THIS SITE IS NOW AN ARCHIVE; FOR NEW AND UPDATED REVIEWS, JUMP TO:   http://home.earthlink.net/~newpaniscus   ALSO, PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HARD MAIL ADDRESS FOR PANISCUS REVUE HAS CHANGED; SEND ALL CORRESPONDENCE AND MATERIAL FOR REVIEW TO:   TOM CRITES PANISCUS REVUE P.O. BOX 21448 LONG BEACH, CA 90801 U.S.A.

	This page features, of course, the mighty pork rind reviews, and the following pages (linked at the very bottom of this page) feature reviews of printed matter. For audio or video reviews click on one of the links below, and for a trip to the gallery of artwork go to the Print Reviews I page and select the appropriate link. As mentioned above, for brand new reviews and updates, click the PANISCUS UPDATES link. PLEASE NOTE: On each page additional reviews appear below the Website links bar.
	One other change to the site besides the new format is that because these templates won't easily support the button rating system of the hard copy edition, asterisks will now be used to rank each item reviewed. But now there will be a possible top rating of five stars, for products that are above and beyond the 4-star "God DAMN! This is GREAT!" category. These are the items that will, generally, appear up top in the gallery section, with the other material displayed in the table below (with the exception of the PANISCUS UPDATES pages, which follow the simple reference-friendly alphabetical format).
	As always, my thanks to everyone who has sent in material for review, as without it there would be no Paniscus Revue. Please keep those samples and promotional items coming, and send 'em to Tom Crites at P.O. Box 21448, Long Beach, CA, 90801, U.S.A. S'alright? S'alright!

