Red Leicester Cheesies

These tiny cubes of cheesy crispy snack are slightly larger than, say, a rice crispy. But with a rather different bite. They are very light so you don’t get many cubes in your 20g packet.

I must say I was a little surprised at the flavour. Many cheesy snacks are very sweet. And not actually all that cheesy. These Red Leicester Cheesies are not at all sweet, more sharp, and actually do taste of cheese. 

Perhaps this is because the only ingredient is cheese. The packet tells us there are no carbs, no sugar and no junk. And also they are carefully labelled high protein. Everything has to be full of protein these days, doesn’t it? Instagram is even full of people drinking protein coffee which I think I will manage without.

I’m not sure that I would want to eat more than 20g of these Cheesies at a time, but I might change my mind if I had a glass of nicely chilled white wine to hand. Or perhaps a dry sherry.

Not the most photogenic of snacks but you can see that I ate most of them before I thought to take a photograph.

By the way, I shouldn’t have to say this but I will: nothing that appears on this blog has anything to do with AI. I eat all my own snacks and write all my own words using my own brain. Scientists keep telling us that using our brains is a good thing so I will try to continue doing just that.

Migros M Classic Triangles Paprika

Another packet of crispy snacks from Swiss supermarket Migros (but manufactured in The Netherlands). And this time not shaped like tiny turtles, but like triangles. It really is unusual. I have never seen a triangle shaped snack before. Well, yes, tortilla chips are triangular, but not like this.

Normally I would say I love an extruded smooshed up maize based snack. And these triangles certainly do have a nice bite. And what’s more, they don’t gum themselves to your teeth like so many such snacks do. 

But, most unfortunately, I don’t really like the taste. The paprika taste I am used to is slightly sweeter and nothing like so smoky. I know smoky flavours are all the rage these days, but I am not convinced. I can do without the smokiness thank you. And let’s get rid of the slightly greasy aftertaste please.

I did manage to eat almost an entire packet in one sitting out of a sort of addiction to the triangle crunch, and for my pains I got smelly orange fingers. The smell lasted through several thorough hand washings, an overnight sleep (not just a quick nap) and a bath. 

I really would like to try this crispy snack in a different flavour; but I think it only comes in paprika.

A good try though: the shape is great.

Jacob’s Mini Cheddars Bangin’ Cheese Burger Flavour

Oh deary me. I was hoping that this Mini Cheddars flavour was going to be a banging (or bangin’ - which I really would prefer not to say) cheeseburger flavour. But I think it’s more about the cheese than the burger. Hmmm. They’ve created a range that celebrates foods that would be nothing without cheese. Which is not how I think about a cheeseburger. 

And on reading the list of ingredients it looks as though this crispy snack ought to be vegetarian, but I can’t find anything on the packaging to tell me if that’s the case. It does say that “no burgers have been flipped in the making of this product” and “flavouring only” but even though I can’t find any meat products in the list, I still can’t find any veggie label on the packaging. Odd.

The usual small round biscuits, crunchy and tasting of cheese… and smoky (possibly flame grilled?) flavour.

Unfortunately this crispy snack absolutely does not taste of cheeseburgers. You can only imagine how disappointing that is for me.

I couldn’t find this snack on the Jacob’s website so perhaps it is no longer available in actual shops. So thanks to a well known online purveyor of practically everything.

Tesco Mocha Peanut & Dark Chocolate Mix

This Tesco snack looked as though it might be rather a tasty packet of fancy peanuts and chocolate. It reminded the Chef and me of the fabulous KP Honey Roast Peanuts (sadly we think this is no longer available). But it’s nothing like so tasty.

For a start, I don’t much fancy chocolate coated peanuts. Nothing like so tasty as chocolate coated raisins or honeycomb. And then I really wasn’t taken with the chocolate cappuccino malt balls: I could manage without another ever again. And finally, there are far too many nasty little (sort of leftover) plain peanuts which if you ask me do not add to the experience.

Looks a glamorous tasty snack. Not sure it really is. Bit of a disappointment. On the other hand, the Chef absent mindedly ate almost the entire packet.

Carrefour Gaufrettes á la Ciboulette et á l’Ail (footballs)

As you probably remember I am mad for cheese footballs. For some reason, practically everyone I know despises them and/or refuses to even try them. And one person went to the trouble of leaving a very poor review on this very blog, practically Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, to say how horrible they are.

Don’t pay any attention. I fully admit that the squishy stuff you get inside the little waffle is nothing like real cheese, but that’s not the point. And in this case the squishy stuffing is flavoured with chives and garlic which makes them a little bit different.

In fact, the difference means that there’s a whole lot more taste than in the cheesy versions, which in turn means you (this means me) can’t eat so many little footballs at once. Which means the little silver baggy you get in the cardboard box lasts longer.

I liked this new to me taste very much. But to be honest I love the cheesy version so much that I wasn’t that sure about this different version.

As ever, the footballs look exactly as they do on the box so I didn’t take a photo. Although that could be because I ate the whole packet rather quickly despite what I wrote earlier. But believe me, they do look the same as the illustration on the packet.

Carrefour Mini Choux Goût Chèvre et Poivre

I wasn't sure if I had tried this crispy snack before... but apparently not. Or at least if I have, I called it something else. The Chef picked up a couple of boxes of crispy snacks for me the last time he drove through France. The ones the French call aperitifs. I really like this style of snack a lot. I learned to my cost that the reluctant taste testers are very suspicious. And quite often won't even attempt these snacks (they don't care for goats cheese).

But I retired from work recently. I miss most of the taste testers a lot. But hey! I don't have to consider whether they are going to like things or not. I shall probably post a lot less now. Because it isn't good for you to eat too many crisps and crispy snacks. If you divide 60g between 10 people it can't hurt... but if you eat the whole packet each time it won't do you any good at all.

Anyway, this is a lovely snack. The mini "choux" pastry exterior is crunchy quite unlike real choux pastry, but it tastes right. And the lovely soft gloopy goat cheese and pepper filling tastes great. I loved it but I can think of several people who wouldn't like it at all. I say yum yum. But you need to make your own mind up.

Carrefour have branches all over France, and I'm sure I've been to one in Mallorca too. I guess they also operate in Belgium and the Netherlands. Minisoezen anyone?

Carrefour Cracker met Gouda

This crispy snack is called “crackers” I don’t know why. Because on the back of the box it's called a biscuit in French, and actually, in English I would call it a crispy snack, or indeed a cheesy biscuit. It's more of a sort of a biscuit bite than a cracker bite

It's a crunch cheesy bite and very tasty with it. I liked this little box of gouda crackers very much indeed.

Carrefour is of course a French supermarket, with ties to the Netherlands (and Mallorca if nowhere else in Spain), hence the two language labelling.

I can't always tell the difference between cheddar and gouda or emmental once they have been incorporated into a crispy snack (in real life of course it's different).

Lay's Heinz Tomato Ketchup Flavour

Well, the reluctant taste testers whined the other day when we tried a “ketchup” flavour crisp which was deemed not tomatoey enough, so what did we have to say about this offering from Lay's?

Good news for Noble Friend, who bought this little packet in Amsterdam, not only did she approve but the rest of the reluctant taste testers did too. Oh, except for Tall Elegant taste tester who didn’t fancy them at all.

The flavour seemed to be just exactly as advertised so we were all pleased with that. And a nice light crunch. Yes, we enjoyed this little packet of crisps. And please can anyone going to the Netherlands bring us another packet.

Lay's Pickles

Another Dutch crisp bought by Noble Friend on her recent visit to Amsterdam.

I was pretty sure Noble Friend would like this crisp because she is a massive fan of joopje sauce crisps and pickles is not unlike that very Dutch flavour. But I was pleased it was different enough for me to enjoy (I don’t really like joopje sauce). Tech taste tester compared this to a Monster Munch flavour... although without the furry child-friendly shape and texture and I think he liked it too.

Lay's crisps have quite a light crunch, so yes, not very like Monster Munch at all.

In French (on the back of the packet) this flavour is called Moutarde Pickles and in Dutch Aardappelchips met Piccalillysmaak. Which slightly begs the question: where does Pickles come from? Interesting.

Mnnn.... good said Cliffs of Moher taste tester as she crunched past me on the way out of the kitchen. I think we can say this was a success.

Lay’s Wokkels Paprika

Well, this is exciting. Noble Friend has been to Amsterdam and brought back some packets of crisps for the reluctant taste testers and me to try, and what fun; Wokkels are crispy spirals.

Cliffs of Moher taste tester was much struck by these crunchy spirals and I must say I thought they were very good too. Strangely not very tasty (which you know I like) at first bite, and then a hit of paprika. Very nice. Lovely light crunch, I think Cliffs of Moher would have liked more on the paprika front. But hey ho, it’s a pretty good snack.

I always wonder if spiral crispy snacks are going to have a hard inner er... spine?.. the way spiral pasta does. But in some mysterious way extruded potato copes with the shape better and you don’t get a harder core.

Apparently all the reluctant taste testers in the building (quite a lot of us work part time) really enjoyed this crispy snack. They all got snacked up quite quickly,

Apparently Noble Friend’s Antique Fan friend delights in pointing out suitable sources of crispy snacks for us to try so I mustn’t forget to thank him too.

And extra thanks to Noble Friend for the Van Gogh Museum bag. I’m so pleased she enjoyed visiting the museum.

Van Doesburg Cheese Filled Krisps Tin

So annoying. I wrote a whole post, filled in the labels section, published the post, shared it on face book and Google+ and wandered off to eat supper. After supper.... no post. All gone. Why does this happen? I have no idea.

Anyway.  Have you ever put a lot of stuff in storage for a while? It's very easy to forget what you own. OK, so it's hard to forget about sofas and dining room tables, but the bits and bobs and ornamental pigs fade away quite easily into the no-mans-land of memory. And when you went and picked up a bunch of boxes did you open one of them and wonder why?

Why did you save this lengthy correspondence with your friend in Morocco, why didn't you throw out this broken china dog ( I know it has a pretty face but...) or, oh look at this hat. It's got your mother's silk scarf tied around the brim. I know. It's tough throwing out your past life. The letters and cards from Morocco I have recycled. I'd be here 3 weeks from now still reading if I even started looking, and neither of us is famous (unless you could me: 135,000 readers and counting - no probably not) so someone would have to recycle it all some day; and the china dog has found a home with a friendly dog lover so I don't have to throw him away. And I'm going to keep the hat.

But sometimes you think amazing! I'm so pleased to find this again!

And here's an amazing one. I had completely forgotten about this little tin, and I don't remember where I got it, but what could be better?

This isn't a tin for my favourite KP Cheese Footballs. Instead it's for some football-like cheesy snacks made by Van Doesburg in the Netherlands. I've never seen them to try. Look tasty don't they?

On the tin there's an image of a windmill and a woman in Dutch national costume. She's even wearing clogs and clutching a handful of tulips to show how Dutch she is. So far so Dutch. Then there's a glass with a fizzy drink in it, and a .... strange kind of oval container with a sort of spout. What is that? Seriously, what is that strange container? Can it be a cocktail shaker?

Today's photographs aren't very good. The light was all wrong wherever I tried. I'm too impatient to wait until tomorrow and actually the forecast for tomorrow isn't much better so here we are with photographs taken too close to the window and the too much reflection. If you look hard enough you can even see that my camera is pink.

And here's the lid. It's a lovely little tin. A shame it looks as though these Krisps were made in the 1940s (websites in Dutch, which I don't speak).

Lay's Hamka's Original

Dutch taste tester's sister (also Dutch) (obviously) came to visit with her husband (he's also Dutch) and brought a pile of exciting (Dutch) treats with her. Including this very exciting packet of crisps (which are Dutch).

I often peer over Dutch taste tester's shoulder as she lusts after Dutch treats on Dutch websites (in Dutch); it seems you just can't buy Dutch goodies in this country. No, not even in London. Not what Dutch taste tester really wants, anyway. I had picked these crisps as something to lust after myself. And lo! here they are.

Wow! Much bigger than I was expecting. A whole mouthful all at once. Not a crisp at all of course, because it's made of maize, so more of a crispy snack in a similar sort of style to Monster Munch but in a checkerboard pattern. And not a scary Monster Munch style flavour.

Rather a smokey flavour to start off with, but more and more moreish as you have another, and yet another. In fact, very tasty. Sort of hammy, and sort of cheesy. And a lovely light crunch. Very nice.

So many thanks to Dutch taste tester's sister.

ROKA Cheese Crispies (re-post)

Boxing Day! A time to recover from the excessive eating and drinking of Christmas Day, although in fact the Chef and I really don't eat or drink that much. Our house will not be filled with tonnes of leftover Christmas pudding and turkey; we haven't bought any in the first place so we don't need to worry how to be creative with leftovers. For others it is a time to rush out and do a massive post Christmas shop. I have never really understood that so I don't know what everyone is shopping for, and I do feel sorry for the shop workers who probably worked late on Christmas Eve and then have to work Boxing Day too.

I am lucky. I can slump around doing nothing much and wonder why whoever it was thought I might like whatever it was they gave me? Please note that I am writing before Christmas Day, so I haven't opened any of my presents yet. So maybe I am wondering how they knew I would be so pleased? Yes, socks can be a fabulous present if they are made of cashmere, or you know what? Why not just give me a crispy snack?

Anyway, I would like to re-post one of my favourite crispy snacks. This is, and remains, one of my all time favourites. And always will be. I wrote this post in 2013.

A very long time ago in the 1960s we had a yellow and blue tin with a picture of a cow on it. And the ROKA biscuits lived in that tin. They were expensive - possibly because they came in a tin - so we didn't have them very often, and we called them Cow Biscuits. Because of the picture on the tin.

This is a very old memory but a real one; not prompted by photographs of very small me and my smaller brother eating crisps.

I don't know what happened to our original tin or tins but I found this on eBay. Amazing! Just how I remember it. I still need to attack it with wire wool  to get rid of the rust but I've got to say I'm pretty thrilled with my purchase.

But look at this: ROKA Cheese Crispies are still made, and they haven't changed a bit. Oh, they make all sorts of fancy new versions but the basic Crispie is just the same as ever. Or is it a Crispy? Well, anyway, it's a small cheese biscuity thing. And they still make them!

 These are very delicate little biscuits, like cheese straws in a way, with a delicate cheesy taste. It's Gouda cheese from The Netherlands - which does have a delicate taste. Nothing shouty like mature cheddar. I guess they're made in the same way as puff pastry with lots and lots of very fine layers, and they break along the fault lines between the layers. You really need to take care when you bite because otherwise a chunk will drop off and then it's gone forever.

I have a very strict rule about not eating stuff that falls on the floor. I gather some people have a 5 second rule but for me if it falls on the floor I'm not eating it. And that would be a waste.

Cheese Crispies are so good but for some reason they are even better if you warm them slightly. I wouldn't put them in the oven, but maybe if you have an open fire put a little bowlful by the hearth and they'll taste even better after a couple of minutes. Yum.

So these Crispies come very very highly recommended although please don't expect a modern exciting taste. It's not about excitement. It's not about a big spicy taste. It's about a gentle grown-up cheesy biscuit that tastes very good with a glass of sherry or champagne.

They probably taste pretty good with anything although maybe not a cup of coffee.

You can still get ROKA Cheese Crispies in a tin if you look hard enough. They usually come in a cardboard box, with the crispies in an airtight silver baggie. But as I write Lakeland are selling tins at £6.99 which is quite a lot for two packets of cheesy biscuits. But I guess if I got one of these tins now I wouldn't have to buy one off eBay in my old age. Something to consider perhaps. Maybe I could even sell it on eBay in my old age?

Brilliant.

ROKA Cheese Sticks Gouda Cheese

This is another cheese stick from those lovely people at ROKA in the Netherlands.

Very nice lightly cheesy cheese straw sticks  with a sort of streusel topping probably  made of Gouda cheese. The crunch is light, not too crunchy, the taste is light, not too cheesy and sort of without concentrating I tried one with a cheese and herb dip and.... it works amazingly well.

Less golden than shown on the packaging but very nice.

Carrefour Crackers Gout Pizza

I must say that the reluctant taste testers and I really enjoyed this crispy snack, but we wouldn't call it a cracker. Crackers are flat aren't they? Crackers are for loading up with cheese or a dip. This is a tasty morsel of crunchy deliciousness but not a cracker.

But enough nitpicking about nomenclature. This is a very tasty crispy snack with a just-right crunch and a pretty good pizza taste. A little bit cheesy, quite a lot herby, the streusel style topping is very nice indeed. 

Along with all the reluctant taste testers I liked this snack from French supermarket Carrefour a lot. Delicious. 

Lay's Bugles Nacho Cheese

This crispy snack is a bit of a cheat. Because it is basically exactly the same as Smith's Bugles Nacho Cheese which the reluctant taste testers and I tried in April 2015. The thing is, Lay's appear to own Smiths these days. And so the packet design is almost exactly the same (except with a name change) and without the sombrero wearer.

However, we like bugles, and we like the cheesy taste. And this packet was specially imported from The Netherlands by Dutch taste tester. So here we are enjoying bugles again.

ROKA Gouda Cheese Bites

OK. I read the packaging really carefully and ROKA suggest you heat these cheese bites in the oven for 2½ minutes before starting to eat (AKA start crunching). So I'll try that now and be back in a bit.

Well that was quite some wait. Even so short a cooking time requires the oven to heat for what feels like an age. But I'm really not convinced that heating this snack for such a limited time (although would you want to do that for much longer?) makes a huge amount of difference to how you feel about this cheesy snack.

Tastily cheesy but quite a hard crunch. For some reason I really expected these Cheese Bites to have a soft and squishy inside: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. But no. They are just crunchy. Even after heating (which you kind of feel ought to make a difference.) And I found that rather disappointing.

It seems odd to feel cheated after trying a cheesy snack. It's just that for whatever reason you kind of expect (make that I kind of expected...) a soft centre - which you don't get. Probably because this crispy snack was never intended to have a soft centre. Expectations eh? Not always a good thing.

But again thank you very much ROKA for the fabulous food parcel they sent me from the Netherlands.

Hema Paprika Chips

This is a superb crisp.

A rich paprika orange, nice thin cut, lovely crunch, and a fabulous creamy paprika flavour.

All the reluctant taste testers liked this Dutch crisp a great deal. We all liked it, we all said how much we liked it and we finished off the 125g packet. We loved it.

I gather that Hema is a department store with branches all over The Netherlands. And they have expanded to a store in London. Dutch Taste Tester tells me that when the Hema store first opened in London it weirdly only sold British products, and Dutch expats were sorely disappointed. However, now there are proper Dutch products on sale. Such as Dutch liquorice (Dutch Taste Tester is a big fan) and (excitingly) Dutch crisps. Of which this is one.

Huzzah! Because this crisp is truly fab. Get yourself to The Netherlands... or London Victoria.

Globus Tortilla Chips au Chili

When we were in Bern in the spring I picked up this packet of crisps from the Food Hall at the big department store Globus. It wasn't so much that I thought these tortilla chips would be fabulous, more that they were the only Swiss crisps on offer.

Only, they aren't Swiss at all. Globus, based in Zurich, have their tortilla chips made in The Netherlands.

So finally I have dredged these crisps out of my basket of goodies because it's about time we tried them. Don't worry. They aren't months past their sell by date so we won't die a horrible death. Or not on account of this crispy snack.

I am really very impressed at the chilli taste of these tortilla chips. You won't be surprised to learn that I'm not mad about chillies. But that doesn't stop me being impressed at this taste. It's absolutely right.

According to the Blogger search function, over the last 3 years or so we have tried 42 different crisps and crispy snacks featuring chilli. And this is the first to taste like a fresh chilli. Remarkable.

Aside from the remarkable taste this is an ordinary tortilla chip: triangular, orange and crunchy.  The Chef and I tried them with a selection of dips from Waitrose: onion & garlic, pecorino & basil, and sour cream & chive. All of them worked very well and I think we were pretty happy with our taste test.

The packaging is clear with a very small Globus label so I'm going to show the paper carrier bag we got from the Food Hall instead.

Jimmy's Sweet Chili Cheese Popcorn with Tabasco Brand Seasoning

Last week I went with the reluctant taste testers to Buckingham Palace, Fortnum & Mason and one or two other places in the Green Park area. And in the basement grocery department of Fortnums I discovered this popcorn which turned out to be Dutch.

You've got to buy a souvenir of a good day out haven't you? The tall taste tester bought a Buckingham Palace magnet for the fridge at work, and I bought a packet of popcorn. That's how life works.

So this lovely green packet of popcorn has some fluffy popped kernels that are more orangey (I think those are the chili cheesy bits) and some that are paler in colour and seem to taste sweeter. Although some are more mixed up. Helpful.

When the reluctant taste testers and I first tucked in we thought the taste was a bit pale, not really strong enough to warrant the great big Tabasco logo on the packaging. But the more you eat the tastier they get. And before you know it, a whole bowlful has been eaten.

So we found we enjoyed this popcorn more than we thought we were going to. Pretty good.

But we were a bit puzzled. This is a popcorn made in the Netherlands by a company called Jimmy's (not terribly Dutch sending somehow), using the Tabasco brand seasoning which is made on Avery Island, Louisiana (and has been since 1868). And I bought the packet in that most quintessentially English shop, Fortnum & Mason (opened in 1707). Wow. Well, you know the crispy snack market is international. This is just a very good example of that. And there's a lot of history involved here.

And you might like some fabulous gates which illustrate our day out.