Isoyama Corp 18+ Curry Chips

OK, I admit it. I haven’t tried these very hot crisps and even if I had the opportunity, I don’t think I would. No, make that I definitely would not. But they have been all over the news recently. So if you haven’t heard about them already here is an article from the BBC website.

Call me old fashioned, but I don’t see the point in food that you know might make you ill. Nobody wants to be rushed to hospital in a wheelchair do they? It’s a cautionary tale for crisp fans more adventurous than I am.

Think about it. Would you try?

Carr’s Melts Cheese

This delightful crispy snack looks like a cheese biscuit, as in a biscuit to put cheese on, and in fact the website shows a serving suggestion of the cracker (not my preferred word) loaded with what looks like hummus, ham, capers, slices of pickle and chilli, and a cherry tomato. I don’t think these crispy biscuits are sturdy enough for so much stuff. 

These biscuits are called Melts, and they almost do melt when you bite into them, and they scatter lots of crumbs everywhere so you do need to eat them with caution. But to make up for all that, they are just delicious. I don’t think they need any extras piled on top. The name suggests a cheese flavour, but although there is grated cheese on the top, the main flavour is a very gentle onion, tempered with cheese. Yum yum. It’s very possible to eat more than you expected at one sitting.

OK, put that packet down now!

Do be careful if you are planning on visiting South Korea and think this might be a tasty snack for the journey: there are poppy seeds in the recipe. And poppy seeds are illegal in South Korea. Which I didn’t know until I read this article. Definitely don’t take a slice of lemon and poppyseed tray bake.

Walkers Squares Cheese and Onion

Way back in 2014 I tried a packet of Walkers Squares Salt & Vinegar flavour. And it looks as though whoever got a taste, as well as me that is, quite enjoyed them. 

But it seems I have never thought of trying any other flavour of Walkers Squares. So, at last, slightly more than 10 years later, here we have the Cheese & Onion version. It’s interesting that Squares seem to be going strong, because in the last 10 years many crispy snacks, including lots reviewed on this blog, have disappeared from sight.

And what did we think? Well, Squares aren’t the same as potato crisps. They aren’t slices of potato, but made of reconstituted potato granules, and they taste quite different. So as a base for a flavour, Squares give quite a different result. And I don’t think that Cheese & Onion works. It’s fine to start off with, but as you snack through even a tiny 22g packet, the flavour works less and less well.

I asked Ski Instructor Taste Tester who ate a whole packet, because he was hungry, but he admitted he wasn’t that impressed. The Chef tried some too but he’s gone to sleep so I can’t ask what he thought.

Not bad but not tip top.

KP Original Salted Peanuts

A big display of large packets of KP Original Salted Peanuts beckoned to me in the supermarket today. Buy us! they cried. But I was very firm and only picked up a small 90g packet (peanuts are heavy - that’s less than it sounds). And when I got home I asked myself if I had ever written up this very simple snack? No ingredients but peanuts and salt and sunflower oil. Delicious. But the answer, until now, was no. And my second question is why on earth not? So anyway, here we go…

Ah, you say. Lucky old you, you can eat peanuts without suffering any ill effects. Don’t boast about it. 

Well, yes, I can eat peanuts and I am fairly sure that I have been eating them since I was about three, so that’s more than 60 years! My parents didn’t really let us eat sweets, but there were always salty snacks instead. However, as a child I was horrendously allergic to grass pollen, and cats, and goodness knows how many other things. Even 30 years later I heard that the lovely mother of one of my school friends still had nightmares about the day she very kindly took her daughter and me for a picnic in a beautiful field full of flowering grasses. So I do understand about allergies. 

I still am allergic to grass pollen and cats but nothing like so badly as I used to be. Put it like this, if I reached the final of an egg and spoon race this summer, I wouldn’t have to pull out because I couldn’t see. But looking at today’s weather I would need an umbrella.

Anyway, these salted peanuts, made without maple syrup or honey, with no chocolate chunks or bits of honeycomb in the bag, not even any herbs or jerk seasoning, just salt, are simply delicious. And I can definitely eat a whole bag while sitting on the sofa watching the tennis.

Highly recommended if you can eat them. 

Mysteriously distributed by Tayto Snacks in County Meath. I can’t work out if this is an Irish snack or a UK snack. I’m going for UK.