Junk Food Nation, it’s Friday the 13th.  And you know what that means…. absolutely nothing. When I was younger, I think I was really superstitious about Friday the 13th. I mean, who wasn’t? Besides the movies and all the media mentions about Friday the 13th, just rumors / teasing / stories between kids freaked the hell out of me. “Today’s Friday the 13th! Don’t step on a crack or your nuts will explode.”  I think that’s what happens when you step on a crack, right?

Anyways, as I grew older, I slowly forgot about Friday the 13th as other scaaaaary days replaced it.  Like the day of the bar exam. My first day of being graduated with no job prospects. 9-11. In comparison, Firday the 13th seemed inconsequential.  And today? Well, today doesn’t even register as “Friday the 13th.” Today is the day before the NFL Divisional Playoffs to me.  Oh, and DVR-catching up day. As well as leftover day.  Wooooooo exciting.

Anyways, since Friday the 13th is usually a “up is down, black is white” sort of day, I’m NOT going to review any junk food today – instead, I’m just going to ramble.  And here we go!

1) As 2011 wrapped up, many of the blog sites I follow were doing year-in-review posts.  And on one blog, I actually made the list!  Big time, now!  I wanted to share his entire post with you:

eat!drink!snack! links and drinks in 2011

For those of you who remember, I did a guest post over at eat!drink!snack! around Halloween time.  This post features his favorite drinks and new food blogs of 2011.  Honored to be part of it!  If you’re looking for other snack blogs to read, check out eat!drink!snack! and the other blogs he links to.

2) Earlier this week, Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ho-Hos, and those great chocolate cupcakes with the white swirl, declared bankruptcy.  I didn’t talk about it much because EVERYONE was talking about it. Moreover, I didn’t talk about it because I know what bankruptcy is about, and I knew that this didn’t REALLY mean that Twinkies or Wonder Bread were going anywhere anytime soon.  Still, it would be fun to think “what if” another company bought it out, right?

a) Hostess presented by Yum Brands!  The Ho Ho Crunch Wrap Supreme has a ring to it, no?

b) Hostess presented by McDonalds!  Two pieces of wonder bread and a single patty is now known as “The McGreasy.”

c) Hostess presented by XBox!  Featuring the new Kinect game, Twinkie Wrapper, where the whole point of the game is to see how many Twinkies you can unwrap in five minutes.  Go!

3) The folks over at The Daily Meal had a great post about the weirdest chip flavors of 2011.

The Daily Meal 10 Crazy Chip Flavors

I particularly liked the mention of Jiminy Chips’ Chocolate Marshmallow Potato Chips.  Gross.  Check out the post here.

4) I love the trend of snack food companies going retro with their labeling. Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Doritos have all gone retro with their packaging…and then I saw these:

Retro Ruffles

I feel like a fashion designer critiquing a model: love it, love it, love it. Love the colors, love the bag, love everything.  Love it.  More and more companies should do this!  The cleaner retro look has greater appeal to me than the crazy ass cartoon characters on packaging these days.

5) Finally, I wanted to end with an anecdote that was sent to me by my friend Joe.  He writes:

“So I’m in Newark Liberty International Airport getting lunch. And there’s this:

GONG!!!!

“That’s two restaurants. I thought maybe it was that ‘Oriental Eatery’ was an explanation of what Asian Chao was. Nope. In fact, Asian Chao is the ‘Sakura’ knockoff with the same chicken teriyaki and steamed veggies cooked by a surly Cantonese man. And Oriental Eatery is the knockoff ‘Panda Express,’ with orange chicken and days-old lo mein.

“I can’t imagine that development of a killer beef with broccoli could have taxed the startup budget such that they forgot to or ran out of money for a real name. But that is just the saddest looking generic ever.

“Also, ‘Asian Chao’? Wtf?”

Anyone else hungry for bourbon chicken now?  By the way: bourbon chicken is not Asian, but is offered at every single Asian fast food court joint.  Riddle me that, Batman.

Enjoy your Friday the 13th everyone!

Any thoughts?  Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy