MetaChat - Cheap Chips Rule!

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05 June 2005

Cheap Chips Rule! Y'know when it comes to some foods, like cheese and seafood, the more you spend, the better it tastes, generally. With chips, the opposite seems to hold true. The exotic upmarket chips like Terra taste lousy and dull, whereas the bag of Herr's Bacon & Horseradish Chips I just bought are positively sublime. (this is of course putting aside all the health arguments, and if you believe in healthy living what are you eating chips for, anyway?)

But it's nice to see the best stuff going to the cheap seats. I'm sure there's other examples.

post by: jonmc at: 14:46 | 38 comments

Mmmm, Zapp's. Look at those flavors!

posted by brainwidth 05 June | 14:53

Zapps! I always love me some of the Cajun Crawtator flavor, although I don't recall seeing "essemce of crawdaddy," listed in the ingredients yet it still tastes remarkable like a good crawfish boil on a chip.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 14:55

It also would be interesting to look at the whether the quality difference is because the cheapos are cheap/generic, or because they're not manufacture by huge conglomerates that have to make every chip taste the same on the West coast as it does on the East coast.

If it's a smaller brand, maybe it's produced in smaller batches?

posted by mudpuppie 05 June | 14:56

Actually, Herr's is not that small of a brand, and I'd still take a bag of Lay's over any of the "gourmet," chips. I think it has more to do with the fact of what most people look for in a chip: something salty/spicy with a strong flavor to enjoy with a beer. So it's no place for subtlety, and th gourmet outfits are all about subtlety, which is great for some stuff, but lousy for chips. IMHO.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 15:02

i had some blisteringly good chili flavoured "chips" (crisps!) from oats market or something similar (kind of health food supermarket in the states - strange place that sold decent food alongside bottles and bottles of drugs and associated weird stuff). they were own brand, but not as cheap as lays, i think.

posted by andrew cooke 05 June | 15:29

I had some so called luxury crisps yesterday (Four Cheese & Red Onion) and they were crap. They stunk to high heaven but all they tasted of was potato and vegetable oil. You just can't beat Walkers cheese and onion.

Having said that I remember some really cheap prawn cocktail crisps I used to eat as a kid and they tasted like they had more in common with a test tube than anything that lives in the sea.

posted by dodgygeezer 05 June | 15:48

I'm an American, they're chips. Although, the Brits hold up their end of the chip world quite nicely. These two that I bought at this Brit Shop in the West Village were especially good.

All this chip talk is making us thirsty, everybody crack a beer. That's an order.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 15:50

Ahh, you like the tangy ones. Treat yourself to some Salt & Vinegar Hula Hoops next time.

posted by dodgygeezer 05 June | 15:57

seabrooks prawn cocktail?

posted by andrew cooke 05 June | 16:00

I've had those, as well, plus some pickled onion flavored contraptions designed to look like dinosaur feet. They were all well complimented by Irn-Bru.

Also, these japanese pizza-flavored chips are masterpieces of versimilitude. When I opened the bag, it smelled just like a pizzeria. Thos flavor-engineers in Tokyo deserve a Nobel Prize in noshery.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 16:01

(those feet are monster munch - also by walkers)

posted by andrew cooke 05 June | 16:04

Like I said, you Brits definitely do your part in the snacksphere, although several Brit expatriates I've met in NY say that we yanks do burgers better.

Also, these chips that I found in an extremely ghetto supermarket, are the best evidence I have of the cheap chips=better. dirt cheap and tasty as hell.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 16:08

Irn-Bru is more of a Scottish thing really - up there it outsells Coca-cola. It's great stuff when you're hungover.

posted by dodgygeezer 05 June | 16:12

They carry all that stuff together at Myers Of Keswick, including homemade Scotch Eggs and bangers and Stilton cheese (one of the great achievements of your people, by the way).

