March 6, 2011

Newport Kroger Market Place: Magic Pop!

There's always something new to taste and/or see at Newport Kroger Marketplace.  Today I discovered Kims Magic Pop; which started out as a spectacle to see and then a delight to taste. 

The Magic Pop journey all begins in a plastic bag with small pellets made of wheat, rice and corn.

The Magic Pop machine was heating while the friendly worker explained what the pellets are made of and how the contraption itself works.  The pellets go in and they are heated and compressed which causes them to expand.

 When the machine begins to produce the discs they are small, about a 3 inch diameter.  You may be wondering why there is a 3-wall plexi-glass shield in front of the machine...this is for safety reasons.  Once the pressure and heat build to a certain point, the discs get larger and are forced out of the machine with a much higher pressure causing them to hit the shield and land in the wok.  As you can imagine this draws quite a crowd of 10-13 year old boys, but I'm sure I wasn't the only 20-something in awe by this contraption.



You can see in the picture above the disc to the right has just ricocheted off the shield and is on it's way to the landing zone.  The friendly worker had to duck to stay safe, he should probably be wearing safety goggles.

The consistency and texture of the finished product is not exactly like anything I have ever tried.  I'd say the best way to describe it is as a cross between a cheese puff and a rice cake.  More similar to the Quaker mini-rice cakes in thickness.  Flavors are plain, onion, and strawberry.  The plain and onion taste delicious dipped in hummus and the strawberry is wonderful topped with chocolate hazelnut spread.  They are also a low calorie and fat free food.


The discs are about 6in diameter and the bag has about 18-20 discs, price is $3.99 at KMP
Magic Pop entertained me for about 15 minutes during my shopping trip this week.  I walked around the cheese island and tried some other samples, finished the rest of my shopping and made my way to my car.  Just when I thought my trip couldn't get any more exciting, I saw this in the parking lot:


Yep, someone hand-painted their Nissan sedan with impressionist flowers.  It was lovely and a sure sign that spring is on its way.  Note how the artist represented the "C" on his license plates, go Bearcats!


1 comment:

  1. I doubt he would need safety goggles.... I've worked Magic Pop a million times. It's harmless.

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