Vico Extra Craquantes Nature

Another choice from a French motorway service station. They look kind of dull don’t they? And it’s true this simply salted crinkle cut crisp isn’t that exciting. But, it is a simple flavour extremely well executed.

Fabulous crunch, just the right amount of salt. Yum yum.

There really is nothing else to say, except if you like crunchy, salty crisps you will like these crisps.

Very simple. Very good.

Kambly Apérifeuilles Nature (+ recipe for Sour Cream & Chive Dip)

And here’s another apéro snack from Kambly, and as usual it comes in a silver baggie inside a cardboard box. It looked nice on the packet but when the Chef and I first tried this crispy snack we thought we’d made a mistake. It’s a bit dull.

Sometimes nature indicates a ready salted sort of flavour. Sometimes it’s more of a nothing. And despite the good crunch this crispy snack could do with a bit of assistance.

In the U.K. I would usually make tracks for the nearest supermarket and reach for a sour cream and chive dip. Sadly, here we are in beautiful Switzerland, social distancing in the time of Coronavirus, and although we can shop for food the bad news is that tasty dips are a bit thin on the ground. We have never seen a dip intended to be eaten with a crispy snack in Switzerland. Odd eh? Especially as the Swiss are quite keen on crispy snacks.

So not wanting to waste this leaf-shaped snack I looked online and decided to make my own dip.

There are a load of dip recipes available online. Some are as basic as chop a bunch of chives and mix into sour cream. Others are considerably more complicated and lots include mayonnaise which isn’t the same here as it is at home. So I did a little reading and a bit of thinking and came up with my own concoction.

2 spoons sour cream (or soured cream)
3 spoons Greek yogurt
A bunch of chives chopped small or snipped with kitchen scissors
A small clove of garlic chopped small
Lemon juice, about a teaspoon
Lemon zest... a little bit: see how much you think
Salt & Pepper to taste
And a teaspoon of sugar

I used a pudding spoon instead of a cup as my basic measure. I wasn’t at all sure this would taste good so I didn’t make too much to start with. This dip tastes ok when it’s freshly made but whole a lot better after a night in the fridge, and better again the next day. None of the recipes I read mentioned that important detail. But this snack plus 2 day old (matured) dip works very well indeed.

The packaging recommends you try this crispy snack with trout mousse or “whipped trout”. Trout is just about my least favourite fish and my friends know I don’t eat any fish (except smoked salmon which is different) for fun. So can you imagine how thrilled I was when a close relation who has known me my entire life gave me a smoked trout roulade for Christmas one year?  But if you are a fish fan perhaps the trout mousse suggestion might work for you.

Lay's Gourmet Nature Très Croustillant

Dropping in to the odd motorway service station on the way to our hotel in rural France I was buying Christmas presents for Dear Friend in Buffalo when I noticed this very nice looking packet of crisps. We've had a number of plain or simply salted crispy snacks on the agenda recently so why not try another? And they turn out to be rather special.

Très croustillant says the packet and très croustillant they are.

Lay's may produce some interesting flavours but for the most part the actual crisps aren't very exciting. But I am please to report these handsome gold crisps are very nice indeed.

Lovely crunch, nice colour and pleasant lightly salted taste. Very impressive. Good sized (small) bag too. Thanks very much Lay's.

The Chef and I taste tested these very handsome French crisps on the private terrace outside our comfy ground floor room. In fact, having had a lavish breakfast, we basically had them for lunch before embarking on that day's visit to a chateau.

Obviously you can't buy this exact crisp in the UK because we don't have Lay's crisps here, but I wonder if Walkers produce something very similar?

After lunch we visited the amazing Chateau de Coucy. It was a massive medieval castle which had survived very well into modern times apart from some earthquake damage (yes, who knew they have huge earthquakes in Northern France?) until it was criminally destroyed by the German army during WWI. What remains is still extraordinarily impressive and well worth a visit. Especially if you are a fan of the Anthony Price spy novel "Other Paths to Glory". Or indeed Barbara Tuchman's tour de force "A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century".

Chateau de Coucy in 1917

Casino Chips Nature

I've been feeding the  beautifully carved window ledges with beeswax

OK, so you might not think these are going to be the most exciting crisps in the world but let's take a closer look.

For a start, the brand, Casino, is a supermarket group headquartered at Saint-Etienne. I once visited a massive branch near San Tropez and thought it must be the largest shop in the world. Mind you, that was back in 1991. Or was it 1992? But never mind that. I found these crisps in a motorway service station: where else? Maybe Casino own the little shop? Or maybe they sell their products in non-Casino-owned shops? I don't know.

Anyhow, this 100g bag of salted crisps looks nice and simple.

