Rubio Pijo Patatas Fritas en Sartén Sabor Limon y Pimienta

We went to the rather wonderful Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern and after admiring some art (Paul Klee obviously, and some Bridget Riley), we sat down for a snackish style of lunch. And picked up these lovely crisps. 

What a lovely crisp! The lemon and pepper work perfectly together and the Chef and I snacked down the whole packet all too quickly. 

Quite a fine cut, a good bite and a great flavour. What more could you want? Well, perhaps it would be nice to find a shop where we could buy these Spanish crisps again.

Delicious!

Zentrum Paul Klee

Vicente Vidal Patatas Fritas Sabor Huevo Frito

Still a Student (although not for much longer) taste tester went to Barcelona and brought us this exciting packet of potato crisps. How nice is that? We don’t see her very often, but when we do she comes bearing packets of crisps.

And, knowing that the reluctant taste testers and I have tried all manner of exotic crispy snacks Still a Student went out of her way to purchase something interesting. Something she felt sure we would not have tried already. And she succeeded there.

Actually, my favourites are nearly always very simple flavours, but that doesn’t stop me encouraging the taste testers to attempt something fancier.

So, what did we think? Well, this is certainly a fabulous crisp. Some of them very large indeed and with a nice crunch. But for me the taste was just plain weird. Fried egg flavour! What?

The saltiness is nice, but the taste of egg is just wrong. And it is a true eggy taste. It's a bit like the lovely bits of black lace around the edge of a properly fried egg (in my view) but this is not right as a crisp flavour.

However, taste tester from the New Forest was very taken. She said she could eat this crisp every day for the rest of her life! It takes all sorts doesn’t it? And it’s not as though no-one else was snacking up these crisps. Because to be honest, most of us felt this flavour was simply too weird.

Since these crisps come from Barcelona they are named in Spanish and, I suppose, Catalan. “Batatas Fritas con Sabora Ovo Frito”.

Sarriegui Patatas Fritas Con Sal

Managerial taste tester and his wife stopped at a Hackney pub for a drink on a very hot day and by chance discovered this Spanish crisp. And being mightily impressed they bought a packet for me and the reluctant taste testers to try.

This is a very simple crisp. Very finely cut and rather smaller than I was expecting, these crisps taste mostly of crisp: not one of the overexcitable flavours that manufacturers favour nowadays. And the reluctant taste testers were quite taken with the simplicity.

Architectural taste tester (she who hardly comments) loved this crisp. Like an old fashioned crisp she said.

But Managerial taster tester wasn't so impressed on second tasting and wondered why this crisp seemed so familiar? Taste tester from the New Forest discussed it seriously with him and they finished by deciding it reminded them of Pom Bears. Really? Are they sure?

I can honestly say I had quite forgotten we had tried this crisp before. And below you can see what we thought in February 2016

Another packet of crisps from the wonderful Fortnum & Mason.

It occurs to me that you may not know what Fortnums is. You may not realise the shop was opened in 1707 and is as much a tourist attraction as a shop. Although it is a proper shop and sells many wonderful and desirable things. Shopping at Fortnums online is fun, but to get the full flavour you really need to go there in person.

Fortnums is only just around the corner from Buckingham Palace. You can visit both in one day: the Palace in the morning followed by lunch at Fortnums. I know it can be done. Plus you can then go across the road to the Royal Academy or just go shopping in the Burlington Arcade. A great day out.

Anyway, this is a pretty wonderful crisp. A lovely fine cut crisp, a beautiful crunch, a little bit oily by British crispy standards, but not too much salt; just enough really. And because the crisps are rather oily you get a lot of salt stuck to the inside of the packet. Just swipe your finger around the inside of the packet and lick it.... yum. A real old fashioned crispy experience.

Not surprising that the crisps are a little oily perhaps as they are made with 60% extra virgin olive oil, and 40% sunflower oil.

I think most of us liked this Spanish crisp a lot. Certainly we found it difficult to stop eating them.

Although... as the crisps were so fine cut there were quite a lot of broken crisps at the bottom of the packet. And Tech taste tester said he could not help thinking he was looking at a bowl of cornflakes.