'Hot and Spicy' is the new 'Extreme'

I was eating my Hot And Spicy Cheezits, when I was reminded of an article I read discussing that the new angle in marketing, was making stuff hot, and spicy.

It was a related article on how McDonald's dropped their spicy chicken sandwich due to low sales, yet Wendy's version, is flying off the shelves.

It talked about how, with an increase in the number of Hispanic and Latino populations, more and more companies are looking at infusing their products with non-traditional flavors. They also cited how the Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers are big on food from other cultures, like Thai and Indonesian; and that it is invading popular culture as well.

It makes sense, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But if you stop and look, you can see it. McDonald's has an Asian salad I hear. Asian/Latin fusion restaurants are all the rage. Even Colorado is starting to turn in to Texas, where signage in public spaces, is in English, and Spanish.

When that trickles down to a bag of Cheezits, it makes you think: is this really an influence of a change in pop culture? Or is it just the Tabasco people wanting a larger market share, and thus, piddling their sauce in just about any item that they think it will enhance? [There's even Tabasco flavored popcorn at your local Kwik E Mart!].

Whenever I read articles that examine today's society, I always like to go back and think of what Mr. and Mrs. Typical American, from the 1950's, would think. As if they were somehow transported to our crazy Future Land.

Imagine them seeing a bunch of cellphone talking, crackberry using, people in $300 jeans, retro tennis shoes, getting out of their safety laden SUV's, to go eat tequila and sesame seared prawns, while drinking mojitos, as a DJ plays Bhangra in the background.

It would probably seem bizarre, as the most exotic food of that time in the U.S.was Chop Suey.