Junk Food Nation, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Or is it, Happy St. Patrick’s Weekend?  Whatever it is, DC decided to celebrate with eight more inches of snow.  Seriously.  I look out my window at my car barely visible, and I think, “Yeah…that looks like Spring is only four days away.  Sure.”  Let’s take a look at some news:

1) Hey, do you live in San Francisco?  Have you been listening to 105.7?  Well, if not, you may not realize/know that, since Friday at 3:00 p.m., that station has been playing Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” on a straight loop FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT.  Like, it’s still going on RIGHT NOW.  At least, according to Twitter:

https://twitter.com/obviouseyes/status/445580433175379969

That’s right, everyone. If you live in the Bay Area, you can turn on 105.7 and hear this, over and over and over again:

GOOD GRACIOUS ASS IS BODACIOUS.  Sorry, I lost myself there.  Anyways, since the song is roughly four minutes long, and it’s been playing now for…oh…68 hours straight, that means it’s been played OVER ONE THOUSAND TIMES.  Apparently:  “…the Nelly loop was unleashed to herald a relaunch of the station. Univision-owned Latino Mix 105.7 is switching formats to an English-language contemporary rhythmic brand, Hot 105.7.

“This type of publicity move, known as ‘stunting,’ is occasionally put into practice when stations launch or switch formats. In July, a new Toronto radio station, Indie88, tested out its long-dormant FM signal by playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” for a full week.”

Personally, I think this is genius. Plus, who doesn’t like that song? SO TAKE IT OFF LIKE YOU’RE HOME ALONE

2) Selection Sunday for March Madness was yesterday. I was in full sports geek mode if you were following me on Twitter yesterday between 6:00 and 6:15 p.m. EST.  We’ll discuss the tournament more this week, but in the meantime, let me give two predictions: Harvard will beat Cincy. Louisville takes down Wichita State.  Boom.

3) Hey, by the way, THE NOSH SHOW EPISODE 25 IS OUT TODAY:

This week, “we argue about Bacon Pringles, Wheat Thins Popped, and Dunkin’ Donuts’ Eggs Benedict Sandwich. We also talk about the latest international junk food in a new segment and share our Nots of the Week.”  Listen embedded here:

You can subscribe to The Nosh Show using various services: iTunes, Stitcher, Swell app, SoundCloud, TuneIn, RSS, or, you can also download the episode. Thanks for listening!

Today’s junk food: New Wheat Thins Popped!

In the Nosh Show episode posted above, we discussed these New Wheat Thins Popped.  Following the trend of every single other company doing air popped light varieties of snacks, Nabisco has folowed suit with these Wheat Thins Popped.  I LOVE Wheat Thins, and I’ve been a fan of every popped chip I’ve tried so far, so I said I’d nosh these.  We’ll see if they live up to my expectations.

When I saw these in the store, they were coupled with the normal Sea Salt variety…I opted to just buy the two flavored ones, since I already know what Sea Salt tastes like.

First up: New Spicy Cheddar Wheat Thins Popped!

I popped some of these New Spicy Cheddar Wheat Thins Popped into my mouth….chewed….and MEH. Like, a REALLY BIG MEH.  These were, IMO, not great. Not great at all. The problem lies with the base air popped cracker. It occurred to me that the other popped-variety chips/crackers I liked (popcorn chips, potato pop chips) all had a distinct underlying taste.  Despite the popped texture, I could also taste the popcorn flavor, or the potato starch flavor.  But with these..the underlying base flavor was a weird starchy yet non-potato-y pop cracker.  It wasn’t bad, per se, but it was sort of like eating crunchy styrofoam.  I certainly didn’t get that awesome REGULAR Wheat Thins flavor.

Add on top of that a WEAK Spicy Cheddar flavor…there was some cheese taste, and a tiny but of smoky chili flavor, but this felt like an afterthought.  The main taste I got was the weird underlying pop cracker flavor.  Despite the presence of some potato starch, there was no potato taste.  Not a fan.

Next up: New Sour Cream & Onion Wheat Thins Popped!

I tried some of these New Sour Cream & Onion Wheat Thins Popped, and they were a LITTLE better than the Spicy Cheddar version. The reason? The Sour Cream & Onion flavoring was a bit stronger, and was more cohesive with the weird underlying cracker flavor.  These sort of reminded me of Asian Shrimp Chips (which I know many of you have never had, but those who have will understand) in how the onion flavor emerged and clung to the aftertaste.

That being said, these were only incrementally better than the Spicy Cheddar.  The underlying chip was still not appealing. In both flavors, the initial “flavoring” faded quickly, leaving me with a mouthful of mush. Again, not great.

There is no way I will ever buy these again in the future over regular awesome amazing Wheat Thins.  And now you know, I guess.

PURCHASED AT: Safeway

COST: $2.50 on sale each

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