Waitrose Christmas Hickory Smoked Nut Mix

This packet of Hickory Smoked nuts from Waitrose is left over from last Christmas and I forgot it was at the back of the cupboard. You may not be surprised to learn that I wasn’t exactly looking around for snacks. 

But now, despite the fact that this packet is seriously out of date, and the other fact that I have previously announced to the world that I don’t like Hickory Smoke flavour, I’m going to give them a try.

Just to see. 

Apparently this is a smoky mix of roasted cashews, almonds & macadamia nuts. Sounds like a nice mix.

But… 

The nuts are fine, not sure there’s actually anything wrong with them, but no, no, no, no, no, oh dear I still hate this horrible Hickory Smoked flavour. So not for me.

Honestly, even if this snack wasn’t out of date I still wouldn’t like it.

So there we are. I think we only bought this nut mix because we had already tried two other flavours in this Waitrose selection from Christmas 2024.

And check the previous Waitrose flavours. Like this one.

Cottage Delight Garlic Italian Crostini Crackers

 

The Chef and I found this nice looking little snack in a local shop. It was just before Christmas and the shop was jam crammed with present buyers. Maybe buying some of these.

Although the Cottage Delight company seems to be based in Leek in Staffordshire, the little crackers are actually made in Italy. The label describes this crispy snack as ‘light and crisp hand crafted Italian crostini’ created by an authentic Italian family baker. Hmm… what a pity they aren’t actually light and crisp. In fact, and I really don’t enjoy giving a poor review, if you ask me this snack has a seriously heavy bite. And a very dull crunch. This is disappointing.

And what a pity they don’t taste of anything. Oh, there is a sort of garlicky aftertaste, but I can’t tell you how disappointed the Chef and I were. Because it’s nice to support small brands.

Gran Pavesi le Sfoglie Classiche

Here’s another crispy snack from our little local Co-op in Switzerland. It’s a crispy Italian cracker for serving a fancy apéro snack... or for dipping in my handy homemade sour cream and chive lockdown dip (see the previous post).

Not a lot of taste apart from a faint air of water biscuit: a harder bite than that and a hearty satisfying crunch. But they do taste good with the dip. I’m sure if I could be bothered to decorate one of these crackers with a slice of cucumber, some salmon mousse and a caper that would work pretty well too. Although I don’t fancy salmon mousse, and the Chef won’t eat capers (he’s so picky!) so we might swap out (as they say these days), or perhaps change up, our own choice of ingredients.

I wonder how they make the not quite square shapes come out apparently random? Probably squirted out of an extruder.

2024 Update: More recent packaging features cream cheese with fig and basil leaves, and hummus with avocado and a scattering of sesame seeds. I find these little crispy snacks work extremely well with unsalted butter and a little honey sriracha drizzle. Very nice.

Vending Machine in Florence

I took this photograph back in March just before I became seriously ill, so perhaps not unnaturally I completely forgot all about it.  We were in Florence which is always lovely even when the weather isn't tip top, and visited the Bardini Gardens which we like for the lovely views over the city. Built on the side of a cliff... but we spend a lot of time in Switzerland so we think why not? They have lots of daffodils, and apple blossom. Altogether it shouldn't feel at all Italian but it does.

I know everyone goes on about the Boboli Gardens but I find them a bit soulless; too much gravel and not enough planting. Anyway, if you visit the loos at the Bardini there's a vending machine. If I'd have been feeling stronger I'd have searched for some Euros and bought a packet of Paquita Crock Canyon or Grigliata. Both apparently from a company called Pata. 

So annoying. Because I've never seen these crisps anywhere else. We'll just have to go back I suppose. How dreadful. Florence again eh? I do live a hard life.

This is the Chef and me in the Giardini Bardini looking out at the skyline of Florence.

San Carlo 1936 Antica Ricetta

Here's a seriously fabulous packet of crisps which the Chef and I found in our favourite supermarket in Florence. It's a wonderful shop with a tiny entrance but the inside goes back and back and wiggles round past the meat and the cheeses and wiggles some more past the dog food and cleaning stuff until you arrive back almost where you started. And it's handily placed very close to the Oltrano end of the Ponte Vecchio. So no more than 5 minutes walk from our usual hotel; even allowing for the thousands of bridge fans who clutter the place up at all hours of the day and night. At weekends they sing. For hours.

I was a little bit concerned because the packet is slightly past its sell-by date but in fact I don't think this was a problem at all. Yes, you guessed, we would have tried them sooner but I wasn't fancying crisps while I was ill.

Lovely small crisps, a little bit thicker than the norm for a UK crisp (which of course it isn't) with a truly great crunch. Remember Dutch taste tester is a cruncher of professional standard? She really approves. Nice lightly salted flavour. Very nice indeed. Everybody, even Architectural taste tester, was a fan. And that is a high accolade indeed. Senior tatse tester was pleased to approve too. Which is good because I annoyed him last week with those weird green bean things.

The reluctant taste testers ate ¾ of the 150g (6 portion) packet with no trouble at all. The Chef scoffed the rest very quickly indeed.

I don't think the sell-by date was an issue - but if it was... then these crisps are sensational.

The packet is quite tough with a wide gusset. It features slightly blurry sepia archive photos of early San Carlo employees and a nice little drawing of the amazing Milan cathedral. And the fabulous contents, it seems, are a recreation of the original 1930s crisps.

I can't recommend these highly enough. Probably available in grocery stores all over Italy. There's an Italian deli near the Royal Free hospital. I wonder if I can persuade them they need to stock this great crisp?

Fonzies Gli Originali

On a second visit to the Italian deli hard by the Royal Free we failed to buy any pan forte, but found this little bag of cheesy crispy snacks instead. It didn't look a very exciting snack, but I bought it anyway because that's what I do.

These little corn based snacks are very like KP Nik Naks in shape and extremely cheesy, and I thought them rather dry. Dry maybe, but tasty nonetheless.

Thank goodness for Wikipedia which tells me that, as I thought, Fonzies are baked not fried, and can also be found in these other flavours; Time Out, Choco, Hot Passion, Bacon, Hot Chilli, "and others" unspecified. I wonder what flavour Time Out can be?

The fact that Fonzies are exactly the same as the much loved Aussie snack Twisties, caused much excitement on a forum for English expats living in Switzerland (I usually this site useful for information on curtain hooks which are mysteriously completely different in Switzerland from what we are used to in the UK). It seems there are more Australians living in Switzerland than you might think, and they are all thrilled to be able to buy Twisties in Europe.

Twisties seem to be a bit of a phenomenon. Available in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia, they come in numerous flavours some of which some of which sound a little bit mad. These are the flavours which have been available in Malaysia:

• The Big Cheese
• Yo! Chicken
• Fizz - similar to Australia's Turns Your Tongue Blue! flavour, except with an effervescent effect
• Duh! Tomato
• Whoa! Spicy Garlic
• Kaboom BBQ Curry"
• Chilli Cheese
• Lime Chilli
• Sawadee Thai Sweet Chili
• Super Starz - released as part of a 2012 promotion with Viacom promoting the MTV World Stage music festival in 2012

• Honey BBQ Wings
• Spicy Sausage

• Double Kick - contains two flavours at once, released in 2010

• Bolognese & Cheese Onion
• Chicken Chorizo & Smokey Sausage
• Peppery Jalapeno & Pickle

Coffee Bonanza - limited edition, currently discontinued

My packet of Fonzies tells me Se non ti lecchi le dita good solo a meta. Which means if you don't lick your fingers you only get half the pleasure. Of course that could in fact be said of many crispy snacks. A Twisties packet will tell you that life's pretty straight without Twisties. Not quite the same.

