Tastykakes

When the outraged peasantry of 18th century Paris stormed the Bastille, it touched off the French Revolution. They might have spared Marie Antoinette's head if she had had the foresight to import some of Philadelphia's famous packaged pastry.

Philadelphia-based Tastykake , owned by Flowers Foods , is helping fill the void left by Twinkie maker Hostess Brands Inc. 's bankruptcy liquidation. From exile in suburban Boston, Broomall native David Weinstein tells me he got a happy surprise Sunday when he found fresh Tastykake Krimpets on the shelves formerly occupied by durable Hostess lines at the Shaw's grocery in Stoughton, Mass. "Many of us who live in New England love the idea of having access to Tastykakes in the supermarkets," he said.

In these nutritionally correct times, nothing is sacred. Not even the Krimpet. Tasty Baking Co., the Philadelphia snack-cake baker, has introduced a new line of eight low-fat snacks, including Krimpets, Koffee Kakes and creme- filled cupcakes. It is hard to imagine Tastykakes in a world gone lite - with their signature sugar jolt and that thin layer of greasy cake that clings to the plastic wrapper until swabbed out by a sticky finger. "There's still a market for people who love Tastykakes the way they are, but the fat-free and low-fat products are growing.

Excerpts from the weekly Ask Gonzo chat on Philly.com with columnist John Gonzalez: Big, breaking news coming from the Phils: With Chase Utley on the mend, the Fightin's have altered their (food) roster and brought in Tastykakes. This season at Citizen's Bank Park, you'll be able to buy Butterscotch Krimpets, chocolate cupcakes, sugar-free snacks and, my favorite, Kandy Kakes. It's a mind-blowing move. I think we can all agree that if Utley were healthy, this wouldn't have happened.

THOMASVILLE, Ga. - Bakery company Flowers Foods Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal second-quarter net income fell 17 percent, hurt by increased ingredient and packaging costs. The maker of brands including Nature's Own and Tastykake, the Philadelphia baker that Flowers took over earlier this year, also lowered its full-year earnings per share outlook. "A prolonged and slow economic recovery, compounded by higher costs, has continued to pressure consumer buying as well as business operations," Chairman and CEO George Deese said in a statement.

I'm 47. My life is probably about halfway over, and I no longer feel like everything is possible. Yet there are wonderful things about being middle-aged, namely the knowledge that what I like doesn't define me and that I have the license to be hypocritical. I recently went to the farmers market and bought a container of black bean tofu - and an oversized, over-iced chocolate cupcake. That was my lunch. I enjoyed my main course and dessert equally. The innate blandness of the tofu made way for the richness of the cupcake's vanilla icing.

They sell Philadelphia cheesesteaks but put the sodas in Chicago Bears cups. As they say back home, whaddayagonnado? With the big playoff game against the Eagles just two days away in a town that's wild for the Bears, Dean and Michael Markellos have to go with the flow. It's a collision of worlds for the two brothers from Upper Darby. These were kids who used to sneak out of the house when they were visiting their aunt on Ninth Street just so they could go to Pat's Steaks.

To some, the controversy was a preemptive strike at the cultural heart of Chicago. Mayor Richard Daley was incensed enough to call in the president of the offending company for an arm-twisting session. Newspaper columnists mounted their soapboxes and pointed north toward Minnesota, where the decision that prompted the brouhaha was made. A local historian went so far as to declare the action another example of Chicago's "becoming the hole in the doughnut when it used to be the commanding crossroads as a corporate headquarters.

For a cupcake and a few dollars, Phyllis Youngman's parents gave up the rights to their daughter. "I was also promised a doll, but I didn't get that," said Phyllis Blumenthal, nee Youngman, remembering the day nearly 60 years ago when she was taken to Center City to see a strange man. Lest you get the wrong idea, some clarification might be needed. This is not about anything nefarious like child-selling. It is simply a story of proud parents showing off their daughter. See, it wasn't really 3-year-old Phyllis that interested the stranger, who was a photographer for the Tasty Baking Co. It was her image that intrigued him. That image was first displayed in 1931 in the picture studio at Gimbel's Department Store, where Blumenthal's mother had taken her to have a portrait made for a Father's Day gift.

Army Sgt. Bill Neumann and Beth, his wife, were watching TV one night in March when she got a craving. A warm soft pretzel would hit the spot, thought the mother-to-be. Or a big, packed-to-the-max Philly-style hoagie. Small problem, though: The Neumanns live in Alaska, thousands of miles from the pungent smells of the sandwich shops in their native Philadelphia. Coincidentally, a few days later, some Philadelphia goodies arrived in the mail. They were a gift from Bill Neumann's parents, sent by Philadelphia Favorites To Go, a mail-order delivery business in Woodlynne that spreads the tastes of this region - including hoagies, cheesesteaks, Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, soft pretzels, Tastykakes and Frank's sodas - throughout the United States and Canada.