Kick Back, Dish Up Those Super Snacks
In honor of Super Sunday, some finger-food facts from the Snack Food Association:
The fastest-growing snack sales categories are meat items (up 16.6 percent in 1994) and pretzels (up 15.4 percent, with sales doubling since 1991).
Industry insiders expect low-fat and nonfat munchies to account for one-third of total snack sales by the year 2000.
Because the Chinese don’t typically eat cheese, Cheetos flavors introduced there include Savory American Cream and Zesty Japanese Steak.
Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks are the celebrities survey respondents would most like to share a snack with, followed by Demi Moore and David Letterman.
Asked to compare their love lives to a snack, 23 percent of the people polled said “hot dip,” 19 percent “party mix,” 17 percent “mixed nuts” and 14 percent “empty bowl.”
Dallas, alas
Those health-conscious chip peddlers at Garden of Eatin’ recommend this Super Bowl snack twist: “Try color coordinating your food to match the uniforms of the opposing teams.”
Let’s see, that would be yellow corn chips with a black bean dip, and … blue corn chips with pickled herring?
Spam, madam?
Truly trendy types, of course, will be serving Spam Puffs - the winning entry in the national “Best Spam Recipe” contest the other day.
Jettie Robinson of West Columbia, South Carolina (the northeast part of town, no doubt), bested the Spam champions of 69 other state fairs around the country, including Spokane’s own Denise Hamilton and her Spam Saute.
Robinson’s recipe involves mixing Spam, spinach, ricotta and cream cheeses and an egg and using that as a filling for baked triangles of refrigerated crescent roll dough - sort of a Spamakopita, one might say.
Gift horse
While Spam may be Jettie’s secret ingredient, some other chefs are more partial to horseradish (at least, according to the Horseradish Information Council).
For a free copy of a recipe booklet, “Horseradish - The Secret Ingredient,” send a description of your own best-kept recipe secret, along with your address, to: Here’s My Secret, c/o Horseradish Information Council, P.O. Box 720299, Atlanta, GA 30358.
If you respond by March 1, your name will be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of The Culinary Institute of America’s “The New Professional Chef.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
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