I just have to ask, with a diet like that, how did you all manage to conquer the known world?

posted by jonmc 05 June | 16:15

Tim's Cascade Style Hot Jalapeño Chips are a reason to move to the Northwest. Thick crunchy chips, fried a deep golden brown in pure peanut oil, flavored with a damn hot blast of jalapeños.

posted by LarryC 05 June | 16:39

On a trip from Long Island back to the Midwest we stopped and took the Herr's factory tour. It was actually quite interesting and you get all the fresh cooked potato chips and stuff you can eat.

posted by mss 05 June | 17:32

Ok, Terra chips are overpriced and generally not great, but their spiced sweet potato chips are the snack food equivalent of crack.

posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld 05 June | 17:52

Lazio, have you tried the Zapp's equivalent sweet potato chips? They're quite good as well. And, I'll have you know, I was forced by this thread to pick up a bag of Zapp's Crawtators on the home from work this afternoon. Enjoying them now with a hefty glass of shiraz. (It's amazing how well the salt, oil, and spices of the chips blends with a nice red. Tasty!)

posted by brainwidth 05 June | 18:25

I like sweet potato fries, but in chips, I'm looking for salty and/or spicy, since they're usually an accomaniment to beer. Sweet just throws off the whole calculus of the situation.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 18:34

but chocolate and beer works, right?
although i had some trendy modern chocolate that had salty and spicy flavours a few months ago (a present from the states). so. err. there's a connection, somewhere.

posted by andrew cooke 05 June | 18:59

everything and beer works, andrew. I had a "salted caramel" chocolate from Jacques Torres' place recently and it was quite delicious, as was his "wicked" hot chocolate flavored with chipotle peppers, and jalapeno poppers dipped in fruity salsas are delicious, but in general, beer combines best with salty stuff like chips, wings and peanuts.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 19:16

Jesus GOD I can't wait till my braces come off and I can eat chips by the handful again.

posted by scody 05 June | 20:52

I had braces when I wa stwelve because all the McNally children were cursed with hilbilly-level crooked teeth. I abandoned my retainer, so I still have a huge overbite. And gong through my 20's with substandard or nonexistent dental insurance has resulted in extractions that make my mouth look like that of a pug on the skids. or Shane MacGowan.

This concludes tonight's journey through jonmc's dental history.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 21:31

Yes jon, but have you also had your blood removed and replaced with gin, like Shane?

(My braces the first time around didn't take all that well, either, even though I wore my retainer till my wisdom teeth came in. Hence the second round of braces... combined with the joy of getting both of my jaws broken and re-set a few months ago. Man oh maneschewitz, they'd better really be fixed this time!)

posted by scody 05 June | 21:35

Yes jon, but have you also had your blood removed and replaced with gin, like Shane?

Yes, but I used Silver Thunder, my medical plan only covers so much.

Man oh maneschewitz

at pips' family's seder they had the manischewiz out. Any religious ritual that requires me to guzzle four glasses (and my sister in law has huge glasses) of fortified wine is OK by me.

Side note: I used to work at a magazine store on the fringes of the New Haven ghetto, one night, two Puerto Rican kids came in and bought a Philly Blunt cigar (use your imagination), they had a bottle in a bag and the visible cap read "Manischewitz."

I asked "You guys going to a Bar Mitzvah?"

"Huh?"

"never Mind."

posted by jonmc 05 June | 21:45

and I had a wisdom tooth surgically extracted a few months back. They gave me Demerol during the surgery. I don't remember a thing. The doctor described the surgery "I'm going to shatter the teeth and pull them out of your jaw."

"sounds like fun"

"[giggle] It will be for me."

They prescribed a weeks worth of vicodin. Sheer bliss that week was. I watched Dogtown & Z-Boys in the throes of the buzz and dreamed I was Jay Adams flying down some California highway. I've never been to Cali, so this is all conjecture, but let me enjoy the fantasy.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 21:49

Hey, that's exactly what Cali's like!

