Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Croatian Crisps

      I've been locating quite a few cheeses, crackers, and associated edibles in the appropriate section of my grocery store lately, and here's one more.  As far as I can recall, this is only the second time I've had something from Croatia--the first being fruit spreads, which I talked about in my post on December 30th, 2023.  And if you're curious about some famous folks born in Croatia, or with Croatian heritage, check out that post as well.  But today it'll be two phyllo crisps from the Nubake line.

     Nubake is a brand of the New Bakery d.o.o. company.  (Yes, that's how it's rendered--I presume the final three letters with periods mean something like "incorporated," or "company," or "limited liability" or something like that, in Croatian.)  As has been the norm lately, the official company website was very terse about the company's history and founder(s), so I was forced to check alternate business websites for what little information there was.  New Bakery was started in 2014, and one of its co-founders is Constantine Azar.  The other founder(s) remain a mystery.  Although one website noted that a "key principal" was Mehmet Yasar Halim, so maybe that person was a co-founder, or a current owner or CEO.  Even the number of employees wasn't positively confirmed--a couple of sites claimed it was only 11 or 17, while another listed it as being between 51-200.  Which, given the size, and scope of New Bakery, seems much more reasonable.  Anyway, you can't discuss New Bakery without mentioning baklava.  This flaky, sweet dessert is their flagship product, and they proudly note that they are the largest manufacturer of baklava in the E.U.  Reportedly, the company makes 1000 tons of it per year, which works out to 25,000,000 pieces of baklava a year.  The New Bakery company website lists four brands--Aladdin, Nubake, Layla, and Filo Snaps.  But the difference between these brands is a bit muddled.  Evidently most or all of them make some kind of baklava.  And the crisps I had had were listed as being Filo Snaps online, but the label reads "Nubake."  For what it's worth, there is a 3rd flavor of the crisps I ate, an apple cinnamon kind.  New Bakery is said to be available, "from the U.K. to the U.S.," and, "from South Africa to Australia."  But the countries besides these four are not mentioned.  Finally, New Bakery is imported by the Atalanta Corp., which I just covered a few weeks ago, in my post about Italian dessert cheese on December 14, 2024.

Phyllo crisps, apricot honey flavor: The crisps were rectangular in shape, about 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches (or about 6.5 cm. by 4 cm.), with a light brownish/white color, with visible apricot chunks and seeds.  The texture was moist and sticky.  Also crunchy and flaky.  Sweet.  Apricot chunks were chewy.  Really tasty--I enjoyed these a lot.

Phyllo crisps, cranberry and oat flavor:  Same size and shape as the previous, but cranberry chunks were visible instead of apricot.  Also moist and flaky.  Also very good.  Maybe a tad weaker than the apricot ones, but still more than solid.

     After my positive experience with these crisps, I'll eagerly try other New Bakery brands when/if I get the chance.  Especially if their baklava is on the shelf.  I adore baklava, ever since my friend of Armenian heritage (Hi Leon!) generously brought back some trays of it during our college years.  Which turned out to be foolish, alas, as the rest of us would take much more than our fair shares.  In conclusion, baklava is delicious.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Uruguayan/American Beef Jerky, and Some Info About Uruguayan A.F. Flight 571

      Regular readers may have noticed that I haven't reported much about meats much in the past few years.  And most of my dramatically weird organ meat posts, or the ones about eating unusual animals, were mostly long in the past, like 2012-15.  But every now and then I find a literal fleshy product or two, as I did recently.  This was the Sweet Heat flavor of beef jerky from the Wholesome Pantry brand.

     Alas, the manufacturer of this jerky is one that I've covered before--the Wakefern Food Corporation, which is affiliated with the Shop-Rite grocery where I purchased it.  Or, put another way, their store brand.  Additionally, I've discussed edibles from Uruguay before, most recently on January 15, 2022.  During which I went into some detail about fun facts about Uruguay, and about famous Uruguayans, or at least some folks with Uruguayan heritage.  So, to avoid repeating myself, I'll just move on to the food itself.  And then afterwards I'll talk about something hopefully morbidly compelling--the poor unfortunates who were reduced to cannibalizing their dead friends and family after a terrible plane crash in the Andes Mountains.

