Malawry
-
Posts
3,403 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Malawry
-
-
Hey Liza, I think I remember something like that. Were they called B-Bats? And did they come in many colors, I mean flavors? :)
I ate a lot of Fun Dip in the late 70s-early 80s.
-
Ting and Wink are both citrus sodas. Ting is a Jamaican grapefruit soda, which comes in a cool dark green bottle. It's not very sweet. We found it at the nifty Jamaican market near my house; I've not seen it elsewhere. Wink is a sweeter soda, and is mostly grapefruit flavored but also has a little bit of lemon and orange taste. Wink is bottled by Canada Dry, and can often be found in the "mixer" section of liquor stores. It's usually only available in 1-liter bottles.
I think Ting and Wink are also rejected Teletubbies, but I'm not sure about that. :)
-
Yeah, I zested some lemon and finely chopped fresh oregano leaves and mixed them with sea salt. The lemon didn't pick up so well but the oregano and salt did. Next time I'll make the lemon zest smaller so it picks up better.
-
So, last night, I tried Campari and Ting soda. (How's that for combining threads?) It was deliciously tart and refreshing, with just enough sweet to cut the bitter. Very very good. I see myself guzzling these during the sweltering days of August, perhaps between taking turns at the barbeque.
I like Campari and Wink a little better, but it's sweeter than Ting and therefore not quite as refreshing. Plus, Ting just sounds cooler than Wink. :p
-
I ended up wussing out on Jim's polenta and risotto squares, because I wanted to use the idea when I'm doing something more involved. Here's what I ended up serving:
Endive leaves with hummus and a red-green-yellow-pepper confetti
Mixed nuts roasted in butter with sea salt
A cheese platter: sheep's milk feta, goat's milk gruyere, New York cheddar, a standard brie, butter, and a German apricot jam
Assorted crudite with a fresh lemon-oregano sea salt
Chocolate chip cookies, both regular and with mint
Brownies made with the Scharffen Berger unsweetened chocolate I picked up in NYC
-
Thanks for the cool ideas.
Jim, are those rice and polenta squares good when they cool, or are they best eaten fresh out of the pan? I'd prefer not to spend time in the kitchen once things get going.
Wilfrid, the gratin sounds good, but like it would make a better plated first course than a dish you could pick up with your fingers between rounds of poker. I was thinking of something more along the lines of Liza's suggestion. Do you guys think grapefruit would taste good with endive? I have some good, sweet, juicy grapefruit at home.
-
Oh dear. Just as long as we keep this thread separate from the kitchen-revenge discussion. :o
-
So we're giving an informal game-playing party tomorrow night. I'm in charge of snacks, as is usual in our household. I wondered if people had thoughts for simple snacks that are not too messy that I can throw together. I will put out some kind of crudite platter with a herb seasoned salt, roasted buttered nuts, and one or two types of homemade cookies. I was thinking of doing something with endive leaves...but everything I am thinking of drizzling on them is way too messy. Any thoughts?
-
Quiddler is indeed a word game. It's a set of cards with one or two letters on each of them; each card is assigned a point value. You deal out the cards to all players and then players have to form words with them...you draw a card and discard a card each time it's your turn, and you can draw the last discarded card if you like...sorta like gin type games combined with Scrabble in the mechanics of play. The goal is to accumulate the most points possible by using as many of your cards as possible in words, and by manipulating your hand through drawing and discarding to get the highest point values available. Sorry, I'm not particularly skilled at describing games.
The two letter cards make things particularly interesting...there's a "QU" card, which gets you less points than the "Q" card alone does since the "Q" alone is far less likely to be usable (unless you're lucky enough to draw a "U"). There's also CL, TH, and a few others. If you've played Set, it's the same manufacturer. www.setgame.com ...or buy it from our acquaintances the Looneys at Contagious Dreams, www.contagiousdreams.com. This game rapidly became a favorite in our household since both my partner and our housemate were given copies as gifts in December. We're not total game geeks but we all like to play games every so often, and we have a small but growing collection.
Tongs: I use wooden ones for cold things like salads, and sometimes for pulling hot things out of or putting things into pans. I use the nylon ones for manipulating hot things while they're in the pan usually. There's not much of a division of labor between the nylon and wooden tongs. I keep a set of metal ones for use on my little tabletop gas grill...I store them in the grill when not in use, since this is the only place I use them.
-
I just like the word spurtle. Spurtle spurtle spurtle. My new life goal is to use this word while playing Scrabble or Quiddler.
Thanks for the black pepper info. I had heard of black pepper on strawberries, but haven't tried it because of my unfortunate allergy to strawberries. I wonder how it would taste on raspberries? Perhaps tomorrow I will try a little on top of my raspberry-jammed toast and see what I think.
The inventory of our tool bin includes:
several spatulae
a few large nylon spoons
a couple large nylon ladles
two wooden spatulas
about 10 assorted wooden spoons
nylon tongs
the aforementioned wooden tongs
a silicon whisk
Most of our pans and pots are nonstick, and we can't be trusted to avoid the metal utensils when we're cooking. So we store them in a drawer, and keep only all-surface tools in the crock on the counter. That silicon whisk sucks, so if I'm making a sauce I try to make it in one of the regular pans. Which also sucks because the regular pans we have are thinner and cheapish, and sauces can scorch easily in them.
-
I have decent pepper & sea salt grinders but fall back on my pestle & mortar for greater control (esp. when making black pepper ice cream).
Black Pepper Ice Cream???
You didn't think you'd slip that one by us, did you? I must hear more. What goes into it, how you serve it, and so on.
-
Except for Judith Weinraub, who can do virtually no wrong in my eyes, the staff seemed to be much better writers than they were knowledgeable about their subjects--food, cooking, chefs and restaurants. Over the years, I felt (and was by no means in the minority of the local food community) that there were too many simplistic, irrelevant or insignificant pieces which failed to challenge readers enough, which didn't raise awareness enough. Too much of the actual cooking discussion was home recipe-centric and dumbed down. (Didn't they realize it's all about technique, palate and thought process?)
I'd still like to see more thoughtful coverage of chefs, more reporting of the professional culinary scene, something along the lines of the New York Times wonderful rotating series of "The Chef" columns, or the joint Thomas Keller/Michael Ruhlman LATimes column--rather than wordy, convoluted baking tips about essentially simple things by Lisa Yockelson and dumbed-down drivel from the likes of Eleanor Klivans, Marcy Goldman, and the usual suspects rounded up from IACP membership rolls. I wish the Post would commit to a talented, consistent voice like a Mark Bittman, instead; his "Minimalist" column from the Times is another of the few things I adore from that newspaper's "food" section. (To date, we've been spared from any editorial attempt to turn a Gen X staff writer into a first-person culinary personality--a la an Amanda Hesser diary. But with all the notoriety Ms. Hesser has attracted--and rumors of a $300,000 advance for her upcoming book now in circulation--can that be far behind?)
I devour the Post Food section weekly. I also read the NYTimes section, and I try to check out the LA Times section periodically. I don't know much about the staff at the other two papers, but I do know that the writers at the Post Food section largely came to writing about food from other forms of journalism, not from a background in food and food issues. Just the same, I admit to preferring the Post food section to that of the NYTimes because I find it more useful in an immediate sense, and because I'm usually more connected to the topics they cover. I wish they invested the resources in their section that the NYTimes obviously invests in theirs.
I'm curious as to which other recent stories you particularly enjoyed. Some of my favorites have included the Walter Nicholls piece on Rappahannock County (which won a well-deserved Beard nomination) and a piece that ran about a year ago on the subject of buttermilk (I forget who wrote it, and an Archives search did not appear to pull it up). I have a copy of this article at home somewhere. Since I read it, I've kept fresh buttermilk around, and I've tried some of the recipes that appeared with the article with great success...the pancakes I've mentioned before have become a standard in my house.
Sometimes they really miss it, though. I was pissed off about Candy Sagon's interview with vegans that ran a few weeks ago. I was angry that a group of people who seemed to take no joy in eating were the only representatives interviewed, and that Sagon didn't try to talk to some vegetarians and some people who aren't activists. (She mentions vegetarianism consistently in the article, but only interviewed vegans. She shouldn't generalize to vegetarians from the vegans she talked with; vegetarians and vegans have very different approaches to food in my experience. I would have been less annoyed if the article had accurately represented itself as discussing the vegan standpoint, but I still would have been annoyed.) That being said, Sagon did win some points from me by trying a vegan diet for a week and documenting her food intake and her reflections on the diet as the week progressed.
Steve, do you read Kim O'Donnell's Live Online "What's Cooking" chats on washingtonpost.com? Hoo boy, she could be her own topic of discussion. My fear is that she'll be elevated to Hesserian proportions.