Following the surgery I got several week's worth of codeine after I was released from the hospital (which was supposed to only be one night, but turned into 4 because I lost way more blood than normal, and I wound up in intensive care with blood coming out of my eyes gaaaaahhhh!), which was totally irritating because -- Jim Carroll diaries notwithstanding -- I got the most unpleasant high off that damn stuff that I've ever had in my life. For three entire days I kept having the same dream that I was stuck in a car with John Lydon (I was driving; he was SCREAMING in my EAR), trapped in some West Virginia mining town, desperately trying to find the exit onto the highway. And the soundtrack was a never-motherfucking-ending loop of "Problems" by the Pistols.

Then, one day, a miracle happened! I woke up with "Tommy Gun" by the Clash stuck in my head instead. And I suddenly remembered with perfect clarity that I actually had a stash of Vicodin from a previous surgery.

Thus did I stumble one more step down the road to recovery.

posted by scody 05 June | 22:06

Following the surgery I got several week's worth of codeine

After a schoolyard scuffle where I got a few teeth knocked an inch back into my jaw (long story, not worth it), I was prescibed Tylenol codeine. I saved a few for a rainy day, and I popped one befor going to moron math one day. The teacher called on me and I was too blitzed to notice. The kid next to me, a notorious wastoid named Andy, said "jon's too string out to answer, I'll take it."

I believe someone on MeFi once described me as "tragicomic." Incidents like these back that up, I guess.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 22:15

Well, this took an interesting turn. I've been fortunate in the dental arena, despite failing to visit the dentist between 1995 and 2004. The dentist was not pleased. I needed something like 10 fillings.

Kids, remember to floss.

posted by brainwidth 05 June | 22:40

brainwidth, I don't know how things are where you are, but here in Queens, most dentists are of the variety that have a poster of a smiling anthropomorphic tooth surrounded by the word "dentist," in twelve different languages (and occasionally a not saying "we also do transmission repair") so it dosen't exactly inspire confidence.

posted by jonmc 05 June | 22:44

Well, I don't feel too bad then. My dentist isn't so bad, but his receptionist must moonlight as a bounty hunter. She tracks me down for an appointment every six months, no matter what I do to avoid her.

posted by brainwidth 05 June | 22:50

her? female dentist? she hot?

cause being "drilled," by a hot woman is cool, no matter what the context, right?

posted by jonmc 05 June | 22:54

No, the receptionist is a woman. Come to think of it, everyone who works there but the two dentists who run the practice are women.

posted by brainwidth 05 June | 22:56

Do those fantastically good shrimp chips count? No, not those fry-shaped ones you get in the pink and white package in the asian section of the grocery store.

The ones you get at asian groceries and you fry 'em up in some oil and they puff up like 10x their original size and fill your house with the smell of fishy-shrimpy goodness.

Those things are soooooo good. And really, really cheap.

posted by loquacious 06 June | 02:54

I try not to eat chips, but when I indulge it has to be the no-name yellow bagged plain ruffles for $1.29. None better.

posted by Orange Swan 06 June | 09:59

Jays has really good chips too. My favorite is good old Pringles. Yum.

Now you're all making me hungry for potato chips! : )

posted by sisterhavana 06 June | 13:50

I like my female dental hygienist. She is gentle, soft, and smells nice. Unlike my dentist.

Habanero chips are downright abusive. It took me 5 tries to finish the last bag I bought.

posted by sarah connor 07 June | 13:40

This reminds me of a game a good friend of mine and I have in which we try to think of unpalatable imaginary potato chip flavors. Such as... creamed corn, spam, mango, peppermint...

(If the flavor exists, even in Britain, it's cheating.)

As for dental experiences - I got my wisdom teeth out when I was 17 and lay on the couch for a week watching The Fifth Element. My painkillers put me to sleep, so I would constantly miss half the movie, start watching again as soon as it finished, fall asleep, repeat. My mother will no longer allow that film in her home.

posted by grapefruitmoon 07 June | 22:40

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