If You Ate This Snack As A Kid, You're Probably From The Midwest

How can you tell if you're from the Midwest? Well, a good place to start is to look at a map of the United States, figure out which state you were born in, and see if it falls somewhere in the middle of the map. (This is, admittedly, inexact, and whether or not, say, Missouri counts as the Midwest is a matter of serious contention.) There are other signs, as well — do you say "ope" if you bump into someone? Where do you stand on the matter of that delightful carb bomb, hot dish? How close are you to a family-owned Culver's? And did you ever have puppy chow when you were a kid?

If the name makes it sound like parents in the Midwest have a shockingly laissez-faire attitude towards their children's diets, don't worry: it's just a name. (It can also be called reindeer chow, monkey munch, and muddy buddies.) Exactly what form puppy chow takes depends on who's making it, but generally speaking it involves some kind of cereal, usually Chex (also crucial to Midwestern pub snacks), coated in a peanut butter and chocolate concoction and given a few other customizable accoutrements. Add some cinnamon, and you get snickerdoodle puppy chow; add some strawberry Jell-O mix, and you get strawberry shortcake puppy chow.

Everyone loves a snack with a bit of customizability, and the fact that you can try, say, cookies and cream puppy chow one day and Nutella puppy chow the next certainly helps its longevity. But even plain old original flavor puppy chow is beloved in the Midwest, especially during the holiday season. (They don't call it "reindeer chow" for no reason.) It's a popular party snack, perfect for scooping out of a communal bowl right onto your own plate. We suppose that, if you really wanted to lean in on the dog food theming, you could eat yours out of a bowl as well, but ... well, maybe that's not such a good idea, now that we mention it.

General Mills, the same company that produces Chex cereal, also produces its own version of puppy chow around the holidays, selling it in the Midwest. (They call it "muddy buddies.") Believe it or not, though, the original maker of Chex was none other than Purina, a company that produces a whole lot of actual puppy chow. Perhaps it goes to show that the line between human and animal isn't quite as distinct as we like to think — or maybe it just shows that we can make our own dog food for humans perfectly well, thank you very much.