Disclosure: my partner Erin works for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, which is a Washington Post company and which brings us www.washingtonpost.com.
-
I love, love, love my OXO Good Grips salad spinner. I keep it right behind the sink and use it almost every time I cook for salad greens and fresh herbs. I also adore the Microplane that edemuth got me for Hanukkah, and I like a little yellow lemon juicer that I've had for years...it's hard to describe but it's very effective. I keep a cookie sheet out at all times for general use. I like to slip it under things in the oven so they don't make a mess on the oven floor.
My housemate is the queen of funky serving utensils. Since she moved in, I've enjoyed using the pickle prong and olive fork she brought along, and she also owns the koolest wooden tongs. They fold one way to serve as tongs, and the other way to stay flat and easily packed away. I use the wooden tongs mostly for salads, where they look really pretty and are easy to grasp.
I'm really curious what you guys are doing with that preground black pepper.
-
Yeah, I'm back. I didn't eat so well in LA but I knew that my time and options were necessarily limited by being with a person who has extensive food allergies and a four month old baby to accommodate. Check the thread Beachfan started on Leila's for my "halftime report." The rest of my thoughts are forthcoming.
I haven't checked this year's nominations, but I know Sietsema won at least one Beard nomination last year (I think it was for his steakhouse guide, but I'm not sure). I agree he doesn't really compare restaurants in DC to restaurants in other cities, but he does take a weekend trip somewhere once a month and write a "postcard" for the Travel section about places to check out in whatever town he visited. I wonder how well-travelled he was before he started doing that?
Finally, I'm in such early phases of my own food education that I can only compare among the places I've eaten...and I don't have the budget for many big-ticket meals. I write about eating out anyways because that's how I feel my way around, and how I organize my thoughts for future reference. I'd like to learn more about what people think makes for a good analysis of fine dining, and those discussions are a big part of why I enjoy eGullet. I find your comments on how to evaluate fine dining interesting, and always appreciate them.
-
I cannot compare Kinkead's to the sorts of seafood restaurants Steve mentions, mostly because I am relatively new to eating seafood. However, I have dined there twice in the past year. Both experiences were ok but not exceptional and certainly not worth the expense that Kinkead's represents.
The first time I met two friends there and we got a table upstairs. I had the salmon duet. My memory is failing me here...I know one of the two salmons was small chunks of a salt-cured salmon with fresh dill and capers. I think the other one may have been a preserved salmon too, but I don't remember. It was okay but pricey. I remember wondering what the hullabaloo about the place was. But I'd spied the popular bar while on my way in, and thought I might return someday and sit at the bar and give it another shot.
I finally went back and sat at the bar just over a week ago. I ordered the lobster roll and a glass of wine. I ordered the roll mostly because I'd wanted to try one for some time, and Kinkead's is one of very few places in DC that has one on the menu. I enjoyed my messy sammich, which was chunks of lobster in a thin mayonnaise-based sauce (I think there was roasted red pepper pureed in there, and some chopped gherkin for texture) on a crusty roll. The fries were the passable shoestring sort. I thought the cup of slaw was okay but a little too heavy on the celery seed, and oversauced. I liked everything fine, but no aspect of my meal was outstanding, and even for lobster a $22 sandwich should be better than decent imo.
Also, the service at the bar sucked. Nobody could figure out where to hand out which plates. They started to give me somebody else's lobster roll...fortunately she spoke up when she saw that. The woman next to me was given the wrong soup and had to wait a long time for them to figure out she needed assistance. And I waited a reallllllllllly long time for the check...I should have been back at work in an hour, but it took me an hour and a half because I waited over 20 minutes for the freekin check. I mean, don't most solo diners who sit at the bar have limited time? The poor bartender was totally overwhelmed. They need at least one more person in there to mix drinks, pour wine, and take bar orders. The service at the table when I'd gone earlier was a little slow too, but not nearly as bad as the service at the bar.
I probably won't go back unless I'm with people who want to go there. I'd rather eat at Johnny's Half Shell anyday, even though Johnny's is not the same type of restaurant (it's much more casual and it's noisy, and the menu is somewhat Chesapeake-focused seafood as opposed to the dressier angle Kinkead's is attempting).
Has anybody tried Colvin Run Tavern yet? That's Bob Kinkead's new place, and Tom Sietsema (Post reviewer) had nice things to say about it.