Audio Reviews	Video Reviews	PANISCUS UPDATES

BAKEN-ETS SWEET & TANGY BBQ SEASONED FRIED PORK SKINS - Good news pork rind fans: snack food giant Frito-Lay, whose existing Baken-Ets brand pork rinds can already be found coast to coast in both their plain and hot & spicy varieties, has just added a new chicharrone to their sizeable repertoire. Enter the Sweet & Tangy BBQ Seasoned Fried Pork Skin. And a fine sweet & tangy little number it is indeed. Almost addictive, even. Fritos has taken their already tender and puffy fried pork skin and given it a loving dusting of a heapin? helpin? of BBQ flavoring (take a gander at that there record-length ingredients list!). The result is a little bit more than a little bit of all right, being an easy-to-eat palate pleaser that goes down well with any number of libations. I?m usually a much bigger fan of the hot & spicy style but these puppies are so damn tasty each bag is just made for eating in one sitting. Unfortunately I haven?t seen this variety outside of Los Angeles yet, and what?s worse is that I even hear they?re nowhere near as plentiful down there as they used to be. But I sorely hope they make a comeback, and migrate as far & wide as Fritos? other snack treats have. And soon. * * * * Ingredients: Fried pork skins, salt, sugar, maltodextrin, onion powder, tomato powder, modified food starch, brown sugar, monosodium glutamate, dextrose, chili pepper, spices, garlic powder, vinegar solids, molasses, natural smoke flavor, sodium diacetate, natural flavors (including paprika), citric acid, artificial colors (including caramel color, Blue 1 Lime, extractives of turmeric, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, and worcestershire flavoring (molasses, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, caramel color, garlic, sucrose, tamarind). Distributed by Frito-Lay, Inc., Plano, TX.	DRAGONFLY FRIED PORK SKIN STRIPS - Here?s a twist (literally) on the fried pork snack product: fried pork skin strips. These thin, curly, little shavings are baked up into crunchy coils of fried pigskin, almost like slim porcine curly fries (but with a lot more crackle). While about half of this sample bag was more crunchy than crisp, bordering on tough, they?re still a nice & novel change of pace. The garlic and residual oil from the thorough frying gives these a dense and slightly smoky Asian hors d?oeuvres flavor that?s mighty pleasant, either alone or with a little hot sauce on the side. I didn?t try ?em with sake, but I bet along with a little dried spicy cuttlefish that lot would make a fine treat indeed. * * * Ingredients: Pork skins, salt, monosodium glutamate, and garlic. Packed for U.S. Trading Co., San Francisco, CA.	EL SABROSO PICANTE CHICHARRONES PORK RINDS: HOT & SPICY - If my espanol pobre serves me at all correctly, ?el sabroso? means ?the delicious.? (Actually upon looking it up I find it means ?tasty,? but also, in a familiar/figurative sense, ?racy? and ?salty,? both being more than fitting adjectives in this case.) But ay, !chingada! these chicharrones are pinche picante! That red hot pepper logo on the bag oughta be takin? up half the package. Next to the legendary Jimmy?s Super Skins, Hot & Spicy variety, these rinds may be the most fiery I?ve ever et. And in fact I bet they could put up a damn good fight against those flaming Southern slabs. Let me first say that the plain El Sabroso variety (ingredients: pork rinds and salt; salsa packet ingredients: water, vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, xanthan gum, citric acid, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, sodium benzoate, artificial color) is a damn fine rind to begin with. Crispy, salty, almost goddam buttery, they?re like porky little pastries in consistency and flavor. And, as a testament to El Sabroso?s adherence to tradition, the plain ones come with a necessary packet of hot taco sauce to lay upon the tender little morsels. Now imagine one of those already fine rinds shaken through a dust storm of cayenne and paprika; you bet your goddam ass it?s good, and you?d better believe it?s fucking hot, too. You?ll definitely be keeping one hand on your beer as you sweat these down, and right here & now I?ll say that you will not be able to pack down an entire bag in one sitting. Go ahead on and try ? if you?re a real tough one you?ll put some of the hot sauce from the plain rinds on there too. Damn that?s good, you?ll gasp. The kind of good that saturates as much as it satiates; your ass will literally become a fat rendering plant after even a quarter bag, and it?ll smell like it too, I gay-run-tee. But then again, as they say on the run, ?The pleasing odor is half the point.? Get some. * * * * Ingredients: Pord kinds, salt, spices, annatto (color), monosodium glutamate, Red 40 Lake (artificial color), spice extractives, and olearesin paprika (color). Snak King, Los Angeles, CA.
MISSION PICANTE FLAVOR CHICHARRONES - Good rinds. Heavy on the cayenne, but no so heavy that the delicate essence of fried hog hide doesn?t shine through. And shine it does, in every evenly-fried piece of pigskin. You can tell the quality of a rind is high when you?re barely able to refrain from turning the bag inside-out and licking off every last shard of peppery MSG-laden pig crumbs. Mission Picante Flavor Chicharrones is just such a brand. * * * * Ingredients: Pork rinds, salt, spices, maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, onion and garlic powder, dextrose, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, monosodium glutamate, yellow no. 5 and 6 lake, caramel color, spice extractives, soy sauce (wheat, soybeans). Distributed by Gruma Corporation, Irvine, TX.	SNAK CLUB HOT AND SPICY CHICHARRONES PORK RINDS - A fairly warm, fairly tasty, and fairly average hot & spicy pork rind. The finely crisped larger skins have a bold crunch and a lingering heat to their pleasant aftertaste though, making Snak Club most palatable indeed. So while they may be no standout in their field, a decent rind is still a damn sight better than a bad one. * * * Ingredients: Pork rinds, salt, spices, maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, onion and garlic powder, dextrose, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, monosodium glutamate, yellow no. 5 and 6 lake, caramel color, spice extractives, soy sauce (wheat, soybeans).	TRIPLE L HOT & SPICY PORK RINDS - One of those rare breeds of rind that shits you not when it calls itself ?Hot & Spicy.? Although I?m damn sure Triple L is hiding a wee bit of clove oil in those spice extractives, and some of these slabs are a bit stiff, each is literally red with pepper. You?ll be washing each rind down with beer and still having the hot lips afterward. And, you?ve gotta appreciate that there double dose of salt. So for having the cojones to make that bold statement stand, I?d give these chicharrones a bold rating. * * * * Ingredients: Fried pork rinds, salt, dextrose, salt, modified food starch, chili pepper, hydrolyzed soybean protein, paprika, annatto color, sugar, dehydrated garlic, citric acid, spice extractives, and red #40 lake. Distributed by Triple L Distribution Co., Inc., Carson, CA.

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