Laurieri Scrocchi con Semi di Sesamo e di Papavero

This is a packet of crisps we acquired on the train from Florence to Milan. It's the fancy kind of train which travels at 298kph and the staff hand out free newspapers and snacks. White wine or prosecco, madam? I'll have a prosecco please, and you can just see it behind the packet in this photograph. The Chef had a cup of coffee with free packet of chocolate biscuits.

Laurieri are described as master bakers on the packet, and excitingly, they manufacture this crispy snack in Matera, a UNESCO world heritage site. That sounds great but it is slightly unusual information for a crispy snack packet. I haven't been to Matera but here's a link to a page with a really lovely photograph and a little information. The image on the packet is obviously Matera.

This is a baked crispy crunchy snack with sesame seeds and poppy seeds. You can see from the photograph that it really is a tiny packet with not many little biscuits in it. And the biscuits themselves .... sadly not very exciting at all. The taste is a bit like water biscuit or matzo and the crunch is very hard. I can't detect any sesame or poppy seed taste at all.

Suitable for vegans says the packet. Well, that's nice. But if I was a vegan I think I would like something with a bit more taste. It's a shame the most exciting thing about this crispy snack seems to be the place it is baked. The Chef ate the chocolate biscuits with no complaints so I think they were a better option.

And here's a photo of the train speedometer which they show  in every cabin to assure you that you really are going that fast. 298 kilometres per hour is 185 mph.

Highlander Kiss My BBQ! (Gusto Barbecue)

The Chef and I have tried the Black Pepper Forever! and Tomato or Nothing! flavour crisps from Highlander. We discovered them at Italian railway stations and found them tasty, indeed pretty much irresistible. Especially the tomato flavour.

 

So when Noble Friend went to Rome for a family do I asked her to look out for a packet of Highlander crisps for the reluctant taste testers to try. Which she duly did. And the reluctant taste testers found this barbecue crinkle cut crisp really very good.

 

I quite liked them too and I'm not usually mad about BBQ/barbecue as a flavour. In fact sometimes I find it downright horrible. but not here.

 

Lovely crunch, nice rich colour and a very nice taste.

 

Sadly these crisps are no longer made in Scotland but for some strange reason Italian crisp giant San Carlo finds it a good plan to market these crisps with guys wearing kilts. Weird isn't it? But easily recognisable.

 

Highlander crisps: crunchy and brave!

Highlander Black Pepper Forever! (Gusto Pepe Nero)

Another packet of crinkle cut from Highlander Crisps by San Carlo. And I thought these would probably be be tastier than the Tomato or Nothing! flavour because - because black pepper is easy, and tomato don't always work so well - but I was wrong.

And the Chef was wrong because he had thought the same.

Don't get the wrong idea. Black Pepper Forever! is a fine flavour and nothing the matter with it, but to our surprise we liked the Tomato or Nothing! flavour better. A nice fine crinkle, good crunch and a tasty flavour. And very nice too.

This packet of crisps came from Milan railway station. In fact, we found it on our way to Florence and it whetted our appetite for the Kiss my BBQ! and Fight for Vinegar! flavours which we have not yet tried. The Tomato or Nothing! packet, as you know, came from Pisa. I guess we didn't visit enough different railway stations because we didn't spot these crisps in any shops. Another time perhaps.

And here's a final chunk of Florence.

Wacko's Perfidamente Buono Gusto Salami

And yet another offering from Italian crisp giant San Carlo, this one discovered at Milan railway station. Although frankly, if I'd been an ordinary person and not an internationally renowned food writer I should probably have walked past these crisps without a second glance.

And I would, I think, have been right. Because the design of this crisp packet, based (I can only suppose and only sort of ) on Homer Simpson, is pretty fairly off-putting for any person remotely grown-up. And the taste… it can't be aimed at adults.

Pity. I had hoped that a crispy snack tasting of salami might be rather good. But no. Why not do you suppose? A great big Italian food company ought to know what salami tastes like. And I was only wondering the other day why I had never seen a salami flavour crisp in Italy. Which I why I invested in this packet. And that, I guess, gives me the answer I was looking for: salami flavour crisps don't work.