-
I use mostly ramekins and an assorted set of glass bowls for holding my mise. I also like to put little piles of things on a plate or on my jumbo cutting board for sliding into pots and pans at the appropriate time. Next to my stove is a box of sea salt, a pepper grinder, a bottle of olive oil, a dish with ginger root and a head or two of garlic, and a bottle of peanut oil for insta-mise. I keep a butter bell on the counter too.
If I'm storing, I keep those ultracheep GladWare type containers around since I'm hell on the things and can't justify spending even Rubbermaid-type amounts on such items. I also store in Ziploc bags if the items aren't too stinky in nature. I package leftovers in the aforementioned GladWare for toting to work and so on. I am about to invest in some nicer plasticware for the purpose of freezing since I have this gorgeous chest freezer full of empty space to fill. Any product recommendations?
-
My favorite of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories was the boy who didn't want to share. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle told his mom to mark absolutely everything he owned with "property of Timmy" or whatever his name was. So she did, right down to marking his lunch...she wrote in frosting or mustard or some such on his sammich, apple, and so on. It cured him of his selfishness because the other kids teased him about having his name scrawled across everything he owned. But meanwhile I wanted my mom to pipe my name in frosting on my desserts too.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an obvious favorite children's food story.
I loved the one chapter in one of the All of a Kind Family books where the family is preparing for Shabbat. Ella oversalts the meat to kasher it, much to the chagrin of their neighbor Grace Healey, until Ella explains that we wash off the salt later. Gertie and Charlotte sit under the table polishing silver. And Henrietta and ..what was her name, Rebecca?...busy themselves with other dishes. Children's stories rarely seemed to cover these sorts of everyday kitchen tasks, and I was enthralled with this one particularly because I felt so isolated as a Jewish girl in North Carolina.
-
Not all vegans are as politicised as that about multinational corporations or about the meat industry or whatever. I know plenty of vegans who would eat a vegan sandwich offered by a fast food chain specifically so the chain would continue to carry it. (Indeed, this is the main reason I will eat a BK Veggie again.) Also, when you're on the road, if you're a vegan your options are severely limited. Vegetarians can eat at way more fast food chains than vegans, and sometimes fast food is all that's easy to find from the road. Even the more politicised vegans would probably get a vegan sammich every now and then.
-
I wouldn't suggest people "go after" Burger King. That being said, it sure would be nice if there was somebody besides Subway who really was making a vegetarian sandwich. Even Subway gives you the risk of "cross-contamination," but I used to ask employees to change their gloves and wipe the long cutting board before preparing my sandwich and they always cheerfully complied with my request. (Probably because I didn't snarl it or command it, I smiled and asked sweetly.)
Words like lite, fat-free, and reduced-calorie are legislated. I'd like to see vegetarian, vegan, and meatless held to similarly strict definitions. I wouldn't want to see "veggie" or "vegetable" held to a similar definition, because I don't see why a "veggie salad" would necessarily be expected to be free of bacon bits or what have you. As an aware consumer, I know that "healthy" is not legislated, and so I don't assume it's "reduced-calorie" just 'cause it's labeled "healthy." Vegetarians and vegans, who are accustomed to researching the contents of potential food items, would easily be able to discern the difference between defined and undefined words as they appear on labels.
As far as how BK should market their product in a dictionaryless world...I dunno if there's a simple answer to that. I'm no marketing goddess. "Flame broiled on the grill...just like our Whopper" gets close to the truth without losing that necessary marketing muscle. I certainly wouldn't argue that BK shouldn't sell this product at all if they can't make it vegetarian. Think of all the people who are on low-cholesterol diets, or who are trying to get more fiber, or what have you...lots of people eat meat analogues that are not vegetarian or vegan. Maybe the best way would be to give the patty itself a name and call it that, a la Gardenburger. That way they aren't stating anything about its preparation. But maybe they call their patty a "veggie"? I don't know.
-
I believe that there's a combination of buyer responsibility and advertiser/restaurateur responsibility at stake. I knew, from reading the articles Steve posted, that my BK Veggie would be cooked on a meat grill. I didn't really care, because as I've posted elsewhere I'm slowly reentering the world of omnivorism. But the vegetarian in me is bothered by a "Veggie" item being cooked in meat grease.
Now, there are other fast food places that do the same thing. Johnny Rockets, for example, cooks the Boca burgers they sell on the same grill as their meat burgers. Their kitchens are open, so you can see this from anywhere, although in my experience there's usually a small area of the grill that they only use for the veggie burgers. For a purist vegetarian, that's not good enough, and well, they have a right to not eat there. But at least at JRs you can see for yourself how they prepare things.
In my experience, no consumer can rely on a fast food restaurant staff to know much of anything about special diets, ingredients, or cooking methods. However, less jaded vegetarians (especially newer vegetarians) are less likely to be aware of this. And, well, I don't think the buyer should have to be so aware. I think that "natural flavors" should include something along the lines of "(including meat/fowl flavorings)" on the label. I do think you should be able to tell that an item is not vegetarian from reading the publicised nutrition information, just as you should be able to tell if an item includes peanuts or soy for those with food allergies.
I knew for years that McDonald's fries were flavored with beef, so I didn't eat them. But you couldn't get that info from a McDonald's store. You had to call corporate headquarters to get a definition of "natural flavors" as listed on the nutrition information leaflets they make available.
Tommy, you seem to have an emotional attachment to the notion that vegetarians should not assume an item touted as "veggie" is vegetarian, at least in the sense of not containing derivatives of meat, fowl and fish. What have you got invested in this argument, if you are not a vegetarian or a restaurateur yourself?
-
No, I haven't made my own. I eat veggie burgers mostly as a convenience protein food. If I'm going to actually cook, I prefer to make a dish with beans, tofu or fish instead of making a pattie to put on a bun. Veggie burgers are what I eat when I go to the gym before coming home from work; by the time I get home I'm famished.
The single biggest reason I haven't made my own burgers is lack of freezer space; it's not like you can make just two patties and be done with it (every recipe I've seen makes at least 4). Sometime I want to make a bunch and keep them around for meals for a while. Now that we have a chest freezer (yay!) I may make an attempt at some point in the near future.
I have eaten veggie burgers made by others, and inevitably they fall apart easily. Seems making them cohesive is the hardest part. Most of the recipes I have seen call for lentils as a primary ingredient. I'd be more interested in one that's made from TVP or tofu, which I think take on other flavors better and have a more meatlike texture.
-
I just schlepped the four blocks to my nearest location of Burger King to try the BK Veggie for lunch. There were no signs outside the location I visited indicating the new menu item in question, although other new items were depicted in pornographic juicy detail on glossy posters which blocked most natural light from the interior. A small sign just inside the door showed tiny images of several new menu items, including the BK Veggie, so at least I knew it was available at the store I'd visited. There was a larger sign behind the counter under the menu board which included a decent-sized picture of the sandwich as envisioned by a food stylist. I took my place in line and placed my order, which came to $4.28 for the sandwich, a large order of fries, and a large Coke. I ordered my sandwich without tomatoes (to which I am allergic), but did not make any other specifications. I also asked no questions about the sandwich. The counter clerk did not seem surprised somebody was ordering the BK Veggie sandwich.
My food came out quickly, and I hustled back to work as quickly as possible (I knew the fries wouldn't be too good if I dawdled, as they'd already been sitting under a heat lamp for at least a few minutes before they went into my bag). I sat at my desk and opened my bag, removed the paper-wrapped sandwich and cardboard fry container, and unwrapped my sandwich to make a placemat with its wrapper. I have not eaten a sandwich from a fast food place in a long time, so I actually found the wrapper-placemat, the ketchup packets, and so on to be novel. It was like I got happy meal toys even though I didn't get a happy meal.
I snacked on some fries while I examined my sandwich. The bun looked a little bit tired, and a bunch of slightly limp, yellowish iceberg lettuce was on my placemat that I assume fell out of the sandwich. I could see that there was a grilled patty with a slight char around the edges; the patty was thinner than most of the veggie burgers I've eaten. And there was a little bit of mayo showing along one edge.
