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Crisps/Chips: Pick Your Poison

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Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

17:58 / 21.04.06

I'm having this craving now for Ms. Vickie's sweet chili & sour cream. I'm not really sure if they do, in fact, actually taste like sweet chilis and sour cream, but they DO taste damn good.

I remember back when I was much, much younger, as in over a decade ago, my friends and I used to be obsessed with ketchup flavored crips. Not that they tasted ANYTHING like ketchup. They were kind of brown sugary and ever so vaugley spicy.

Now that I think about it, they're actually pretty disgusting. But we loved 'em back then.

paranoidwriter waves hello

18:06 / 21.04.06

Frazzles get my vote; they make a fairly satisfying, cheap, faux bacon sandwich. Mind you, my all-time favourite bacon flavoured crisps are the gone but not forgotten classic, "Piglets" -- remember them? Tiny little potatoe pigs with a hollow middle? It was like eating giant's food.

18:11 / 21.04.06

You know what, Bard? I kind of barbecrush you now.
Can we have a crisp forum? Or, at least, incorporate it into another forum. "The Armoury and Crisps", "Creation and Crisps", "Policy and Crisps"?

18:59 / 21.04.06

How about "Crisps & Relationships"?

Does anyone remember the short-lived baked bean flavoured crisps that Walkers had for Comic Relief a couple of years ago? They were delicious.

19:22 / 21.04.06

As an American, this whole thread is hurting my brain.

I rarely eat crisps/chips, as I try to stay away from packaged snacks and potato crisps/chips I view as the worst since they're fried and oily. I do like the root veggie ones once in a while though.

I LOVE food so to help myself stay in reasonably good shape I have all sorts of cockamamie rules about what I should and shouldn't eat, the overarching rule being it has to be "real" or at least real-ish food with some kind of nutritional value. Crisps/chips (I'm SORRY I can't bring myself to just say crisps) to me are mainly grease & artificial flavoring, so, not food. Ice cream, on the other hand, definitely food (it's a dairy product!). Tortilla chips occupy a borderline area since they're mainly corn, but corn isn't all that great for you, but if you eat them with salsa then you're eating tomatoes so that's good. (This all sounds much more fucked up than it is, I promise.)

French fries or chips are just the work of the devil. Delicious but so wrong.

19:44 / 21.04.06

I think you may be the anti-me Ibis. I have weird rules like that but I'm anti-dairy and pro-corn. Corn was the basis for great civilisations! Dairy is really bad for humans. Potatoes aren't really that great for you but if you buy fairly simple crisps like the ones I get that only contain potatoes, sunflower oil and salt then I figure they're all foods I would consume anyway.

19:47 / 21.04.06

I can live with being the anti-Loomis as long as we don't have to be nemeses.

19:53 / 21.04.06

That's probably for the best. I don't think I've had a nemesis before so I might get the etiquette wrong.

*

20:04 / 21.04.06

Lately: Kettle-fried potato crisps with salt and cracked black pepper. Mmm. Simplicity, sublimity.

20:24 / 21.04.06

Yes. YES! I love them. They're nummishous.

Ibis, do you guys get small bags of crisps over there (34.5g)? I think the small packet of crisps is a big part of their popularity over here.

When I was last in the states it seemed like all I could buy was what we'd consider to be oversize bags.

20:49 / 21.04.06

I have a love hate relationship with crips - I love them, but my body and face hate them, instant reactions to eating them, leaving me feeling urgh.

But damn, scampi fries and frazzles are so fantastic I just can't help myself. At a push scampi and lemon nik naks and salt and vinegar chipsticks will do also.

20:57 / 21.04.06

Benny, you've just listed some of the greatest crisps known to man (even if Scampi Fries make your breath stink).

21:01 / 21.04.06

I think it's great that scampi fries are available in garages - that they encourage you to eat them in the confines of a car, probably with other people in it with you, and just generally smell up the area.

21:09 / 21.04.06

Ibis, do you guys get small bags of crisps over there (34.5g)? I think the small packet of crisps is a big part of their popularity over here.

