X-Entertainment | New Article: The Mystery of Hostess Choco-Diles!

New Article: The Mystery of Hostess Choco-Diles!

Hope you're hungry -- here's a tribute to Hostess Choco-Diles! The snack cakes have taken on a cult following over the years, mainly because they've become so hard to find. If you live in a city that sells Choco-Diles, don't take it for granted. You're part of an elite minority. Promoted with the help of "Chauncey Choco-Dile," the chocolate-covered Twinkies are a sadly obscured corner of junk food history. Review includes everything from a trip to the Hostess Bakery to old commercials starring "Captain Cupcake."

Posted by Matt on 01/09/2004. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 262 comments

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Damn, wish I lived nearby…I’d totally come over and help you eat recently expired snack cakes. Mmm, delicious.

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 01/09/2004 4:11 AM

Though I’ve never had the pleasure(?) of eating a Choco-dile (and by what I’ve just read, I’m not surprised), I really enjoyed this article. It’s my new favorite, actually (even though the 49 pieces of crap one was good…). It almost makes me want to track some down. On second thought, no, it really doesn’t. Good work, though!

Chestnuts roasted by Rainbowfeet @ 01/09/2004 4:41 AM

heh heh, nomato! third post , wow…

Chestnuts roasted by ultramonkey23 @ 01/09/2004 5:07 AM

Maybe Hostess discovered that Choco-Dile’s creation was due in some part to Twinkie the Kid, Captain Cupcake, and a genuine crocodile spending a certain stormy night together in one of the company’s vacation retreats. Fruit Pie the Fink should never have been trusted with a secret as big as his friends had become.

As for what to do with the remaining Choco-Diles… Maybe it is time for a new X-E holiday. A mix of Halloween and Bastille Day in which children dress up as French revolutionaries and/or Cajun Cocodrilli. You then proceed to throw expired Choco-Diles at them as they storm your apartment for independence of something that you choose.

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 01/09/2004 5:55 AM

THAT SUCKS! Chocodiles rule and to finally have the sixty little holy grails in your hands only to have them expire on the day oe reciept…oh how the Hostess gods are cruel..but the old adage seems true….you can’t have your cake and eat it too…my pain is with you Matt…

Chestnuts roasted by spiderthwip @ 01/09/2004 8:21 AM

I didn’t realize they wern’t sold everywhere, here in St. Louis I see them all the time. In fact I’m pretty sure I just saw some yesterday when getting gas at a Shell station.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dude @ 01/09/2004 8:22 AM

When I lived in Brooklyn 3 years ago, the deli right next to the Ft. Hamiltion Parkway subway stop where I’d get my coffee in the AM had chocodiles. Then I moved to the burbs…I didn’t know how good I had it.

Memories

Chestnuts roasted by Zappadog @ 01/09/2004 8:43 AM

Sell those puppies on Ebay. You know you want to. Where else would you find people who would actually buy expired Choco-diles? And to some, a week expired is nothing after spending $15 on 23 year old Fruit Striped Gum?

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/09/2004 8:46 AM

Dude, Chocodiles frickin RULE!!!

That Hostess shop is like 5 minutes away from my parent’s house, I grew up in Woodbridge. I was in there once, I too, fortunately made it out alive (unless I’m now a ghost and don’t know it?)

I say F it! Eat the damn Chocodiles! C’mon its a hostess cake, it’ll probably still be good like 2 years from now.

X-E Kicks ass…keep rockin!

Dave
+;-E

Chestnuts roasted by Dave @ 01/09/2004 8:56 AM

You have a JOHN ASTIN ACTION FIGURE!?!?!?! Oh, you rock, sir. You rock.

Chestnuts roasted by Mark @ 01/09/2004 9:03 AM

I loved those little windmill cookies. My grandma always had them when we would visit. I was a little apprehensive at first, but soon i craved them…soaked in milk…mmmm….
As for the Chocodiles, I had them a couple of times but they always lost out to Little Debbies Frosted Fudge Cakes. Cripes. I can’t believe what I ate as a kid.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 01/09/2004 9:23 AM

choose between the exit and expired cake?… I choose cake.

best line of the article:

"GIVE ME EVERY CHOCO-DILE IN THE STORE."

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 01/09/2004 9:31 AM

AHAHAHAHAHA there is a weight watches ad right in the middle of you talking about choco-diles isent it ironic Dont you think?

Chestnuts roasted by atomrenner @ 01/09/2004 9:32 AM

I think that the reason why Choco-diles are so rare nowadays is related to the campaign against them by PETP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Pac-Men) against their use of Pac-Meat in the creme filling.