I picked up the BK Veggie and immediately felt that the bun was, indeed, limp. It had been grilled or griddled and left to sit for some time. There was a thin smear of mayo, the iceberg lettuce, and the patty on the sandwich. No mustard or pickles, which I thought were part of a standard sandwich at Burger King...but what do I know about that? The patty was not quite like any veggie burger I've eaten before. It is the "conglomeration" type of veggie burger with many things finely minced and formed into a patty, not the more "authentic" type where they try to make it taste like meat. I guess the closest comparison I can make is to Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patties (which is the same veggie burger as they market at Subway on Vegi-Max subs). It's not as salty as the Morningstar Farms ones, and the veggies are minced much smaller...no whole slices of water chestnut. The burger didn't have much chew or much flavor; the cooking method did not impart any actual flavor to the sandwich. There was no char flavor to the burger or the bun; they tasted like they'd been broiled in an oven or left a little too long on a restaurant griddle. Mustard and pickles would have been an improvement. I wish I'd realized I had some Trader Joe's Sweet and Hot Mustard in the fridge, it would have improved the burger significantly.
I do feel a need to compare the BK Veggie to the two other fast food vegetarian burgers I have tried: Subway's, and Back Yard Burgers. The BK Veggie benefits from the broiling/griddling more than Subway's Vegi-Max, which gets warmed in a microwave. But the pattie on a Vegi-Max is more flavorful to begin with, and the cut up veggies you get from Subway are fresher and more varied. The Back Yard Burger Gardenburger totally blows away both the BK Veggie and the Subway Vegi-Max, though. It's a Gardernburger brand pattie, which is actually cooked on a charcoal grill when you order it. It comes on a bun that's made from a potato-enriched dough, and there's actual leaf lettuce and sliced red onion and dijon mustard on it. If you live in an area with a Back Yard Burger franchise, take your vegetarian friends there when you need a quick meal.
The BK Veggie definitely ranks low on my list of best veggie burgers. None of the elements are prepared with any care or interest, and so the whole sandwich as fully assembled lacks a certain oomph. I'm very deliberate about assembling a veggie burger sandwich, so it was more disappointing than I think it might have been had I not been a frequent veggie burger eater. That being said, it is a very big deal to me that Burger King is marketing something vegetarian as an entree, and I will definitely eat it again. I'll get it when I'm on the road, and I'll eat it occasionally just so I can encourage Burger King to keep it on the menu in my own small way.
Grilled veggie burgers, like grilled meat burgers, are the best patties. This is how I prepare a veggie burger at home without a grill:
(I prefer the Boca Burger Vegan burger, but this is effective with any type of burger.)
Put a 12" nonstick skillet on medium-high heat and grease the pan with a little olive oil. Slice up some onion and toss it in to fry. Defrost the burger in the microwave if it's frozen. Slice your roll.
Brush or spray (I use a QuickMist sprayer) both sides of the burger and the cut sides of the roll with more oilve oil.
When the onion is starting to brown a little bit, turn the heat to medium and add the sprayed veggie burger.
Let cook for a few minutes without moving so the bottom gets a little bit browned in spots. Keep an eye on the onions, if you keep them moving they will not burn.
When the bottom is browned, flip the burger and add the bun top and bottom, cut/sprayed side down. Let it toast for a few minutes and then turn the pieces over. Let sit for only a minute or so. Turn off the heat.
Assemble your sandwich with the onions and your preferred toppings.
-
I used to date somebody in college who worked at Burger King. He ordered his burgers with two bun tops. He said it was the only way to guarantee that all his components were freshly made right after he ordered them. This was many years ago, so maybe it wouldn't work now, I dunno.
I'm going to try the BK Veggie for lunch today. I'll report back later.
-
How often do you change the menu at your restaurant? What causes you to change the menu? Do you shift the same items on and off the menu as items become seasonal, or do you come up with new preparations whenever you add something?
Nostalgia-Evoking Candy
in Ready to Eat
Posted
Yeah, with Fun Dip you got a hard sugar stick and one, two, or three packets of colored sugar with citric acid or some such to make it tart. I ate mostly one-packet Fun Dips because that's what they sold at the snack bar by the pool where I swam as a kid. The three-packet ones came with TWO sugar sticks! Then they started making "color changing" sugars that were pink until they came in contact with liquid (ie, your saliva) when they turned blue.
Once I reminisced about Fun Dip to my partner Erin, and he confessed he'd loved it as a kid too. A week or so later I went into one of those Sweet Factory stores on a whim and lo and behold, they sold three-packet Fun Dip! I bought two of them and brought them home. Erin ripped into his and immediately declared it the most disgusting thing he'd put in his mouth in years (and I don't mean gleefully disgusting, I mean disgusting disgusting). I couldn't even bring myself to taste mine after hearing that. Wah.
Candy is the campiest of campy food. I mean it's the most overwhelmingly campy category of food. Even campier than Velveeta.