Junk Food Nation, so far during Opinion Week, I’ve received so many good topics, that I may have revisit some later this week. Keep ‘em coming!  You guys make me chuckle, you clever people you.  Today I’m discussing the following question posed by Kahnfucius:

[H]ow would you show your kids the Star Wars movies? Would you show them in the order we all saw them in? Would you follow George Lucas’s numbering in chronological order? Would you even show them the ones with Jar-jar?

Not a tough call at all – you show them in the order we saw them, New Hope, Empire, Jedi, and then you don’t show the other three.  I mean, how would my son or daughter even know??  I’m an adult, you’re a child, and I placed the DVD player on a shelf high enough so you can’t reach it.  I WILL DICTATE WHAT YOU WATCH!  My kids will see Luke destroy the Death Star, Han frozen in carbonite, and Vader throw the Emperor off the ledge, AND THAT WILL BE IT.  I mean, I’m certainly not going to have any of the other three DVDs in my home.  If my kid comes walking into the room holding a copy of Attack of the Clones, I’ll smack it out of his/her hand like I was stealing the ball at the top of the key. Clone Wars? The Ewok Adventure? Those words will not be uttered in my home.

Showing them in chronological order is bad because when they hit “the fourth” movie, my kids will be like, “Dad, why does this movie look like it’s been shot underwater?” after those previous hours of HD quality.  Showing a movie to my kids that will be almost 40 years old (ugh) when they’re old enough to comprehend images is going to be enough of a struggle as it is…but to START with horrible story/HD mastery, and then jump to 1977 film? I may as well make my kids watch World War II documentaries.

Parents who for some reason want their kids to see the movies in chronological order because they “want their kids to relate to Anakin Skywalker as a kid” forget that HE TURNS TO THE DARK SIDE.  One day, your kid is watching The Phantom Menace, the next he’s swinging a baseball bat around shouting “I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire!” UH, No thank you. At least in the older movies, Luke’s kind of a weenie through the whole thing – better my kids see that than the aggressive punk Anakin turns into.

Honestly, I can’t wait to show my kids Star Wars.    If they stumble onto the latter (earlier?) three movies on their own in college, well – that’ll be their choice.  But when you’re under MY ROOF, it’s MY RULES, and Natalie Portman is NOT Queen Amidala, she’s the hot skank from Black Swan.  GOT IT!? Now eat your green beans.

Keep the topics coming, Junk Food Nation!  Today’s junk food is for all you Michiganders out there:  Kilwin’s Fudge from Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Kilwin’s Fudge was brought to work for me to sample by my co-worker, M.  She and her husband J are from Michigan, and M is quite vociferous about how great Michigan is, how great the food is there, how great the sports teams are, yadda yadda yadda.  Yeah, ok.  Prove it.  So, her hubby J brought some of this amazing fudge M was raving about, and they let me sample a few corners.

Kilwin’s Fudge has been around since 1947, and has the motto “Sweet In Every Sense Since 1947.”  I remember in my own home town in Upstate New York, we used to take field trips to candy-making Mom & Pop shops, and we’d see them stretching taffy and scooping pools of fudge.  It was Nirvana.  So this homemade fudge made me a little nostalgic, I must admit.

The first Kilwin’s Fudge I tried was Peanut Butter Fudge.  Wrapped in thin plastic wrap, the fudge smelled faintly of PB.

Not too long ago, I learned (because I’m slow) or re-remembered (because I’m forgetful) that fudge is NOT always chocolate.  Kilwin’s Peanut Butter Fudge was just a big block of beige confection – no chocolate in sight.

Kilwin’s Peanut Butter Fudge was really tasty – smooth peanut butter taste. Not salty peanut butter flavor, more like the type of peanut butter flavor you get when you eat peanut butter cookies – that sugary peanut butter taste that mimics the aftertaste of Peanut Butter Crunch cereal.  Pretty standard, didn’t WOW me, but I definitely enjoyed it – Really good.

Um, well hello Kilwin’s Salted Caramel Fudge.  This big brick was Salted Caramel on chocolate fudge.  If it looks decadent, it’s because it was.

With two huge globs of caramel on top, the Kilwin’s Salted Caramel Fudge was easily the richest fudge I had of the three.  Big pieces of salt were littered through the fudge too – a really nice visual touch.

And, of course, the Kilwin’s Salted Caramel Fudge tasted amazing.  The chocolate fudge was rich, deep, and sweet.  Very soft too – spread easily crushing a chunk using my tongue on the roof of my mouth. And the caramel was gooey and salty and sweet.  I was careful, but this was stick-to-your-teeth caramel.  It had all that great caramelized sugar flavor.  The combo of the two was very rich.  The best part was that those big salt sprinkles kept showing up in the flavor to give little darts of savory here and there, making the subsequent tastes of caramel and chocolate fudge that much sweeter.  Awesome.

The final flavor was Kilwin’s Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Fudge.  Apparently this was a wildcard flavor J picked up on a whim.  Oh, and I am so glad he did…

As a coconut lover, this fudge to me looked absolutely breathtaking.  It’s just a big slice of white creamy confection JAMMED with toasted coconut and HUGE chunks of chocolate.  My mouth is watering right now, looking at it.

The best part about the Kilwin’s Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Fudge was that it didn’t even need slicing – the texture of the toasted coconut made the whole thing slightly crumbly, so pieces could be broken off very easily.

Kilwin’s Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Fudge was easily my favorite of the day.  The toasted coconut flavor was strong, and it was was so toasted and sweet that it sort of gave off a caramelized flavor.  Add into that the sweet creamy background of the white fudge, and then the robust flavor of the dark chocolate chip chunks wedged throughout, and this was a spectacular flavor combo.  I felt like I was eating the outer coating of a Samoa that had been placed on top of a chunk of sweet white fudge.  DELICIOUS.

Thanks, M and J – you proved your point.  Right now, Michigan holds the homemade fudge crown.

PURCHASED AT: MICHIGAN!

COST: $8.50 per 1/2 lb.

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Sincerely, Junk Food Guy