Is it wrong for a grown man to crave crunchy cheetos? What junkfood do you crave?

[srcusa]

I have to admit, I'm addicted. The wife says she buys them for the kids. The bag is in the pantry and I sneak away with a quick handfull, which eventually ends up with me sneaking the entire bag into the garage. Fingers and lips dyed a bright orange, it's impossible to hide my guilt. I've tried the baked ones, which are close to a match in shape and crunch, but lack in flavor.

I know I'm not alone in my silent obsession. What's your guilty pleasure?

[JacquelineT]

STACEY"S cinnamon sugar pita chips are the BEST. I am thoroughly addicted...!

[onlytwomuses]

Not really a food but at the moment I'm craving either a Spicy Hot V8 or a Clamato Juice.
(& yeah the blood pressures fine)

[Jesdamala]

I once woke up from minor surgery, and my SO was waving a bag of Cheetos, the crispy ones, over my head. This guy I had to marry! Did..flash forward 27 years! Still love and adore cheetos, and my now DH!

[chipman]

DH? Dear? Dumb? Divorced? Damn? Husband. So many choices

[chowmeow]

Salty:

Nachos at the movie theater - love that fake cheese sauce
Cheez-its and NOT Cheese Nips
Pirate's booty
Basically everything with fake cheese powder

Sweet:

yodels
Drake's coffee cakes
Sunkist fruit gems

[jillp]

I completely agree on the Cheez-Its versus Cheese Nips.

[billjriv]

One combination i'll never forget is when I drank a Dr.Pepper with cool ranch Doritos and a bag of M & m's with peanuts,tasty combo.

[Ljubitca]

Stacey's Texarhana (spelling?) hot baked pita chips. Those are damn tasty. My friend who lives in england always bring the best chips home - like pickled onion and mushroom with white wine chips... Also love those lime tortilla chips I could eat a whole bag...

Um what is bacon brittle?

[Candy]

Candied bacon. Amazing stuff.

[jillp]

Just this week I have reignited my love affair with Chester Cheeto. Someone had a bag of them at work; I hadn't indulged in years and was simply being sociable. Next thing I knew I was buying them at the grocery this evening on my way home. Really, at this point my only option is to eat myself sick in the darned things and get the craving out of my system. Unfortunately I will have to fight my husband for possession of the bag since he loves 'em too.

[pikawicca]

My question is: Are Cheetos more or less healthful than bacon brittle?

[jillp]

My in-depth analysis of a bag of Cheetos leads me to say they would be less healthy, since they have quite a few additives. Plus, bacon brittle contains nuts and that automatically makes it a health food.

[taxi]

Cheese popcorn with trans fat.

[susancinsf]

Crunchy Cheetos are pratically required as a post-scuba snack in the dive community. When you pack for a dive trip, you have to make sure you have your cheetos, your Jimmy Buffet tape, air in the tanks....

though when hubby and I had a little dive picnic this past weekend, we did a little label reading and couldn't help but notice while there is stuff like msg, various dyes and artificial flavors in Cheetos, Fritos are nothing but corn, corn oil, and salt....

[billjriv]

I thought Cheetos were made for grown men,and Hot pork rinds too.

[othervoice]

it's nice to see all of the peanut M&M lovers. we should start our own board.

[melissad]

I gotta go with Funyuns. I was a health nut when I was pregnant, but there was one night I begged my husband to get me Funyuns. Sweetie that he is, he came back with a jumbo bag.

Also - taro chips. When I was in Hawaii, I couldn't get enough of these. They're in some veggie chip mixes here but never by themselves. :(

[lconnor]

Corn nuts, but not the flavored kind. Pirate's Booty. Cheetos

[choctastic]

it's not wrong for a grown man to crave crunchy cheetos but it is wrong for (shall remain nameless) to lick off the cheesy coating and put the wet cheetos back in the bag. gross!

I've become addicted to 25 cent small toblerone bars and any other junk food I see at Grocery Outlet and Dollar Store. I love/hate how Dollar Store has the big boxes of Toffifay candy.