Whole-Some Pantry sweet heat beef jerky:  Smells like regular beef jerky, in a good way.  The strips were small, irregular shaped, shiny slices of reddish-brown dried beef.  The texture was chewy.  There was a decent spice bite.  I'm only a casual beef jerky guy--I've had my share, largely for field lunches, but it's not an obsession or anything.  But this beef jerky was solid.  Later I mixed in some cut up pieces with some baked beans, and this was a nice pairing.  Overall, I would recommend this jerky, to those who enjoy such fare.

     Back in high school, between (as I recall) junior and senior year, we got an unusual task--an assigned reading list.  We were kind of outraged--schoolwork in the summer?!  Anyway, many or most of the books were unfortunately typical assigned reading fare--tedious reads, such as F. Scott's Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".  But, happily, at least one was an exception--"Alive," by Piers Paul Read.  Which was a nonfiction account of the sixteen poor Uruguayans who survived the infamous crash in late 1972.  Since they were stranded in the mountains for over 10 weeks, they unfortunately were forced to consume their dead to stay alive.  Obviously, I had a lot of emotional reactions to this account.  Admiration, of their heroic attempts to save themselves, by braving a plane crash, frigid temperatures, avalanches, near-starvation, etc.  Horror, at what the survivors were forced to do.  But also, I was intrigued, in a morbid way.  This wasn't technically a true crime book, since there weren't any crimes committed, but it did help me on the way to reading such fare.  I highly recommend this book.  And the 1993 film about this, also titled "Alive," was pretty good.  There are other movies about this event--some retellings, some documentary-style.

     Just to address some specific points of the book, and the overall incident, Flight 571 was originally slated to travel from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile.  (There was an overnight delay, due to weather conditions, midway through this journey.)  There were 45 people on the plane--5 crew members, and 40 passengers.  Most of the latter were either part of the athletic squad, or friends and family of this team.  Despite what many folks report, the team was not a soccer team-- they were rugby players.  I guess since soccer is the most popular sport in Uruguay, and really, South America and most of the world, this is a reasonable mistake, but it is wrong.  Also, because this was supposed to be a short trip, to play one match, the passengers packed lightly.  Plus, much of the luggage was lost when the rear of the plane broke off during the crash.  Meaning the survivors had the following food and drink.  8 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of whiskey, 1 bottle of cherry brandy, 1 bottle of creme de menthe, a partial hip flask of whiskey, 8 bars of chocolate, 5 bars of nougat, some caramels, some dates and dried plums, 2 cans of mussels, a pack of salted crackers, one can of salted almonds, and jars of peach, apple, and blackberry jam.  Later, the tail section of the plane was encountered, which provided a few more scraps of food and drink, but that was basically it.  And the survivors were at about 12,000 feet above sea level, with no wildlife, nor any edible plants available.  Explaining why they had to resort to consuming their dead comrades.  

     One tidbit in the book that particularly stood out to me was near the end, as it claimed that there was actually a hotel only 5 miles east of where the plane ended up.  To explain, because of mistakes made by the pilots, the survivors (and the outside world) thought the flight was further west than it really was.  Meaning the 2 guys who climbed up and out and reached populated areas, Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, headed west, believing that would be the shortest route.  Anyway, according to the book this hotel, which was closed for the season, was much closer, and had both shelter and supplies of canned food available.  Which seems unbelievably cruel--the guys risked their lives climbing high mountains to the west, taking over a week, when there was food and shelter only a short trip away in the opposite direction.  However, some online research indicates that this was probably false, or at least not as definitive.  The hotel in question, the Hotel Termas el Sosneado, was actually 13 miles to the east, and had been closed for over a decade.  Meaning the buildings were still there, but there wouldn't have been canned food supplies.  Also, a hiker who's traveled the area around the crash site noted that there are many dangerous crevices between the crash site and the hotel.  Which all suggests that heading east to the hotel might not have worked out.  Ironically, the decision to head west, even if it was for the wrong reasons, might have been the best, safest choice.

Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

      Continuing my year of trivia quizzes about the "Mad Max" series, we're up to the 4th one, "Mad Max:  Fury Road."  Since it had been 30 years since the 3rd one, I had some misgivings going into this one.  Happily, it turned out to be great.  Arguably even the best one, maybe.  I think it really helped that creator George Miller was still in charge of this one, too--he didn't want to screw up his baby.  Anyway, let's get to it.  Same format as always, and these details are just as nit picky and unimportant as always.  For obsessive fans only, I guess.  And many SPOILERS ahead, obviously.

Questions:

1)    In the opening scene we see Max eating something.  What?

2)    What is the full text of the tattoo forcibly inked on Max's back after he's captured?

3)    What does the Citadel (Immortan Joe's outpost) call water?

4)    Aside from the Citadel, what are the two affiliated places under Joe's control?

5)    What cardinal direction does Imperator Furiosa head off in, instead of her reported destination?

6)    What is the name of the old woman who's the caretaker/matron of Joe's wives?

7)    Nux is a War Boy driver.  What is the name of his lancer?

8)    What do Nux, and the rest of the War Boys, call Max throughout the movie?

9)    What is the name of the warrior tribe that first assaults the War Rig and its affiliated vehicles?

10)   What number of horsepower is the War Rig, according to Furiosa?

11)   What is the code sequence to avoid the kill switch in the War Rig?

12)   Furiosa made a deal with the motorcycle gang for gas in exchange for safe passage through their territory.  For how many gallons of gas?

13)   Which of Immortan Joe's Wives dies during the movie?

14)   Which Wife tries to run back to Immortan Joe during the chase, but is stopped?

15)   Nux mentions his pals Larry and Barry.  Who are they?

16)   Which one of the Wives befriends/romances(?) Nux during the journey?

17)   After the initial battle, one of the Wives counts up the remaining bullets.  How many Big Boy rifle bullets are left, and how many pink handgun ones remain?

18)   After the War Rig gets away for a while, The People Eater tallies up what the group has spent trying to retrieve Joe's Wives and the War Rig.  How many gallons of gas, how many cannisters of nitro, how many assault bikes, and how many pursuit vehicles have been lost at this point?

19)   What is the name of Immortan Joe's doctor?

20)   What body part is Furiosa missing, for which she has a mechanical version?

21)   What is the name of Furiosa's original tribe?

22)   What was Furiosa's Initiate Mother?

23)   What was the name of Furiosa's actual birth mother?

24)   After their capture, how many days later did Furiosa's mother die?

25)   What was the name of Furiosa's clan?  (A subgroup of the overall group from Question #21.)

26)   How many days has it been since Furiosa was captured by Immortan Joe's group?

27)   What happened to the Green Place?

28)   How many days does the group estimate it will take to cross the salt plain?

29)   After Joe and his War Boys leave the Citadel to chase after Furiosa and the Wives, who is left guarding it?

30)   At one point, one of the Wives starts praying.  When asked, what deity, or deities is she praying to?

31)   By what slang title is someone with mechanic's skills known as?

32)   What is the name of the youngest woman in the all-female group that Furiosa and company meet near the end?  (The remnants of her childhood group.)

33)   According to Max, aside from blood loss, what is Furiosa's most serious injury?

34)   What are the full names of the 5 Wives?  (See answers to #13, #14, and #16 for three of these.)

35)   Near the end of the movie, we see a quotation that reads, "Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland in search of our better selves?"  Who, or what is this quote from?

36)   Aside from Furiosa, how many other Imperators are seen or mentioned in the credits?

37)   What is the collective name for the regular people who live outside of the Citadel, and survive off its scraps?

38)  Aside from his son with Splendid Angharad, seen dying in the movie, how many living children does Immortan Joe have?

Answers:

1)    A lizard, which he stomps on and catches onscreen.

2)    I could only read some of this, but alternate online resources gave a fuller listing.  With my added punctuation it appears to say, "Day 12045.  Ht 10 hands. 180 lbs.  No name. No lumps.  No bumps.  Full life clear.  Two good eyes.  No busted limbs.  Piss ok.  Genitals intact.  Multiple scars heals fast.  O-Negative Hi Octane.  Universal Donor.  Lone road warrior.  Rundown in the Powder Lakes.  V8.  No guzzaline.  No supplies.  Isolate.  Psychotic keep muzzled."  All of which suggests some disturbing things.  Not only would prisoners be forced to give blood to War Boys, but possible other organs.  And the mentioning of intact genitals might mean males were forced into sex slavery as well, or something.  Finally, the height (ht) is probably not hands as in horse measurements, but actual War Boys' hands, since rulers are probably not available.

3)    Aqua Cola.

4)    Gas Town (the fuel refinery), and the Bullet Farm (a bullet factory, clearly).

5)    East.

6)    Miss Giddy.

7)    Slit.

8)    Blood Bag, since he's forced to give transfusions against his will.  (Also, to be fair, he only tells his name to Furiosa near the end.)

9)    The Buzzards.

10)   2000.  It's also nitro boosted.

11)   The sequence is:  1st switch, then the 2nd and 3rd switches simultaneously, followed by the 1st switch again, then the red switch, then the black switch, and finally the ignition switch.

12)   3000 gallons.  Don't know why Australians aren't using the Metric System, but that's it.

13)   Splendid Angharad.  Who was reportedly Joe's favorite, and the heavily pregnant blonde one.

14)   Cheedo the Fragile.  (She has long, dark hair.)

15)   They're the two tumors on his neck and shoulder area, which he's drawn faces on.

16)   Capable.  (She's the red-headed Wife.)

17)   4 for Big Boy, and 29 for the handgun.

18)   30,000 gallons of gas (guzzaline), 19 cannisters of nitro, 12 assault bikes, and 7 pursuit vehicles.

19)   The Organic Mechanic.  Which is kind of poetic, in a way.

20)   Her left forearm.

21)   The Vuvalini.

22)   K.T. Concannon.

23)   Mary Jabassa.

24)   The 3rd day.

25)   The Swaddle Dog.

26)   7,000 days, plus ones she doesn't remember.  7000 days would be a bit over 19 years.

27)   It suffered some kind of extreme environmental disaster.  The water was poisoned, and the soil was affected, so they had to leave.

28)   160 days.

29)   It's not being guarded well at all.  All the able-bodied War Boys are with Joe, leaving the Citadel guarded by too-young War Boys (knows as War Pups), and sick and injured War Boys.

30)   "Anyone who's listening."

31)   A Black Thumb.  Which I think was also a term in an earlier Mad Max film, if I recall correctly.

32)   Valkyrie.  She's the woman used as bait initially, hanging naked in the cage.

33)   A collapsed lung.

34)   I already mentioned The Splendid Angharad, Cheedo the Fragile, and Capable.  The other two are Toast the Knowing (the short-haired brunette), and The Dag (the other blonde one).

35)   It's from a fictional book in the Mad Max universe, called, "The First History of Man."

36)   The credits list 3--the Prime Imperator, and 2 others.  A Mad Max website adds a Ripsaw Imperator.  So either 3 or 4, depending on which is canon.

37)   The Wretched.  Which they truly are.

38)  Surprisingly, given his power, and large harem, only 2.  His sons Rictus Erectus (the tall, fit guy who travels with Joe), and Corpus Collossus (the little person back at the Citadel who sits in the sling).  It appears fertility is a large problem in this world generally, and for Joe specifically.

  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Greek/American/Italian Apricot Spread, Plus a Weird Superstition

      It's been a while since I covered a fruit spread, so let's rectify that today.  My local Shop-Rite has really improved on its supplies of foreign and odd cheeses, meats, crackers, and such.  This was one of them.  The apricot spread was from the DeLallo brand, out of Jeannette, Pennsylvania.

     When I looked at the label for this spread, I assumed it was from a company that was either Greece-based, or at least one that specialized in Greek cuisine.  Since it read "Product of Greece."  However, a little online checking indicated that something else was going on here.  The motto listed on the official DeLallo company website is "Authentic Italian Food Since 1950."  And their product list confirms this, consisting of Italian delicacies such as pasta, pizza, sauces, olives and antipasti, tomatoes, peppers, Italian desserts, pastries, olive oil, and charcuterie ingredients (cheeses, meats, etc.).  It wasn't until scrolling through quite a bit that I finally saw a mentioning of them marketing non-Italian Mediterranean foods as well.  So, it appears that I happened to buy one of the very few non-Italian products that DeLallo sells.  And since the headquarters of DeLallo are in Pennsylvania, this presumably means that the apricots were grown in Greece, but probably fully processed into the spread back in the U.S.  I know I just did a post about another Italian food (the dessert cheese from last week), but we're going to have a heavily Italian-related post topic for consecutive weeks.  Anyway, at least this time I was actually able to find out a little about the founders of the business.  In 1950 George DeLallo and his wife Madeline DeLallo started the George DeLallo Company, Inc., in the Pittsburgh suburb of Jeannette.  They were striving to replicate the authentic Italian experience here in the States.  (The website didn't say if George and/or Madeline had been born in Italy, but it appears likely that they both had Italian in heritage, at least.)  The business thrived, as it is apparently a nationally recognized Italian and Mediterranean food company.  In 2014 DeLallo acquired the Three Saints Bakery, which specializes in tea cookies.  Currently the firm makes over 200 products.

DeLallo apricot spread:  Its color was a yellowish-orange, and its odor was slightly sweet.  There were some visible chunks of apricot in it as well.  I had some plain, and some on some crackers and flatbreads.  Both ways were good--the taste was sweet, and tangy.  Solid overall.  Not my favorite spread, jam, or jelly, but certainly decent.  Fans of apricots will probably really enjoy this.

     I also looked up apricots in general, and learned a few nuggets.  There is some dispute over this, but the scientific consensus appears to be that this fruit originated in China.  Currently apricots are grown on every continent in world, save for Antarctica.  The top 5 producers of this fruit are, in order, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, Algeria, and Italy.  As with their cousin the peach, the seed (commonly called the stone) of the apricot is highly dangerous if consumed raw.  It contains amygdalin, which releases cyanide.  But the strangest thing about apricots is a superstition about them held by the U.S. Army and Marines.  This dates back to at least the Vietnam War, or possibly World War II.  Allegedly, people started noticing that some armored vehicles, such as Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVTs), Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs), and especially tanks, tended to break down, or get attacked more if apricot rations were inside.  The superstition grew, and now many tank operators won't allow this fruit inside, or even admit people who have eaten apricots in the previous 24 hours.  Some refuse to even speak their name aloud, calling them "cots," or the "A-fruit," or the "forbidden fruit."  This whole notion seems laughably absurd to me, since clearly the original basis for the belief was just a series of coincidences.  Consuming a particular type of food or drink doesn't cause machinery to break down, or attract rockets and artillery.  But, bizarre as it sounds, this is evidently a real superstition, and a surprising amount of people take this seriously.  So bear this in mind the next time you're going on a journey in a M1 Abrams.  

 

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--An Italian Dessert Cheese

      It's been a while since I covered a member of my favorite food group--which is, of course, cheese.  Fortunately, I was able to locate a good candidate or two recently.  The one I'll discuss today is radically different, as it's a "dessert cheese."  Aside from my post which included a "chocolate cheese" (see my May 12, 2013 post for more info) and maybe my encounter with mascarpone (May 9th, 2020), I haven't had many examples from this cheese subgenre.  To be more exact, I tried the baked lemon ricotta from Il Villaggio.

     As has become very common recently, I can't tell you much about the Il Villaggio company.  Their official website, and alternate ones, have almost nothing.  I couldn't learn who founded the business, and when, and even where, aside from "somewhere in Italy."  About the only nugget I discovered is that their cheese expert is a guy named Dan Melotti.  Even the cheese list on the official website was rather lacking in detail.  They do make a parmigiano reggiano, ricotta salata, fontina, gorgonzola, pecorino Romano, provolone piccante, taleggio, asiago fresco, and cheese accompaniments like balsamic vinegar and little pieces of hard bread or crackers.  Oh, and if you're wondering, "Il Villaggio" means "The Village" in Italian.

     I was able to locate a bit more about the company that recently acquired and now owns Il Villaggio, the Atalanta Corporation.  This New York City-based firm began in 1945, founded by Herbert Moeller and Leon Rubin, who were businessmen.  The company specialized in importing foods from other countries, which appear to be mostly European nations.  As of now their many respective brands include 3000 different kinds of cheese, from 45 countries.  Along with 500 grocery items from 30 nations (presumably not 30 entirely new and separate countries from the 45 cheese-making ones).  Aside from Il Villaggio some of their brands include Big Picture Foods (organic olives, peppers, and capers), Cracking Good! Cheese (cheeses from the British Isles), Casa Flores (Spanish meats and cheeses), Mt. Vikos (Greek food), Royal Mahout (Indian cuisine), and Celebrity Goat (which market cheese and butter made from goat milk, but not, disappointingly, from goats that are actually famous, or even infamous).  Evidently a Thomas Gellert is the CEO or owner of Atalanta, and the parent company of Atalanta is called the Gellert Global Group.  Atalanta bought up Il Villaggio in 2017.  So that was my only data for Il Villaggio's starting date--they've been around since at least 2017.  Reportedly Il Villaggio used to have a worth of 25,000,000 (Euros?  American dollars?  It didn't specify), but was in decline when they were sold off.

     Moving on, readers may be asking, "What kind of cheese is ricotta, specifically?"  Well, it's ancient--it dates back to the 2nd Millenium B.C., and is believed to have been born in what's now Italy.  Ricotta is an example of the "using-every-part-of-the-buffalo" strategy.  After other cheeses are made, the remaining scraps and byproducts are then used to make ricotta.  The remaining whey is harvested after it becomes acidic from fermentation, which takes about 12-24 hours.  This is then heated to near-boiling temperatures, which produce some curds.  These are then cooled, and strained through fine cloth.  The resulting cheese is usually white, soft, sweet, and very fragile and ephemeral.  It's often used to augment pastries and other desserts, similar to mascarpone.  Some folks bake the ricotta again, to cause it to harden and toughen, and have a longer shelf life.  American ricotta is saltier and moister than the Italian kind, mostly because American usually uses only the milk of cows, while the Italian sort uses milk from sheep, goats, and water buffalo as well as cows.  Baked lemon ricotta is believed to have been developed in the Southern Italian region of Puglia.  It's a dessert cheese, and its taste and texture are often compared to cheesecake.

Il Villaggio baked lemon ricotta cheese:  It looked like a little cake--round, with an outer color of light brown, with a syrup-y shiny sheen to it.  The inner portions were light yellow.  First, I tried some plain.  It was very sweet, with a recognizable lemon tang.  It didn't taste like normal, savory cheese, but more like cheesecake, or custard, even.  Or flan.  Very soft texture, almost spreadable.  It was quite tasty, if more than a little weird.  It was also good on crispbread, as the sweetness combined nicely with the savory/salty flavors of the base.  Overall it wasn't my favorite cheese, but it was a cool take on the style.  Certainly a different, and interesting, choice for a dessert.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--An Adult Snow Cone

      A while ago at the liquor store, I saw something near the cashier checkout that caught my eye.  It was something called a "spiked snow cone."  As regular readers no doubt recall, I'm a sucker for new and unusual kinds and formats of booze.  In just the past few years I've tried alcoholic gummies (see my post on March 4th, 2023), and two kinds of alcoholic popsicles (see my posts on November 14th, 2020, and on April 30th, 2022).  So I picked up this one, too.  The cone was the "tiger's blood" flavor from the Daily's line.

     Man, do the Daily's company top executives want to stay anonymous!  I checked their official website, and various other business-related websites, and still never got the founder's (or founders') name.  But I did find out a little about their history.  In 1960, the Daily Orange Juice Company started manufacturing orange juice, and they sold it door to door, in the Pittsburgh, PA suburb of Verona.  In 1965 the company began also selling a sweet & sour mix for making cocktails.  Over the next few decades more kinds of pre-mixed alcoholic drinks were developed and sold by them.  In 2005 the business came up with frozen alcoholic drink pouches.  Somewhere along the line Daily's became a brand name, and the overall company name was changed to the (very generic) American Beverage Corporation.  In 2015 ABC was acquired by Brynwood Partners, as a subsidiary of the Harvest Hill company.  Harvest Hill specializes in selling juices, or at least juice-like beverages, as they also own Juicy Juice, Sunny D, Veryfine, Fruit2O, and several other brands.  It's a little confusing, but I believe that ABC also makes Little Hugs Fruit Barrels, Big Hug's Fruit Barrels, and the Guzzler brands.  The only top ABC executive I could discover is that the current President appears to be Kevin McGahren-Clemens.  Whether he's a descendent of the founder, or even the founder himself is unknown.  Alternate flavors of the spiked snow cone line include peach smash, blackberry smash, raspberry mojito, margarita, strawberry daquiri, and Bahama mama.  Dail's also markets some cocktail mixers.  And, as far as I can tell, the company fazed out selling orange juice some time ago.

     Also, I was curious if snow cones are just an American thing, or are enjoyed worldwide.  Just in case foreign readers aren't familiar with the term.  Well, first off, snow cones are ground up (sometimes very finely) ice with a syrup poured over, and within them.  The flavors are typical fruity, and the snow cone is often served in a cone-shaped paper receptacle.  Anyway, snow cones are an American development.  With a caveat.  Back in the days before modern refrigerators and freezers, people of course had to put actual blocks of ice in their "ice boxes."  Trucks from colder climates would make the trek down to Southern U.S. states, even down to Florida.  Along the way the truckers would have kids begging them for chunks of ice to beat the heat in the summer.  Particularly in Baltimore, Maryland, for some reason.  It became the usual habit in the 1850's for trucks to give the kids pieces of broken ice, which they would then grind up further and flavor with egg custard from their mothers.  It became a Baltimore tradition, and other flavors, such as fruit syrups, began to be added as well.  By the 1930's and 40's these "snow cones," as they were called, became popular across the country.  Modern fridges and freezers make the storage of these treats much easier.  There are a bunch of alternate spellings for snow cones--snow kones, sno kones, sno-kones, sno cones, sno-cones, and possibly others.  So, do only Americans get to enjoy this dessert?  Nope.  We Americans weren't the first, or only people to develop the ground-up-ice-with-flavors-atop-and-within-it idea.  It's just that folks in other countries have different names for them.  Therefore, "snow cones" are technically an American invention, but desserts that are the same kind of thing as snow cones exist in many other countries--they're just called something different.

Daily's spiked snow cone, tiger's blood flavor:  Had a deep red color.  The taste was strawberry-ish, with some alcohol-like flavor.  Overall it was okay, but not great.  It was kind of a fun twist on the booze format, so I can see folks enjoying it because of that, similar to the adult popsicles, Jello shots, and the like.  It did resemble blood, and since I actually consumed it in October, that was appropriate.  So maybe a fun concoction for Halloween parties.  I will say the red dye in this snow cone really lingered--I was still spitting red after thoroughly brushing my teeth, even.  Oh, and the alcohol content for this 10 ounce (295 mL) pouch was 5%, or about the same as a typical bottle or can of beer, glass of wine, shot of liquor, etc.

     When I saw the flavor name for my snow cone, I thought about actor Charlie Sheen's bizarre ramblings and rants from a while ago, as he talked about "winning" and tiger blood.  This was around the time of his acrimonious departure from the successful television program "Two and a Half Men" in 2011.  I figured that this flavor was a rather late reference to this cultural verbal phenomenon.  It turns out, though, that it probably wasn't.  The tiger's blood as a flavor name predates Mr. Sheen's ravings by several decades.  In the 1980's folks began mixing together strawberry, watermelon, and coconut into a combination, and using this for flavoring things like snow cones.  Where it began is disputed--it was very associated with the state of Hawaii, but some think that it was actually invented in Texas.  Wherever it truly started, the flavor spread quickly, into places like Utah and South Carolina initially, and the rest of the country eventually.  Getting back to Carlos Estevez (Charlie's birth name), in addition to using the expression "tiger blood," he was also photographed drinking something called that in a bottle, using a hand-made label done with a Sharpie.  Apparently, this was a mangosteen juice drink called Xango, which Sheen really enjoyed.  (And it was reportedly $45 per 750 mL bottle, so probably mainly consumed by rich folks.)   Then, in 2017, in an interview Sheen apparently blamed his weird outbursts on overuse of a testosterone cream, which allegedly caused him to undergo "roid rage," and ramble incoherently.  Finally, I could find no information on this, but evidently literal tiger's blood is not considered to be an especially tasty topping for snow cones, or other frozen desserts.  And since the animal is woefully endangered, this would be incredibly wasteful and irresponsible anyway.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Turkish/American Watermelon Juice

