It's Easter, and America has been invaded by Peeps. They're squat little marshmallow chicks, full of evil corn syrup and loaded with sugar. They're coated in even more. So, something sugary and mass-produced... can you get any more American?
If they weren’t so unnaturally pastel-coloured, their soft-serve extruded forms would look like something dogs deposit on front lawns. Maybe that’s why I find the quivering, artificially-flavoured things so disturbing. Or maybe it's the imagination of their taste - an aggressive, chemical sweetness - that renders me oblivious to their charms.
But they’re wildly popular, appearing each spring and given to children at Easter (give me chocolate bunnies any day) and swallowed by nostalgic adults as well. They’re a cultural phenomenon which I had no idea about until this week. Cyberspace is littered with tributes (peep shows?) to the marshmallow peep.
The first one I saw was the wacky librarian humour from Millikin University; while others perform scientific experiments on peeps, testing their responses to a microwave oven or liquid nitrogen. Other sites offer recipes for Peep Waldorf Salad or Peep Pizza. Peepophiles use them in seasonal displays and even craft the squishy things into dioramas for local newspaper competitions (the coolest, on urban overdevelopeepment, is pictured above and below). Talk about playing with your food.
No comments:
Post a Comment