Peep show

31st March 2010

posted in Food Culture, Food History, Rachel |

Speaking of food art… The Washington Post announced the winner of its fourth annual Peeps Show Diorama Contest. Public voting is still on for the People’s Choice award from among 38 entries, culled from the more than 1,100 gooey submissions received. Here’s a few of my favorites:

For their winning diorama based on the Pixar flick “Up,” Michael Chirlin
and Veronica Ettle of Arlington constructed a miniature Victorian house
from plywood and Popsicle sticks, and placed it atop salvaged mattress
springs to give it an airborne quality. VIDEO: A closer look at ‘EEP’

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In their diorama “Easter at the National Peep-Thedral: A House of Prayer
for All Peeps,” District residents Andrew Martin, Christine McCann and Julie Avetta
used photographs of Washington’s National Cathedral to create the backdrop, and added
a Darth Vader head from a Pez dispenser as a nod to the carving on the northwest tower.

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Margaret Cooney and Adam Matuszeski of the District were inspired by Maurice Sendak’s classic book
for their “Where the Wild Peeps Are” creation. The husband-and-wife pair notes: “Each of the
Wild Peeps has a teddy bear or bunny Peep body with either a bunny, teddy bear, or a chick Peep for
a head. The eyes are thumbtacks while arms, legs and snouts are made from Peep parts or finger puppets.”

I admit it… I don’t really care for the taste of Peeps, but who can resist their sparkling sugary cuteness? And it seems that many have succumbed to the marshmallowy madness — self-admitted Peep freaks maintain websites featuring everything from Peep haiku, to Peep-inspired multimedia art and sculpture, to Peep science and research and even an inventive online movie called “Lord of the Peeps.” Peeps are, in fact, the number one selling non-chocolate Easter candy, topping even jelly beans. The iconic Easter candies are hatched in Bethlehem, Penn., by Just Born, a firm named after founder Sam Born, who immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1910 and built a candy empire. Just Born began manufacturing Peeps in 1953 when it acquired a rival candy company (for more on Peeps’ history, read here). The Just Born factory now hatches more than 1 billion Peeps’ per year, with 600 million Marshmallow Peeps and Bunnies consumed by Americans on Easter alone.

So, how do you like your Peeps? Fresh or stale? Do you bite the heads off first? Or do you prefer to violate your Peeps, dress them up and take pictures?

http://the-f-word.org/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/feel-good-friday-food-as-art/

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 11:31 am and is filed under Food Culture, Food History, Rachel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On March 31st, 2010, Alyssa (The 40 year-old) said:

Love, love, LOVE these!!!!!!

posted on March 31st, 2010 at 11:36 am

2 On March 31st, 2010, JeanC said:

I LOVE Peeps, I do like them stale, but I can’t keep them around long enough LOL!

The bunny Peeps I start with the ears and the chicks get beheaded. I have not as yet tried to use them for anything other then eating. Yet

posted on March 31st, 2010 at 12:31 pm

3 On March 31st, 2010, Bronwyn said:

I can only stomach one or two peeps in a long period of time but I do kind of enjoy the crunch of the sugar around the marshmallow.

These are so cute though

posted on March 31st, 2010 at 12:34 pm

4 On March 31st, 2010, JeninCanada said:

They did something to the recipe for Canadian peeps so I dont’ enjoy them at all anymore. Give me a Cadbury Creme Egg or Mini eggs and I am a happy Jen. Thanks for sharing these photos though. They’re great!

posted on March 31st, 2010 at 12:58 pm

5 On March 31st, 2010, Twistie said:

I detest marshmallow, so eating Peeps is not something I would ever do.

OTOH, I find them quite entertaining. It’s more fun that the law allows to blow them up in the microwave, and then watch them shrink back to their original size and shape.

Oh, and THANK YOU for linking to the page of scientific experiments! I lost the bookmark for that site in my last upgrade and couldn’t seem to find it again for the life of me. It is now safely stowed in my bookmarks, much to my delight. Peeps are nearly as much fun to torture as Sims are.

posted on March 31st, 2010 at 6:06 pm

6 On April 1st, 2010, lilacsigil said:

I’m Australian, so I’m not 100% sure what Peeps are! Still, I admire the person who made the Mad Men homage for getting 300-year-old pr0n on the pages of the Washington Post – you can clearly see “Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” in the background, and even the caption mentions it!

posted on April 1st, 2010 at 6:55 am