But wait! It may contain traces of gluten, milk, mustard or celery. Not celery? How could you accidentally add celery (my nemesis: it should never ever be eaten at all if you ask me) to a crisp? Oh well.

And then the instructions for enjoying these crisps are a little unusual. The packet suggests I put them in the oven for 3 or 4 minutes at "thermostat 3" (would that be gas mark 3 do you suppose?) before tucking in. They don't recommend you stick them in the microwave. Most packets of crisps probably expect you to tear them open with your teeth and start eating at once.

Of course in the household of an internationally renowned crisp reviewer we open the packet carefully with the aid of the kitchen scissors. I'll just go and do that.

And? Quite a fine cut crisp. Pale colour. Not too much salt. In fact, rather an old fashioned style of crisp. Not bad. And heated up? Mmnnn.... Yes, OK. Yup, quite nice. But not much different from the cold version.

And today is amazingly sunny and fabulous. So here is a photograph taken from our lovely garden. It has been very overcast for a couple of days. But now...

Vico La Classique Nature

Another packet of crisps from a motorway service station in France; they really are amazingly good sources of crispy snacks, but then so they are in the UK so I shouldn't be surprised. And maybe I wouldn't be so impressed at the shopping opportunities on the autoroute if I was ever allowed into a real supermarché or even one of the fabulous hypermarchés they have in France.

In the UK crisp varieties are immediately obvious to me (except when they randomly redesign the packaging); in France I have to think a bit harder. It's not always easy to pick new varieties of crispy snack without spending an age reading all the labels. And as we usually stop only to get fuel or for what is euphemistically known as a comfort break I'm not expected to take very long because otherwise we'd be late for our hotel or ferry. So I was a little disappointed that I had picked a slightly dull-looking packet of crisps.

But what can you do? Nature (that's what we used to call ready salted) is a classic flavour, and these crisps have been going for plus de 50 ans  or so it says on the packet.

Made in France with pommes de terres preservées, which could mean a protected or traditional variety of potato (I'm really not sure). We are invited to enjoy these crisps as an aperitif: VICO, le roi de l'aperitif it says on the packet. And, er, it is a bit strange how sometimes it is Vico, and sometimes VICO. I can't make out which is correct.

These rather dull-sounding, not very special looking salted crisps taste just fine. Lovely crunch. Terrific retro salted flavour. Very nice old-fashioned crisps. And tip top with dip. And they have the little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly on the back of the packet.

Zweifel original chips Nature

Basically the ready salted flavour - sea salt - crisp from Swiss crisp giant Zweifel. And extremely good they are too.

We went to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda at Martigny to see the summer exhibition. Works by Renoir borrowed from museums like the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and other big international galleries in Moscow or Basle, but also from quite a number of lesser-known or completely private collections. That's what's so nice about the exhibitions at the Fondation Gianadda; you often get to see works of art which are not usually on show. So you get a really well-known painting hanging next to something that may never have been seen by the general public before. And although Martigny is very near the Swiss border with both France and Italy, the gallery is not completely mobbed so you can get close to the art works and really see them.

Also on show were some lovely photographs by Michel Darbellay of the Fondation's collection of sculpture, and some amazing original designs for stained glass windows in two chapels in Martigny.

Exhausted by all this art and culture we sat down in the cafe and had a glass of wine and a coffee. And a packet of Zweifel crisps. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Zweifel don't muck about with fancy packaging. They don't mess with crinkles for their crisps (they have other brands for that as we shall see). But they do make great crisps.

Not quite as good as Seabrooks from Yorkshire (which is a superb crisp) but still pretty sensational.

Lay's Chips à l'Ancienne Nature

Another packet of crisps from a French motorway service station. I'm fairly sure we got these in Alsace in the summer.

These traditional style crisps come in Nature (which appears to mean no added flavouring), Jambon Fumé (smoked ham), Grillade d'été (barbeque?), and Chevre, which I imagine means goats cheese rather than goat. Although you never know. And then there's Chips Paysannes Nature which from the very small picture on the back of this packet I take to be crinkled crisps with no added flavouring.

You can tell these crisps are supposed to be a traditional style because the man shown on the upper right of the packet has grey hair, is wearing glasses, and has a very old style apron to protect his red and white striped shirt.

And if you look closely the packaging is printed as though on traditional brown parcel paper.

Unfortunately these crisps are not very exciting. Good crunch. Look like perfectly normal crisps. But oh dear, how dull!

Maybe crisps used to taste like this. If so I'm glad we have more exciting stuff to choose from these days.

Nothing the matter with these crisps at all except they don't really taste very thrilling. Shame.