Oh hey, JFG Nation. What’s up? Oh nothing to see here, just a Saturday post. Wait, what!? You post three times in the past two weeks, and now you put up a SATURDAY POST, JFG? WHAT GIVES, MAN.

Simple – today is my birthday. Well, not my actual birthday – but the JFG’s birthday. Anniversary. Another notch on the old life post. Whatever you want to call it. On this date, six years ago, this blog started. Here’s the first post, in fact. Nacho Cheese Doritos. OH HOW REVOLUTIONARY.

Last year, I talked about a lot of things. I talked about how when I turned four, I wrote a long post about changes and plans and things that were going to happen next. None of those things happened, because 2015-2016 was an amazing, messy, busy, upside down year. And, as I explained, it was because everything was new. New job, new spouse, new directions.

Speaking of new spouse, I also spent last year’s 5 year anniversary post talking about the wonderful JFGal, and how our wedding was basically catered by Oreo. No not really. But sort of.

I concluded by saying that unlike all the promises I made in Year 4, Year 5 was going to be unplanned. And unplanned it was. My posting became less, then more, then sporadic, then consistent, and then not. I made a hard choice and stepped away from The Nosh Show – I still miss those guys. And if you listened to that show, you’ll know why life has been upside down – basically, I’ve been adulting hard. The JFG Family is growing. We moved. And then yesterday WE MOVED AGAIN. Seriously, how much cardboard-boxing can one man take?? I HATE YOU, BUBBLE WRAP.

Marvo, the grandmaster at The Impulsive Buy, told me once that he was always curious to see which food bloggers stuck around. Over the years, so many great blogs have come and gone, or into dormancy. Foodette. Rodzilla. Food Junk. So Good Blog. There are some days, I’ll admit – it makes sense.

Writing this blog is fun, but it’s not “easy.” Well, no that’s not true – it is pretty easy. I guess what I mean is that it’s still a THING you have to do, no matter how easy it is. Hell, taking a bottle out to the recycling is one of the easiest things in the world, YET I STILL LEAVE THAT CAN BY THE SINK. I’LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET TO IT, MARSHA.

Any birthday/anniversary provides a time to self-reflect. When I look at this site, I’m amazed how much things change. Is this site really the “Daily Snack of Junk Food, Pop Culture, & Awkwardness” anymore? And did you know that even THAT tagline was a big change from the original tagline in my head, “Digestion Without Representation”? (It’s a DC thing. WHATEVER YOU’RE A NERD TOO.)

Six years are in the books, and I still have things I’d like to do with this website. And I’d like to thank all of you for continuing to be consumers of this inane content. I couldn’t do this, be this, write that, show up, without you, JFG Nation. And thank you thank you for your unrelenting patience. And for tolerating my spelling errors.

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Yep, I just used four dashes as a segue-way into…the Summer Fancy Food Show! As you read this, I am on my way to my old stomping grounds, NYC. Ah New York, New York. A hell of a town, and also home to the Summer Fancy Food Show every year. From the website, the SFFS: “is the largest specialty food industry trade event in North America, and the premier showcase for industry innovation.” We’re talking THOUSANDS of vendors and more than 180,000 products. You read that right. ANYTHING food related will be there. Jamon from Spain. Canned beans from the U.K. Mexican tequila companies. New Zealand steak shops. Boston crab soup makers, Iowan waffle makers, even the people who decide whether something is kosher for supermarkets. It’s all there. It is the Super Bowl for food.

Trends I’ve picked up on from the deluge of pre-show emails: jarred cookie dough. Pickled everything. More mixing of sweet and savory in super uncommon combos like curry chocolate. Coconuts, and nuts in general, are back with a vengeance.

MANDATE: see what I’m seeing and eating over the next three days both in NY and at the show by following me on Instagram, Twitter @junkfoodguy, or Facebook …do it! You won’t be sorry. Or maybe you will.

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Another rough segue-way! To get you excited for the Summer Fancy Food Show, I dug into the JFG archives to see what photos I could share that were previously unseen:

2013: I know that that video I have on the side of my webpage is like four years old. But fellow Iron Stomach Jen and I enjoyed filming it. Here is us laughing about how many years we’ve taken off our lives though the calories we’ve consumed. HAHAHAHHA CHOLESTROL.

Another picture from 2013: uh I have no idea what this picture is but I’m sure that face I’m making reflects the dread I have inside. EAT SWEET POTATOES; ok ok my strangely plush overlord.

In 2015: celeb chef Marcus Samuelsson pimping out some brand of tea – the tea was just ok. Samuelsson’s jacket? Money.

Another 2015 photo – a rare pre-wedding wedding diet pre-SFFS photo of the JFG. I’LL NEVER SEE THIS WAIST LINE AGAIN.

2016: more celeb chefs! Rick Bayless made me a taco! I told him his brother was a jerk. Haha no I didn’t BECAUSE HE ALREADY KNOWS.

2016: David Burke you mad genius. You were selling Pink Himalayan Salt blocks. I bulldozed you for a photo. Neither of us wanted to look at the camera. It was awesome.

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Seg-way! Since I haven’t been posting much in the past, well, couple weeks, I wanted to highlight some stuff which I’ve either bought or had sent to me that is in my queue. I’ll review these eventually:

Quest Hero bars!! Basically their cereal bars with some extra goo! Designed for #fitfam everywhere. By the way, I know I hashtag a lot for the workout community, and I wish I was as diligent as those people. I am not a body builder or even one of those people who run Spartan Races. Yet I still eat these protein bars. I am a conundrum wrapped in prosciutto.

Funky Chunky – decadent popcorn. This stuff is good, SWEET, and sort of expensive. New packaging too! Hey, combining coffee and popcorn sounds good to me – which one of these looks best to you?

Hawaiian Licorice Company sent me this Sour Pineapple and Red Apple all natural licorice. Intrigued for sure – everyone has been loving these fruit flavored Twizzlers, so I like the idea of smaller craft Licorice companies. DO IT, ROCKAPELLA. I MEAN, HAWAII.

Stray Cats! My first cassette tape ever was the Stray Cats. Stray Cat Strut was my favorite song ever…when I was like 5 years old. Anyways, these are basically organic electrolyte-filled Otter Pops. Stray Cats – IT’S GOT WHAT PLANTS CRAVE. IT HAS ELECTROLYTES.

Bought his Spiked Mountain Dew because of the prickly pear cactus juice. The can looks great – super manly. YOU WANT TO BE A MAN?? THEN DRIVE A SPIKE INTO YOUR TONGUE WITH CACTUS JUICE. Yep, I feel burlier already.

JC is a favorite of mine, and I’ve had some of their Pie Bites before. Decadent truffles of all sorts of pie flavors. I can’t wait to dig into these. Each one = one inch on my belt line. WORTH IT.

This is a company that is going to be at the SFFS: Pizootz. These are not peanuts covered in flavor powder, but they are flavor INFUSED peanuts. I’ve had the habanero, the bay spice, and the pickle one already, and these are AMAZING. Plus Virginia peanuts are legit – super snappy.

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Alright that’s it, JFG Nation. One last thing about this writing experience – this is just a personal observation. While people online enjoy the things I, or other bloggers, post or write about, so many of my friends in real life find the things I eat revolting. And while I keep urging them to think of food like fashion or music – where the entities that push the edges eventually become mainstream – they aren’t buying it. And for the most part, they aren’t alone – while some flavors and foods become part of the mainstream, public acceptance of food trends is much much slower than other industries.

My friend Tasha helped solidify WHY for me – it’s because food is so so personal. It is a personal experience. While people are willing to look like someone else or feed a variety of ear candy into their brains, they are slow to budge on food preferences. And it makes sense – fashion and music is purely extra to our lives. Eating food is something we HAVE to do. And while I may take the attitude of “why not make the thing you HAVE to do the most exciting thing ever?” I can understand the feeling of “I have to eat so I want to make sure it’s safe.”

So, I get it. I recognize that while some of you may voyeur-eat through me, I may or may not influence you to try any of the things I write about or photog. But that’s ok – it’s just nice to get the feedback along my own food adventures. I know I stopped replying to every comment a long time ago, but I enjoy the peanut gallery. It reminds me that I’m not eating the four-pound sushi burrito because I’m a glutton (well, not ONLY because I’m a glutton), but also to give you some cheap thrill too! So keep the comments coming.

Ok, that’s it. Follow me on social interwebs. It’s gonna be a great three days and many years to come. Cheers to you, JFG Nation.

 

Love that spicy Orange Sauce.

Sincerely,

The JFG