I remember way very long ago (back in April) I brought up the subject of pork rinds. I had never eaten one, which I don’t think is unusual. I’m going to guess if I polled 100 random people, 99 of them would say they’d never had one.
Last Friday I was at the Victory/Hannaford (dammit, it will always be Victory to me) on Lancaster Street, picking up a few things for dinner, and ran into a group of Leominster Firemen who were buying snacks or something. One of them had a bag of pork rinds, which just seemed strange to me, but who am I to question a fireguy?
But that made me think about them again. So last night, my sister was hosting a Party Lites party (really awesome candles – you should buy some) and I was asked to stop and pick up something she’d forgotten, and I made a decision. In an effort to make her look bad, I would sneak a bag of pork rinds and some Yoohoo onto the snack table for all her guests to see.
I had no trouble with the Pork Rinds (which in this case, was called straightforward “Pork Skin” because really, rinds? You aren’t fooling anyone) but I’ll be darned if the hoity toity Donelans in Littleton [waves to Chuck] carries YooHoo. Snobs.
Anyhoo…my sister just rolled her eyes and was refusing to open it, so The Amazing Bob grabbed the bag and ripped it open. Oh. My. God. My sister grabbed her nose and yelled “It smells like fish food” and she was ever so right. Good God, somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking it might smell like bacon. You know, because it’s made of pig. But no, this was one of the most vile smelling things ever. I took a nibble out of one, realized it doesn’t taste like anything at all, and we sealed up the bag and put it in her garage. I’m sure she’s SO happy with me for contaminating her home with those things.
Lord knows why it smells like fish food, but I can’t imagine working in the factory where these things are made. And what’s the deal with the complete lack of any flavor at all? It’s like eating packing peanuts. If I’m going to eat something that unhealthy, it should taste like something, for goodness’ sake!
So there you have it. No more burning urge to ever ever ever try a pork rind again. Ever.
