KP Original Salted Peanuts

A big display of large packets of KP Original Salted Peanuts beckoned to me in the supermarket today. Buy us! they cried. But I was very firm and only picked up a small 90g packet (peanuts are heavy - that’s less than it sounds). And when I got home I asked myself if I had ever written up this very simple snack? No ingredients but peanuts and salt and sunflower oil. Delicious. But the answer, until now, was no. And my second question is why on earth not? So anyway, here we go…

Ah, you say. Lucky old you, you can eat peanuts without suffering any ill effects. Don’t boast about it. 

Well, yes, I can eat peanuts and I am fairly sure that I have been eating them since I was about three, so that’s more than 60 years! My parents didn’t really let us eat sweets, but there were always salty snacks instead. However, as a child I was horrendously allergic to grass pollen, and cats, and goodness knows how many other things. Even 30 years later I heard that the lovely mother of one of my school friends still had nightmares about the day she very kindly took her daughter and me for a picnic in a beautiful field full of flowering grasses. She thought I was going to die. So I do understand about allergies. 

I still am allergic to grass pollen and cats but nothing like so badly as I used to be. Put it like this, if I reached the final of an egg and spoon race this summer, I wouldn’t have to pull out because I couldn’t see. But looking at today’s weather I would need an umbrella.

Anyway, these salted peanuts, made without maple syrup or honey, with no chocolate chunks or bits of honeycomb in the bag, not even any herbs or jerk seasoning, just salt, are simply delicious. And I can definitely eat a whole bag while sitting on the sofa watching the tennis.

Highly recommended if you can eat them. 

Mysteriously distributed by Tayto Snacks in County Meath. I can’t work out if this is an Irish snack or a UK snack. I’m going for UK.

Migros Party Mini Turtles Gesalzen

The Chef and I recently shopped at a motorway service station in Switzerland, at Bavois. It’s the first in Switzerland if you arrive from France through the Jura. Anyway, we found a very nice packet of salami (direct from the farmer by the looks of things), an extremely good bottle of local wine, and this packet of turtle shaped crispy snacks. If only one could shop so well in service stations in Britain.

At first crunch I thought this was going to be rather a dull snack. I mean, the only flavour is salt. 

But, the more you snack, the tastier these crispy little turtles seem to be. And eventually they seem to be absolutely delicious. In fact, yum yum.

The texture is shiny (if that can be a texture), polished and slightly slippery in your fingers, and the brown side has a sprinkle of salt.

I really liked these turtles. Each one is about the size of a Penny. I’d take a picture for you, but unfortunately I ate them all. If I ever manage to buy another packet I promise to try and remember to take a photo. And I have already tried 2 different branches of Migros but so far no luck.

Bought another packet. Ate the lot. Sorry.

M&S Assorted Popcorn 6 Bags

This turquoise packet contains 6 little packets of popcorn: 2 sweet (in a red bag), 2 salted (in a blue bag) and 2 sweet & salty (in a shocking pink bag).

Why salted, but sweet & salty? Who knows? Who cares? Well, anyway, I'm not sure that popcorn is Marks & Spencers' forte. Over the years we have taste tested a whole slew of crisps and crispy snacks from Marks & Spencer and some of them have been great, and some of them haven't, but I don't recall any of them being... well... meh.

Perfectly OK. Just not very thrilling. Not very exciting. I think this popcorn, these popcorns deserve more flavour. A bit more oomph.

And, I don't know. Call me picky if you like, but I don't know why M&S chose these colours for the packets. Turquoise, pink and blue I get. But the red doesn't work for me at all. And somehow this multipack of popcorn didn't pass the thrill threshold either.

Slightly Red Haired Bristolian kindly donated this popcorn as part of a taste testers' night out (or in my case, in) watching season 3 of Shetland. Yes, you too can buy Shetland on DVD, send out for pizza, taste test some popcorn and be just like us. But I wasn't that impressed with this selection.