      A while ago I was browsing the fruit juice section at my local Shop-Rite, and beheld some watermelon juice.  I've obviously had watermelon many times in my life, as well as quite a few watermelon-flavored products (some which used actual watermelons, some which used artificial, chemical approximations).  But never, to my recollection, the juice alone.  So, I gave this a try.  It was from the ISO Naturals company, which is based in NJ in the U.S.  Although the label noted that the contents were a product of Turkey (spelled "Turkiye," with an umlaut over the "u"), so presumably the melons were grown and processed in Turkey, and then exported to the parent company in the U.S.A.

     This is yet another entry in my growing-ever-longer list of companies which don't seem to want to talk about their owner(s), founder(s), or company history much at all.  The official website noted that they've been in business "nearly a decade," but that was it.  Alternate business-related websites like LinkedIn listed some employees' names, but none were the owners or founders.  I looked up the names that were provided online to find out what ethnicity they were probably of, and leaned that they seemed Turkish in origin.  So, it would seem that IOS Naturals was probably founded by some Turkish folks, or perhaps Turkish-Americans.  Sometime around 2015 or 2016.  Alternate juice selections include pear, apricot, cranberry, super chia, "forest fruits," "green," and "red."  Aside from juices, IOS also markets spreadable fruits, seeds, salt & pepper, oils, fig balls, dried fruits, and capers.  The business is extremely into being all natural, as their wares are organic, and lack GMOs, preservatives, artificial flavors, and added sugar.

     Moving on the fruit whose juice I consumed, watermelons are native to Africa.  Wild watermelon seeds have been found in Libya which date back 5500 years ago.  A melon in Sudan is a good candidate for being the original progenitor for watermelons.  They were domesticated in Egypt by 2000 B.C.  Although these early watermelons were quite different, with yellowish-white inner flesh, and a bitter flavor.  People have been breeding them for millennia to make them into the red-fleshed, sweet, relatively easy-to-open fruits we know today.  Also, botanically this large fruit is technically a berry.  In addition to eating the flesh, some people press the seeds for their oil, and some other eat the rinds after they've been cooked or pickled.  In fact, I've had the rind in pickled form--see my long ago post on May 12, 2013 about Ottumwa, Iowa cuisine for more details about that.

IOS Naturals organic watermelon juice:  It had a slight odor.  The color was reddish-orange.  The taste was rather thin, and kind of watery.  It wasn't terrible, but not really appealing, either.  Just bland.  Not that sweet, not that much of anything.  Kind of like the fruit itself.  I probably mentioned this in previous posts, but I don't enjoy watermelon, because of its watery blandness.  Therefore, it makes sense that I also find its juice to be dull, and not worth the trouble.  I was also surprised by how high it was in calories--120 per serving, which was 8 ounces (240 mL).  There was apple juice concentrate in it too--maybe the apples were the main culprit here.  Anyway, I won't be buying this again, which is pretty much what I figured, since this fruit doesn't dazzle me.  But if you're a fan of watermelon in general, you'll probably enjoy this.  I'll stick to eating watermelon in the only way I've really liked, which was pickled.  As I covered in the previous paragraph.

    

     I also noted that the label on my bottle said that the juice had been "flash pasteurized."  Which, as I learned, simply means that it was heated at a higher temperature, for a shorter amount of time, than the normal pasteurization process.  This is thought to preserve the substance in questions' color and flavor better.  Since this will still kill any harmful bacteria, this sounds like a win-win situation.  Certainly better than the foolish alternative of drinking non-pasteurized drinks, and needlessly risking getting sick.