Impulse Junk Food Buying

[jsolomon]

I generally do not try to impulse buy snack food. But, in the gas station across from where my lab is, I got a cuppa and perused the snack aisle for a moment when I saw Gardetto's Special Request Roasted Garlic Rye Chips. Y'know, the garlic melba toast in Gardetto's snack mix that is really the only reason you buy it?

So, $2.09 later, I had 4.75 ounces of rye, garlicky sheer evil goodness tearing up my gums and hard palate. Hell, in the last 15 minutes, I cranked through the whole bag.

Damn you General Mills!

I just hope I don't bonk on my bike ride home.

[scottie]

Gotta say, the Cape Cod potato chips down at the corner Stab n' Grab get me every time. Beachside Barbecue, why do you torture me so?

[judiu]

Baked Snow Pea Crisps. I'm not sure of the brand name, but I can get them at Publix and be out of them again before I get home!

[marinade]

Lance Toastchee Crackers. Every other peanut butter-cheese cracker wannabee suffers from peanuts envy. Nothing even comes close. I was in seventh heaven when I found them on vacation at Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC. Then I found out they're made in Charlotte, NC and were they ever fresh. I plan to visit the plant one day, till then I'll just have to kneel southward during my evening prayers.

[alanamoana]

funny this thread was at the top as i just returned from a trip to ranch99 and bought two bags of roasted peanuts chinese style...on the bag it says:

"using ancient secret recipe on young supreme peanut, we make this famous traditional snack: nam yue peanut"

they taste like doufu-lu which is a fermented form of tofu that comes in jars...very salty and delicious. i'll probably eat the whole damned bag

[Shannon_Elise]

Shrimp Crackers

My mother bought them once for me when we lived in Japan when I was a kid because I liked the pink package. 15 years later and I make trips all the time to the Japanese Market in Columbus for these things. They gross everyone else out, but I love them.

Shannon

[CKatCook]

Shrimp chips soooooo ROCK!!!! I use to get them in the pike place market in Seattle. I found them in a local store here in town and I gross everyone out with them but I don't care, I love them!

[Kouign Aman]

My local grocery used to carry shrimp crackers - I miss them.

And of course, the local asian groceries almost certainly have them. I MUST go shopping now. Bad thread! Bad thread!

[Toliver]

I've admitted this in another eGullet thread in the past but I get a jones for it every once in awhile at the register and grab a Slim Jim. I realize it's probably made from pork eyelids and chicken lips and God knows what else, but sometimes I just gotta have one.

[BeeZee]

I love Lundbergs Rice chips, seaweed flavor. I haven't had them in a while and went to buy a bag just a couple of days ago, saved because the store I went to didn't carry them. Not terribly "seaweed-like" in flavor, just a nice savory taste. Whole Foods carries them.

Occasionally have a Doritos Nacho Cheese binge (the shame...) and then I'm so disgusted I don't eat them for another year.

[Gigi4808]

Hostess fruity pies.

Alittle pocket of sugery fried happiness it is!

[bandregg]

I've admitted this in another eGullet thread in the past but I get a jones for it every once in awhile at the register and grab a Slim Jim.  I realize it's probably made from pork eyelids and chicken lips  and God knows what else, but sometimes I just gotta have one.

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The main ingredient in a Slim Jim is actually "mechanically separated chicken." I read that on the package once and I've never forgotten it. Other than what that implies I recall there only being about 6 ingredients total and none of them stood out as being particularly bad for you. And, on the slim jim website there is description of what this means in the FAQ. Suffice it to say, it's just what it sounds like.

[pamjsa]

Zingers, the raspberry-coconut variety. Three little fingers of happiness.

[Marmish]

For some reason, we almost always buy Combos when we go to Menard's (home improvement store somewhere between and Ace and Home Depot). Pizza ones usually, that don't last the day.

[emilyr]

I often took the train home to Missouri from Milwaukee when I was in college, and on the commuter train between Milwaukee and Chicago, the little cart would roll down the aisle offering different items depending on the time of day. The one thing they always had was white cheddar flavored popcorn. I'm not usually a flavored popcorn kinda gal, but I couldn't resist trying the one item they decided to keep all of the time. Plus they were 99 cents for a pretty big bag. By the end of my sophomore year, I had learned enough to get a seat at the back of the train (from whence the cart came), have a bunch of singles and change (there was never any change that early in her trip down the aisles, and the cart lady really liked it), and buy 4-5 bags. It probably isn't the most healthy thing to sustain you on a 6 hour train ride, but it was cheaper than anything in the dining car or club car of the long haul train I'd be in later in the day. And the one time our train broke down for 6 hours, I was able to offer to my seatmates.

Plus I like how my fingers get all covered in the yummy white powder.

[McDuff]

Hostess fruity pies.

Alittle pocket of sugery fried happiness it is!

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My wife caught me hiding a box of Drake's cherry pies in the old volvo. I eat them on the way to work while I drink a mug of sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet tea.

At one point in life I considered having a custom bumper made that read..This vehicle brakes for potato chips.."

[Gruzia]

Terra chips and Pita chips...i've yet to have them last more than a day and a half, so crispy, crunchy, and salty, yum!

Lay's Salt and Vinegar potato chips...you know you have a problem when your tongue hurts but you just cant stop eating....same thing for sprees and sour skittles!

[carpetbagger, esq.]

impulse candybar - whatchamacallit

impulse ice cream - ben & jerry mint oreo or blue bell cookies and cream

impulse potato chip - utz carolina bbq and md crab chips.

impulse grocery store item - helluva good dip. especially good with terrell's chips.

for better or worse, the grocery store and potato chip items aren't available where i live...otherwise i'd weigh 600lbs. i seriously can't pass them by without buying them. it's sad, really.

[Verjuice]

I used to have it bad for Tropical Dots.

Then I moved on to Wild Berry Dots.

For a while, I couldn't go into any gas station or drug store without buying some. It transformed mundane errands like picking up bandaids and batteries at Walgreens into a cheery, soulful, artificially-flavored affair. Woohoo, Dots.

In the midst of a serious hankering, I'd be unable to decide between the two kinds and grab both boxes, palming the two flavors from each that I liked best. But they basically all taste like baby aspirin.

Also, occasional and intense cravings arise for Panda licorice or those Haribo licorice snails (more common out here). In a pinch, Good 'n' Plenty will do when I'm in the U.S.

[Rebecca263]

Salt and vinegar potato chips, yum, I can feel the pucker! My daughter adores ketchup flavored potato chips. I buy them about once a year 'for her', and we both tear through the bag in about a half hour. We both eat sheets of nori by the bagful, we just rip into the squares and chew away until our teeth are green, isn't that grotesque of us? But, the killerdiller KING of all junk food snacks is this Asian food that we used to buy at a Japanese family's Asian market in Miami, and we haven't been able to find it again in years. What might that treat be? Tiny dried crabs, coated in a salty, seaweedy, soy flavored YUMMINESS. Umami to the nth power! I'm so sorry that I have no idea what the stuff is called, and I've never found anyone in any Asian market since who knew what I am talking about.

[CKatCook]

I know exactly what you are talking about. I have always been too scared to try them! I love Pocky, I buy that by the case when I go to the Asian markets here.

I forgot about Zingers! I love those!

Oh crap...I gonna have to get some now on the way to work! !

[eJulia]

Wow, I'd forgetten about Hostess Pies - blueberry was the best.... now I've got to get me one!

[Sugarella]

Impulse Savory - Miss Vickie's Kettle chips - Lime and Black Pepper. MUST be accompanied by an entire 1/2 kg tub of full fat sour cream.

Impulse Sweet - Planter's Peanut Butter Bites ... they kick Reese peanut butter cups' ass.

[MelissaH]

Plus I like how my fingers get all covered in the yummy white powder. 

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I know there are places that sell the yummy white powder. Has anyone ever used it for homemade cheese popcorn? Does it taste as good as the bought stuff? How much butter do you need to add, to make the yummy white powder stick?

And no, the orange powder isn't nearly as yummy.

MelissaH

[liamsaunt]

My latest impulse snack has been Blue Diamond almonds covered in this chili lime seasoning. They are very salty, a little spicy, a little sour, probably completely artificial, and absolutely addicting.