Manischewitz Salted Potato Chips Ripple

Have you noticed that it's Passover this week? Maybe not if you live hundreds of miles from the nearest kosher deli, but here in North London it is all too obvious. And the most obvious thing for me was this seriously large 170g packet of crinkle cut crisps. Kosher for Passover says the packet. So obviously I had to try.

What a great crisp! Good size, nice colour, great big crinkles and a fantastic crunch. Plus, just about exactly the right amount of salty yumminess.

What more could you ask?

Unfortunately these ripple chips were so tasty I had to put the packet in another room; I was in serious danger of eating far too many crisps for my breakfast. Or indeed, my all day long snack fest.

The reluctant taste testers were far from unimpressed and tucked in enthusiastically.

Interestingly these crisps are cooked in cottonseed oil. I'm not sure I have come across that before. Lactose free, suitable for vegetarians, kosher for Passover and all year round.

L'Chaim!

Carrefour Frites Salées (Frietjes Gezouten)

I haven't posted any crisps for ten days or so. Unfortunately I spent a week in bed feeling thoroughly miserable, and then we spent 3 days travelling. Neither of those make ideal crisp reporting conditions but naturally once we were on our way I took the opportunity to visit several motorway service stations (and could not resist photographing these amazing new loo doors all covered in foxgloves) and (oh joy!) a French supermarket: Carrefour.

So here is a packet of Carrefour own brand crisps. Or, in fact, not crisps at all but this crispy snack masquerading as chips (or fries). You can see the photo. You know what I mean.

Shiny new loo doors at the motorway service station: amazing eh?

Not a super exciting crispy snack, but at the same time quite acceptable. Of course the chips are made of dried potato and maize flour and are extruded into the chips shape, so they take every opportunity to turn back into a mushy paste and gum themselves to your teeth. But that's what you expect from this kind of snack.

The really odd thing is that the flavour is salt. Just salt. Which is fine. Nothing wrong with that at all. But what you taste is a light salt & vinegar. Very strange because there is no vinegar in the recipe. But the Chef and I both observed this weird phenomenon. Not bad though.

And the simply designed packaging is carefully printed to be readily comprehensible both in France and in the Netherlands. I didn't know that Carrefour operated in the Netherlands but I suppose they must.

Poco Loco Crispy Salted Tortilla Chips

This must be the heaviest (and largest) packet of crisps I have ever bought. 450g! That's very nearly 1lb (one pound to anyone who doesn't read imperial measurements). The bag is giant and stuffed full.

I found these at the Turkish shop down the road. Some local people say the shop is run by Kurds not Turks. I've not asked (it seems intrusive) but they do have a great shop, open from dawn until very late indeed and just crammed full of stuff. And this packet was on such a high shelf I had to get a man to help me reach.

Although the Turkish shop sells a mass of fabulous pastas and spices and fruit juices and goodness knows what that you can't find anywhere else, they aren't terribly good at crispy snacks. But I hadn't seen this brand before so I thought I'd give it a go.

And why haven't I seen this brand before? Because it's from Belgium. I haven't been to Belgium but maybe I should because I found some very nice Belgian crisps in Switzerland. Well, you know, the international crisp market is pretty... international.

There were not so many reluctant taste testers in the office the day we tried these but I was impressed that the most sceptical tester of all really liked them. They are her favourite she said. And I think she was quite impressed.

Especially after I laid in some dip. Because you can't go wrong with tortilla chips and dip.

Very nice crunch, lovely taste - not too much maize in the taste but a good toasty flavour - and an acceptable level of saltiness.  Pretty good really. Yes, we liked these.

The only trouble is it's such a gigantic amount of chips. I mean, absolutely massive! If you are throwing a big party with a selection of dips then check these out. If it's only you... then maybe look elsewhere because you'll be eating them for weeks.

Unfortunately I don't have an A3 scanner so the top and bottom of the bag are missing but I don't think there's very much to miss. And here are some white roses from my garden.

Vico Monster Munch Salé

Somebody asked me yesterday why I blog about crisps. And the answer is I don't really know. I started out to write a blog about street trees. But God works in mysterious ways (mysteriously mysterious at times) and the first thing I wrote about was Ley's Cheeseburger Crisps. And then I wrote about Chio Jumpys, followed by Bret's Pizza au Feu de Bois... and then I discovered I really enjoy writing about crisps and crispy snacks.

It's not a career to set the world on fire (and possibly that's a good thing) but it keeps me amused.

And my goodness! there are so many crisps and crispy snacks to choose from. I do rather wonder how many people are employed around the world creating new flavours of crisp, and new shapes of crispy snack? However many they certainly keep me busy.

Here we have a French version of Monster Munch from Vico. Vico is part of Intersnack France which must be the French division of Euro snack giant Intersnack. I wonder how come they can call this snack Monster Munch when Walkers produce a totally different Monster Munch in the UK? Or vice versa? Here are two Walkers Monster Munch flavours for you to compare: Roast Beef and Pickled Onion.

I've got Ready Salted (Salé) but you can also try Jambon/Fromage (ham & cheese), Ketchup (ketchup!) or Barbecue (barbecue/BBQ) if you can find them. I long to visit a French supermarché in pursuit of crisps but the Chef is always so mad keen to rush through France I haven't yet had the opportunity. One day......

Monster Much is described as an aperitif to enjoy with your parents, to fill a hole after sports or as an accompaniment to a balanced diet. These little monsters will delight young and old says the packaging. Made with potatoes and maize with some wheat flour.

Well, I tried these on my own because I wasn't sure what the reluctant taste testers would say. And on reflection this was a mistake because I think they might have been popular in some quarters. However, too late now.

Obviously a crispy snack aimed at children these smiley ghost faces (I can't think what else the designer was aiming for) are flavoured with salt, cheese and tomato but it's a gentle flavour that doesn't really leap out at you. Each ghost face is bubbly and crunchy. Quite pleasant but not massively exciting. It would be interesting to try the other flavours.

There's a "spot the Monster Munch" feature on the back of the packet, and there's also a fascinating website which takes ages to load but give it a go if you speak some French, or even if you don't, and would like to play space invaders type games involving crispy snacks. I'm obviously too stupid to succeed and only managed to score 1 point in one of the games. In another you have to trap running monsters under lampshades! I wasn't very good at that either but I did manage 200 points in Le Munch Reflexe. Oh come on. I had to give it a go.

Chio Salted Chips

Here we have a very simple salted crisp.

Found at the café at Geneva airport (before you go through customs; not the hamburger giant, not the sushi place or the pizza parlour) these  crisps from European crispy snack giant Intersnack are your very basic salted. Possibly made in Switzerland, possibly made in Austria (it's hard to say from the packaging); you can't get much simpler than this.

Quite a fine cut crisp, not a bad crunch. Good salted taste. Nothing artificial. Nothing fancy just a simple salted crisp. And don't forget to protect this packet from light (what? and why? crisp packets do say strange things sometimes).

Not much more to say really.

Except you might like to know that Chio make the fabulous kangaroo-shaped Jumpys which you can see in the header. Unbelievably that was only the second crispy snack I reviewed. Little did I know how lucky I was to find such a treasure so early on in my career as an international food writer.

And check out the packaging... how can you tell this flavour is salted? Yes! It shows a salt shaker.

Boxerchips Salty Malty Vinegar

It seems a little harsh to try these salt and vinegar crisps so soon after the wonderful version by Pipers Crisp Co which we tried the other day, but every crispy snack must stand on its own merits.

Boxerchips say the fact - best damn potato chips in the world; the fiction - our crisps are a made from Farmers' Hats. Which, let's be honest, is a slightly strange thing to say. But they say other strange things on their website which also tells you all sorts of things about Boxerchips that you may find amusing, and there's "ye olde blog" disguised as latest news. You can even find out about spud juggling. In New Zealand of all places!

