Junk Food Nation, eight days til Christmas, for those of you who celebrate Christmas! Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish peeps! Merriment to all! Let’s do this –

FIRST: TODAY’S TURKEY HILL FREE COUPON WINNER:

You guys did awesome with the comment contest yesterday! Today’s random winner is:

ALL CAPS (capslock__@_________)

Congrats, ALL CAPS – email me your contact info to Junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com and I’ll get the free coupon in the mail to you!

SECOND: TODAY’S WAY TO WIN A FREE 1.5 QT OF TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM:

As for today’s way to win, let’s head over to Facebook for a comment contest over there. Head on over to my Facebook page, and you’ll see the link for this blog post. Leave a comment there regarding the questions below, and I’ll select a random winner from the lot….with a twist. Read on, friends.

THIRD: FAVORITE NOT-REALLY-HOLIDAY HOLIDAY MOVIE?

Junk Food Nation, it’s the holiday season, and I’m sure I’m repeating topics at this point, but what is your favorite not-really-holiday holiday movie? I’m talking about movies that have NOTHING to do with the holidays except that it happens to be set DURING the holiday season.  Mine is, by far, DIE HARD. “What?” you say. “How is DIE HARD a holiday movie?”  Take a look at the trailer:

HO HO HO NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. Yeah, DIE HARD is definitely a holiday movie.

So what’s your favorite Not-Really-Holiday Holiday Movie, Junk Food Nation? Tell me in the comments below, or if you wanna enter today’s Turkey Hill contest, go over to Facebook and comment on this post there with your answer. I’ll choose one random winner amongst the entries, but will eliminate ones which don’t satisfy the question. “Christmas Story” is CLEARLY about the holidays, so its eliminated from contention. Get it? Good. Now go comment.

FOURTH: Today’s Junk Food: New Wheat Thins Toasted Pita!!

New Wheat Thins Toasted Pita is something new, JFNation. I personally LOVE pita chips, and have been known to kill off a family-size bag of Stacy’s pita chips in a sitting with a bucket of hummus. DON’T JUDGE ME. So when I heard Wheat Thins was going to try its hand at this category, I was excited. I love Wheat Thins, so hopefully I’ll love these.  Right?

They come in two flavors, as far as I know – Original and Garlic Herb. Normally I wouldn’t even bother buying the “Original Flavor” since I know what salt tastes like, but I was curious to see how these would stack up against other pita chips I’d had which didn’t have flavoring.

New Wheat Thins Toasted Pita suggest that you dip them into things, which makes sense, but I’m going to be trying them naked today. And I’m also going to be eating the cracker chips without any dip. *rimshot*

First up: New Wheat Thins Original Toasted Pita!

These New Wheat Thins Original Toasted Pita didn’t smell like much – I just got a general dough smell. Popping one in my mouth, the first thing I noticed was SALT – Wheat Thins didn’t skimp on the salt here.  The texture of the pitas were interesting – I didn’t get that same pita chip crunch like I typically got from a Stacy’s pita chip. These were definitely more of a mix of pita and cracker.  I haven’t had the Tollhouse version of pita crackers, so I’m not sure if a comparison should be made here.

Basically, these triangles were light and crunchy – like a typical pita chip, these were a thicker item with good crunch that was still pretty light in nature.  I think the thing that threw me off was that, unlike a pita chip which looks like pieces of pita that have been toasted, these triangles were clearly previously unformed dough pressed into triangle shapes.  There was something weirdly…contrived about these.

They didn’t taste bad, but honestly, they didn’t taste like much besides dough and salt.  The crunch was the only thing that would remind me of a pita.  I probably wouldn’t buy the original flavor again, preferring to get a standard Stacy’s pita chip bag.

Second up: New Wheat Thins Garlic Herb Toasted Pita!

I opened up this bag of New Wheat Thins Garlic Herb Toasted Pita and smelled, and could IMMEDIATELY smell plenty of garlic, herb, olive oil, almost a sun dried tomato tuscan herb aroma!  THESE SMELLED AWESOME.

Placing some of these New Wheat Thins Garlic Herb Toasted Pitas into my mouth, I crunched and crunched. I still am not a super fan of the texture – as I state with the Original flavor, the crackers/chips feel a little contrived. A little too perfect triangle; none of the raggedness which is common among pita chips.

However, the flavor profile here was ON POINT.  REALLY tasty. Lots of basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme flavor. LOTS of garlic flavor with olive oil …. almost like the cracker chip was dipped into one of those dishes of herbed olive oil you get at restaurants. Perfectly balanced salt. While I smelled sun dried tomato, there was no tomato flavor – instead, there was a definite creaminess to these crackers which I presume came from the parmesan cheese.

THESE I might buy again despite the weird texture. The flavor profile was that perfect.

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So, verdict on Wheat Thins Toasted Pita generally?  They’re OK, with the flavored ones being better.  I love regular Wheat Thins so much, it’s hard to conquer those. Still, I’d say if you’re gonna try these, just buy the Garlic Herb variety.

PURCHASED AT: Giant Food Grocery, Van Ness, DC

COST: $2.99 on sale

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy