NAC Crap Goodies

My dad owns a couple of convenience stores down in Utah. Consequently, every year he attends the NAC Convention. NAC stands for the National Association of Concessionaires - Representing the recreation and leisure-time food and beverage concessions industry. Basically, it's a convention celebrating and promoting all of the "NEW" and "INNOVATIVE" junk food and trinkets that America has to offer.

It is one of the largest conventions in the country. I won't even go into what that says about our national priorities.

But here's what it says about my family: We love this crap! Well, my kids do, at least. Every year, Grandpa fills up an ENORMOUS backpack full-to-bursting with the "treasures" that he found at the NAC show and sends it up to the kids. It's like Halloween, only better. You never know what sort of crazy stuff Grandpa will put in the bag.

There was a lot of your standard snacks - Mike & Ikes, Warheads, Twizzlers, beef sticks . . . And then a heckuva lot more of your not-s0-standard snacks - sunflower seeds in bizarre flavors, a dozens forms of fake cheese flavored crackers, Habanero sauce, and caffeinated EVERYTHING (sunflower seeds, candy bars, drinks, beef jerky . . .). Plus, there were a lot of non-food items - hand warmers, little 3-D puzzles, water bottles, and mini-tattoos.

Here's Jared tentatively tasting some unknown brown gloppy candy. It smelled faintly of sugary beef; he almost yaked in the sink a few seconds later.

This was the favorite! A caramel popcorn ball in the shape of a corn cob. The best part was that the wrapping recommended heating it for 15 seconds in the microwave. Warm, gooey caramel popcorn . . .