About popcorn and popcorn cookers
For the longest time, I’ve been meaning to compose an entry pitting brands of cooked popcorn side by side. The problem is that popcorn never lasts long enough in the house to allow me to take photos. When Speedy came home last night with a container of Chef Tony’s Original Popcorn, I grabbed the camera and asked our younger daughter, Alex, to “pose” for me while watching Lara Croft: Tomb Raider for the nth time. By “posing”, I mean keeping the popcorn, the TV and part of her head within the camera frame. Still, it wasn’t easy taking the photos because she was more concerned with the Lara Croft-Chef Tony combination than allowing me to take decent shots. This is the only clear shot from about a dozen photos. Anyway, who cares about the photo, right? This is about popcorn.
I’ve been a popcorn eater since I was a little girl. An aunt who lived next door to us always kept a supply and, on those innumerable lazy Sunday afternoons of my childhood, she would pop them in a frying pan and we would munch on the crunchy buttery popcorn while watching her favorite TV show—Tom Jones.
My father bought an electric popcorn cooker when I was in high school but it just rusted away after a few months. Perhaps it was really a case of not getting attached to an appliance that can only perform one task. In most Western kitchens, there is a gadget for every kind of task—a butter cutter, a garlic crasher, potato peeler, vegetable masher, mixer, blender, and so on and so forth. But no one in my family believed in accumulating all those things. We always preferred multi-purpose tools and accessories—the basic mortar and pestle, a good quality cleaver, a heavy wooden chopping board, the best wok we could afford… In short, the electric popcorn cooker was superfluous.
Fast forward to when my daughters were around four and five, respectively, and the rage was microwaveable popcorn. While microwaveable popcorn was definitely convenient as it did not entail any real cooking nor washing, my husband and I did not develop an affinity with it for two reasons: 1) the corn always seemed underpopped and 2) it was wasteful because the entire bag of popcorn had to go into the microwave unopened and we normally consumed less than a bagful of popcorn.
Later on, when we gave away our microwave oven (we weren’t really using it except to reheat leftovers, anyway), we switched back to traditional popcorn—the kind cooked in the frying pan. Then, cooked popcorn became the fad.
It was our daughter, Sam, who introduced us to Holy Kettle Corn. We were content with it until we tried Chef Tony’s. But the only Chef Tony popcorn that the kids liked was the original flavor. Later on, my husband would discover Kettle Corn (different from Holy Kettle Corn) which he bought from a convenient store in a gasoline station somewhere in Laguna. We loved how these cooked and flavored popcorns were popped to the max and oh, so, evenly cooked. Then, someone said something I would ponder on for a long time.
One time, we were in Vieux Chalet and we were chatting with the owner, Susan Hassig. The conversation strayed to popcorn and Speedy mentioned that the quality of Holy Kettle Corn was deteriorating because the popcorn was not as evenly cooked as before. Susan said natural popcorn is never evenly cooked. We should be wary about popcorn that is too perfectly even in its cooking because, chances are, something had been done with the corn to achieve such perfection.
Makes sense, actually.
Related reading: The rBGH mafia and the corn war
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Ate Connie, this is slightly off topic. But how do you reheat your leftovers now? On the stove? I’m curious because Woody is trying to get me away from reheating leftovers on our microwave. He’s on a warpath to holistic living and dragging me along.
As for popcorn, can you believe I’ve never had popcorn popped in a pan? I’ve got to see the difference now.
And now, I have to get some popcorn.
When I was young, the only popcorn I would eat was the kind sold by vendors in Luneta, all sweet and pink. Now, that I’m much older, I am addicted to buttery and salty movie popcorn. But I love popcorn even better when it is popped in that “bad for you” coconut oil. 
Pinayhekmi, re reheating: in a sauce pan on the stove. If it’s pasta, I wrap it in foil and pop it in the oven. For dishes that may dry up (and scorch), I steam. Holistic living sounds grand. hehehe
Dot, I know that kind too. LOL An aunt used to buy that for me after Sunday mass.
Hi, Connie!
I also love popcorn. I still believe it’s a healthy snacks. We did have our share of microwaveable popcorns when my sisters sent us from the US, but I still prefer the regular popcorn. I usually buy my popcorn by the kilo from Alabang Market. I think they are more fresh than the ones from the Supermarkets. I used to have an electric hot air popcorn popper but it finally conked out. It has served its purpose anyway. Now I also pop the corn in my wok, I can pop more quantity than in the pan. Of course, my wok came with a cover.
Do you have a recipe to make caramel popcorn??? My daughter wants to learn to make this, something like the ones from Goldilocks. I’d appreciate that very much. God bless.
Dex
Ohhhh POPCORN! That is my favorite, favorite snacks! I miss popcorn in Pinas kc dito sa Australia walang flavored popcorn unless you’ll buy in supermarkets…I think…but I never seen flavored popcorn aside of buttered popcorn on cinemas. Its still yum though =D I never heard those new branded popcorn to me yet…All I ever remember is Tatters. And that is my all time favorite, the BBQ flavor. Had experience too when I was a kid db my mga vendor na ngtitinda ng white and pink popcorn ehehehe! Its so popular lalo na kapag fiesta.
Welcome back to me
We moved here na tita Connie dito sa Canberra na. Hopefully for good na po. Once I go to Pinas this coming May I’ll remember all the restaus and stores you mentioned here and from pinoycook.org. And of course definitely I’ll try Chef Tony’s Original Popcorn. I think my friend mentioned to me the Holy Kettle, she said she love the sour cream flavor…
Cheers!
I’m a big popcorn fan. The best popcorn I’ve ever tasted so far is from a stand in Ocean City, MD. They pop it in a big copper kettle(they have to use a thing that looks like an oar to stir). The popcorn they have is sweet and salty, I think it’s called kettle corn. I hope to take a picture of the “popper” when we get a chance to go there. It’s 3 hours away from home base, so it’s really a treat.
We stopped using the microwavable popcorn because of the hydrogenated oil content/trans fats. So we just buy the pop corn and do it the old fashioned way.
dex, sorry, don’t know how to do that. the farthest i got to making flavored popcorn was to make popcorn balls with Kraft caramel cubes.
Hush, kaya pala nawala ka. I have more resto reviews coming up. Hope you get to enjoy them all when you visit.
KK, wow it’s the first time i hear about the non-healthy aspects of microwaveable popcorn. I feel twice better that we gave them up.
There’s a kind of popcorn I like that’s (for lack of a better description) smooth, bald and inwardly popped. Its usual incarnation is the yellowish salty popcorn sold in supermarkets. A sweet version w/ caramelized brown sugar is sometimes available. Does anyone know what it’s called?