[tomato]

-Sunchips and Wheathins, because there is a fine crystally layer of something that isn't really sugar and isn't really salt, and that I think is actually crack.
-*Funyuns
-Cool Ranch Doritos
-Combos
-Trader Joe's chocolate cats (also contains crack)
-the lowly marshmallow
-the esteemed Hostess Cupcake

*should actually be considered a delicacy

[jenniebnyc]

Salty:

Cape Code Sour Cream and Onion Chips
KRUNCHERS - BBQ flavored Chips
GenSoy BBQ Soy Crisps
Cheddar Flavor Triscuits
Lays Light Sour Cream and Cheddar Chips

Sweet:

Peanut M&M's
Chocolate covered Espresso Beans

[eve]

1-Wise Honey Barbeque Potato Chips-I could eat a bag (small) 3 times a day and not be satisfied. And, I suck each one before eating the chip.

2-Trader Joes chocolate covered cranberries--easily, the entire container in under half a day. Could do in one sitting but usually I have to stop to talk to a client, do some other work or go to the bathroom that interferes.

[cooknKate]

Does no one ever rip open a bag of Pirates Booty (take your pick of flavors) and devour the whole thing? Am I the only one with a Pirates Booty craving??? Pirates Booty!!! C'mon chowers!!

Ok, so in the past I ALSO used to love chili cheese fritos, taco doritos (again, am I the ONLY one crazy for this divine madness of a snack??!?!?!?!) oyster crackers, and sometimes crunchy cheetos, but lately I have been swooning over a whole new generation of snacks. Pirates Booty, Carrot Chips, the gluten free pretzels i get. Yum!! I go into the natural foods store just for my fix!

[Kajikit]

Pirates Booty rocks! I love the cheesy one, and I bought a bag of the caramel one to try - talk about DELICIOUS! Like caramel corn but with none of the icky husks to get stuck in your teeth...
I also love the new natural kettle chips... mmmmm!
And DH introduced me to chocolate covered pretzels.
For really sweet treats, I'm a kitkat addict.

[mcgillfoodie]

the pirate's booty company makes smart puffs, which are, i think, better than a cheeto- better flavor, plus you feel a bit less guilty.

[KCJ]

+ Cheetos (fried, baked, however)
+ White Cheddar Cheetos
+ White Cheddar Cheez-Its
+ Fritos (the wide, dipping one) with a jar of Tostito Monterey Jack Queso
+ Reese's Pieces
+ Fresh malted milk balls with a layer of peanut butter under the chocolate coat
+ Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough
+ Popcorn Puffs (no hulls caught in my teeth!)
+ Ben & Jerry's Everything But the . . .
+ Wendy's Frostie
+ lime tortilla chips with warm Velvetta-Rotel dip

[Janet from Richmond]

-Crunchy cheetos
-Nacho Doritos
-Guacamole Doritos
-Ranch Dortios (I'm noticing a theme)
-Route 11 Dill Chips

[Seldomsated]

Have gone thru addictions to the puffy cheese doodles at Trader Joe's (less salt than Cheeto's), the mole-flavored tortilla chips at TG's (sort of like a BBQ tortilla chip), and sesame-blue corn tortilla chips (Barbara's, TJ's, and Safeway "O" brand). Now, with cutting down, do only the occasional bag of regular salted Kettle Chips, every 2-3 weeks.

[srcusa]

Chifles, I thought that was a local Florida thing? Umm. The plant is right down the road.

Anyone ever try Inca Corn. I'm not talking about corn nuts, this is the real thing imported from Peru from a company called "Inca Crops". We could find them at one local 7-11 for a few months, but they've dissappeared recently. These are addictive little buggers. In addition to the plain (salt) variety, they had chile-picante, barbeque and ranch. For a few weeks, was a regular stop with the kids to get a slurpee and a bag of Inca Corn.

[dpan]

Cassava chips - my local Giant supermaket carries the Chifles Cassava chips, and they're addictive.

[Candy]

Fritos
Chili Cheese Fritos
Cheez-its

[srcusa]

Great idea to use the chopsticks for keeping the fingers orange-free, thanks Elsiedee and Kat. It was either that or the toaster tongs. By the way, anyone try the habenero doritos yet? I'm not a huge flavored dorito fan, but sounds intriguing.

[themirthmobile]

habanero doritos are not as hot as you might expect they to be with that name. however, the salsa verde ones are really good.

