More Exotic Foods Just to Let You Know You’ve Made it to Asia

Farley, I think you just got burned by one of The Feedbag’s commenters:

“The guy writes BOOKS about church artifacts and dreary Eastern European countries. I’m certain you’ve been slandered by better before.”

Did he just imply that your book is dull? I’m guessing he didn’t follow the link to find out what the “church artifact” in question actually is…

Anyway. On to the exotic American foods question: How about Jell-O? Those marshmallow puff cookies? And I bet someone who’d never seen a Fruit Roll-Up before would find it pretty bizarre…

Oh those BK ads. They make me so terribly sad. Leave the poor non-BK eating people alone!

ha - eva, I had the same “artifact” thought!

I think Slim Jims are profoundly weird and frightening on a multitude of levels, as well as Peeps. Especially if you microwave your Peep til it turns the size of a Cornish hen.

Watch it there, Farley. Those of us who enjoy a Peep now and again do not take kindly to Peep slams. (By the way, I have a feeling you’ve just never enjoyed a Peep left out overnight so it goes slightly stale and hard on the outside. Tis a true delight.)

Now Slim Jims. That’s some crazy nastiness.

Okay, I’ll admit, I just had to look “Peeps” up on Wikipedia. My fave part of the article? Definitely the section on “Indestructibility”. Exotic, indeed.

I would have been with you guys on Slim Jims, except that I recently (oddly enough) did some serious jerky googling, and learned just how widespread the dried meat phenomenon is. Not that they’re not scary - I’m just not sure their scariness is region-specific?

Jerky itself is a marvelous thing. Slim Jim is its own category. It’s something that must be experienced to be understood. Full disclosure: as a child, I loved Slim Jims. So I know of what scares me now. I’m 38 and am pretty sure I haven’t finished digesting a Slim Jim I ate when I was six.

Eva—since you’re new to Peeps—please understand that you cannot judge them by any Peep other than the yellow chicks or the pink bunnies. All other Peeps at other times of year are, simply, pretenders to the throne. For pure Peeps viewing pleasure:

http://www.peepsshow.com/mainframe.html

Ok, I hear you on the jerky front. But I’ve always considered Slim Jims in their own, frightening category of dried meets, as they are a creepy combo of so many crispy animal parts. And I was seemingly scarred by the ad campaign featuring screaming WWE wrestlers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQjdHUX2T4c

Ah, fair enough. I’m out of my depth here - raised vegetarian, and had no idea Slim Jims were different from your average jerky!

As an aside, anyone ever see the Scrubs episode where Elliot gets in a fight with her boyfriend because he won’t try jerky?

Sample dialogue:

Elliot: “It just shows that you don’t trust me!”
Boyfriend: “Elliot, we’re talking about dried meat, here.”

Oh please no, no, no to the Slim Jim’s. Can’t believe they haven’t gone the way of another exotic food from my childhood, Space Food Sticks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPZ8HHRR1A0

If these still existed, I’d add them to the exotic foods list.

Wow, Mike. That’s simply amazing. I particularly like the image of the astronaut stuffing one into his helmet. And of course, the rickety contraption they imagined a spaceship to be!