#624 Flavor pockets

Neil Pasricha

Brother, I’ve made a lot of macaroni.

Yes, for a four-year period back in college I became a regular kitchen whiz at cracking open that flimsy cardboard box of thin, rock-hard noodles, boiling them up to a perfect al dente, and stirring in that magical ratio of milk, butter, and pre-packed cheesy powder to get it jusssssssst right.

Now, everyone has their own slightly-altered recipe for boxed macaroni. Some like it thin and milky while others prefer it bright, radioactive orange. Some like butter, some margarine, and some toss in a handful of chopped up weenies.

However, no matter how you whip up your noodly batch, I’m guessing you love biting into a surprise flavor patch of undissolved cheesy powder hidden amongst the creamy deliciousness. Yes, every time I scarf down a bowl, no matter how much stirring I’ve done, there’s always that deliciously hidden flavor pocket waiting for me like an old friend.

Yes, flavor pockets are those delicious sweet spots in the middle of your meal that explode like surprising fireworks finales in your mouth.

If you’re with me here, then come on, let’s go nuts and count down five of the finest:

5. The fat glob of guacamole hiding in your burrito. When you’re sitting in the cramped corner of a dusty Mexican joint, slowly peeling the tin foil off your burrito, chomping at blackened chicken chunks, lime-seasoned rice, and salty pinto beans, it’s an amazing feeling when you unearth a treasure trove of chunky guacamole from the dark, inner folds at the back. Note that this also applies to surprise sour cream squirts.

4.That one bright red chip coated in seasoning. Clearly the factory foreman at the Dorito Plant fell asleep at his station and accidentally kicked an industrial-sized tin of zesty bold barbecue onto the assembly line. Sure, materials costs shot up, the line was shut down for maintenance, and several union grievances were filed, but it all ended with you savoring a deliciously bright red, salty and supersatured chip.

3. The spoonful of ice cream with the giant cookie dough chunk. Fancy ice cream is a frozen clump with swirling lumps of caramel ribbons, candy-coated pralines, and marshmallow globs. Yes, all those wacky tastes are stuck in there like Hans Solo in a slab of carbonite and it’s up to you, the Luke Skywalker of the bench in front of 7-Eleven, to grit your teeth, furrow your brow, and get digging to help them break free of their frozen shackles.

2.That one lettuce leaf completely drenched in Caesar dressing. Mmmm, girl. The best part about sliding a creamy leaf of Romaine down your throat is that the leafy green actually gets rid of some of the guilt. “I think this is what the doctor had in mind,” you say to your friends, while thick Caesar dressing drips down your chin onto the tablecloth. “High in fiber!” (Note: This also works while eating collared greens soaking in bacon broth or broccoli florets drowning in a giant lake of Cheez Whiz.)

1. The clump of brown sugar in anything home-baked. This rare find gets top spot. Sometimes there’s a secret glob of pure brown sugar in the peanut butter cookie, oatmeal muffin, or slice of banana bread at Grandma’s house. Remember: not even the oven could prevent this sugary jewel from succeeding in it’s lifelong quest to tantalize your tastebuds.

Yes, flavor pockets are a nice little highlight in the middle of your meal. When those random bites surprise and delight, just close your eyes, tip your head, and savor every single molecule of flavor coating all the cracks and corners of your mouth.

So come on and let’s give cracking high fives and throat-screeching cheers for these magic little moments of pure joy.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, here, here, and here

66 thoughts to “#624 Flavor pockets”

  1. I wanted to say thanks. I had a bit of a rough day (boyfriend stood me up, the jerk) and not only did you make me giggle, you reminded me of the potluck tomorrow that I need to bake something for. Hopefully there will be some delicious flavour pockets for me to treasure!

    As always, you make me smile. Thank you so much!

  2. Dear 1000 Awesome Things Dude,

    You rock. To echo the above sentiment, I was not having such a great day and you reminded me that things are right with the world…when there are secret pockets of flavor lurking about! Thanks for reminding us of all the awesome things that surround us. You’re great!

            1. Wow. Bravo to this team for completing the entire quote. And with 5 different comments to boot?

              That’s some solid teamwork there!

              This should become a standing “gag” in the comments section.

                1. That will be way more fun than the bathroom list! (Freddo and I have a side bar going about how many entries are bathroom-related).

  5. Sometimes, I dump all the doritos in a bowl so I can find the ones the flavor fiery spent extra time on.

  6. Hilarious.
    Highlights:
    – “sour cream squirts” just made me crack up. hahahh
    – “MMM, girl” about the salad
    – “What the doctor had in mind” also about the salad

    WOW those parts (and this whole post) just made me smile so big. great way to end the weekend. THANKS!

    hopefully all the haters will enjoy this post more than the last one

  7. I absolutely HATE flavour pockets! It’s too saturated and overwhelming… I much prefer things to be super evenly spread out! Except when it’s cheese. Anything to do with cheese is automatically awesome.

    I love everything else on this website though :)

    2. Alice, so glad you said that!

      I’m usually screaming a silent “Yesss!!!” at every Awesome Thing, but flavour pockets, bleccch.

      Yes, except cheese, or guacamole, or hidden bacon on a pizza … okay, I just contradicted myself. *blushes*

    1. I think Neil is referring to the notorious smuggler’s Scandinavian cousin, rarely seen except at family reunions on Corellia. He was also encased in Carbonite, apparently.

  11. Well, I’m sure glad I’m not *amy* right now, or I’d have totally missed just about the best entry yet!

    Brown sugar flavour pockets ARE so very, very awesome.

