Limited Edition Foods

White Castle Slyders are the stuff of pop culture legend, inspiring movies and countless comedy routines. 

But even though every generation of White Castle fans tends to think of the chain as "their" special place for friendship and craving satisfaction, whole generations could argue over who is the biggest White Castle fan.

That’s because White Castle and its famous tiny burgers is over eighty years old.  The first White Castle opened in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas.  White Castle was selling burgers, chain style, before anybody else.  And that’s not the only thing White Castle did first, according to their web site:

"First fast-food hamburger chain ever. First industrial-strength spatula. First mass-produced paper hat. First to sell a million hamburgers. First to sell a billion hamburgers. First frozen fast food for sale."

So the next time you eat White Castle, or just catch part of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on cable, think about the fact that you are enjoying a part of American food history.

Last year was the one hundred year anniversary of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, a breakfast table staple that hit the mass market in 1906.  Still popular one hundred years later, Corn Flakes are a great example of the kinds of foods we like to feature on Classic Food Fridays.

Created by the Kellogg brothers at their health spa in the nineteenth century, Corn Flakes are one of the most famous and profitable accidents in modern food history.  Over one hundred and fifty years ago, the Kellogg brothers were advocating a diet that is often advocated today:  more fiber, no meat, no tobacco, no caffeine, and no alcohol.  The tasteless breakfast grains dish offered at the spa at the time was popular for its health benefits, but not for its taste.  Various experiments to improve the taste unexpectedly lead to corn flakes, and later sugar was added to help the cereal sell to consumers who wanted to be health conscious but were not quite as committed as those at the spa. 

The bizarre history of the Kellogg brothers has been documented in various places, including the book The Road to Wellville and the related motion picture which came out in 1988.

Each Friday we take a step back from the fad foods of the season and reflect on the foods that have been a part of our pantries and our pop culture for so long that we can’t remember a time when they were not available for purchase.

Usually these are heavily processed foods, but today seemed like a nice day to break from the norm and cover a vegetable, which when consumed from a can is only mildly processed compared to, say, a Moon Pie.

Since next year marks the eightieth anniversary of the Green Giant, and this year marks the one hundredth anniversary of his classic peas, it seemed like a good time to take a look at the big green fellow and the tiny little orbs he represents in the minds of millions of consumers.

The peas were originally introduced in 1907, but the Green Giant mascot did not appear in advertisements until 1928 when he became the symbol for Green Giant’s campaign for its new and unusually large strain of peas.

The Green Giant has helped sell untold peas over the years as well as a bunch of vegetables, and in 1970s he asexually reproduced a junior giant called Little Sprout to help make vegetables more appealing to kids. The Green Giant, his asexual offspring, and his unusually large orbs have been owned by several companies over the years, and they are currently part of a stable of brands owned by General Mills.

As with most pop culture icons, the Green Giant has taken on a life of his own independent from the vegetables he sells. Videos of classic Green Giant commercials seem to have a following on You Tube, and references to the big fella have popped up in movies for decades (remember Ghostbusters II?). You can even be the Green Giant for Halloween next year, but if you want to compete with the big fella you had better start working on your glutes now … that tunic is pretty short.

peas, green giant, classic advertisements, you tube

Few snack cakes have inspired as much cultural creativity as the Hostess Twinkie, so they seemed like a good subject for this week’s Classic Food Friday. Whether people are conducting science experiments on Twinkies, putting them in deep fryers, or using them to create wedding cakes, it seems that Twinkies have always been — and will always be — here with us.

In fact, Twinkies were invented in 1930. It was not until Hostess started sponsoring The Howdy Doody Show in the 1950s, however, that Twinkies became a household name, and they stayed in the headlines in the 1960s due to the common belief that Twinkies were a smart item to store in your household bomb shelter, which gave rise to a plethora of modern urban legends about Twinkies surviving nuclear attacks.

Originally filled with banana creme, the Twinkie did not feature the modern vanilla filling until the 40s when the Hostess company was forced to improvise due to a national banana shortage during World War II. Earlier this year the company released the classic banana creme filling as a limited edition version of the Twinkie, but the taste proved so popular they will be keeping the banana twinkie as a permanent addition to the Twinkie line.

Eventually it may be high finance, not nuclear war, that ends America’s love affair with the Twinkie. The company that makes the Twinkie has been in bankruptcy for several years now, and creditor maneuvering is dragging out the proceedings even more. While this is unfortunate for everyone involved, it is a safe bet that the Twinkie will sail through this proceeding relatively unscathed … America’s favorite sponge cake has solid name recognition and sales, so regardless of what happens in court the Twinkie will probably be around for many cellophane-wrapped decades to come.

Last week I was in Iowa and spotted these slightly shocking boxes nestled amongst the candies and snack foods in a gift store. Given the national war on smoking, I was surprised to see they made these candies, much less see them placed them at eye level for kids. Apparently my impression that these candies were no longer on the market is a common misconception, as the government has left it up to individual retailers to decide whether they will carry these controversial confections. Given the nature of these novelty items, it seemed natural to choose them as today’s feature for Classic Food Friday.

So the debate about candy cigarettes continues, as a study was published as recently as April of this year trying to add weight to the seemingly obvious truth that candy cigarettes glamorize smoking to kids, which in turn makes them more likely to grow up to be smokers. For anecdotal evidence on this theory, head over to Old Time Candy which has some interesting stories about candy cigarettes, or candy sticks as they are apparently called these days, and some amazing pictures of the old packages which were made to mimic real cigarette brands.

Or if the photo above triggered your consumer craving, you can buy candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigarettes in packages of 24 boxes over at Amazon.com. But be forewarned faithful readers: according to technology blogger Mike Swanson, candy cigarettes are almost as addictive as the real thing. Hopefully candy cancer is not a potential side effect.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Pez, the candy that started as a mint and transformed itself into a sugary pop culture staple. To help Pez collector’s celebrate this anniversary, we are dedicating the Classic Food Friday post to the wonder that is Pez.

Pez was invented in 1927 in Austria as an adult peppermint, and its name is short for pfefferminz which is the German word for peppermint. The creator of Pez quickly expanded the marketing for Pez to advocate sucking on the candies as an alternative to smoking. This seems fairly prophetic, since billions of dollars are now spent on products that claim to help people stop smoking, and only adds to the mysterious aura of Pez.

Perhaps even more famous than the Pez candies are the Pez dispensers, which started as a hygienic way to carry mints and morphed into collector’s items that fascinate consumers the world over. To date approximately 300 different Pez dispensers have been created, and there are avid collectors who have books and conventions on the subject of collecting said dispensers of Pez. At any given time you can find fanatical Pez dispenser trading on Ebay, which has seen a Pez dispenser sell for over $30,000.00 USD. There is even an auction site to help you track your Pez auctions called AuctionPez.com.

If you can’t find what you like in the official Pez dispenser collector community, there is a counterfeit Pez dispenser community that trades “fantasy Pez” dispensers. Basically Pez obsessed folks create Pez-like dispensers for their favorite pop culture icons and then sell them to others. After 80 years in the cut throat candy business, Pez is still going strong.

Pez, Pillsbury Doughboy, Kiss, dispensers, Austria, mints, smoking, collector

We talk a lot about obesity these days, so it is odd to think that it was only a few decades ago that a MoonPie and a Coke was an acceptable lunch. The thick and filling MoonPie is a Southern classic that was actually considered to be a meal way back when.

Check out the MoonPie website for the sweet and silly stories that won the “My Favorite MoonPie Memory” contest. The various stories feature a MoonPie proposal and a ninety-five year old memory of buying a MoonPie and a Coke for a nickel.

My favorite MoonPie memory took place on a beach in Southern Mississippi many years ago, at a conference that was sponsored by MoonPie. In the wee small hours of the morning after the awards banquet everybody there ended on the beach looking at the water and somehow that turned into a MoonPie fight. Lots of laughter followed, but a word to the wise for anyone thinking about trying it … those things are thick and they hurt. It was a hell of a lot of fun though.

MoonPie, Coke, obesity, South, lunch

Valomilk is an old school candy, the exact opposite of a limited edition food. Valomilks have fed candy lovers for generations, and it is only appropriate to end June with a nod to their dominance. June is both National Candy Month and National Dairy Month, so of course that means we must also have a picture of a milk chocolate cow.

Aquiring a Valomilk can be challenging, especially if you live outside of middle America. They are made with very high quality ingredients and do not travel well, but when you find one it is worth it. For a fascinating and detailed narrative review of the Valomilk, check out Cybele’s five part series on this national treasure over at Candyblog. For an extended ode to Valomilks and other old school candies, be sure to check out Steve Almond’s classic Candy Freak.

chocolate, marshmallow, Valomilk, candy, steve almond, candy freak, cow