Junk Food Nation, yesterday the Miami Marlins blew up their team, trading (as I heard on ESPN) “anyone who made money on the Marlins.” During the season, they already traded away star shortstop Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers. Heath Bell, their supposed star closer, went out the door to the D-Backs.  And now the Blue Jays just fleeced Miami for Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle, Josh Johnson, Emilio Bonafacio, John Buck, Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Matt Moore, that ugly light up statue in center field, rights to three cabanas on South Beach, in exchange for Yunel Escobar and a Bobby Flay restaurant.  Wowza.  The only player left is Giancarlo Stanton, a stud outfielder, who now gets to eat at said Bobby Flay restaurant for free.  At least he’s not pissed about it. Wait, yes he is.

You’ll find plenty of articles on ESPN on why this is a dumb move, breaking down the trade, etc. etc.  I’m not going to repeat it here.  Does it matter that Stanton now finds himself on a team with players none of us recognize? Did any of us recognize any of the names on the Marlins before ANYWAYS?  To me, this trade means three things:

1) Toronto clearly feels like now is the time to push for big things since the Red Sox are in complete rebuilding mode and the Yankees are in complete delusion mode. The Blue Jays saw the Rays falter, saw the Orioles make the playoffs and thought THIS IS THE TIME.  If the Birds can make October baseball after a decade of putridness, WE CAN TOO.  Now give us all your players, Miami, you little bitch. Yeah, that’s right…you’ll take Yunel Escobar and like it.

1A) As a baseball player, how bad must the Marlins org be that YOU LIVE IN MIAMI and you still will waive whatever clauses you have to leave to play IN CANADA.  Way to go, Jeffrey Loria.

2) Miami clearly doesn’t care about their fans. They built a GIGANTIC stadium with taxpayer money last year, got new uniforms, new colors, new branding, new manager, new players…and then blew it up after the first year. Talk about impatience.  I mean, the fans in Miami were upset at the teams failings, but they couldn’t have been more obnoxious than Philly or New York fans?  I doubt that there was THAT much pressure for change, yet the Miami front office acted like their were going to be shot in the town square unless they did something.  Or at least that’s the story they invented in their heads to cover their guilt over just disrespecting the fan base with these moves. I think there’s a pile of taxpayer money still lying around they are burning to keep their egos inflated.

3) Maybe the reason they sliced all that payroll is so they could make a legit effort to go after Arod and take him off the Yankees’ hands and then New York would be free of that albatross and …and…well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Today’s junk food: Kurkure Chilli Chatka!

Kurkure Chilli Chatka: The Money Shot

Kurkure Chilli Chatka is a chip I picked up at my local Korean grocery.  I reviewed Kurkure’s Masala Munch before, and again, the website for Kurkure is here (WARNING: SURPRISINGLY LOUD INDIAN ELECTRONICA MUSIC).   Does anyone like how this bag appears torn and bursting with mini Indian Cheetos? I know I do.

Chatka?

Wiki says that Chatka means: “meat from an animal which has been killed by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever the head…” So…yeah, we got that going for us.

Chatpata?

Kurkure Chilli Chatka has the flavor of chatpata, which is a hot and sour flavor. Tedha and Tedhapaan…I gotta admit, I’m having a tough time finding good translations for these.  It sounds like something exciting though… “turn on the Tedhapaan inside you & let the excitement begin!” Sounds dirty.

Nutritional info

Upside: no dyes in this

Kurkure Chilli Chatka is full of lots of spices, and not a lot of filler, so that’s a positive note. One more note – the “manufactured on” date is February 2, 2012, and these are the be eaten before four months from the date…so June. So these are expired. Nice.

Indian Cheetos!

Kurkure Chilli Chatka smelled like a WHOLE LOTTA spice when I opened it up.  The smell kind of made my nostrils burn. I popped one in my mouth, scared, and…

Baked-in spice

…and I liked it! I munched on this Kurkure Chilli Chatka and found it to be actually pretty tasty.  The problem with the Masala Munch was that it was all spice, and no other flavor (to me).  Here, there was a definite sour/tang to the puffs which helped bring the flavor profile back to ones I recognized when eating Indian food in the past.  The curry-spice took on my shape, and I was able to get a more savory flavor overall.

It still was VERY spicy, however, and my mouth tasted like fire.  But this time around, it was savory sour fire. I still coughed a bit after eating several of these, and the blood rushed to my cheeks…but because the sour was there to help break up the spice, I could taste more of the coriander, the garlic, the cumin.

I probably wouldn’t eat these again, but I definitely liked them 100x better than the Masala Munch.

UPDATE 6:43PM: Okay, I have to admit that I like these. I gave them a so-so review before, but now that I’m home from work and munching on some again…they are really pretty tasty for an Indian snack.  Sour, savory, and spicy. It’s the closest snack I’ve had that actually reminds me of Indian food and not just a cluster of spices.  I WILL buy these again.  They are still pretty spicy and not for everyone…but I do indeed like them.

PURCHASED AT: Asian Grocery (Lotte food store)

COST: $1.29

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Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy