John Cheever once said, “Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house. John Cheever,” but what does a Sky Bar taste like?  I know, because one of Santa’s helpers assigned to the Hill family put Sky Bars in everyone’s stockings last Christmas.  According to Skybarcandy.com, Sky Bars “the first chocolate bar to have multiple different flavored centers,” were invented in 1938 at the New England Confectionary Company, creators of those tubes of chalky NECCO disks of indeterminate flavor.  “NECCO chose the name Sky Bar’ because flight was the excitement of the day.” They successfully advertised their new candy bar with sky writing marketing campaigns, and Sky Bars remain popular particularly on the East Coast.  Each bar has four sections for caramel, vanilla, fudge, and peanut fillings.  They don’t claim to contain that mysterious ingredient, nougat, but some research revealed that maybe they did.  Today “nougat” is defined as “a mixture consisting of egg white and a sweetener, variously mixed with (in western Europe) almonds or (in eastern Europe) hazelnuts or (In US) used without nuts as a filler in candy bars,” but it originally meant “sweetmeat made of almonds or other nuts” in 1827, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, and the meaning stemmed from “nogat” which meant “nutcake” in Old Provençal.  Interestingly, “nucleus” meant “kernel of a nut in 1708 and has the same Proto indo european root, “kneu-,” as nougat.  And “enucleation” meant “the act of removing a kernel, seed, or tumor from its cover.”

            Santa himself left some unusual candies in local stockings that came in hot dog, kale, and “New Age Bookshop” flavors, as well as Milky’s, a favorite in Japan.  In the aftermath of WWII “Japan was still reeling … and there were many food shortages,” according to Fujiya Milky Candies.  In 1951 Fujiya introduced Milkys that are “creamy, milky, chewy candies made with premium Japanese ingredients including natural spring water near Mt. Fuji and condensed milk from Hokkaido.”  “Hokkaido Milk: A Complete Guide for Beginners!,” an online article by James Lau, “Hokkaido is Japan’s biggest prefecture responsible for making more than half of the country’s milk. It’s got cool weather and big open fields with clean air, which is just right for cows to feel relaxed. This cozy setting helps make the milk smooth and creamy.”  The farmers “arrange daily visits from a veterinarian and provide natural dry feed. In addition, they offer simple comforts like brushes to keep the cows happy.  Hokkaido milk has a unique, mild vanilla flavor. The milk’s creaminess instantly coats your tastebuds.”  The Hilla agree that Milkys taste far better than New Age Bookshops.

            Milk is the best thing to put in your mouth after eating something hot and spicy.  Food can be spicy without being hot, though the terms are often used interchangeably.  Cinnamon in hot chocolate is spicy, but adding a dash of cayenne and it’s hot. New research has revealed that just thinking about eating spicy food can have metabolic effects.  “Spicy Foods: The Unlikely New Frontier in Placebo Research” a Popular Science article by Tom Hawking, cited a new study that “focused on the experience of eating spicy food, and examined two distinct ways in which expectations influence that experience: the “sensory component” (i.e. how spicy participants found the food to be) and the “hedonic component” (i.e. how much they enjoyed the spiciness).”  Your brain uses more than the part associated with taste, but the other brain activity depends if you like spiciness or not.  One of the study’s authors wrote that “When participants [are] expecting something positive, their brain appears to go into a state where it can integrate and incorporate information … By contrast, when [participants] expect a negative experience, their brains appear to go into a protective state [that] really focuses on processing how painful the stimulation is (and not much else).”

            New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Research Institute is the only institution dedicated only to studying chile peppers.  It’s Chile pepper Breeding and Genetics program “has released over 50 varieties of New Mexican, ornamental, ‘Cayenne’, and ‘Habanero’ pod type chile peppers.  The Institute was established in 1888 by Dr. Fabian Garcia who was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1871, orphaned at age 2, and brought to New Mexico by his grandmother who worked as a domestic on several large Spanish Land Grant estates.  As a boy Garcia enjoyed roaming and hunting in the countryside and was doing that at age nine when he and a friend encountered an Apache raiding party preparing to attack a ranch.  “In those days people lived in terror of Indian raids,” he recalled.  “I being worse scared and not having the gun, outran Juan by a good distance.  After a two-mile run, and without ever turning back to see if the Apaches were pursuing us, we reached the town and gave the alarm … Fortunately for the community, the Old Chief changed his mind.”  However, everyone on that ranch “were annihilated.”  His grandmother’s employers took Garcia in, provided a private tutor, and sent him to New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now New Mexico State University), where he was president of the school Literary Society, played football, and was a member of the school’s first graduating class in 1894. After attending Cornell University he returned to New Mexico for his Master’s degree. 

An NMSU article about Garcia states that in 1909 he released a new pod type of pepper “with a dependable pod size and heat level,” the “New Mexico 9,” often mistakenly called the Anaheim.  It “opened the commercial markets for New Mexico chile and established the New Mexico chile pepper food industry.  Thus, he is known as the Father of the Mexican Food Industry.”  But wait, there’s more.  Garcia established New Mexico’s pecan industry and used high-yielding Spanish onion to develop the “Babosa” onion variety that was taken to Texas where it morphed into Grano 502 sweet onion.  He also established the state’s first modern irrigation systems, was the first American horticulturist to write bilingual professional publication.  He also provided Mexican American students with rooms at the horticultural farm and donated his entire estate to build a dormitory and establish scholarships for Mexican-American students attending NMSU.  “I want to help poor boys,” he said, “for I know of their hardships.”  Garcia encouraged them to be proud of their Mexican heritage in those racially bitter times.  He knew those hardships, too.  As philosopher Jonathan Sacks, put it, “If you want a free society, teach your children what oppression tastes like.  Tell them how many miracles it takes to get from here to there.  Above all, encourage them to ask questions.  Teach them to think for themselves.”