[chipman]

There is something basically un-american using chopsticks to eat cheetos. Half the fun is getting the orange all over yourself and then absent mindedly wiping it all over your clothes.

[srcusa]

Maybe that is the true essence of being American? Part of the great melting pot, but embrassing the best of other cultures and incorporating them into the quintessential Americana. Along the same lines, Pringles has just come out (at least locally) with a "select" line of rice-based chips and last night picked up a bag of the Szechuan Barbecue flavor. Very tasty and no need for chopsticks.

[Emme]

Sour Cream 'n' Onion Sun Chips

Cinnamon and Sugar Pita Chips from TJ's

Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks from TJ's

Apple Chips... esp Cinnamon ones

Shoestring Salt and Vinegar Chips that come in that can... can't remember the brand

Second the Malt Balls

Ritz Cheese Cracker Sandwiches... and the S'mores flavor ain't too shabby either

Dinner Mints... the rectangle ones in the pastel colors

Yogurt covered pretzels... even flipz will do

[jeffskal]

If my doctor is reading this, I don't allow myself any of these anymore :)

1. Peanut butter filled Pretzels at TJ's. I tend to crack them open with my teeth and then bite into the half with the peanut butter.

2. Good Chocolate-covered Malted Milk Balls, not the "Whoppers" - those are my crack.

3. Dark Chocolate covered pretzels (I see a pattern here...)

4. Semi-sweet nonpareils. SnoCaps will do in a pinch but I like the larger ones.

5. Ok, I like the Puffed Cheetos. The cheap ones (which have more orange powder) are better.

6. Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips. Preferably in Sour Cream that has Onion Soup mix added to it. I don't care if it's not been "aged"...

[Feed_me]

I presume you've had the Trader Joe malted milk balls with some peanut butter inside. They go quick.

[Uncle Ira]

It's funny how tastes can change with this sort of thing. I remember loving Bugles as a kid. I bought a box of them last year, ate maybe three of them, and threw the rest away... I'd rather eat packing material.

Uncle Ira

[kat_dew]

I love crunchy cheetos and I prevent the orange fingers by eating with chopsticks - IT is fun and clean!

TINGS! They are the corn version of cheetos YUMMY!

Peanut butter M&Ms - they blow away the competition.

[essvee]

Oh crap! I found a recipe for candied Cheetos on the web last year and made them for the Uber Bowl. But now I can't find it. I was going to post it for the true gourmands on this board.

I love almost any kind of chip. The late lamented State Line potato chips were and continue to be the ne plus ultra of potato chipdom, with Wachusett brand potato chips and Michael's from Rhode Island a close second.

But I love the flavored ones too. My most recent find are Calbee seaweed and salt potato chips, from Korea. Betcha can't eat just one!

[brattenheimer]

Ahhh...Chee-Tohs are GREAT! A former co-worker and I had a running appointment to grab a small bag from the vending machine at 3:00 p.m. every day and eat them at either of our desks. LOVE the nuclear-orange color on our fingers.

When I had my co-ed wedding shower, instead of putting a card on the lovely hurricane vase he bought us from Crate & Barrel, he filled the vase w/ little bags of Chee-Tohs. So funny.

[Kelli2006]

Guittard bittersweet baking chocolate wafers.

dried fruit from the Co-op

baked tortilla chips and salsa.

left over baked potatoes that have been reheated in the microwave, sprinkled with malt vinegar.

[magfitz]

I am a Cheez doodle fan (prefer crunchy over puffed) though Cheetos will do in a pinch. I always seem to forget that Wize chips are a regional thing. They are, right?

Cheez-its are addictive though I wish they still made tid-bits which were cheesier.

[themirthmobile]

i enjoy all vareties of cheetos: regular, flaming hot, you name it. but JALAPENO CHEDDAR CHEETOS are seriously addicting.

[gyp7318]

I have never seen the jalepeno cheddar flavored cheetos! How long have they been out????

[themirthmobile]

probably a year in the LA market. they're not very hot, but i like them better than regular cheetos. if i want hot, i go with flamin' hot with limon.

[chipman]

You will be happy to know, if you get tired of the jalapeno chedder cheetos, you can now buy jalapeno chedder doritos

[Rabbit]

Hostess cupcakes - the chocolate ones with the white swirls of icing on top and the "cream" filling (who are we kidding... that is sooo an edible oil product). Two packages with every PMS. Oohhhh, yeah!!

