Junk Food Nation, no delays!  Let’s get right to the winner of the the MunchPak Snack Boxes. Thanks to all who participated and entered.  The Twitter Winner is:

*** @AmourPourLeRock ***

And the Comments Winner is:

*** Kristi (kagrinde) ***

Congratulations, @AmourPourLeRock & Kristi!  E-mail your contact info to junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com and MunchPak will mail you your prize boxes as soon as they can! Enjoy!

Also, another story I saw recently – have you ever heard of Hug Rooms?  Well, if not, it’s probably because you don’t live in Korea.  But there is a new trend in Korea – Hug Rooms, where, according to this article, “lonely men are shelling out $30 to mingle with professional huggers for 30 minutes.”  

The article goes on to say that these types of “pay-for-intimacy” places in Korea are hard to punish because it’s not quite prostitution, but also hints that there may be some happy endings to these hugs in certain tawdry hug rooms.  And while we can debate the merits of whether it’s worth it or sad for customers in their 40’s and 50’s to be paying women in their early 20s to “treat them with warmth like a girlfriend,” I think there’s a more pressing question…

$30 for 30 minutes????

Wait, that’s NOT the question you were wondering?  Well, it sure as hell was for me.  30 minutes is the least amount I can buy?  I can’t just shell out a couple of sheckles for a long embrace, or a fiver for a REALLY long Roger-Goodell-on-NFL-Draft-Day type hug? Who decided on 30 minutes?  That means somewhere there were price point analysts who were concerned that people were just coming in for a few back squeezes and there wasn’t enough profit, so they NEEDED to set the minimum at 30 minutes.  Which is BS – when I get food at the salad bar, I’m not required to get a bed of lettuce and three hard boiled eggs, am I?? So why can’t I ala carte my hugs then? What if I wanted only 17 minutes worth of hugs…now I gotta sit there awkwardly playing Video Craps on my phone while this girl stares at me for 13 minutes? Boo. Man, I’m never going to a hug room ever again.  I mean….ever.  Cough.

Today’s junk food: Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips!

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips: The Money Shot

I have to admit, I passed by these Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips a couple times in the store before I decided to pick them up. Honestly, my thought was, “Isn’t ‘bacon,’ like, over?” I guess bacon will NEVER be over.

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips: MMM PANCAKES

My friend Susan even contacted me, asking if I’d seen these Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips.  I proudly proclaimed, “I ALREADY HAVE A BAG IN MY PANTRY!” I’m never sure whether I should be proud or embarrassed that I already have a junk food someone happens to spot in the store.

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips: 150 cal per serving

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips: Nice kettle look

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips looked like other Kettle brand chips – nice thick cut potato chips, some nicely curled, and they make that nice shh shhh sound when you shake the bag.  Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.  Shh shhh chhhk.

The smell of the chips was…underwhelming.  I didn’t really smell anything.  Hmmm.

Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips: Speckled with bacon?

I munched on a few of these Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips, and frankly was underwhelmed.  To be clear: they tasted fine.  But did they taste like maple bacon to me? Honestly, no.

The first taste I got was a nice sweetness.  The maple flavor was more like a brown sugar flavor in my book, but it did coat the chips nicely – with the salt of the potato chips, this tasted like the flavor that Kettle Corn has – sweet and salty.  Brown sugar finish.  Not bad.

There was a smokiness to the chip too – I guess that’s where the bacon came in.  The smokiness wasn’t strong, however, and there wasn’t enough of it to give me any sense of bacon, to be honest.  There’s really not much more to describe with respect to this.

And that was it.  This was a tasty chip that tasted sweet and salty like Kettle Corn and with a bit of smoke.  Not maple bacon-y enough in my book.  If anything, it tasted just like a slight sweet BBQ flavor.  I love Kettle Chips, and I’ve had PLENTY of great flavors from them – but not this one.

PURCHASED AT: Wegmans

COST: $2.99

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy