Corn Again
Popcorn is, oddly enough, one of those snack foods that has more or less escaped reinvention. Faced with a limited choice of Sweet, Salt, and maybe Toffee, popcorn has been trapped behind the glass boxes of the cinema concession stand for too long.
So the prospect of adding garlic to snackfood was always going to be enough to get me interested. In point of fact there isn’t very much garlic immediately obvious, mostly because the “herb” (a grab-bag of oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary) swamps anything else that’s going on. As is usual with popcorn, some corns are coated more thoroughly than others in the flavours, but you find yourself being oddly grateful for the rest when the oregano pauses from its frontal assault on your tastebuds.
And yet, and yet…it’s very difficult to stop eating this popcorn. In fact, go ahead and open the second bag now.
Once you’ve got used to the powerful flavour, you can start to appreciate what else is going on. The corn itself is fresh and crisp, with nothing stale or soggy to be found in the entire packet, and no “old maids” (unpopped kernels) in the bottom either, despite the packet containing a warning for them. And once the packet is regretfully gone, the garlic gently introduces itself to you in the aftertaste.
If at first you don’t succeed with this one, keep munching. It’s astonishingly easy to do, and you’ll find yourself richly rewarded in the end.
