Monday 2 September 2013

M&S Hand Cooked Red Leicester & Spring Onion


Not a bad variation on one of the big three crisp flavours: big three in the UK at any rate. I gather that the second flavour after ready salted in North America was barbecue. Here of course we had ready salted, salt & vinegar, and cheese & onion.

If I was a proper researcher, which I'm not, I would have rushed out and got some Red Leicester cheese for comparison. But I didn't. Sorry about that. I didn't because the last time I remember being given Red Leicester I wasn't that impressed. And that's another story.

However, the crisps seemed to me to be properly cheesy. And the spring onion part of the flavour is very well realised. Quite different from any old ordinary onion this tastes just right. Except the taste does not linger as the taste of real spring onions can.

This is a nice crisp but it's hard to tell if it is hand cooked or not. I'm not really certain what hand cooked means these days. I mean, it's not as though some chef stands over a deep frying pan to create each batch. Is it? I suppose that some highly trained chef-like factory worker operates a giant machine but has some decision making on how long each batch cooks. What do you think?

Not so long ago hand cooked in the name was a sign of extra care and attention in manufacture and a better quality product. Now most crisps seem to be of a very high quality and I'm not really sure how much difference the mystery hand cooking makes. So there we are. But a good crunch and a good taste. What more can you ask?

This is another in Marks & Spencer's strange food on the move daily fare selection. I still ask how this makes them any different but I guess I'm not going to get an answer.

I'm not sure these are good enough to tempt me back for a second try when there are so many other flavours to try but these crisps are pretty good. As you would expect from the ever reliable Marks & Spencer.

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