Chestnuts roasted by gmfbrown @ 01/09/2004 9:34 AM

I think ya should have em bronzed in a pyramid formation,kinda like a trophy or somthing.Do u think u could find,or have you found, Hostess Choco Bliss? Please do review of those soon.

Chestnuts roasted by GrimReaperDOA@aol.com @ 01/09/2004 9:55 AM

Choco-Diles fans, come on over to Fresno and buy some… we’re flippin’ DROWNING in the things. "Rebel Twinkies in chocolatey leather jackets," as the legendary Lore says.

Our town was recently invaded by FoodsCo, a warehouse grocery from the makers of Kroger (which itself has no outlets here), and they brought with them scads and scads of Choco-Diles, which lie in heaps in these islands in the middle of the aisles, arranged among lots of Van De Kamp’s rival pastries.

Van De Kamp’s? The frozen fish people? They make baked goods now? See, this is why I wouldn’t want to live back east… everything’s WEIRD there.

Ne’er the less, I hope to share in Eastern childhoods this year by mail-ordering a Cookie Puss cake for my birthday. Pray for my cake’s frozen soul during its journey, friends.

Chestnuts roasted by G'Tron @ 01/09/2004 10:21 AM

Matt,

I have found Chocodiles many times in the Kansas City area (where I live). If you need a fix later, let me know.

Chestnuts roasted by Bob @ 01/09/2004 10:24 AM

These are located here in St. Louis as well… One of my favorites and no need to search.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff Bodenstein @ 01/09/2004 10:28 AM

dont most things have a later expiration date when in the city? so you should take a train to manhattan and then you can eat them without being nervous of reprocusions.

Chestnuts roasted by mikey @ 01/09/2004 10:30 AM

I love Chocodiles, especially if you dip them in milk.

As far as I know though isn’t the date a sell by date? If its a sell by date then you usually have a few weeks to eat it after that and they will still be good. Reading this article has made me hungry for the little monsters, I’ll have to try to find some around Peoria.

Chestnuts roasted by Beerstalker @ 01/09/2004 10:44 AM

This past summer I was perusing a grocery store in the Toronto area when I came upon "chocolate covered twinkies." I had completely forgotten about the choco-dile of my youth and began the wait for these "chocolate covered twinkies" to come to the US. I would be interested in a comparison of the Canadian product with our beloved choco-diles.

Chestnuts roasted by Lyss @ 01/09/2004 10:51 AM

Next week I’ll be 67 years old, I remember when Hostess Cup Cakes were 2 for a nickel, about 1946 they added cream filled and raised the price to 2 for 7 cents, last week I was in Walgreens and noticed they are now 2 for $ 1.29
My brother and I use to fight over the cup cake with the most frosting that dripped over the side.Back then, in the summer especially, they tasted great when
the frosting semi-melted. Today they are like eating wax. But every so often I pick up a package to remind me of the good old days…

Chestnuts roasted by Jerry Pritikin @ 01/09/2004 11:00 AM

I remember those Almond windmill cookies. I just didn’t remember that I remembered them until you reminded me.

They weren’t very good as I recall.

Chestnuts roasted by purple_monkey_dishwasher @ 01/09/2004 11:03 AM

Ah – Choco-diles! One of Hostess’ best creations of recent memory.

I honestly never realized they were so hard to find. They aren’t common, but at least down here in MD you can always ben sure to find -1- place selling ‘em near you.

Chestnuts roasted by darren @ 01/09/2004 11:09 AM

Your visit to the thrift store brought back memories. When I was a kid, living in a small Idaho town, our family would pile into the car about twice a month and drive to the nearest "city" for groceries and other supplies. Those trips always included a stop at the Wonder Bread/Hostess thrift store. Mom would stock up on bread, donuts and snack cakes, take it all home and put it in the freezer. I remember Choco-diles, but I wouldn’t eat them because I couldn’t stand the brown wax that passed for chocolate in which they were coated. (I wouldn’t eat Ho-Ho’s or Ding Dongs for the same reason.) The pies were pretty nasty as well. I would only eat Twinkies and their coconut-striped cousins, Tiger Tails and an occasional Sno-Ball.

As I said, all of this carb-packed goodness from the thrift store would go into the freezer when we got home. One day, I got home from school and there was nothing to eat so I went to the freezer and retrieved a package of frozen Twinkies. I couldn’t wait for them to thaw and this was before microwaves were widely available so I decided to try them frozen. Eureka! I had discovered my favorite snack for the next couple of years, frozen Twinkies dunked in milk. Mmmmm

Chestnuts roasted by Mark @ 01/09/2004 11:23 AM

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