A brewpub with popcorn?!

I know, right? Such a logical combination and yet so rarely found. More salt consumed = more beer drunk.

I wouldn't say The Shed in Stowe, VT, had the best popcorn or the best beer, but combining the two makes my enjoyment of both increase exponentially.

The popcorn is a serve yourself deal with the ubiquitous faux wooden restaurant salad bowls. Getting my appetizer myself was a plus since the service was lousy and we waited a while to get the food he was in charge of bringing.

The popcorn was yellow and over-salted.

News flash!

Okay, okay! I get it. It's not exactly a revelation that movie theater popcorn is bad for you. But it is good to see it spelled out in black and white.

I wish more chains would make healthier, more delicious popcorn like the indie theaters do. I find it really hard to believe that the movie-going public prefers the overly salted, overly buttered, fake yellow stuff to freshly air popped, lightly salted popcorn.

In the name of science, however, I will keep sampling popcorn sold around the globe.

You're welcome.

Happy National Popcorn Day!

I don't have any more to add than that. But I promise I will be back with more scintillating popcorn blog posts in the very near future.

In the meantime, go make some popcorn, preferably on the stove. It's okay to save the microwave stuff for emergencies*, if you must, but in reality, popping it on the stove takes about the same time as popping it in the microwave. Of course, you do have to then wash the pot and take it from me, do not get lazy and leave the pot washing until the next day. Due to the magical properties of vegetable oil, overnight it turns to a stickier, more collant mess than Super Glue. You will need to soak the entire pot in hot water and Oxy powder to get that nastinesss off.

*The only emergency I can think of, in this age of DVRs, is being incredibly tired and just wanting to pass out on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. But the thing is, if your day was that horrible, wouldn't you want a really GOOD bowl of popcorn to snack on? Not some chemicaly yellowy popcorn?

Here is a neat tip that I learned from the back of a bag of popcorn. Instead of pouring all the kernels into the pot as soon as you turn on the heat, put 3 kernels in the pot while it heats and then when one of them pops, add the rest.

Clearview 23rd Street

The Clearview on west 23rd seems like more of an independent theater and one would think maybe it has halfway decent popcorn. (It does not.)

It's got that unnatural yellow hue (not really evident in this cell phone pic) and an overly saltiness that makes my lips all puckery by the end of the movie.

I rate the popcorn at this theater Okay To Eat If It's Given To You For Free.

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.