Not bad crisps, not bad colour, a light crunch. But neither the Chef or I liked the flavour at all.

But I won (if that's the correct word) a brown "Style" toy keyring from the little Wacko's packet included with the crisps. Lucky me!

I have slightly struggled to find any information about these crisps online but it seems they have been around a little while. And I think they have ketchup, cheese, paprika and lightly salted flavours on offer. One can only hope that these are tastier than the new salami flavour. Which as I said, we really didn't like much at all.

Autentica Trattoria Bruschetti al Gusto Pomodoro e Basilico

Another packet of crispy snacks found at Pisa railway station (there are several shops) and I had the choice of tomato and basil or black olive. I chose the tomato and basil because I thought the black olive flavour might taste too strongly of olives. Which to be honest, I'm not completely mad about. I guess I was right (or the factory packed these Bruschetti incorrectly), because they taste tremendously of olives even though the flavour isn't olive. Must be the 5% genuine olive oil I suppose.

The Chef did not much enjoy these crunchy little Bruschetti but I did. Somewhat to my surprise I enjoyed them lot. Great big crunch, tiny little snack. And I really enjoyed the taste too. And guess who makes them? Of course, you guessed. The mighty San Carlo.

Next time I go back to Italy I will definitely look out for this crispy snack. They do Bruschetti, Chips and also Baghetti. So plenty to look forward to. I say next time because Italy is quite close. And although we haven't done it yet, we often talk about going for lunch at our favourite restaurant on Lake Maggiore. Best pudding in the world!

Anyway, in the meantime, because I found this packet in Pisa, some more pictures of Pisa. Which is so pretty. I mean, Florence is fabulous but so crowded. So why not check out Pisa if you are in the area?

Oh OK then. Since you've asked so nicely, here's the Leaning Tower of Pisa (other photos are a view along the Arno river, the Campo Santo, and the side of the Baptistry with typical Italian umbrella pines).

Highlander Tomato or Nothing! (Gusto Pomodoro)

Looking at this packet of crisps you would suppose it was a Scottish crisp. Well, it is, and it isn't. I think that Highlander Crisps used to be made at Bathgate in West Lothian but production there was closed in July 2013 and the owners (Italian crisp giants San Carlo) moved production to Italy.

It's all a bit confusing as the Highlander website has a .co.uk address but is in Italian. And you can't help but notice that the brand remains very Scottish looking. I mean, check out the kilt! In fact, the guys on the packaging all look as though they are taking part in a highland games somewhere; about to heft an enormous crinkle cut crisp in search of a world record.

Wearing a kit is not enough to be a Highlander, you need grit says the packet. These are ideal crisps for those with character, thick and crunchy with strong and intriguing flavours, with no compromises. Be crunchy, be brave, be a Highlander!

We found these crisps at Pisa railway station in Tuscany, and ate them on the short journey back to Florence where we stayed last week. And I must say I thought they were really tasty (even though they do feature celery which as you know is to be deplored). The Chef enjoyed them too.

Nice fine crinkle cut, good crunch although I really would not call them thick and crunchy, and the taste is a lot stronger than you usually get in a San Carlo crisp. In my experience Italian crisps tend to have a lighter flavour than most UK or US crisps, or even Swiss crisps so the good strong taste here was a welcome surprise.

Everyone knows the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so I have included two other Pisa monuments with today's crisp. If you ask me, the fabulous Baptistry (seen here with a little stretch of the Mediaeval walls) would be a world-renowned building if it wasn't for the Tower, and this little church on the bank of the Arno, Santa Maria della Spina, is pretty special too.

Pan Chips al Naturale

This Italian crispy snack was found in Switzerland, and I chose it simply because it looked so unlike most other crispy snacks we've tried.

Cotte al Forno (baked) says the packet, Golose sfogliatine croccanti (delicious crispy puffs). Baked perhaps, but not puffs. These little squares are in fact spectacularly flat. But then sometimes it seems to me that flat is very popular in Italy.

I provided myself with dip in advance because I thought these might need a little help in the taste department. It's a bit like eating a water biscuit  flavoured with olive oil (extra virgin of course) and scattered with salt. Quite nice in a slightly dull fashion.

I got sour cream and chive dip (my favourite) but in fact I might have been better to try hummus because these little squares or slightly-diamond-shapes remind me a little of the flat breads they serve at the local Turkish restaurant with the meze.

You know, the taste is sort of dull but I find myself rather liking it with or without the dip. Pretty good in fact. I'd really like to try one of the other flavours. Rosemary perhaps. Not so sure about the Bacon flavour... but I've been wrong before and probably will be again.

It's a shame these little squares are so fragile. An awful lot of them are broken and I don't think that has anything to do with their long journey to the UK. I notice that the tiny type on the front of the packet tells us that the product image is for illustration purposes only. So perhaps all this breakage is quite normal.

The back of the packet gives two websites for further information: www.onebreadfactory.it (which seems an odd name for an Italian company), and www.panchips.it. The first address defaults to the second, which truth be told does not give up much information except that there are six different Pan Chips flavours.

And because it is spring here's a photograph I took this week of some blossom. I don't know which of the many flowering cherries this is. It was planted by the side of the brook years ago and seems quite happy, but it's far too close to the great big weeping willow you can see in the background.

Crosta & Mollica Crostini Oregano

Delicious!

I picked up a bag of these tasty and very crunchy crispy snacks from Waitrose for a leaving party at work. Aren't they good?

Well, you can't tell until you try but let me tempt you with lots of yummy delicious crunchy goodness; made with local olive oil and oregano and twice baked for extra crispiness. "Altogether Italian" and made in a family bakery in Italy.

I must try these again. Crunch crunch crunch. Teeny weeny crunchy little garlic breads. Or maybe croutons. Only tasty oregano flavour. A little bit herby, a little bit salty and a whole lot of crunchiness.

There's an important distinction between crispy snacks I like, snacks I like and wonder if there is another flavour I can try, and crispy snacks that are so good I want another bag. The Chef was driving past the only place we have ever seen Seabrooks crisps this week (one of our very favourites) - so I asked him to stop off and buy another bag. Tragic news: they didn't have any. Oh no! Where are we going to find another bag?

Luckily I'm pretty sure I can get another bag of oregano crunchiness. Fingers crossed.

Anyhow, I very much like the Crosta & Molllica striped packaging too. It has gussets to make a good fat bag. On one side the gusset is yellow, and on the other; green. Very smart.

Crak's Finement Salé

Well, here's complicated. Crak's seems to be a Tuc brand, and Tuc seems to be owned by LU which is a French biscuit company (apparently from Nantes), and LU is in turn owned by Kraft Foods which is now called Mondelez International.

The weird thing is that I always thought Tuc was a UK brand. We used to have a TV commercial featuring a really annoying jingle: Tuc by itself is a snappy happy cracker, and a super snappy cracker with cheese. I think that's how it went.

Anyway, these little salted biscuits are perfectly OK but a little bit dull on their own. Quite a dull taste but in a really tasty way. I only bought one of the gussetted bags because inside the gusset it says "idéal pour le dipping!" and I couldn't resist. "Tout à fait adapter au dipping" it says.

Unfortunately this will be le dipping as practiced in France and the UK. And we were trying these in Switzerland and couldn't find any dips quite suited to the task; not even in the huge Co-op in Conthey. We tried the local version of guacamole but it was very thick and more something you might spread on toast rather than use as a dip.

I think they would be very good indeed with a proper dip. Nice crunch, good salty taste (but not too much) and a little bit sweet,  and in fact a rather pretty shape. Not bad Crak's.... or Tuc.... or LU.

I tried looking on the LU website for further information but it seems you can only access it in Metropolitan France. Which is a shame because I would have like to find out more. Weirdly made in Italy.