We do, but the oversized ones are more prevalent... you can sometimes find the small ones in small delis and corner stores and sometimes in bars. My neighborhood is very Irish (at least half Irish overall, I'd venture to guess) so our two closest convenience store/delis sell a lot of UK crisps and candy bars. I haven't tried any of them but all these glowing reviews are breaking down my anti-crisp resolve....

21:33 / 21.04.06

Give in, they're only little bags. How much can a little bag hurt?

(The British logic in a nutshell)

22:30 / 21.04.06

I enjoy infiltrating a layer of crisp into sandwiches, to add an exciting crunchy salty layer. Of particular note is the salt&vinegar crisps plus tuna-fish sandwich combination. Its fish and chips in your hand!

As regards flavours, I can seemingly only handle ready salted and salt'n'vinegar these days. Though when in a pub the scampy fries or those bacon ones in a small packet that are 3 times the price of Frazzles occasionally make an appearance.

00:16 / 22.04.06

Oi, paranoidwriter! Did we go to the same primary school?
I have never met anyone else who has remembered Piglets, let alone have a sandwich fetish about them. Oh, they were good: they retained their consistency no matter what the base spread was and tasted so good. This was around the period Hedgehog flavour crisps were launched, so god knows what was going in them.
Frazzles are brilliant, if a little unsatisfying, but I ask everyone to avoid those pubby Bacon Fries, as they have always been based on GM protein. Shun them.

05:30 / 22.04.06

My favourite?

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

06:11 / 22.04.06

This talk of crisp/chip sandwhiches has got me remembering back to my days in elementary school (oh god, cue The Time Tunnel swirly effects)...

...I recall that one of my friends, Michael, who is notable for being the only 8 year old I've ever seen declare himself to be a Satanist (I'm not really sure if he knew precisley what a Satanist was...other than someone who worshipped Satan...but that's another story), liked to make rather odd sandwhiches.

When I say odd, I mean peanut butter, jelly, ham, and cheese. With pickles. And mustard. And then he'd actually eat it. This wasn't 8 year old boy gross-out food. He actually LIKED these things. I mean, my circle of friends would engage in this sort of dietary eccentricity on occasion, but Michael did it pretty much whenever he had a chance to make his own sandwhiches (though oddly enough, at my birthday party he meticulously picked apart his submarine sandwhich...and then asked my mother if he REALLY had to eat the bread [I'm not entirely sure WHAT he intended to eat that wasn't meat, vegetable, or bread...maybe the condiments]).

Anyway. Michael at some point caught on to adding crisps to his sandwhiches. I guess it saved him an additional step in eating lunch. I dunno. He seemed to like it well enough.

I can't say I particularly see the appeal of it. Bit more crunch than I like in my sandwhich, I think.

Though I DO have to ask: meat flavored cirsps. Do they ACTUALLY taste like sausage/beef/pork/whatever? They're everywhere in the UK, it seems, but you don't really see them here in North America. And I was always a little wary of picking them up when I was in line at Sainsbury's in August. They always looked just slightly dodgy.

15:46 / 22.04.06

Loomis, I'm liking the sound of "Crisps and Relationships", I mean people worry that people'll feel uncomfortable talking about relationships on on-line forums but with the addition of crisps to the title....!!!

Links to Banshee bones and Meanies.

They are glorious.

However if we're talking about crisps sandwiches nothing much beats Hula Hoops. Lots of butter too. Walker's Prawn Cocktail are also scrumptious.

paranoidwriter waves hello

17:07 / 22.04.06

Oi, paranoidwriter! Did we go to the same primary school?

Maybe. Hang on, were you that kid with the spangly boots at the roller-disco in Leasowes Sports Centre on Saturday mornings, circa 1984; the one with the Vektar bike? Seriously though, thanks for reminding me of Hedgehog flavour crisps. I remember being confused about them as they tasted almost exactly like spicy barbecue beef. Not that I've ever known what Hedgehogs taste like, of course.