If only "salty" counts, give me "Party Mix" a combo of pretzels, nachos chips, corn chips, crunchy cheezies and ringolos - all in one delicious (and sometimes bbq flavour) bag.

Both of these may be Canadian delights??

[Grubbjunkie]

Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces are like crack to me. Also, Sun Chips in the green bag, just about any of the Solea chips, and...kettle corn. Pretty much any kettle corn...

[revsharkie]

Nacho Cheese Doritos

Peanut Butter M&Ms

Hostess Suzy-Qs. (Back in high school I had a cat who would help me eat the cream filling. And lest you recoil in horror at the thought of someone feeding that kind of crap to a cat, he lived to the ripe old age of 16!)

[Ellen]

Crunchy Cheetos rock. So do Rt. 11 salt and vinegar potato chips during that time of month. On the sweet side, Tastycake butterscotch crumpets rule! And I'm still awfully fond of Cracker Jack, even if the quantity of peanuts and quality of the prizes has severely declined since I was a kid.

[luv2bake]

I don't think I have enough time to write down all my guilty junk food pleasures. There are just too many that bring back memories of childhood slumber parties, days at the swim club snack bar, etc.

I will name a select few so as not to embarrass myself too much. :)

Salty, crunchy sins:

Baked Cheetos, although they can't really go in the guilt category because I now refuse to let myself eat the real ones anymore in case they remind me that I love them more than the baked ones. haha

Salt & Vinegar chips, especially Pringles.

Tortilla chips with that awful canned cheese spiced up with jalapenos (as close to Chelsea's Street Pub nachos as I can get since Chelsea's is defunct)

Sweet sin:

peanut butter M&Ms (although peanut will suffice in a pinch)

Jujyfruits

Raspberry zingers

[ipsedixit]

I'll see your Raspberry Zinger and raise you a Banana Twinkie ... yum.

[luv2bake]

LOL

[othervoice]

I once made my wife a birthday cake out of raspberry zingers.(her favorite) She loved it!!!!

[ipsedixit]

Shrimp chips

Dried cuttlefish

Wasabi-covered deep-fried green peas

[thegolferbitch]

Oh the wonders of shrimp chips.....they're so light and wonderful that I have consumed INSANE amounts of these. Ditto on the wasabi peas. I love it when a restaurant has a salad bar AND wasabi peas. NO ONE touches them but me, it seems...that and the beets. But beets are another thread. Must try dried cuttlefish. Do you do anything to it or just nosh away?

[amopdx]

I love crunchy cheetos! I also enjoy the chili cheese fritos. :)

[Chimayo Joe]

I've been hooked on Frito-Lay's Munchies lately. It has a mix of crunchy cheetos, nacho cheese doritos, cheese sunchips, and pretzels in the same bag.

[BobB]

French's potato sticks. So much better than chips!

[Candy]

I have an Indonesian friend who dresses up potato stix with a sweet sour tamarind and hot chili sauce and re-crisps them in the oven. They are absolutely addictive. I am afraid to aske her to show me how to make them. I think that would be too dangerous for me to know how to do.

[BobB]

That sounds fabulous! Could you ask her to post the recipe to Home Cooking and then not look at it yourself? ;-)

[slumbard5]

BBQ Fritos. I serve them at every party and everyone, I mean everyone, looks at them with disgust the first time they see them, eats a few, and comes back for more.

[srcusa]

If we start throwing in sweets, then the king would have to be peanut m&m's. Everyone thinks I don't eat candy, but I have to sneak a bag whenever I'm stuck at an airport. There's something very soothing and reassuring about popping those crunchy. little orbs in the mouth. Of course, perfect with a diet coke.

[mickie44]

I'm hoping someone will tell me my guilty pleasure isn't really junk food -- dried wasabi peas. They're peas, they're healthy, right? I buy them in the bulk section so I have no idea what the ingredients are.

[srcusa]

Sorry, Mickie. Problem with most of the wasabi peas is their fried so there's a good amount of fat. A few healthfood stores sell baked one. Now if you want true wasabi decadance, Mauna Loa has wasabi macadamia nuts.

[amopdx]

Tim's Cascade have a wasabi potato chip (kettle style) I haven't tried it yet but it looks good. I have tried the wasabi funyuns, not bad :) the first one you eat is so so but as you eat more they become tastier and tastier

[mickie44]

So as a result of srcusa's advice and amopdx's suggestions, I have decided to get a tube of wasabi and go to the beach. I will become a minimalist addict.

[Wolfy_sm]

I like Tim's in general with Wasabi as my favorite.

[Louise]

Oh, sh*t, you had to mention those, which fortunately for my waistline I didn't know about Until Now.

Sigh, back to stretchy pants.

[Louise]

No one has mentioned those little thumbnail sized rice crackers flavored with soy sauce or wasabi. And no one has mentioned the ones flavored with shoyu and wrapped with nori. I have a limited taste for sugary things, and none at all for chocolate (bleah!), but those nori crackers are deadly.

[Feed_me]

My mom told me many years ago when she was a kid, her brother would take Japanese rice crackers into the movie theater. They do have a distinctive smell. It was a small farming community in central California and she recalls hearing some the locals muttering, "what is that kid eating?"

[Humbucker]

Uh, rice crackers smell terrible if you're not the one eating them.

[jfood]

The list would be much shorter if I wrote what I am not addicted to. Basically, too spicy bothers me, the vinegar does not lite my fire, pork rinds just don;t cut it, popcorn just gets caught in my teeth, rice snacks are for weenies, and I am allergic to nuts.

So that leaves almost all:

- potato chips
- corn chips
- wheat chips
- tetra chips (yeah I know hard to believe it has a spot on the list)
- sun chips
- pretzels (hard and soft)
- most cookies

Are we finished in this aisle and can we move to ice cream and cookies?

[Mermazon]

Yay to Munchos! :-) The big bags are hard to find out here in CA. In FL, I always found them.

Plus any good SALTY & THIN banana chip, as well as Terras Sweet Potato Chips!! However, my 2 all time fav snacks are popcorn (My hubby just got me a "Stir Crazy") and chips with (homemade pico de gallo) salsa. Oh, and a yummy guacamole when I find good avocadoes for which to make it!

[atlantanative]

cheetos - crunchy and sometimes flamin hot

ruffles with Deans french onion dip

Munchos - they are really mostly air, so can't be too caloric:-)

[ElsieDee]

Cheetoes - Here we eat them with chopsticks (preferably the cheap kind you get with take-out Chinese, so they end-up getting stained orange and then they're easy to find in the drawer).

[Bob Dobalina]

I am a SmartFood junkie. I can't get enough of the cheddar cheese popcorn - off-name brands don't compare.

Does Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia count as junk food?

[Louise]

I forgot about that stuff. The gigantic bag seems to weigh absolutely nothing. And you can stuff it in your mouth in shameless handfuls.

Yum.

[QueenB]

Oh, Smartfood! Love that stuff!

[Striver]

This will probably be edited out pretty quickly, but it's kind of on topic...

Man goes to see a doctor, says "Doc! You've got to help me! My male member has turned bright orange!". Doctor takes a look - sure enough, it's true. Doctor says, "So what have you been doing recently?". Man says, "Nothing much. Most nights I just stay at home, watching porn and eating Cheetohs". :)

Note incidentally that Cheetohs was the favorite junk snack of the late NYT food writer, Craig Claiborne.

I've always been a Cheez-its fan myself (original size, color, and flavor only).

[srcusa]

Good one Striver. My office represents a European company and each Christmas we make a run to Sam's Club to load up on a cart full of typical American junk food to send over to the Euros so they can have a true taste of America. There's one guy tasked with picking up the packages and delivering them around, but invariably he always has a story for us about a box of oreos, or cheetos that don't make it too the office because his "kids" stole it out of the back of his car while he was loading up. We always had this vision of him sitting in front of his TV in his skivvies one hand in the box of oreos and the other hand orange from the cheetos. Not sure I want to think about where that hand has been ;-)

[susancinsf]

I love junkfood, but those folks in Europe might not be missing as much as you think. On my recent trip to London I discovered that nearly every brand of potato chip I tried (generally called 'crisps') was fantastic! (one of the better food items I ate there, actually....)

