Tag Archives: Potato Chips

LeighAnne came over for “craft day”, which was really just her painting Tillie on shirts for us for Bruce Springsteen, while I watched ha. But I provided the work space and the chips.

I bought the Utz “Crab Chips” from the Christmas Tree Shop, knowing that they weren’t going to taste like crab, but like crab seasoning. I wanted to try them all week but I refrained. Lei had them before at home. I didn’t think they tasted like anything.

The other chips I bought at a grocery store in Canada next to Ikea when I went with friends last week. The Sweet Chili Thai I opened right away, as I’m on a mission to find a brand that compares to the wonderful ones from Marks and Spencer in England. They are pretty good, but not quite M&S. They are ruffle chips, which I don’t care for, I feel like they are always sorta stale.

There were sooo many President’s Choice chips I could have bought but I restricted myself to just 4 this time. The other 3 were:

Tandoori Barbeque. The back of the bag says it has the wonderful flavors of Indian Spices. No, no it doesn’t. They are tasty but they are in no way Indian spiced. They taste like sour cream and onion with a slight hint of BBQ. They were more like the All Dressed chips we had last year. Sorta disappointing, cuz real Indian spices would probably be tasty.

General Tao Chicken. I’ve never had real General Tao before, so I can’t compare the tastes, but again, it was good. A hint of spice. Lei said it tasted just like the General.

Spicy Piri Piri. I think I ate at a Piri Piri place with Pierre in London. It might be Pakistani? (*edit* it’s Portugese) It’s tasty spicy sauce on chicken. These tasted yummy as well, the spiciest of the bunch but not unbarable (to me, who loves spice).

Overall, these were not supposed to really be “gross” flavors like the Japanese ones, but just unusual. They were all tasty, and will continue to be eaten, unlike the Japanese ones 🙂

Well the Clam Chowder Doritos from Japan that LeighAnne had gotten for me for xmas finally passed through customs and arrived, plus I had found Hot Dog potato chips at 7-11 in Chicago, so we had 2 last kinds to try tonight.

Clam Chowder Doritos…”gourmet” as you can see on the bag ha. Jeremy picked this one first, and the bag was extremely difficult to open. We could only assume because they were not fit for human consumption, and opening it would cause the end of the world. Jeremy pictured those maps you see with giant targets on them, I pictured armageddon exploding from the bag once I got it open. The smell was exactly like that hahaha. Wretched. Worst of the bunch by far. I almost couldn’t eat it because of the smell. Having never tried clam chowder, I can’t compare the tastes, but Lei said it was exactly what she expected from clam chowder doritos. Everyone found them to be awful, on my first chip I didn’t think it was so bad after you get past the smell. Vaguely fishy, mostly salty, with some sort of underlying dorito taste. They all vehemently disagreed. With my 2nd chip, I disagreed with myself too. So not good.

Hot Dog potato chips – I found these at 7-11 in Chicago when I was there for the Sabres/Blackhawks game. I thought these had the potential to be pretty awful too. Even though I like hot dogs, I don’t find it to be a flavor that would translate to any other food. In the end, they weren’t bad. They lacked a hot dog flavor, and went more with the condiments you put on them – ketchup, mustard and relish. Lei said she could eat those, and James agreed until he had more than 5 of them, then that was enough.

so….somewhere along the way LeighAnne and I got interested in trying strange flavors of potato chips…usually from Canada, cuz where else are we going to get strange flavors around here. For christmas Lei decided to buy me a bunch of bags of weird flavors from Japan. Score! So we decided to taste test tonight at the resurrection of Movie Night.

Jasen had the pleasure of being the one to open each bag and experience the initial aroma. So let’s begin

Seaweed and Salt
Jasen and Lei were almost gagging on the smell before passing it along to me for a whiff, and I think they exaggerated. I was the first one to eat a chip, and really it was the least offensive of the bunch. It didn’t really taste like much, a bit earthy maybe. James and Brian bought thought it tasted a bit fishy, or like seaweed, but really, it doesn’t have much flavor at all.

Soy Sauce and Mayo
This was the one I thought would be the worst. I mean, really, soy sauce and mayo. barf. It turns out this was the best of the bunch. It had a strange burny/ashy/campfire taste. There was nothing reminiscent of soy sauce (aka not very salty) or mayo (aka not gross). I wouldn’t say they were delicious, but definitely edible.

Salmon sushi and wasabi
This one came in a ziploc type bag, and inside was another bag. Let’s just say I could smell it as soon as Jasen opened it, and it was not pleasant. However the smell was worse than the taste. There was no wasabi taste to it at all, and I wouldn’t even say it was very fishy, just…different. And wow holy crap, I just opened the bag again to have another chip, the smell is so bad.

Shrimp and wasabi twistys
As Melanie said, it smells like a dirty fish tank. Indeed it does. She said it tasted like it too LOL. I don’t make a habit of lick cleaning fish bowls so I can’t say I agree. They really are not good, but for some reason James and I agreed that we’d probably eat them. They are one of those things that you’d probably sit there eating, while playing a video game or something and not realizing you ate the whole bag. Still not a very strong wasabi taste but…

Shrimp twistys
Jasen did throw up a little in his mouth upon opening these bad boys. They smelled even worse than the shirmp and wasabi ones, most definitely like a dirty fish tank and a bag of fish food, or brine shrimp, or ….ug. And the taste…you really want the wasabi ones. Even though you can’t taste any wasabi, it somehow brings SOMETHING to the table to make them at least slightly edible. These were just awful. Kitty didn’t even like them!!! I tried one in nacho cheese, it didn’t help. Ug. Awful.

I would say the shrimp ones were the worst, but one bag Lei bought has not made it through customs yet, and it has the potential to trump all of the above…Clam Chowder Doritos *gag*

I can’t wait til some day when Lei and I get to go to Japan and try more of their weird food, like octopus ink ice cream, and other fun things.