Junk Food Nation, Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a good Super Bowl  – it was a great game with lots of drama. There are so many hot takes out there, I’m not going to bother with what we already know: poor call by Seahawks on last play. Nationwide commercial re: dead kid was cringe-worthy. That halftime dancing shark was the star of the show.

As a Bills fan, I was of course rooting against the Pats, but I didn’t have any problem with the result, because it was an exciting game compared to last year’s snoozer. I shoulda known, however, that the Pats would win – I woke up yesterday and said “Rabbit Rabbit,” but then I saw my friend Rob L., a Pats fan, said, “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” via Facebook. Well played, Rob L. Well played.

I didn’t watch any ESPN, etc. leading up to the game because of the ridiculous DeflateGate media-frenzy, and I’m going to avoid it today, lest I see the slant pass get intercepted over and over and over and annoying pundits repeat HOW DO YOU NOT RUN IT three billion times. Hell, I barely even want to listen to music right now; that’s how much sensory recovery I need. So, instead of re-hashing the game, let me go over some of the other highlights of the game for me and the people I was watching with:

1. SUPER BOWL FOOD. The host of the SB party I went to made some awesome chili and meatballs, and I provided what I talked about on a few radio outlets – Cuatro Queso Mac & Cheese served in Nacho Cheese Taco Shells covered in Frank’s Red Hot. Here’s a pic. The shells were sort of stale – definitely didn’t follow the box directions of heating them up a bit. But the mac ended up pairing well with the chili that was served. It was a fun night for my toilet all around.

2. PROP BETS! Prop Bet #1 of the evening was how long Adele Dazeem would take to since the National Anthem. Over/under according to host friend Mike was two minutes and 2.5 seconds. 2.5 seconds??? Vegas ain’t playing around, doing HALF SECONDS. After years of taking the OVER, and seeing these singers zip through the anthem in less than two minutes, I took the UNDER this year… only to see the Let It Go lady end at 2:03.5….VEGAS WINS AGAIN. Damn you, Idina Menzel.

3. Prop Bet #2: What would Katy Perry wear at the start. I said pants… PANTS! …and of course she came out riding a robot lion like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger wearing a FLAME DRESS. Lost that one. She never did get down to skin tight bikini level, did she? Hm. Whatever, she still looked smokin’ hot. I must admit – I enjoyed that CGI floor too. I want that in my house – who wouldn’t want to feel like the floor around their bed was falling away in the morning or tilting back and forth?

4. It was odd that at one point Katy Perry was dancing with the Cybermen from Dr. Who.

5. I DID correctly that she’d end with “Firework.” IMO, this was a slam dunk easy bet. THE SONG IS CALLED FIREWORK. YOU KNOW THEY’RE GONNA LAUNCH FIREWORKS DURING IT. She’s not coming back off the MORE YOU KNOW star to end the set with “Hot and Cold.”

6. I saw a bunch of people on Twitter upset that kids these days don’t know who Missy Elliot or Lenny Kravitz is. And my only thought is, really? You’re gonna be one of those “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO ______ IS???” people? Well, congratulations, curmudgeon – you’re on your first step to being old. I’d like to introduce you to some people who are upset that kids have never watched Seinfeld, and to these other people who can’t believe movies have audio now.

7. Prop Bet #3: Gatorade color that was dumped on winning coach. And the answer turned out to be blue. BLUE! That was going off at 15/2!! How did red, orange, yellow not make it into that bucket? You’re telling me that Fierce Berry is a better flavor than friggin LEMONADE??? SURELY YOU JEST, NUMBNUTS.

8. Yes, there was a Fast and Furious trailer for the seventh installment of the movie. Yes, I fist-pumped all the way through it. No, I am not being facetious. JUDGE ME, SEE IF I CARE. I’ll be too busy watching a CAR LEAP FROM ONE BUILDING TO THE NEXT. YES. YEEEESSSSS!!!!

9. Did I win anything in my Super Bowl Squares pool? No I did not. Did I hit the spread? No I did not. Did I hit the UNDER? No I did not. Oh yeah…I’m gonna do great in Vegas in March.

And like that *poof* the Super Bowl is over. It’s its own holiday, really. And we use it to describe other events – something is “THE SUPER BOWL OF WRESTLING” while another thing is “THE SUPER BOWL OF CROSS FIT.” Somehow the ACTUAL Super Bowl is both the Super Bowl of Football AND the Super Bowl of Eating. Today, we all trudged to work (unless buried in three feet of snow) bleary-eyed and exhausted, having eaten too many mac & cheese tacos. The Junk Food Gal remarked to me after the game: “My taste buds are dead. We’re never eating like that again.” She forgets that this blog exists.

And on that note, today’s junk food: Limited Edition Tastykake Salted Caramel Mini Donuts!

Last week, I reviewed Limited Edition Tastykake Red Velvet Mini Donuts. They tasted fine, but I didn’t think they had Red Velvet flavor. Tastykake also sent me their other limited time flavor: Limited Edition Tastykake Salted Caramel Mini Donuts!

These looked like mini crumb donuts that smelled like maple syrup and brown sugar as soon as I opened the bag. Let’s do photos and get right to the review.

Like I said before, when I opened up this bad of Limited Edition Tastykake Salted Caramel Mini Donuts, it smelled like maple syrup or brown sugar. In other words, it trended towards that caramel flavor/aroma. Really sweet smelling.

Picking up one of these donuts, it started to crumb immediately and sort of fall apart in my fingers. The second donut I handled, I did so more carefully – the crumbs were pretty embedded into the donut, so it wasn’t a situation where an outer shell fell away, leaving a plain donut underneath – the whole thing was just sort of fragile. Wasn’t too dry, per se – just fragile.

Ok, let me stop criticizing. I popped these mini donuts into my mouth, and they were DELIGHTFUL. The Junk Food Gal thought they were too sweet, but I say NAY – these were just what I wanted them to be. The donuts themselves were standard and the flavor of the crumby exterior was loaded with caramel sugar flavor! Very sweet, very maple-y, very brown-sugar-y. I LOVED THEM. Yes, maybe they were a bit on the cloying side, but for these donuts, that’s what I wanted.

My only small critique – I didn’t really get the “salted” part of the salted caramel flavor. It was just sweet all around – a little bit of salt might’ve made the flavor even more tasty. But that’s about it.  If you’re one who enjoys sugary sweet donuts – who doesn’t? – I think you’ll enjoy these.

Thanks again, Tastykake!

PURCHASED AT: Sent to me

COST: Unsure, but the bag unit price was $4.78

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy