The taste testers gathered recently at the headquarters of The Associated Press in New York and represented varying levels of culinary pedigree.
They included food bloggers, famed French pastry chef Jacques Torres and Marilyn Haggerty, an 85-year-old North Dakota newspaper columnist whose high praise of the Olive Garden went viral earlier this year. A New York fourth-grader and self-proclaimed junk food aficionado rounded out the group.
The spread of international snacks didn't consist of any barbecue-flavored Lay's chips or black-and-white Oreo cookies. Instead, the menu included "Forest Mushroom" and "Grilled Meat" Lay's from Russia, fruity Oreos from China and lemon-peppered flavored Tang drink from Saudi Arabia. The reactions were mixed.
