Uncle Ray’s Ripple Potato Chips

Here’s another fascinating crisp gifted to me by kind Missouri Taste Tester. It’s another crisp which doesn’t have the flavour (salt) on the front of the packet, or indeed on the back. The only place it says salt is in the list of ingredients. Weird.

On the back of the packet we get a chapter from the life and times of Uncle Ray. Our chapter 11 is Thanksgiving on the Line and we learn about a disaster with 12 turkeys on board the USS Bristol. Fascinating stuff.

Also fascinating for me is that this is the official crisp of Minor League Baseball. I know nothing about baseball. To me it’s obviously a version of rounders; played by schoolgirls in the UK, but in the USA by men in pyjamas. It sounds terribly dull to me but then I absolutely hated being forced to play rounders and never once hit the ball.

 But how many times have I seen a TV character reach for his baseball mitt and a ball in order to connect with an anxious child or a colleague under stress? I suppose there must be something in it. What though? Answers on a postcard please.

This is a beautifully simple crinkle cut crisp which the Chef and I enjoyed very much (hence no photo of the crisps). The crunch is a little light but we aren’t complaining. Very nice.

I wonder why it’s not for sale in California? That’s weird too, isn’t it?

Zweifel Kezz Kessel-Chips Salt

Wow! What an amazing crisp this is.

Extra crunchy (as advertised on the packet), and with a very nice simple salty taste. I have seen ads on Swiss TV telling me this crisp merits 11/10 or even 12/10 on a scale of 1-10 (probably). The Chef, who has paid more attention than I have, is unable to tell me whether this score relates to taste or crunchiness, or both. It doesn’t matter. Searching for the ad online gave 4 results for Zweifel crisps followed by dozens of results showing Prince William enjoying a pint of cider and a plate of chips in his local pub. That’s French fries for North American readers but obviously in Norfolk where the Cambridges live they definitely call them chips. Possibly Prince William was demonstrating that it’s possible to visit a post-lockdown pub without getting completely smashed and beating up a police officer. But it’s a shame William is unlikely to taste this crisp any time soon. Maybe the next time he goes skiing though.

Kessel-chips are kettle cooked crisps which is usually crisp-speak for cooked in small batches, and often means a good crunch. In this case you get a very good crunch. Thicker cut than the regular Zweifel crisps and with the skin left on (de façon rustique), sans lactose, sans gluten and suitable for vegans. 

I knew this crisp would work well with a dip and we were lucky enough to find a very acceptable garlic and herb dip at a large branch of the Co-op. Yum yum. But honestly? This crisp is fab on its own. It’s a really authentic and delicious crisp. Definitely yum yum: very nice indeed.

And the Chef has already bought another packet.

7Days Bake Rolls Salt

We had left over guacamole from the other night's chicken tortillas (possibly as unauthentic as can be but the Chef has lived in Mexico) so the Chef said he'd buy some crisps to eat it with. I suggested Bake Rolls but apparently the Garlic flavour which the Chef likes best sells out really quickly and they don't get more Garlic Bake Rolls until all the other flavours like Pizza and Mushrooms & Cream ones have gone too.

But he went down the road anyway and came home with this packet of Salt flavour. Which sounds rather dull doesn't it? I mean... just Salt? However, since there was nothing else in the house suitable for scooping up guacamole, we tucked in. And were pleasantly surprised.

Tasty. A very nice combination of saltiness and fabulous crispy baked taste. It's a shame that guacamole isn't very photogenic but then green gloop rarely is, but I think we can recommend this crispy snack as one of those that don't seem to taste of much while at the same time tasting very good indeed. And just the job for scooping up a dip.

Walkers Originally Smiths Salt & Shake

I suddenly saw these crisps on the shelf in Waitrose and had to buy them. Perhaps they've been selling them for ages but I don't usually look at the multi-packs. These crisps leapt off the shelf at me, and what a blast from the past!

The original style add-your-own-salt crisps. Just like when I was very small. Except when I was small the salt came in a little ball and the blue waxed paper that held it was twisted tightly to hold the salt in. These days you get a square package (still blue) with sealed edges. It's not quite the same but I guess it works in the same way.

Of course, one day someone in a crisp factory invented "Ready Salted" crisps and there was no further need for the little blue twists of salt. I think we all missed ferreting around in the crisps to find the salt and shaking it into the packet, but we got used to the ready made version.

I can remember at least one attempt some years ago to reintroduce the DIY salt but for whatever reasons it didn't seem to last very long. Perhaps everyone was mad for whatever flavour was fashionable at the time and didn't fancy the retro crisps.

These days the crisp market has exploded so much with so many flavours, even the so-called "naked" (no added flavouring) crisps. So I guess that these salt & shake crisps cover two markets: some people like naked crisps so they won't want to add the salt, and others like salted crisps so they can.

These are nice crisps. Nothing fancy but a good colour, a good crunch and a pleasant saltiness (if you add the salt). Only 24g in a bag too, which is always a recommendation for me. The packet describes these crisps as Best Ever, and they are pretty good. I handed out a small packet to everyone around and I think we all enjoyed them.

And it's good to see that the ingredients are potatoes, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil and salt (in sachet). Nice and simple.

Following my discovery of these retro style crisps, the tall taste tester and I had a fun trip down food-memory lane. If you search for Crest Bear 'Teddy Bear' Advert  you'll find one of the most memorable commercials of my childhood. Cresta was a brilliant frothy (not fizzy) drink. There was something deeply fabulous about it, even the way it turned your saliva solid..... (I'm pretty sure it was Cresta that did this). My favourite was blackcurrant but the strawberry flavour was pretty good too. Cresta was promoted by a superbly cool polar bear in dark glasses, given to impersonating Elvis or shouting out "Rimsky Korsakov!" at the drop of a hat. His catch phrase was "it's frothy man'. Brilliant stuff.

Whatever it was that made Cresta so great was probably frightfully bad for you because sadly they don't make it any more. Of course this has nothing whatever to do with crisps but you know how memories breed other memories. And you might find the Cresta commercial rather fun if you've not seen it before.

I'm not terribly impressed at the little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly on this packet. Walkers! What are you thinking? This really isn't good enough. So to spare Walkers' blushes I'm not going to show it. Oh alright then. Here it is.

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.