Lay’s Tomato flavoured

And… here we are again. This time with a tomato flavoured crisp from Lay’s which I think started life in Poland. It seems likely that this product was not originally intended to be sold in the UK, but I bought the packet in my local Turkish shop here in North London. According to the lists of ingredients, you should be able to find these crisps in PL, HU, CZ, SK, LT, LV, EE, HR and SI. 

The packaging of all sorts of products, from potato crisps to shampoo, is an interesting way to learn foreign languages. In this case though, there is no list of ingredients in any language that I actually speak. Sadly I have no knowledge of Hungarian or Lithuanian. Or even Polish. How careless of me. So the information on this packet isn’t going to act as a Rosetta Stone for me today. It’s a pity because I find the differences (and similarities) between languages fascinating.

However, the front of this packet is prominently labelled in English, so that’s a fairly big clue.

OK, so this is a tomato flavoured potato crisp. The crisps are finely cut, maybe that’s the Polish preference? And they do taste fairly tomatoey.

But once again, I have here a crisp which is perfectly edible, but to me at least, tastes far too sharp to accurately give us crisp fans a genuine taste of the advertised flavour.

Not bad. But… No, I mean, it’s not a bad crisp but I think tomato is a surprisingly difficult flavour to get right.

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. 

Article in The Guardian newspaper about crisp flavours (worth a look)

 

Oh dear! I hadn’t realised I had abandoned all of you crisp fans for so long. There have been so many other things to keep up with. I must write up some more crispy snacks very soon.

But forgive me and do read this article from The Guardian this weekend. It’s very interesting, well, I say very interesting, and of course to me it is…. So let’s say you might find it an interesting read. It’s about crisp flavours.

See what you think.

Lay’s Balenciaga flavour clutch bag

Many thanks to Beth Eats Chips on Instagram for alerting me to the fabulous Lay’s Chips x Balenciaga colab (or vice versa), if that’s what it is, recently featured at Paris Fashion Week.

I have looked at the Balenciaga website and I can’t see any signs that you can actually buy these fabulous crisp-bag bags yet - but here’s what you need to know. Because don’t we all have $1,500 to spare. But what a gorgeous design. Something to lust after. And then buy a packet of crisps instead.

Maybe Lay’s could bring out a Balenciaga flavour crisp? Smelling of leather? Hmmn. For real people like me who can’t even contemplate paying that much for a bag, let’s pick up a bag of crisps.

Lay’s Sour Cream & Onion

And here is the very final bag of crisps sent by kind Missouri Taste Tester. What a lot of fun we’ve had trying out a whole load of crisps brand new to us. Apparently this is Missouri Taste Tester’s favourite crisp.

Oh dear. I didn’t terribly like them. I don’t know why. I just didn’t. Sometimes you just can’t put your finger on whatever it is. But hey! See above: I don’t fancy this flavour but someone else does.

The Chef thought they were all right. Which isn’t the most enthusiastic review in the world. He did, of course, eat most of the packet. If I don’t like something I stop eating: it doesn’t stop the Chef. So it’s a lot harder to tell what he really likes. Or doesn’t.

Lay’s White Mushrooms with Sour Cream

The first thing to say about this Russian crisp is that it emphasises the colour of the mushrooms. Do you suppose there is another crisp featuring brown mushrooms? It’s quite possible.

The packet advertises a ФУТБОЛ (football) themed competition. With exciting prizes including yellow Lay’s branded hoodies and suitcases. 

I thought at first this must be to celebrate the 2020 UEFA European Football Championships (which happen every 4 years just like the Olympics). But in fact I think it is the Champions League, in this case with special reference to the ultra famous Lionel Messi. Although, having looked at pictures of Lionel online, I am not sure I would recognise him from this packet. Of course I pay little or no attention to football but I am aware that all football competitions have been somewhat scuppered by the coronavirus this year.

So what do we think of the crisp? Quite fine cut, quite pleasant. Not a flavour the Chef and I had ever encountered before... mostly I think because we don’t get the opportunity to try Russian crisp flavours very often. Or at all. Rather subtle and gentle as a flavour but I could definitely pick the mushrooms and the cream (but not that it was sour cream). 

It’s interesting that the British like very strong flavours in their crispy snacks (try this delicious Salty Dog Salt & Vinegar crisp for example, and Italians prefer something considerably more subtle like this Gusto Chipsburger crisp. The French fall somewhere in the middle, and I haven’t yet tried enough Russian crispy snacks to draw any conclusion. This particular Russian crisp definitely falls into the subtle category, but perhaps a stronger mushroom flavour wouldn’t be an improvement. 

Lay’s Strong Hunting Sausage

Right, let’s start by saying that I am pretty sure the flavour of this crinkle cut crisp is Hunting Sausage; not Strong Hunting Sausage. I think the strong relates to the “heat-ometer” shown on the packet.

According to the super useful, but not always tremendously accurate, google translate, this is a packet of chips (or crisps) for beer. 

I find it an interesting idea that some crisps are apparently created specifically to eat while drinking beer. This discriminates against people who don’t drink beer, or can’t drink alcohol. And gives the weird idea that you cannot enjoy this crisp without a bottle of beer. And, much worse, shows that this crisp is marketed at men. I really don’t approve of sexism in crisps. Yes, I am well aware that a lot of women drink beer, but the concept of beer chips seems definitely aimed at men. The strong flavour is another clue.

This packet of crisps, which I found on eBay (it’s amazing what you can buy on eBay), has lists of ingredients in Russian, Kazakh, Kyrgyzs, and Georgian, which is a beautiful script but I did draw the line at trying to plumb that one into google translate. Sorry everyone. So, anyway I guess Lay’s sell them across a great swathe of what used to be the USSR.

I know I said it would be cheating to order fancy crisps online, but hey! this is the time of coronavirus so how else am I going to find an exciting crispy snack to taste test?

And after a great deal of effort (using the Cyrillic alphabet) I can tell you that the flavour is built with beef, onion, garlic, chilli, coriander and rosemary. At least, I think I can. I’m sure you lot imagine the Chef and I just prance about munching crisps the entire time. In face I seldom prance. And in this case I put in quite a lot of effort copying the very tiny Russian script on the packet onto my iPad in order to translate it for you.

And silly me. I had imagined the sausage would be made from the hunter’s bag. Perhaps with the deer or pheasant or boar he shot. But a little research leads me to think it’s actually a tasty snack the hunter packs in his bag to sustain him (or her) on the hunt. There are German and Polish versions of these sausages too.

The Chef seemed to enjoy these crinkle cut crisps but I confess I’m not that keen myself. The drips themselves are fine, but I wasn’t that mad about the taste. Perhaps that’s because I don’t drink beer? But I would like Tech Taste Tester to give his opinion: he is a big fan of meaty crisps which I usually am not.

A fascinating crisp flavour though. Not something that would occur to UK crisp manufacturers I imagine. But perhaps that’s because you don’t get simply squadrons of people rushing out to shoot wild animals in the U.K. the way you do in countries like Poland, Germany, Russia, or even Switzerland.

Photo by Tech Taste Tester (stolen off Instagram)

PS When the Chef and I escaped Swiss lockdown and made it back to London I was able to pass on the remains of the packet (about half) to Tech Taste Tester. I have now received his report. He says, “I can confirm these are pretty lovely crisps. The crunch is nice - the texture reminds me of some other crisps and maybe it’s non British crisps? Our crinkle is usually denser or something. The flavour is nice - not sure why there’s a STRONG-O-METER as they’re not particularly spicy/hot. One nice fact is they don’t make your hands smell awful which some meat crisps do.” So now we have the opinion of a meaty-flavour crisp expert.