COMING SOON

can you handle these potato chip varietals??

• lay's "sweet southern heat bbq" - this name barely fits on the package
• utz natural gourmet medley or something - can't remember the exact name but i think there are PURPLE CHIPS in this bag!! i see it a lot in big size but only today found it at a turkey hill in snack size. also saw grandma utz in snack size and grandma utz bbq! i want to try these real bad but they have LARD AS THE SECOND INGREDIENT. so that makes me not want to try them, but i love the marketing scheme of grandma utz. alas.

hopefully i will eat these bags tomorrow

~~fancy fridays~~ avocado oil BBQ CHIPS

yes, friends, you read that right. my favorite chilean lime bbq chips, which i have had again since my last fancy friday, i recently purchased in barbecue flavor. these can be purchased at the fu wah at 47th and baltimore for $2.99 as of monday.

as you can see, my original plan was to eat them with a boylan's lemon seltzer and a tofu hoagie (no jalapenos) but i did end up saving them. then camden & i brought these suckers to the mann on wednesday night, because we got free tickets to the philadelphia orchestra. love a picnic + love some chips out on the grass. honestly is that not a dream life?

i dont know how to rotate this on blogspot but i did figure out how to add a caption!

anyway, to the chips.
camden thought they were very good, but he has obviously not ingested as many chip varietals as i have. i would say that the bbq flavor was well crafted, a nice combo of smoky and a tiny bit of sweet, but not strong enough. more like bbq smoked than bbq powder coated, which i am used to. so take that as it is, and try to appreciate these on their own terms.
i am very curious to try the classic avocado oil variety, because i wonder if the avocado oil is too subtle to really shine through in these flavored varieties. as with the chilean lime, the texture of the chip is great. they are a good size, with excellent crunch, no injuring the oral mucosa, and a nice tooth. i really do like that a lot about these chips.

i am gonna go with a solid 3.5/5, the chip itself is good but i don't need to seek out the bbq flavor. i love the chip structurally, but i am a little confused about the minimal bbqness, but maybe it just takes some warming up to.

//Fancy Fridays// Good Health Natural Foods: Kettle Style Avocado Oil Chips

Today we're starting a new feature on the blog: Fancy Fridays. On Fridays when I remember to post I will feature more ~upscale~ chip varietals. This weeks choice is avocado oil kettle chips in Chilean lime. I have purchased them at the Walgreens on 11th and Locust, as well as the infamous Fu Wah bodega, which has a pretty solid chip collection.

Now, you ask yourself, Emily must really like these chips because she's purchased them twice. Well, you're right. I would give them a 4/5. these are one of the best ~upscale~ chip varietals I've tried. Loyal readers will know how I felt about the ~upscale~ lays kettle chips -- I feel medium. These are delicious. Appropriate crunch, not injurious to the mucous membranes. Nice golden hue and appropriate oil content. Small green flecks.

I have only eaten the chilean lime variety because you know how I love a wild chip flavor. They have a VERY fine powder and a light citrus flavor; it is really quite enjoyable. I shared these with a classmate Nicole 1, who enjoyed them immensely as well. We finished off a medium sized bag retailing for $2.65 in just 20 minutes.

The chips leave an incredibly fine film on the fingers; if Cheetos is 7 out of 10, 10 being the messiest snack you can imagine, these were maybe a 2.75. I paired them with a Vitamin Water XXX and it was a great snack. Go forth chips lovers and enjoy.

lays kettle cooked - applewood smoked bbq

this weekend i was having a discussion with a dear friend and my sister about bbq chips. we prefer a more smoky and subtle bbq flavor, so i thought i would give "applewood smoked bbq" kettle chips from LAY'S a try. they are 40% reduced fat, which i am usually 100% against, so i was hesitant but all of the adjectives about the bbq flavor were really pulling me in.

i mean look at that well designed bag. these are fancy chips.

flavor was well-developed, smoky with a little bit of sweet. if anything, the chips are a little dry.

nice crisp, no damage to mucus membranes (i have mentioned previously the risk of injury to oral mucosa with kettle chip varieties). my friend who enjoyed them with me deemed them "quite good."

ultimately, don't know if i would buy again because they were dry, somewhere between cracker and chip and possibly more on the cracker side. not what i want in a chip, therefore 3/5.

herr's kettle chips - jalapeno flavor

3.5-4/5

these could easily be a 4 and be a part of my regular chips selection, but i still have to spend more time with them to be confident.

these chips have a nice texture and crunch. sometimes i am hesitant on a kettle chip because it can be too crunchy and injure oral mucosa, but these were appropriately crunchy.

nice potato flavor, with a sprinkling of green jalapeno or jalapeno-simulated flakes. not too spicy, a definite flavor of jalapeno instead of the usual vinegar that the doritos and cheetos families like to utilize for "spicy" flavors. low to medium heat with great flavor.

i would definitely recommend these.

LAYS DO US A FLAVOR --- CHEESY GARLIC BREAD

THE MOMENT EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR....... my review of #laysdousaflavor.

first of all, what a stupid name for a chip line. not really funny or unfunny, just stupid.

thank you to karen weber-mendham from wisconsin who invented these chips. the flavor is very good. a little reminiscent of sour cream and cheddar ruffles, but slightly less of that smooth sour cream flavor.

when i opened the bag, i have to say i was really worried. they smelled vinegary and chemicaly and the first few i had were unimpressive... but then i could not stop eating them! these have a good cheese flavor, the flavor of the "cheese" is heavy, but it is not heavily powdered on if that makes any sense.

overall, i am not completely wowed by any of the do us a flavor chips i've had so far. they don't seem as well engineered by the food scientists as i would like them to be. like the sour cream and cheddar ruffles seem like they were meant to be a chip -- all of these have been chips with flavoring on them, and i don't think that's how it has to be. doritos feel natural with their flavorings. just some thoughts.

anyway i still have a few left so maybe i will remember to get a pic of the actual chip, but this is what i have so far:

tips on chip taxonomy + revealing my biases

well, i sure ate a lot of chips this week with my friend josephine. despite being a bit of a goth, she is really a good sport, about chips and all other subjects. anyway, this week we ate a lot of herr's cheese curls, which brings me to the subject that i have been dreading: i have a preference in crunchy bagged snacks.

photo courtesy of my friends at the nytimes

let's talk about the varieties:

• chips
• potato chip
• seasoning
• plain / salted / classic
• specialty potato
• specialty preparation (this includes "kettle" varieties
• corn chip
• seasoning
• plain corn / salted
• extruded & puffy varieties
• straight up puffy
• corn - think jax or herr's puffed cheese curls
• potato - i don't know what this is but i am sure it is out there
• other flours (dry powdered apple? yes i can review my favorite product made with apple flour some time)
• puffy yet crunchy
• corn - this is where i would put classic cheetos

potato chips:

i have a strong preference for traditional chips, over puffy crisps/snacks. i think my absolute favorite is a potato chip. i really do like classic salted potato chips for an everyday scenario, and my favorite brands are lays's classic and utz salted classic. in flavored or seasoned potato chips, i really liked those cheddar and sour cream ruffles i had a few weeks ago. i keep thinking of them. i also do like a few chips made with specialty potatoes. cape cod potato chips used to have excellent russet potato chips (just salted), and now they have wonderful yukon gold potato chips.

corn chips:

in the corn chip category, i like seasoned and nonseasoned chips equally. if i am just snacking (as opposed to making nachos or utilizing chips for dipping), i really do prefer doritos spicy nacho. the doritos tacos locos were very delicious, so that might be my runner up. if i am going beyond a simple bowl of corn chips, i like using doritos in nachos, but for plain corn chips, i really like bearitos corn chips in blue corn and tostitos corn chips in restaurant style though they have been registering a bit lip-chappy on my salt scale lately. 

extruded snacks:

puffed bagged snacks are not usually my first choice, but if i am eating them i like classic cheetos, which are puffy yet crunchy. the only straight up puffy variety i like is jax, i find that other varieties tend to be digested by salivary amylase a few seconds too soon for me, and i don't really like that. jax seem to have a good crunch factor despite their puffiness. sometimes i get apple sticks from trader joe's and i like those a lot because i love chips but i am getting maybe 1/8 of a serving of an apple.

photo courtesy of my friends at trader joe's

ruffles cheddar & sour cream

wow! sorry for the long delay in posting. i just recently got a phone that takes pictures, so i wanted to wait and be able to share images of the chips themselves & their packaging with my readers.
i am currently eating these delicious ruffles chips in cheddar & sour cream flavor. they were recommended to me by a customer in line at the 10th/walnut wawa, and he was right on target.

these chips are delicious. not the best value, it is $1.09 for a smallish 1 7/8 oz bag at walgreens, and utz makes a much bigger bag of cheddar & sour cream chips for 99 cents, but i really think the ruffling makes a difference.

chips themselves are classic ruffles w orange dusting. ruffles are one of my favorite wavy chips varietals, i definitely like the smaller tighter ridge on them and it is working with these. flavor is smooth but interesting enough, i could really do some damage on a big bag of these.

perfect for a mid morning chip snack. 5/5

welcome

Welcome to my little chip of the 'net. I have noticed that I have a growing love for novelty chip varietals, and I thought I should probably blog about it. I hope to be posting reviews and experiences of the novelty chips I indulge in.

Novelty chips I have tried:

• Herr's Loaded Baked Potato 5/5 stars
• Ruffles Ultimate, classic flavor 3/5 stars
• Doritos Stacked, enchilada supreme 4/5 stars
• Doritos Jacked, smoky chipotle 3.5/5 stars
• Doritos, classic formulation taco flavor 3.5/5 stars
• Doritos Dinamita, chile limon 5/5 stars
• Doritos Dinamita, nacho picoso 3.5/5 stars 
• Lays, classic formulation Spicy Ketchup flavor 4/5 stars for execution but 3/5 out of personal preference