Israeli food and beverage manufacturer Strauss Group Inc. is testing out a futuristic new snack, made with the same technology used by NASA food scientists to develop food for astronauts—and to make instant coffee. A nutritional cube made from freeze-dried and pressed vegetables, fruits, and grains, the new snack indeed looks like something astronauts could enjoy during missions, or like something the Jetsons’ robotic maid could have whipped up. Strauss further invokes the space age by naming its newest snack Astro.

Bamba, a peanut butter-flavored puffed corn snack, is synonymous with Israeli childhood. Generations of Israeli kids grew up eating Bamba—which is considered highly nutritious and is often credited with lowering peanut allergy rates in the country—since it was introduced in the 1960s.

Prepare this melty snack with ground beef, chicken, or beans and your favorite Mexican toppings.

Few things in this world should be taken for granted, including a particular fluorescent orange food called nacho cheese. Here's the truth: There’s no such thing. This story begins months ago, while I was reporting the launch of Old El Paso’s new nacho cheese-flavored taco shells. These shells, the marketers bragged to me, have a “big, bold cheese taste,” which naturally led me to ask them to describe how it tasted—a topic they doggedly deflected: “We don’t get too much into detail about...

When the first M&M’s rolled off Mars’ production line in 1941, they originally came in five colors: brown, yellow, green, violet, and red. And by the late 1960s, the red M&M had established himself as the brand’s unheralded spokesman: early commercials and advertisements featured the carmine character dancing alongside his yellow-coated peanut friend with unadulterated joy. He was riding high, recognized by millions of adoring fans. Then, in 1976, the red M&M disappeared.

Doritos (love the “#bold” hashtag applied non-ironically to people who regularly eat Doritos) are a ridiculous product just taken at face value. But when you learn that they were born in a Disneyland dumpster, they become an absurdist allegory of the American consumer condition.