Greatest Food Disappointments

The inspiration for this post comes from a box of cereal.

In particular, a box of cereal that had eluded me for over three decades.

When I was a kid, and there used to be Saturday morning cartoons on the air, the commercials that aired during those blocks were often just as entertaining as the cartoons themselves.  And it was almost guaranteed that you would see at least one commercial for some kind of sugary cereal every ten minutes.

(Truth be told, it was the only way I could decide what I wanted for breakfast on Saturday mornings.)

Well, I happened to come across a commercial for "Cookie Crisp" cereal.  And I fell in honest to goodness cereal love.

Actually, it was more like cereal lust, but you get the picture.

So, I remember wanting to try this Cookie Crisp cereal.  I begged my parents to buy it for me.  The only problem was that at that time, Cookie Crisp was only available in the United States - which then prompted me to beg them to take me to the States to buy cereal which sparked dozens of lectures about how foolish it was to go to another country just for cereal.

Can you believe that I waited thirty-six years before I got the chance to try Cookie Crisp?  That's how long it took before Cookie Crisp finally became available in Canada.  Once I saw it was available, I bought a box, a carton of 1% milk, and I immediately ran home to enjoy a bowl of it.

And it was...strangely anticlimactic.

I suppose it was all right, I suppose.  It tasted fine, but it was weird.  It was like if I had taken a jug of milk and poured it over a container of those chocolate chip cookies they used to give out with the Happy Meals at McDonald's.  It was sort of a disappointment.  A cereal that I had waited three and a half decades to try and it was just...meh.

I suppose that leads to the topic of today's blog post.  Food disappointments.  And don't lie and tell me that you haven't had any.  We have all had them.  Cookie Crisp just happens to be my latest food disappointment.

Here are a list of the others.  Maybe some of you will agree, and maybe some of you won't.  Whatever the case, I encourage you all to share some of your food disappointments as well.

And since I started off with a cereal, I thought that I would begin this list with another one.

FROOT LOOPS

Don't get me wrong.  Froot Loops are a beautiful cereal as far as bright colours go.  It's definitely one of the most visually appealing cereals that are readily available.  And yeah, I was intrigued when I heard that there was a cereal that tasted like different kinds of fruit.  What kid doesn't want cereal that tastes like cherries, lemons, and oranges?

Apparently this kid doesn't.  I had one bite of it and I didn't like it.  At all.  But to be fair, I also hated Fruity Pebbles and Trix when I first tried them too.  I guess I have this idea in my head that cereals shouldn't taste like fruit.

KETCHUP POTATO CHIPS

Okay, so I'm thinking that most of you outside of Canada don't even know what these are.  In Canada, one of the more popular flavours of potato chips are ketchup chips, and take it from me, they definitely taste like ketchup.  Unfortunately, I think they taste TOO much like ketchup, and as it stands, it is one of two flavours of potato chip that I don't like (the other one is Mrs. Vickie's Jalapeno chips).  At least I tried it.  Now, if Lay's would make chips that tasted like French's mustard, then we'd have a party!

MCDONALD'S PIZZA

Okay, granted I don't really like a whole lot of food from the Golden Arches anyway.  But back in the 1990s, when McDonald's tried their hand at pizza, I enjoyed it because how can anyone screw up pizza?

Well...I suppose breaking a baby tooth in half on the crust would do it.  It had an okay flavour, but I couldn't get past the crust.  

You know, come to think of it, I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't like the McRib either.

PEPSI BLUE

I have to admit, I do love Pepsi.  I love it probably more than I should, but I do love it.

I also love blue raspberry slushies.  I admit that I love lime ones a little bit more, but I do love blue raspberry slushies.

However, I would never think to mix the two together.  Aside from going on an insane sugar rush, I don't find that those two flavours go together at all.  That's kind of the impression I got when I first tried Pepsi Blue.

MICRO MARVELS SNACKS

Seemed like a great idea at the time.  Microwaveable burgers, fries, and milkshakes that you could enjoy at home instead of waiting at a drive-thru for your order.  Unfortunately, when I contracted food poisoning from one of these items, it pretty much soured me on most microwave friendly cuisine for two years.  Well, except for popcorn. 

JIFFY POP POPCORN

Well, at least unless you use Jiffy Pop popcorn and almost set your kitchen on fire making it.  At least the non-blackened popcorn tasted okay.

KRAFT OR HEINZ BARBECUE SAUCE

Back in the mid-1990s, my favourite barbecue sauce was Lea and Perrins.  At least it was until they discontinued it.  Today, the closest brand I can find to match it is Bulls-Eye, but I tried several other kinds with hit or miss results.  Kraft is definitely a miss.  And, I'm telling you...it doesn't matter whether it was hickory smoked, original, or honey garlic.  I didn't like any of them.  Same deal with Heinz.  Their ketchup is great...but their other condiments fail.

And finally...

BUTTER TARTS

To some, they are a Canadian delicacy.  To me, they are globs of brown sugar surrounded by an inedible flaky crust.  I just about gagged when I first tried one, and I said to myself, never again.

Those are some of my biggest food disappointments.  I want to hear from you now.