Vico Chips Kettle Cooked Gout Creme Oignon

Ah, look. A packet of crisps that can't help itself from blowing up like a balloon if it gets a little bit warm. Which means we try to eat them out here rather than cart a balloon of crisps back to London. 

But first, here's one of our favourite sculptures at the Fonadation Giannada in Martigny. Very sheepy sheep don't you think?

And an extra special place because they encourage you to walk on the grass. Most unusual. The Fondation puts on two big exhibitions each year (we went to see the Picasso) and has a large collection of sculptures; some in the gardens and some set on the roundabouts in and around Martigny. Which makes Martigny a great place to visit. There are Roman remains too if you are interested, including a little amphitheatre. Oh, and if you have children or are mad for dogs there is also the Fondation Barry; an exhibition devoted to the heroic exploits of St Bernard dogs in the Alps (named after the first and very famous rescue dog). Sometimes they have puppies I'm told.

Anyway, what about the crisps themselves? Not bad. A very nice rich golden colour but a slightly hard crunch I thought. Well, the packet does say tres croustillantes.  And to be quite honest I am not mad about the cream and onion combination as a flavour for a potato crisp. I cannot explain why: it's just this flavour doesn't really do it for me. 

Could it be that this is in fact not cream and onion, but cream and spring onion? Quite a different taste. Although packet shows spring onions the list of ingredients just says powdered onion. So who knows?

However, the Chef really rather likes these crisps. In fact he ate about half this 20g packet all by himself. And all of his own accord. I didn't make him. Honest.

Bret's Frites Goût Crème Oignon

Well, this pop art style of packaging is a new departure for Bret's. But then, these "frites" are a new  departure as far as I am concerned too.

I was expecting one of those square crispy cunchy snacks, shaped like a chip (french fry), you know, extruded from some machine. But this is a strange flat strip of crisp instead. Bâtonnets de pomme de terre it says on the back of the packet. Never seen nothing quite like it before. And I'm wondering about the flavour too. Is it cream and onion? Or perhaps a sort of cream of onion soup flavour? It's hard to tell.

Incidentally, did you know that the French have recently decided to change the spelling of onion? The French word for onion obviously. They can change la langue de Molière if they must, but no messing with la langue de Shakespeare please. The English/Americans can do that all on our own thanks very much.

Anyway, the spelling of onion has previously (and for goodness knows how long) been oignon. But oignon is henceforth to be spelled ognon. Doesn't that look odd? Here's an article from The Guardian you may find interesting.

Not a bad crispy snack, good crunch, quite a lot of flavour dust and a good creamy, oniony flavour. Just a bit of a surprise.