Twinkies Saved from Extinction

 

Hallelujah and thank the Lord, Hostess Twinkies, those “golden sponge cakes with creamy filling” will survive. I've read not one, but innumerable articles concerning the potential demise of this iconic cellophane-wrapped, long-life lunchbox filler. All you Aussie and Kiwis out there, no snickering. What's it like when Vegemite and Marmite are in short supply, huh?

Devil Dogs, RingDings, Yodels, Hostess Cupcakes, Little Debbies … all these junk food “snack cakes” stand second tier to Twinkies in my book. Granted none of them have any nutritional value, all are super high in sugar, calories, saturated fat and cholesterol, but still Twinkies have been around forever (or 1930, whichever came first). Urban legend has it that the same original Twinkies produced in the 1930's are still available for sale, having an eternal shelf life, but that's been debunked. They're only good for 45 days according to the latest info I could gather. Sometimes they're shipped frozen so retailers can mark their own expiration dates on them. That's very trusting.

So, here's the story in a nutshell. The Hostess Company filed bankruptcy in 2012 when they couldn't come to terms with the baker's union and thus had to stop production and went belly up. Twinkie consumption was down, too. Part of the problem they reckon, is that more people are eating healthy (darn!). They got bought out and the new company doesn't use union labor, so their costs are lower and they're hoping they can make a go of it and junk food junkies will consume more.

Touted as “the sweetest comeback in the history of ever” (man, who's their marketer?), the new Twinkies hit the shelves of WalMart on July 14, a day before the rest of the country. WalMart knows its customers! The new Twinkies are also a little smaller, and therefore have 15 less calories. I think that means you can eat more. I might add that Twinkies are also available in Mexico, manufactured by a subsidiary of Bimbo Bread. That in itself says something, huh?

Here's some Twinkie trivia for you:

According to Hostess, it takes 45 seconds to explode a Twinkie in the microwave. Good info to have.

The original filling flavor was banana.

The “old” shelf life of a Twinkie was considered only 26 days; the “new and improved” (and smaller) Twinkies last 45 days on the shelves.

President Clinton put a package of Twinkies in the national millennium time capsule (2000) as an “object of enduring American symbolism”. Really?

There are 39 ingredients in a Twinkie … including glue, rocks and petroleum.

Born in 1930, the Twinkie is 83 years old this year.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

 

Did you know that the “I Scream” line is from an old, very un-PC song written in 1927 about college boys in the way far North? Even way back then, ice cream was a hit. Actually, it appears that the ancient Chinese enjoyed “iced cream” fruity concoctions and when the Greeks and Romans and Persians found out about it, they thought it was a grand idea. On the boat, we never have ice cream … the freezer would never keep it frozen. So, when we're on land … you guessed it …an ice cream frenzy ensues. Actually, we feel it's more our duty to try different ice cream flavors and report our conclusions. Someone's gotta do it.

It seems most every country we've visited has ice cream. Depending on the manufacturer, the vendor and his freezer, the ice cream can be very, very good or icy and crystalline with that melted, refrozen kind of taste. Sometimes there's soft-serve. It's okay in a pinch, but definitely not our favorite. There's sugar-free and fat-free, but why bother? We opt for rich, thick, velvety ice cream in flavors to die for.

Many places tout their own regional specialties in the ice cream flavors they manufacture. There's calfate berry in Ushuaia, Argentina and wine-flavored ice creams like Malbec and Syrah in Mendoza, Argentina. Throughout South America, dulce de leche (kind of like caramel) is a major favorite. New Zealand has Hokey-Pokey (vanilla with toffee bits) and Tasmania has pepperberry. Here in New England, maple walnut is a favorite. This is the home of Ben & Jerry's, don't forget. We've tried them all. David's favorite is New York Super Fudge Chunk, followed closely by chocolate almond. My favorite is maple walnut, followed closely by … maple walnut.

We recently read that there's garlic, sweet corn and green pea ice cream flavors and even horsemeat and parakeet. Oh, I think we'd probably pass on those. As much as we like ice cream, horse glacée and parakeet sorbet just lack appeal for some reason. Burger King just introduced their Bacon Sundae. I wonder how it's doing?

