Tuesday 27 February 2024

Lay’s Paysanne Saveur Oignon de Roscoff Caramelisé


Right, here’s an interesting and surprisingly gentle flavour from Lay’s. We bought this packet in France.

I do not know what makes oignons de Roscoff (onions from Roscoff in Brittany) special. I haven’t been to Brittany and as far as I know, I haven’t tried their special onions but it seems there must be something very fabulous about them. I discovered that we could get them from our local supermarket but they are confusingly labelled Natoora, which looks like a brand name, not Roscoff, which we know because it’s a place. Life always makes things more complicated than necessary doesn’t it? The internet tells me they are the same onions. 

If these lovely crinkle cut crisps are anything to go by, Roscoff onions must have a very special gentle flavour because these crisps are very nice indeed. The Chef liked these a lot. 

Tuesday 20 February 2024

Paul Légèrement Salées


Paul depuis 1889. Here’s a bakery company with addresses in France and England, and lots of outlets in motorway service stations, at least across north east France. What can I tell you? I haven’t ever tried anything they make before this packet of crisps, but the Ski Instructor was happy with his lunchtime baguette. And he crunched through his little packet of crisps in record time. 

And, yes, he seemed very happy indeed with his crunch at lunch; his packet of slightly salted Paul crisps. His crunch sounded happy.

And then… the Chef and I tried a second packet. The Chef was quite happy. He liked the lightly salted taste. I thought these crisps could do with more salt.  He liked the crunch, like the Ski Instructor. I thought the bite was a bit hard and the crunch a bit heavy. And there were too many crisps folded over. Lots and lots of folded crisps.

So here we have it: men seem happy with this crisp, women (me) not so much. Not a very scientific survey so you should probably draw your own conclusions if you see a packet.

So you know what I am going to suggest: try these crisps for yourself. And ponder to yourself how come this company has its crisps made in Britain?