About 20 years ago, there was a fad in the US for shops selling unusually-flavored popcorn: either sweet baked-on coatings (like caramel corn, the one standard form of this) or savory dustings (like cheese corn, the one standard form of that). But then they faded out, much to my regret, though there was still one shop of that kind in the smaller Chicago airport the last time I checked.
However, even at their height, they didn't go quite as odd as wasabi and ginger. I think that, as with the crisps, there are types of weird flavors that are purely British. Although, as most of the odd flavoring impulse in the US is going into crisps now, I think I have seen wasabi-ginger crisps (or chips, as we call them) recently.
However, the current fad spicy flavor on everything in the US now is sriracha. This is a proprietary brand of Vietnamese-style hot sauce that's become popular since the factory in LA expanded a few years ago. (It's now annoying the neighbors, who are subject to sriracha smell all day.) But rather than being canny marketers to get their name all over the place, it appears that the owners never bothered to trademark it, so the name is now open season to anyone who wants to use it.
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However, even at their height, they didn't go quite as odd as wasabi and ginger. I think that, as with the crisps, there are types of weird flavors that are purely British. Although, as most of the odd flavoring impulse in the US is going into crisps now, I think I have seen wasabi-ginger crisps (or chips, as we call them) recently.
However, the current fad spicy flavor on everything in the US now is sriracha. This is a proprietary brand of Vietnamese-style hot sauce that's become popular since the factory in LA expanded a few years ago. (It's now annoying the neighbors, who are subject to sriracha smell all day.) But rather than being canny marketers to get their name all over the place, it appears that the owners never bothered to trademark it, so the name is now open season to anyone who wants to use it.