Travel snacks at Newark Penn Station

The wintry weather kept us from going to Asheville, North Carolina, this weekend. But it didn't keep us from hopping a train to Philly for a few days.

The most important task before boarding a train at either the New York or Newark Penn Stations is picking up a bag (or two) of freshly popped popcorn for the journey. But not just any popcorn kiosk will do.

Always avoid the Zarro's popcorn no matter where you are. I don't know what they do to their popcorn, but it smells and tastes like chemicals. And anyway, they hadn't fired up their popper when we were getting ready to board our train.

I didn't realize popcorn was a seasonal treat, but I suppose it is considered for summer only, like iced tea. (Good luck finding a decent brewed iced tea at Newark Penn, by the way.)

This kind gentleman sells the best popcorn at Newark Penn Station. His kiosk is next to the McDonald's.

The popcorn from this stand is a tad greasy, but it does the job. There are some seasonings you can add, like cinnamon and a bright yellow one labeled butter. Probably best to avoid that one.  He also sells various kinds of nuts.

We wound up finding copious amounts of popcorn in Philly, so much so that by the end of the trip I felt like I had OD'd on popcorn. At least for one day.

Whole Foods popcorn

I'm not sure if the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle still has a bar in it, but if it does, it's a great place to get some freshly popped -- free! -- popcorn. And also beers.

You've been warned

I went down to Penn Station to get popcorn to sneak into Bruno this evening. I tell the guy taking orders and money that I'd like 3 bags (they're small and some was for Jeff) and a plastic bag to put them in. I hand him a 5 and he gives me back 50 cents.

The guy scooping the corn fills up one bag and hands it to me. I put it in the plastic bag and hold it open for the rest. While he is scooping the 2nd one the woman behind me calls out, "Lots of salt! Salt in the middle AND on top!" She calls out "in the middle AND on top!" again but no one is paying any attention to her.

The guy scooping the corn clearly does not know what's going on. He just scoops and hands it off. I said to him, but loud enough for her to hear, "I bought 3 bags. That one is mine."

"Oh I don't think so!" the woman says angrily from behind me.

He looks at me questioningly. "Put it in the bag," I tell him.

"It's got extra salt! It's mine!"

I calmly and firmly said to the scooper, "I love salt. Put it in the bag. And then the third popcorn I paid for. Thank you."

I never once looked at her. I got my corns and I walked away. Seriously oh hell no.

Do not mess with a popcorn addict. When we need a fix we need it BAD.

Traveling popcorn

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.

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.

Hidden gem in Penn Station

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.

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.

Penn Station movie-style popcorn

I'm sorry that I have been remiss in updating this site, my dear popcorn fans. I wish I could say that I have been busy traveling the world in search of the best popcorn, but sadly, that is not the case. Someday I hope to realize that dream, but for now I must settle for toiling away at my desk job and ordering popcorn online.

Jeff broke one of the cardinal rules of being a Star Wars fan and insisted that we see Star Trek on opening day. I was fine with this as I was not breaking any of my own crazy rules by doing this.

We used to see movies all the time on Friday nights until we started going to Brooklyn for the delicious sushi on Friday nights. And even though the little theater in Brooklyn Heights has excellent popcorn (and decent movies, too), somehow we always wind up waddling home after dinner instead of going to a movie.

Anyway, the best thing about going to the movies on a weeknight is that I can pick up popcorn from Penn Station. This is especially beneficial when going to the Battery Park theater as their popcorn is particularly horrible. (Note: I will eat it anyway if I must, but I will scowl the entire time.)

There is one stand in Penn Station that sells popcorn in a movie style bag. This makes smuggling the 'corn into a theater even easier, since in the dark it is not obvious that you are eating smuggled 'corn.

The movie style popcorn stand is right next to the lower level entrance to K-Mart and it costs $1.50, just like at all the rest of the popcorn stands in Penn Station.

It's not the best tasting 'corn down there, but it has its perks. One: the bag is considerably bigger than the long, white bag sold at most of the Penn Station stands. Two: the movie-style bag is easier to eat out of in the dark.

The popcorn from this stand is a bit more yellow than nature undoubtedly created it and it's a bit too salty for my taste. After the bag is empty, my lips are puckery. That is not a good sign. But, it has a nice toothsome quality. And it's not nearly as horrible as the popcorn sold at Battery Park, nor as expensive, so it was still the better option.

AMC Village 7

Yesterday, on our staycation, Jeff and I went to see a new movie produced by a friend of mine. TiMER premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday. Unfortunately for us (fortunately for them), tickets to the premiere sold out very fast and we did not act quickly enough. Anyway, I highly recommend this movie and I know it will get picked up and widely released, so keep an eye out for it.

But I digress. This blog is not about movies. It's about popcorn -- the wonderful movie-watching snack.

Before we arrived at the movie yesterday, Jeff reminded me that AMC is not known for its stellar popcorn. True, I agreed. And I was full from the dumplings we had just stuffed in our mouths (from Dumpling Man). But then I remembered this blog! So, I took one for the team and ordered a small popcorn. (You are the team. You got that, right? There is no team here writing this blog. It's just me.)

The popcorn's yellow hue was a bit more dayglo bright than popcorn should be. I turned down the buttery topping (as usual), although the popcorn was still on the greasy side. It was not too salty. In fact, near the bottom of the bag, it started to seem downright unsalty. I received very few unpopped kernels and no burned pieces.

Maybe it was because it was the afternoon and the popcorn had not had a chance to go stale or maybe the popcorn at AMC Village 7 is not as bad as Jeff claims. Could it be that they uppped the qualitly for the Tribeca Film Festival?? I doubt it.

Overall, I would definitely buy the popcorn from this theater again, despite the pricetag of $9.75 for a small bag and a small icee. The price of popcorn has never, ever stopped me from buying it.

AMC Village 7 is on 11th St. and 3rd Ave. The 7 refers to the number of screens, not the cross street, a fact which I always forget.

Penn Station popcorn lunch

This is my go-to popcorn stand in Penn Station. It is the popcorn stand closest to the 8th Avenue end of the lower concourse.

The guys who run the stand are always incredibly polite and nice. "Hello! Would you like salt?" they ask. The one serving up the popcorn shakes on a little salt and then follows up with, "is that enough?" Often he will shake on some salt after filling the bag halfway and then again when the bag is full.

The popcorn at this stand is consistenly good. It doesn't taste buttery, nor does it leave much grease on my fingers. This is an impressive feat because I have spied them pouring the butter-flavored grease into the popping machine. I believe that popcorn should be flavorful, but the taste of butter should not be apparent. If you can taste the butter (on whatever you're eating) there's too much on there.

Since the salt is added as the bag is filled, the salt distribution can be inconsistent, but it's nothing that a few shakes of the bag can't fix.

In the bag were a couple slightly burned pieces, but no more than three of them, and not badly enough burned to bother me. There were only a few completely unpopped kernels that I could not eat. There were about eight slightly popped kernels, which are probably not a good idea to eat, but which I do, happily.

Unforuntely, despite its so-called "king" size, it is not quite enough popcorn to satisfy me for lunch. Two bags might be pushing it, though.