Rob and I have been checking out the wonderful Asian grocery stores in Seattle -- Uwajimaya, downtown and near work, and 99 Ranch, on Aurora not that far from our house. We love just wandering the aisles, exclaiming like dumb tourists at the beautiful packaging, the unusual flavors, the fascinating soda and candy choices.
Every time we go, I wish I'd remembered to plan a Chinese recipe, because I know I could get anything and everything I want for it there. Instead we usually load up on $20 worth of impulse buys, coming home with Hello Kitty cookies, wacky Ramen flavors, barley drink, as well as loading up on coconut milk ($1.79 at Safeway, 59 cents at 99 Ranch!).
Anyway, I was reminded of our recent jaunts when I saw the recent Chinese junk food site I linked to, as well as this Asian soft drink-review site. The site tenders were pretty grossed out by this Coconut Drink with Jelly (great layout!), but I'm an old hat at drinking bubble tea by now, so I think this wouldn't be too bad. Grass Jelly Drink, on the other hand...
I also learned from this review on the site that Coca-Cola has an online virtual...mascot? Spokesmodel? Cyborg? Anyway, his name is Hank (Hank?) and you can ask him questions online. Good luck with that, though. I asked him "Does anyone really still drink Tab?" and he responded with "I do not understand what you are asking, but I think you may be asking a question related to products of The Coca-Cola Company." Uh, good one, Hank.
But then in some random links he provided, I did find how TAB was named. And man, it's really stupid: "A computer search yielded a brand name for the company's first low-calorie beverage. Computers were programmed to sort out all three- and four-letter words in English. TAB was selected from some 250,000 words."
All three- and four-letter English words? So it could have been cat, or the, or goat? I guess back in the 1970s (1960s?), those companies that make zillions from "branding" were still just little con jobs in their future CEOs daydreams.
About Me
- Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
- I'm an entertainment editor at MSNBC.com, and have maintained Pop Culture Junk Mail since August, 1999. The New York Times called the site "one of the best places to explore pop culture online," and Entertainment Weekly included it on their Top 100 Web Sites list. If you like weird food, strange products, and 1970s and 1980s nostalgia, PCJM is your home away from home.
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7 comments:
Fans of Asian grocery stores should take note: Items at Japanese grocery stores tend to be way more expensive than those at Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean grocery stores.
Regarding Uwajimaya: Funny! We often do the same thing...my wife's brother is in town, and we went to Uwajimaya last night and hung out for a while. Most interesting purchase (aside from the usual assortment of mysterious exotic snacks): a 4-pack of diet Cricket Cola...sweetened with Splenda! The jury's still out, though...my son and I can't decide if we actually like the stuff or not. At $1.29 a bottle, I'm thinking it might be more cost effective to throw some green tea into a 29 cent can of Coke Zero from Costco. :)
Definitely agree with anonymous re: pricing...I love the selection at Uwajimaya (almost as good as United Noodle, the place we used to frequent in Minneapolis), but Uwajimaya can be expensive...99 Ranch might be worth a trek across the lake...
For hilarious, literate and profane reviews of Japanese food products check out http://www.yongfook.com/index.php . His recent review of Fran is probably the best recapitulation of an unrequited love ever focussed on a Pocky-like food product.
I had heard that TAB stood for "Totally Artificial Beverage." Maybe it's just an urban legend.
I love, and miss!, 99 Ranch. My husband and I would shop there every couple of weeks when we still lived in the Bay area.
We loved picking up new and unusual things to try...I mean, we are grocery shopping pros, so it was loads of fun to not recognize 80% of what we saw!
We currently live about three hours from the 99 Ranch in Atlanta, which just happens to be the farthest-West store after Arizona.
Oh, I love that 99 Ranch on Aurora! And like you, Gael, every time we go there to "get serious" about cooking real, good Asian dishes, we end up with bizaare Ramen packages, loads of rice-n-seaweed crackers, and candy with toys inside. We do, however, go there to get fish--cheapest prices in town!
Hey! I drink TaB! I had two with lunch today. (The proper spelling is upper/lower/upper case.) I can't tell you why--it's part the packaging and part the weird chemical taste that reminds me of my mom, I guess.
My understanding is that TaB makes up a tiny tiny fractio of Coke's sales (surprise!) but that TaB drinkers are very brand loyal. So they only sell it in cans, do no promotion or advertising of any kind, just put it on the store shelves and rake in a steady little profit.
Mmmmm....I think I'll go have another one.
Jeff
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