Snack Club II (with Samin Nosrat)

Hello! For this installment of the newsletter, I’m convening another meeting of the Snack Club. If you missed the introduction of Snack Club last month, you can read about it here.

This month’s snack comes to us from chef Samin Nosrat, the New York Times #1 bestselling author of the cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat; the host and executive producer of the Netflix show based on her book; and my co-host / antagonist on the sort-of-limited-series podcast Home Cooking.

When I asked for her #1 snack recommendation, she said, immediately: Bjorn Qorn, Classic flavor.

Bjorn Qorn Classic is sun-popped popcorn that’s seasoned with nutritional yeast. (I use nutritional yeast as an ingredient often. If you’ve never had it, it’s like a delicious, cheesy powder that’s vegan and high in protein.)

So, I got my hands on some Bjorn Qorn and tried it for the first time, and it was great. Not surprisingly, Samin knows about delicious things. Here’s what she had to say about this snack:

“I did not grow up eating nutritional yeast on my popcorn. I don't think I'd ever even tasted nutritional yeast before that, which some people call nooch.” [editor’s note: Wow. I am so against this. ‘Nooch’?! That sounds…gross. I guess ‘nutritional yeast’ doesn’t exactly sound like a scrumptious flavor, but ‘nooch’ sounds more like a cruel nickname that a villainous frat bro in a 90s teen movie would come up with to tease the lovable, nerdy, floppy hero, who maybe writes a newsletter. (‘Why don’t you go run to the library and read another book, you nooch!’) Ahem. Back to Samin.]

"I mean, I love cheese powder. Don't get me wrong. I never met a cheese powder I didn't love. I love it deeply. But when I eat too much cheese powder, I don't feel good. There's a greasiness that I start to feel at some point in my hands and my mouth and gullet—whereas that never happens with Bjorn Qorn. I could eat endless amounts of Bjorn Qorn.

“Bjorn Qorn is grown and popped in upstate New York. It's just extraordinary. It's so delicious. And I also think of it as a special treat because it's still pretty hard to find in California. So anytime I find it in a store, I'm like, "Ooh, Bjorn Qorn!" I love popcorn and I just think it’s the most delicious popcorn.

“Bjorn Qorn is umami-delicious, perfectly popped popcorn, where there's never an unpopped kernel in the bag. There's never a piece of popcorn that's not seasoned perfectly. It never gets stuck in your teeth in an unpleasant way. It tastes perfectly savory—perfectly salty, not too salty. So it makes you want to keep eating it. Since it's popcorn, it's high in fiber, so you feel virtuous and good about it. It's popped in a solar oven, so you feel really virtuous and good in that way.”

I was a little surprised, knowing how much Samin loves popcorn in general, that she’d prefer a store-bought bag over something she’d pop on the stove. But she said, “No, I think Bjorn Qorn tastes better than any popcorn I can pop myself.”

Here are my own thoughts on Bjorn Qorn Classic: I’ve already eaten three bags. I’m obsessed.

As Samin mentioned, Bjorn Qorn isn’t available everywhere, so it’s not necessarily something you can run out and find in your local grocery store, but you can order individual bags through this website, Hive. It’s $3.95 for a bag, but they have a minimum $10 order (they sell other foods, too). Based on my own experience, though, getting three bags at once is not a bad idea.

Or, if you want to go big and order a whole case (a 12-pack), the folks at Bjorn Qorn gave us a coupon code for a 15% off discount: SNACKCLUB15. (How cool and official is that?!) You can order a case here.

Okay! Snack Club, let me know what you think of Bjorn Qorn. Get some for yourself and leave a comment on this post down below.

Also! Tickets are on sale for my March and May shows with Jenny Owen Youngs, and you can get yours at hrishikesh.co/events, or through any of these links:

Fri Mar 18 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA

Sat Mar 19 - Washington, DC - Miracle Theatre

Sun Mar 20 - Saugerties, NY - Orpheum Theatre

Mon Mar 21 - Brooklyn, NY - Bell House

Wed Mar 23 - Boston, MA - Crystal Ballroom

Fri Mar 25 - Portland, ME - Space

Sun May 8 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre

Mon May 9 - Portland, OR - Polaris

Wed May 11 - San Francisco, CA - Independent

Tue May 17 - Los Angeles CA - Lodge Room

Hope to see you out there in the real world, or at least in the comments section.

Thanks!

Hrishikesh

ps - here’s everything else that I’m up to.

bonus - here's a picture of Samin, her bag of Bjorn Qorn, and her dog Fava Bean, who also loves to eat Bjorn Qorn: