Lay's Saveur Cheeseburger Max Craquantes

Most people who know me will tell you I'm a very fussy eater. And that's true. But I do like to try something new now and then. Especially interesting new flavours of crisp (chips or potato chips to you maybe) or chocolate. It's a tiny micro adventure on the cheap. So when I spotted Lay's Max Craquantes (very crunchy) Saveur Cheeseburger Chips in the service station somewhere in France I just had to buy a packet.

The Chef and I already tried Lay's Spaghetti Bolognaise Chips and they are amazingly spaghetti bolgnaisey. Who knew the French ate the same sort of spag bol as we do in the UK? Or maybe I should ask who knew the French ate the same sort of spag bol as cooked in one North London kitchen? The Italians certainly don't; and I'm sure any self respecting Italian would be baffled by those crisps and proabably my recipe too. But weirdly the development team at Lay's seem to have used my mother's 1960s recipe to create quite a tasty crisp.

But back to the Cheeseburger flavour. Wow! Just exactly like a MacCheeseburger including the cheese, the mustard and the slice of pickle nobody eats.

We don't eat out very much in London, but if we do go out to the pub or to the place that fancies itself a New York deli, I am quite likely to have a burger; there is usually one on the menu and thank goodness for that because I won't eat fish and I don't fancy the (currently) ubiquitous pork belly. Naturally none of these burgers, with cheese or no, is anything like the McDonald's cheeseburger and seriously, when did I last eat at McDonald's anyway?

Memory is a very strange thing and taste is a great trigger for memories. I was really surprised how strongly these crisps reminded me of the MacCheeseburger. If you like them, I expect you'll enjoy these crisps. If you're not a McDonald's fan go for the Spaghetti Bolognaise instead.

Unfortunately much of my excitement at this fascinating crisp was crushed when I discovered that Lay's is not a French company at all but, you've guessed, based in Nashville or somewhere, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Damn!

But I stand by my initial thought which is that these crisps have a very impressive cheeseburgery taste and despite looking hard I can't find them on the Frito-Lay website. So maybe this is a French flavour after all. I can't find the Spaghetti Bolognaise flavour either. So you never know.