[Uncle Ira]

Cheddar Cheese Combos for me--- The cracker kind, NOT the pretzel ones. I can't begin to tell you how crushing it is to come home from the store, reach in the grocery bag, and find I've bought the pretzel ones by mistake! ! !

I can't believe all the love here for Cheetos... It's been at least 20 years since I've tried them. After reading this thread, I'm going to have to pick some up next time I'm in the store. But I'll get a bag of Combos too, just in case...

;-)

Uncle Ira

[AmandaEd]

As lowbrow as you can get: sour cream and onion Ruffles, sour cream and cheddar baked Lay's or Smartfood.

Funny related memory: I can remember buying bags of sour cream and onion chips at the snack bar at the lake as a kid a couple of decades ago for 35 cents. Doesn't inflation suck? :)

[othervoice]

Talking about inflation, I remember when I was a kid and we used to have potato chips delivered to the house in a big tin can. Tri-sum. You did and you did......for I think a buck a can. For those of you who didn't live in the Northeast, a can was probably equal to 6 big bags.

[magfitz]

That's how Charles' Chips was in New York. We had neighbors that had the Charles' Chips man come by the house every so often with a refill.

[srcusa]

Ooh. Solea rosemary and olive oil kettle chips. Actually, I think I would eat rosemary on just about anything.

[kobetobiko]

Always addicted to Cheetos! As much as I like those "gourmet" chips or fresh-made chips in restaurants, I still crave Cheetos every so often.

Hey, unlike other potato chips, Cheetos is one thing that I bet restaurants cannot recreate!

[C70]

Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt kettle chips are my current favorite, but a few months ago it was Nacho Cheese Doritos.

[melly]

Me too!

[Val]

Puffy cheesy things for me, not crunchy...the cheese powder gets caked up on your fingers as you eat them, God help us all, I want some NOW!!!!!

[Louise]

Nacho cheese doritos. White cheddar cheez-its. The greasy cheese powder builds up under your fingernails--I feel like a baboon grooming out lice when I run my teeth under my nails to get this yummy bonus. Cheetos, the poofy kind. Especially with dr pepper. The salt & sugar play off each other.

I can't keep them in the house, I am perfectly capable of eating a 1 pound container of white cheddar mephistopheles cheeze-its in one sitting.

[Offbalance]

Pringles - but only the lower sodium ones in the silver can. I don't know why, but these are what I love best, and I can go through an entire can in no tme at all. I especially crave these when I'm suffering from stomach upset. They work better to settle me than saltines.

(And Grandma Utz's Kettle Chips when I allow myself near them, which isn't often).

[srcusa]

Utz. Wow what a flashback. Used to get tins of the Old Bay flavored Utz, when visiting family in Baltimore. I think I would eat the entire tin (and I'm talking about those huge tins that they stuff with popcorn at Christmas time) in a single sitting.

[Bob Dobalina]

Grandma Utz are the best...
I remember the slogan during the 90s in Baltimore - "You've got Utz...Too bad for the rest of the world." Indeed.

[dcish]

I was thinking about moving.. sadly Utz was in my con list. Not that I'd stay because of them.. but they made the list.

[charmedgirl]

How about the jingle in the 80's? "No ifs, ands or buts, it's gotta be Utz (po-ta-to chips, yeah-yeah yeah!)" I am singing it in my head as I type ....

[andlulu]

Doritos -

I can go thru a small bag faster than Id like to admit.

[ciaoxtina]

I hate to say it, but the baked cheetos are super addictive.

[gyp7318]

I find the baked regular cheetos don't have enough of the orange cheesy dust on it. I do, however, LOVE the baked flaming cheetohs except I haven't seen them in the grocery store in a while.

[QueenB]

Crunchy cheetos are greatness.

I also have an affinity for Nacho Cheese Doritos, Baked Lays, Cheddar Goldfish and salt & vinegar potato chips.

I try to keep snacks out of my house as much as possible, because I don't want to constantly eat them...but sometimes I give in!

[MaspethMaven]

Comedian Patton Oswalt does a great bit about cheez doodles and how, if at a party, and there's a bowl of cheez doodles (or JAX, whatever), you have to make a choice between snacking and picking someone up. That atomic cheez dust makes the two mutually exclusive.