then when I moved into my first Bastler

pad, I lived on these for almost a year, because

they were almost consistently on sale. I lived

on Lunchables, and they're really good. I think

each of them is something like 800 calories,

which is more than enough to power you through

at least a meal or maybe two. You're just, they're

good, and they keep well. Absolutely. Alright,

so Trix yogurt. This I know is still around.

Yep. They do not advertise it as much as they

used to. Silly rabbit. But it's, it's by Yoplait,

so I mean of course it's still around. Sprinkle

Spangles? Never heard of this one. Never. I love

how the box says sample, not for resale. Orbits,

anybody have Orbits? I have, actually. In Canada,

they used to air these commercials. We have a

channel up here very similar to Your Much Music,

or sorry, similar to your MTV back when it didn't

suck. We had a channel called Much Music, which

now doesn't play music. And anyway, they used

to advertise the crap out of these things. Orbits

was like, not quite carbonated water. not quite

soda, and you'd have those little bubbles in

them, and they would contain different flavors.

And it was really weird going down. I mean, they

were fun while it lasted. So this is basically

like drinking a lava lamp, because that's what

they look like. That's exactly what I was going

to say. You're basically drinking a lava lamp.

And it's weird, because I remember someone telling

me this, and I don't know whether this is factually

true or not, that they lost so much money because

they spent it all on advertising and didn't translate

the sales that they weren't around for very long.

In fact, I only remember these around for one

or two summers maybe. This is about 90 probably

about 93 to maybe as late as 95. I don't remember

seeing it past then because they stopped making

them just as I was going in the high school in

the grade nine in September. But yeah, I remember

these were You couldn't swing a cat around without

hitting an Orbitz display in a store, but guaranteed

they'd be stocked to the gills because no one

was buying them. And the sad thing is, when I

saw the title of this thing, Orbitz, the only

thing I can think of is that stupid gum. Those

gum commercials now. Oh, yeah. What is gum? Sucks,

too. All right. Fruit snacks. Not only just Enigid

Mutant Ninja Turtles fruit snacks, but any cartoon...

Carrot sure fruit. I used to eat these all the

time. They're not as good as they used to be.

Oh my god I'm glad you mentioned that I bought

a box of the amazing spider -man 2 ones, right?

Oh my god, it smelled like Windex And it didn't

taste much better. I actually I sat there and

eat them out of shame Just to get the better

of my house but oh my god and you know it should

have been in my first clue when they were two

dollars a box that maybe something's wrong like

you know what they can't be as bad as the movie

i was wrong oh god was i wrong come on now all

right uh cheetos cracker tracks i'm not a cheetos

guy so these are kind of still around now they're

in that weird variety bag now I can't I think

they're called Cheetos mix -ups now. Yeah. Oh

that yeah that that could be it The next one

every time I see these alls I can think of is

no No, no, no Sylvan didn't snowball him. I snowballed

him. I Think it's zombie land where Woody Harrelson's

looking for Twinkies and he keeps fighting Snowballs.

It's like, I hate Snowballs, I hate coconut.

Warheads. Still around. Yep. Potato sticks in

a can. I used to love these things. You used

to love them. Yep, did I? Yep. All right. And

the final one is hidden treasure cereal. I don't

think I ever had these. No, I don't remember

these either But you know what ladies and gentlemen

whether you're snacking healthier whether you're

eating a bunch of junk food like Mike and I usually

do Yeah, you know eat what you enjoy, you know

it you know Eating is like joy Yeah, no, don't

don't don't eat chocolate bacon ladies and gentlemen

burnt chocolate bacon get a professional to do

it um absolutely uh well uh any final thoughts

jerry yeah actually there is one other that i

forgot actually too um if we're talking about

beverages ectocor was great yeah oh yeah um they

were trying to bring that back as well as there

was a candy called chocolate babies they were

the tootsie roll type of flavor but they were

shaped to look like babies unfortunately they

were taken off the market because of racial issues

so yeah I mean serialized anything could have

been a Captain Crunch knockoff and that was pretty

much it I mean with with Donkey Kong and Donkey

Kong jr. which is a Froot Loops knockoff Mike,

Mike, what is going on with your connection?

You sound like you're juggling something. It's

all staticky over there. Uh, the weather sucks.

Oh, okay. What were you going to say? I was going

to say, you were mentioning ecto cooler. There's

a recipe from the Chicago Ghostbusters. Really?

It's really close. Yeah, you can make, you have

to, off the top of my head, you have to get old

-style southern... pink lemonade, I think, or

lemonade or something. And some other stuff.

I'll have to track it down for you. But it's

really close. Oh, thanks, Mike. And the last

thing that I almost forgot was something in the

90s called Pizzaritos, which was also from a

high board. Yes, Pizzaritos. They were kind of

like these pizza flavored Doritos chips. They

were awesome. Alright, well we are gonna cut

out before Mike's connection dies because apparently

there's a bunch of crazy weather up in Canada

So Mike, where can the people find you? You can

find me most often on thisweekendgeek .net Occasionally

you can hear me on Toronto's AM 640 where I do

occasionally Occasional video game reviews and

now currently syndicating content to nerdvice

.com Awesome. What about you Jeremy? I guess

podcast partner geek cast radio network also

were on Facebook Twitter honey outskirts And

of course you can leave feedback at honey feedback

at gmail .com Awesome as always unleash the geek

in you and we will catch you next time when we

might be doing some random Fandom we will be

back or we will see you then Taste it, it's right!

Diet Pepsi! Uh -huh! Uh -huh! You got the right

one, baby! Uh -huh! Uh -huh! Diet Pepsi! It's

this irresistibly lovable, unsurpassably colorful,

and innermostly soulful! You got the right one,

baby! Uh -huh! The Junk Foodinator! It sprays

my special mix of boiling hot high fructose corn

syrup and hydrogenated coconut oil turning all

healthy food into toasty warm junk food. Soon

everyone will become lethargic overweight blobs

easily controlled by me. Because I will be the

only one left eating healthy food like these

delicious broccolis. Only problem is I'm not.

Quite used to the taste. I'm used to eating the,

uh, the junk. I'll just dip it in here and...

Oh, that's much better. I could eat this all

day. Hello. Gotham Corner Store? Yes, we seem

to be down to our last diet cook. A gentleman

is on his way to pick some up. Just look for

a black car. No. This black car will be rather

difficult to miss. And by the way, the gentleman

is usually in quite a rush. You've just listened

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