    1. Hopefully, she can be the bigger person here and come to terms with the fact that it was one small post in a big world of awesome.

      1. Chad – As *amy*’s attorney, I’d just like to point out that we are offended by your use of the term “small” in your comment. Please be prepared for us to file our class action lawsuit as: “*amy* and the easily-offended-shorties v. the entire world”.

        You have been served!

  12. A favorite flavor pocket of mine has always been the chunk of Quik (now Nesquik) in my chocolate milk. You know you could never get that stuff completely dissolved.

  13. Don’t forget this one:
    When you get a giant clump of chocolate chips, due to them melting in the car on the way back from the supermarket. That’s my favorite, because it’s like a chocolate BAR cookie!

  14. Your website simply rocks. It truly brightens my day every day!! The flavor pocket entry is a winner!! You are AWESOME!!

  15. There is an ice cream place here in mid-Ohio called Graeters. When they add chocolate “chips” to their ice cream, they actually drizzle in melted chocolate and swirl. It usually just ends up in small, little pieces, but once in awhile you end up with this huge chunk of chocolate – bigger than you can manage in one bite, larger than your spoon. You hit the top thinking it’s a normal one and kinda eat the ice cream around it until you start to realize that it’s the one!! You then use your spoon to try to wedge it out and then you have to call your friends attention to it (or sometimes taking a picture to send your cousin in Denver). It’s massive, it’s delicious and it’s all yours! Flavor pocket of chocolate!!

  16. When you make mac & cheese, try using sour cream in place of butter or margarine. I did this once when I had less butter in the fridge than I thought, and the results were…

    AWESOME! :)

  17. So true! The best part of the burrito is the secret guacamole that hides at the very very bottom.
    Now I’m gonna go get me some comida mexicana!

    Cheers!!

    1. Is it lawful to post such delicious remarks without providing a proper outlet to our fierce appetite ?
      Man, the guy who created this blog should should also upload real meals.
      Someone says the technology doesn’t exist ?
      Then he should invent it. Look at me dreaming of a juicy sirloin steak, ice cream buckets and ….We gotta stop you man !

  20. While flavor packets in general are awesome, there are times when you want to maintain the delicate balance to enjoy your treat of choice.

    Example?

    Bubble tea.. nothing is better than when you get the perfect balance of tapioca pearls (bobas) and yummy tea-beverage. The flavor packet equivalent is just a mouthful of bobas, and no tea to wash it down with. Ugh. Chewy!

  21. You are the best! My kids call the little bits of brown sugar “sugar bombs”, and, as I try to minimize the sugar in their life, when they encounter one, they run around the house madly screeching “sugar bombs!!”. It is very entertaining.

    ps–as I hit the bookmark for your page, I already have a smile on my face. Awesome!

  22. A mounded pile of mac & cheese, brand new bag of any flavor potato chip, Vernor’s Ginger Ale, and thou….a cheap and romantically “Awesome” for me and the wife.

  26. I hate this, actually. I think it’s disgusting. Except for when you get extra seasoning on Sour Cream & Onion chips. Then it’s great!

  28. Another flavor pocket: eating your peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a circular order (all crust first, then working your way in and around) and then squeezing the edges of the bread together on that last lump of PB & J. It really does make a pocket.

    I’ve been eating my PB&Js this way since I was little.

  29. The way you’re an expert with mac &cheese, i’m ze master COOK for POPCORN. And don’t do MICROWAVE popcorn, I do the STOVE-TOP popcorn. Ahhhhh… That tastes

    AWESOME!

  30. This is a wonderful one, although I have to say that I’ve always rather disliked getting powder to eat in my mac n’ cheese.

    p.s. – Why is Han Solo in this? lol

  31. Wow…and here I was thinking I was the only person who enjoyed those random undissolved bits of cheese powder in my macaroni…

  32. Hi,
    we”re from Holland and we have just been admiring your terrific blog. However, because this is English class we’re in, we thought Hans Solo was incorrect and should be written as Han Solo’s or, to be more poetical, Han’s Solo. As my name is Hans I feel much obliged by seeing my name used in this way, although I don’t play solo. We do not want to be on the negative side (well, all comments seem to tend to the positive) but, as you probably know, The Dutch are well-known for their, uhm, marihuana, no, their criticism. Cheers from a chilly kingdom!

  34. The second I saw the title I thought to myself “Man…like those brown sugar lumps in homemade oatmeal.”

    Then you mentioned it as the number one flavor pocket. I could not agree more. That is always the highlight of my breakfast.

  36. I like the bubbles of chocolate powder in my chocolate milk! Well, when there’s enough that I enjoy them, but now too many that I cough choke.

  37. Nitpicky sidebar 6 months later: collard greens. Not collared. They aren’t wearing little polo shirts…

  39. You’ve really learned a lot from college, huh? Well, I guess it’s a reward from being independent.

    Those macaroni are just amazing. You can have it in any way you want. I love those chips.

  40. Yes! Even more than the soaked piece of lettuce, I love it when the crouton is completely saturated. Especially in Ceasar dressing. =D

  41. De-licious. I do that with fajitas…homemade.

    Wrapped in between thin, chewy bread, chopped lettuce, warm meat sliding in rich sauce, chunks of tomato, there is a little pocket in the end with only delicious cheese packed into it…YUMMY! :)

  42. Sub City Donairs Sweet Tatziki sauce, KD cheese for meal category.
    Brown sugar in hot cereals.
    Cotton Candy (just can’t resist!)
    Home-made Chai spices from The Asian Garden~Indian Cuisine
    My most favorite, the popcorn glob of butter with a chunk of sea salt. YUMMY!

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