One to try again if I had a proper dip.

San Carlo Virtual Coni di Mais dal Gusto Deciso

Sounds glamorous doesn't it? But what does it mean? Basically, according to Google Translate, it means San Carlo crisps (we knew that), in a style mysteriously called "virtual" (meaning "virtual"), and the flavour is corn flavour cones.

Corn flavour cones? Well, maize flavour cones. Which is interesting because the flavour is a little bit barbecue (sorry, obviously that should be BBQ) and not really very maize. Or that's the aroma when the packet is opened. But the cones bit is right. Slightly ridgy cones of extruded maize crunchiness.

In the list of ingredients (under the heading "Snack di Mais") we have the giveaway aroma di affumicatura: smoky flavour. Well, yes, But why hide the flavour away in the small print?

Maybe Italians expect virtual crispy snacks to taste smoky. Who knows? Obviously not me. The flavour seems to be a mix of "smoky flavour", salt, sugar, paprika, mustard and rosemary. But what you get is a quite tasty mild BBQ taste.

Since 1936, San Carlo crisps have been singing the same song, genuine as ever and always fresh says the website , but isn't at all helpful as to why these crispy snacks are called virtual. But then if you take a look at the list of their other snacks they are called dixi, rodeo, cross and b.bacon. Well, if I ever get back to Italy again I will look out for dixi, rodeo et al. The cross snack (incredibilimente gustoso) looks rather fun; but I don't suppose I will ever discover why the San Carlo popcorn is called pony pop.

I tried these out on the reluctant taste testers at work, who are I have to say, a lot less reluctant than they used to be. Anyway, they rather enjoyed these softly BBQ flavoured cones. One tester said she was thrilled because they reminded her so much of the crispy snacks she ate so much of (so many of?) when she visited Thailand.

I thought these tasted OK but a little bit greasy. It seems everyone else liked them rather a lot.

San Carlo Più Gusto Vivace

A third crisp flavour from the multipacco we found in Baveno in Northern Italy. And really rather good. I like these più gusto flavours. The flavour is certainly not strong by UK crisp standards but very pleasant nonetheless.

This flavour is called "vivace" which means lively, brisk, bright, vivid or vivacious (or vicious as my spell checker would prefer). I'm not sure any of those words would be  my choice, certainly not my first choice, of name for this tasty but quite gentle flavour.

The flavour seems to be mostly paprika and mustard. Which sounds a fairly nasty combination. But the taste is really good.

These crisps are quite small with a light crunch. Not a great deal of flavour dust. A very nice crisp though.

The reluctant taste testers at work again snacked these down pretty quickly. Everyone thought they were very nice. This sounds as though I am damning them with faint praise but I think very nice about sums them up.

Usually I complain that bags of crisps are far too large but we could have done with more than 25g of these. Lucky thing the multipacco had two bags in so I have a spare at home. But perhaps not for long.

San Carlo Piu Gusto Pomodorini di Stagione

So I think these crisps are seasonal tomato flavour.  This masterful translation is based on years of not eating quatro stagione pizzas (because I don't want artichokes or mushrooms on my pizza, or olives come to that). Google translate prefers "tomato season" but that doesn't sound like a crisp flavour to me.

This packet of crisps is one of the multipacco selection we picked up at the Carrefour supermarcato in Stresa. So it is also one of the piu gusto flavours; in this case it seems, with a mediterranean passion. And why not?

Well, the flavour is obviously tomato, but as so often I think it doesn't really taste of tomato but more of a high quality tomato ketchup. It's odd how difficult tomato flavour is to get right. I've tried a number of different tomato flavour crisps and not a one has actually tasted of tomato. Ketchup, soup, chutney yes; tomato no.

Interestingly the crisps seem to be rather larger than the lime and pink peppercorn crisps from the same multipacco. You'd suppose they would be made on the same production line with the same potatoes. Perhaps it was chance.

