Featured Food: Boy Bawang Cornick

Cornick is the quintessential Filipino junk food. Cornick consists simply of crispy fried corn, loaded with salt and roasted garlic. Other flavours such as Adobo or BBQ are also available, but the plain garlic flavour is the most popular. Cornick is similar to corn nuts, though the corn kernels are harder and smaller than their North American cousin's.The biggest brand in cornicks is "Boy Bawang" (literally, garlic boy), made in Caloocan City, the Philippines. Boy Bawang is readily available in Filipino stores and ethnic groceries in Toronto.

For those who like cornick, it's a very crunchy and addictive snack. If you're not careful, you might find that you've consumed the whole bag in no time. And there lies the downside: like most snack foods, it's packed with sodium!

Sooo, it's bad for your heart and kidneys, but as snack foods go... It's pretty good.

- Mark