GeekCast Radio
A Discussion on Childhood and Modern Snack Foods

About this Episode
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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