We usually opt for cones so we can multi-task … walk and eat ice cream at the same time. I found out that the world’s largest ice cream cone was “built” in Gloucester, U.K. A forklift carried the ice cream, which weighed 2,204 pounds (~1000kg), and placed it on top of the cone. The cone stood about 13' (2.7m) tall. Pretty impressive. I doubt we could have eaten it all in one go, but maybe in a few tries.

So … the best ice cream in the world in our humble opinions? Without a doubt … Argentina. Helado artesenal … ice cream in Argentina is an artform. It's rich, creamy and and absolutely luscious. The flavorful tastes are outstanding. Beyond all that, the folks who serve the ice cream are artisans. They have little paddles, not scoops, and they shape the cones with care and flair. They serve the cones with little spoons, so you can daintily eat your cone. (as if!) It's a pleasure to watch them … especially knowing it's YOUR cone they're working on.

Did you know the first ice cream in a walkaway cone was served at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904? I'm just full of trivia today, huh? It keeps my mind off eating ice cream.

Lobstah

 

Yup, we're still in New England and where there's chowdah, there's also lobstah. Sometimes when people ask us why we're traveling around the world on a boat, we answer that we're just trying to sample lobster worldwide in order to figure out where we'd like to settle down. We do love lobstah.

Being brought up in Massachusetts, I don't remember not loving lobster or not knowing how to clean one. It's an art which I mastered early. I can remember a time when lobster was cheaper by the pound than hamburger, so the buying decision was easy. When I first met David who hails from Denver, he visited me in New Hampshire and I surprised him with two 2-pound beauties from the local lobster pound. I dove in and in my euphoric state, (think Darryl Hannah in “Splash”) it took me a minute or two to notice he wasn't eating.

"What's up? You don't like lobster?”

“I love lobster, but I've never had to clean one.”

Well, that was easy. I gave him a lesson in lobster cleaning 101 and there was no looking back. He quickly discovered that though I told him he might as well just give me the tail meat since there wasn't much to it, I was just giving him a hard time. He hasn't hesitated since and cleans a lobster down to the last morsel quicker than you can say “Pass the butter.”

In our travels, we've eaten Caribbean spiny lobster in the remote Islas Aves, where we traded lobster daily for charging a battery for the local fishermen. In the Cook Islands, we had another spiny lobster treat compliments of a local friend in the Omoka village. In Tonga, our friends at Matamaka Island gave us a huge lobster for dinner one Sunday after church, already steam-cooked in an underground umu. All these gifts were well-received to say the least and promptly devoured.

At Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, lobstering is the main occupation of the islanders. Everyone participates in this delicately eco-balanced endeavor which keeps the island a financially self-sustaining British Overseas Territory. The lobsters are flash-frozen in the island's tiny processing plant and shipped by boat to South Africa where they fetch a pretty penny. Thanks to Tristanians, Andy and Lorraine Repetto, we left Tristan with a freezer full of Tristan lobsters. I dare say, we had had our fill (at least temporarily) by the time we reached Cape Town.

In Australia, we sampled Moreton Bay bugs, aka slipper or flathead lobsters. All lobsters are called “crays” or crayfish in Australia and the lobstermen there are called cray fishermen. Even the lobster traps are different than we're used to seeing in here in the USA.

In New Zealand, we sampled crays in Milford Sound, Fiordland when a local lobsterman offered us a couple of culls. While anchored in remote Port Davey, Tasmania, we heard a knock on the hull just around dusk. A local cray fisherman gave us two huge crays for dinner. He asked if we knew how to cook them? This born-and-bred New England girl had no problem answering that question and that generous gift was steaming in the pot in no time.

En route from Easter Island to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, David decided he'd construct a lobster trap out of whatever he could muster up on the boat and try his luck when we got to Pitcairn. No luck catching lobster, but it certainly did occupy quite a bit of his time on the passage.

The biggest difference we find between Maine or American lobster is the big, tender, succulent front claws which are absent on the spiny varieties. We think the cold-water lobster meat itself is sweeter than the tropical water varieties, too. But the sampling is not yet complete. We have the rest of the world's lobsters to try before making our final decision. So many lobsters … so little time.

Lobster trivia: In addition to the usual green-brown lobsters that turn red when cooked, there are also blue, orange and yellow anomalies. It appears they all turn red when cooked and they all taste the same. Really? You'd think if you were blue or yellow, they'd give you a break, huh?