The packaging tells me that these crisps have been prepared with undiminished passion since 1936. But this is a simple and natural product with only three ingredients: potatoes, oil and salt. Oh, and then "at the end of cooking to give a hint of flavour sprinkle with the most delicious natural flavours: with taste become more" (Google translate again!).

Whether it is the mediterranean passion or the hint of flavour sprinkle, these are rather good crisps. Not a terrifically strong flavour but very pleasant.

Very easy to finish a small packet without noticing how many you've eaten. Oh, and I have another bag...

ICA Crik Crok Stick

We found these Crik Crok Sticks from Italian firm ICA at the supermercato in Baveno. And look! They seem to have their own radio station. How weird is that? Who ever heard of a brand of crisps with a radio station?

Crikey! I logged into radiocrikcrok.com and it really is a radio station. Well, OK, it's a website that appears to be a radio station. An unfortunately mostly plays the kind of music I really don't like that much (not really very surprised) and rather too loud.

While I was writing this the DJ was Emauele Carocci (the poor man is apparently on air from 15:00 - 20:00) and currently playing are Zedd feat. Mattew Koma and Miriam Bryant with Find You followed closely by Cris Cab with Liar Liar. Never heard of either of them. And then we got In My Place by Coldplay. At least I've heard of them.

As I've mentioned before, my Italian isn't the best so I'm afraid I can't make out why this packet of crisps should be associated with an online radio station.

Anyway, I thought these very thin sticks of potato very very old fashioned. They reminded me of the crisps we used to have when I was little. Quite a strong crunch, not very salty so not a lot of flavour, and very oily.

However, I tried them on the reluctant taste testers at work and they proved very popular. So at least they didn't go to waste.

ICA has a gripping website with loads of exciting Crik Crok crisps to read about. They come in flavours as diverse as Gold & Blue (speciality blue potatoes from France), Honey & Mustard, Ungarisch (possibly a Hungarian flavour like... goulash?), Surprise (like Kinder Surprise with a toy in - I think), Snack is Fun (what sort of flavour can that be I wonder?) and Bell'Italia which sounds rather good.

I feel cheated. I think we bought the dullest Crik Crok crisps around. Maybe next time we go to Italy we'll find something more exciting.

I can't believe I've listened to Radio Crik Crok the whole time I was writing this. Even the 8 o'clock news (in Italian) which seemed to mention Silvio Berlusconi quite often. And here's an interesting thing. You can like Crik Crok crisps on facebook (not unusual) but their page is rather dull. You can also like Radio Crik Crok which has a rather more exciting page and one of their friends is Forza Italia which is Silvio Berlusconi's political party. And guess what? There's a photo of the lovely Silvio taking a selfie. Of course there is. Does he eat Crik Crok crisps we ask ourselves?

Well well. You never know what you're going to find when you open a packet of crisps. Of course, you usually get potatoes in some form or other but you never know what else will turn up.

San Carlo Più Gusto Lime e Pepe Rosa

Mmmn these are good.

We found them in the Carrefour supermarcato in Stresa on Lake Maggiore in a multipacco which has six bags of three different flavours. So far so yum.

This is a light flavour - not too heavy - but a really good one. The crisps are not too large, with a good light crunch, and not too many breakages. I think they would work really well with some guacamole. And the taste is great.

But, look at the name. It says piu gusto. Which I think means more flavour, more taste. Which leads me to think that the two Italian flavours of crisp I have tried this week have a very slight flavour (from a British point of view) because that's what Italians expect and like. And that's why I thought them a bit dull.

These have more flavour, although not too much, and for that reason I think, I like them better.

Lots of sharp lime with a very nice heat from the pink peppercorns. This is a very simple flavour but I noshed down the whole 25g packet without pausing to think about it. Damn! I'll have to open another packet to photograph the crisps. Although, they don't actually look terribly exciting so there's not a lot to see. They look just like your average crisp. And none the worse for that. And not really a lot more to say. But I have another packet and I will happily eat that too.

So here's a photo of Lake Maggiore instead of a portrait of some crisps.