Hmm... typing of meat flavoured snacks*, does anybody else like Pork Scratchings? I've got friend who thinks I'm a freak for liking them, but ze thinks parmesan cheese doesn't smell like puke, so "each to their own", right?

*BTW, Bard, I think you'd be hard pushed to find a meat flavoured crisp that tastes exactly like the the real deal. I may be wrong, of course, and mine's not the most discerning of palate's, but although they vary (chicken, pork, etc), meat flavour crisps seem to have an artificial flavour category all of their own. i.e. "meat flavoured crisps" chicken/pork/beef/etc flavour. Next time you get the chance, try eating a Frazzle, and you'll see what I mean.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

18:20 / 22.04.06

"Pork scratchings"...is that like the American "pork rinds"?

Basiclaly pork fat deep fried until it puffs out into flavourless balls of gease. I tried them once. They have negative flavor. As in a flavor so lacking that it sort of absorbs all the good flavors in your mouth and replaces them with the lingering taste of grease.

paranoidwriter waves hello

18:31 / 22.04.06

According to the wiki: Pork Scratchings " ... not the same as pork rinds even though both are snack foods made from pig skin. Pork Scratchings are heavier, harder and have a crispy layer of fat under the skin, flavoured with salt."

You should try them next time you're in a Britain. They're a bit like pork crackling, and are probably the pub equivalent of caviar: you either love 'em or hate 'em.

julius has no imagination

19:32 / 22.04.06

Now you've done it and made me open a bag of crisps. They're a flavour most of you won't have seen before: "Curry-Ketchup". This curry ketchup is a very German thing, I think - it is essentially curry-flavoured tomato ketchup, but it's a particular, quite distinctive flavour.

Generally, I tend to like cheese & onion or variations on it. Oh, and those Kettle Chips, pretty much any flavour. I'm not much of a fan of other crispy snack foods, especially the fancy novelty-type ones (though I often do like novelty crisp flavours) or reconstituted potato ones (you know, Pringles and such).

And pork scratchings are just sick and wrong. But oh so tasty...

19:34 / 22.04.06

Yes they are.

Disco is My Class War

17:15 / 24.04.06

We are obviously missing out in Australia. I mean, why is it that we get better and far cheaper vegetables than you lot in the UK, but you get to eat beetroot and parsnip crisps?

We have 'crinkle cut' here, like corrugated roofing, and I can't stand any flavour but salt and vinegar. Oh, except Chilli Kettle Chips. There's also a tradition in my family of making avocado and chip butties (yes, I am the descendant of a scouser) but with real, home-made hot chips.

You know, I can remember when people here started to put tomato sauce or ketchup on their chips. It was in about 1980. Before that, vinegar or bust.

19:25 / 28.04.06

All right, I had my first bag of UK crisps today. Tayto brand, Wuster sauce flavored - I didn't quite have the balls to buy Prawn Cocktail flavored. They tasted almost exactly like salt & vinegar Lays to me. Wasn't too impressed I have to say, but maybe I was expecting too much. Or maybe I should have gotten the Prawn Cocktail.

I still just can't reconcile myself to the fact that one bag has 11 grams of fat, yikes!

19:39 / 28.04.06

Worcester sauce flavour is similar to salt and vinegar I suppose, but persevere with them and you'll discover they have a charm all of their own. Prawn cocktail flavour crisps are much sweeter, although the still have something of a vinegary tang.

I'm not familiar with Tayto, I've heard of them, sure, but they're definitely not a big brand over here, and I've never actually eaten a bag of their crisps. Might I suggest seeking out Walkers crisps as they're pretty much our most popular brand? Lesser brands tend to produce inferior crisps (which might go some way to explaining your disappointment).

20:09 / 28.04.06

Oh, I tried mango chilli Kettle Chips the other day and I have to agree, they're not much of a flavour explosion. Boring, in fact.

20:33 / 28.04.06

A "Crisps & Relationships" forum? I suppose this would be the time to admit that I share the same surname as a certain famous Quentin, so would become increasingly paranoid that the forum was actually all about my relationships. Or maybe his.

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