Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Traveling popcorn

Popcorn traveler Today's popcorn came from yet another stand in Penn Station. All popcorn lovers should be so lucky as to work near Penn Station. Certainly not all of it is good popcorn, but we can't be picky. Where else in the city, nay, in the WORLD, can you find at least five stands selling popcorn, all within a single building?

This particular bag of popcorn is from a stand on the upper level of Penn Station, across from the flower stand near the entrance on 7th Avenue. It comes in a movie popcorn bag, which means you get more pop for your buck. But! Get this! This popcorn cost $1.75! I know! It's highway robbery! You can bet that I said something. I said, "Gosh, that's more than the other places charge." The woman looked at me blankly and replied, "what other places?" I said, "the other stands in Penn Station all charge $1.50." She said, "oh." Boy, her feelings were really hurt, huh?

It was a little on the salty side, but still not bad. I had no trouble wolfing it all down. I then proceeded to eat the most ridiculous sandwich ever for dinner, which consisted of: mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, tomato sauce and mozzarella. I couldn't eat all that bread, but I ate everything else. So I guess that kind of defeated the purpose of getting it as a sandwich.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Popcorn in hand

Full disclosure: One of the top reasons that I love popcorn is because it's salty. I guess that's why I'm not a huge fan of the sugar-coated popcorn. Kettle corn bridges the gap, but when I eat too much of it, I feel gross. But if I eat too much salt-only popcorn, I don't have that problem.

Jeff is out preparing for the first shoot of his movie, so, left to my own devices, I made simple Paloma Blanca on the stove.

My favorite part about eating popcorn out of my own bowl is grabbing the top layer with my tongue. In an ideal world, there would exist a bowl that would enable me to eat an entire bowl of popcorn in this fashion. I guess a popcorn plate would do the trick, but the drawback would be that it would not hold very much popcorn. Inventors, get on this, please.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Hidden gem in Penn Station

Penn Station tasting I'm still working my way through all the Penn Station popcorn stands. I'm doing this for you. Yes, I'm just that selfless. You're welcome.

Today I spied a popcorn stand that I had never noticed before and no wonder because it's half hidden behind an ATM. And just as well because the popcorn was pretty assy.

Hidden. For good reason.The guy behind the counter handed me the bag and two napkins and he smiled. The napkins are a rarity when it comes to the Penn Station popcorn. In this case, I definitely needed them since the popcorn was rather greasy. Not only that, but it was that distinctive color of subpar popcorn: bright yellow. What makes it that color? Popcorn is not naturally yellow. I don't think I want to know.

Despite its lackluster flavor, it was adequately coated in salt and therefore I went ahead and consumed the entire bag.

My mouth feels like it has been coated in grease and overall I'm not at all satisfied with today's $1.50 snack. Two thumbs down for the popcorn stand hiding behind the ATM at the Taco Bell and the Columbo stand on the lower level.