As I was waiting to pay for my Borders book purchases at The District in Tustin, guess what I saw at the checkout line? Not Snickers. Not M&M's. Pocky!
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Yes, the Japanese snack ubiquituous in Asian supermarket aisles and grade school lunchboxes has officially crossed over.
Score one for multiculturalism!
To me, the fact that the Pocky would be considered as an impulse buy is a monumental step towards something good. Of course, I'm not ready to extrapolate upon this and proclaim world peace chanting “We Are The World”; but the optimist in me smiled, just a little bit.
After all when rest of the globe has already accepted our exports (Ronald McDonald, et al), these thin, animal cracker-like breadsticks dipped in chocolate seems like a small drop in a still-empty bucket.
Here's hoping that other Wacky Snacks might not be far behind.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.