Anyway, back to the crisps. Which I bought on my Easyjet flight to Geneva. Still not seen them anywhere else, but perhaps I have had such ready access to other exciting crisps that I haven't really looked.

Quite nice. Good colour, quite a hard crunch, not too harsh a taste of vinegar (which we know can be a problem) and good and salty. But these crisps are a bit sweet. Not sugary but mysteriously remaining me of golden syrup. Could this be an "oh, so it's only me then" moment?

Remember, these are the crisps that come in a strange oblong cardboard box which you open up to get at the crisps. I had a lot of difficulty last year battling my way into the packet but maybe that packaging was defective. At any rate, this time it was quite easy to open the box and create a little cardboard serving dish from which to carry out my taste testing.

I think I liked the Boxerchips Savagely Salted better though.

Update on Boxerchips: by chance we went to Globus in Bern which is a large department store with a great food section in the basement. And guess what? They sell Boxerchips. Well, they do in March 2015. I was busy buying crisps I'd not seen before so I didn't look too carefully, but in case you are looking for Boxerchips you could try here. Quite close to the main railway station. Probably hard to miss this huge store.

KP Hula Hoops Puft Salted

Here's another flavour from Hula Hoops Puft: salted flavour wheat & potato rings.

Salted perhaps, but not terribly salty.

Nice gentle fried crispy aroma, nice gentle salty taste, nice crunch but not very exciting. Very pale colour. I do rather feel they would be better with a bit more colour but that is a minor quibble. They do taste OK - it's just all a little quiet.

The reluctant taste testers polished off the bowlful (2 little bags) but we weren't mad for this crispy snack.  Quite nice. Inoffensive. But rather bland. That's possibly the best description. Sorry chaps; I think I'm damning this crispy snack with faint praise.

To be honest I think I prefer the original Hula Hoops.

Zweifel Snacketti Hearts Lovely Salted

What? I kid you not. This crispy snack flavour is called "lovely salted". I checked that the snack isn't called Hearts Lovely, and the flavour salted. But no.

So here we have a rather charming extruded potato snack (potato starch and potato flour) fashioned into a lattice and then folded into a hollow heart shape. The flavour is made from salt, onion, natural flavours (which natural flavours we wonder yet again?) and seasoning (which contains sugar and flavour enhancers). A bit of a mystery then.

However, it is a very nice slightly salty crunchy snack. For British readers, they're a little like Quavers in texture but you can't burst the bubbles on your tongue. And I can't quite work out what the lattice reminds me of.

I probably would not have tried this crispy snack if I hadn't been on the lookout for interesting Swiss crisps. And then I would have missed a tasty treat. I'm not crazy about the masses of people on the packet all waving their arms in the air. Is this a snack to be eaten at a rave I ask myself? Reserved for people at festivals? Who can say. But it looks as though Snacketti is Zweifel's brand they aim at younger snackers and I guess the packaging is designed with this in mind.

What I can say is that I enjoyed this little heart-shaped snack and would buy it again. Perhaps not a product for your posh cocktail parties, but while watching NCIS or Alerte Cobra on the screen of your choice? Absolutely.

Crak's Finement Salé

Well, here's complicated. Crak's seems to be a Tuc brand, and Tuc seems to be owned by LU which is a French biscuit company (apparently from Nantes), and LU is in turn owned by Kraft Foods which is now called Mondelez International.

The weird thing is that I always thought Tuc was a UK brand. We used to have a TV commercial featuring a really annoying jingle: Tuc by itself is a snappy happy cracker, and a super snappy cracker with cheese. I think that's how it went.

Anyway, these little salted biscuits are perfectly OK but a little bit dull on their own. Quite a dull taste but in a really tasty way. I only bought one of the gussetted bags because inside the gusset it says "idéal pour le dipping!" and I couldn't resist. "Tout à fait adapter au dipping" it says.

Unfortunately this will be le dipping as practiced in France and the UK. And we were trying these in Switzerland and couldn't find any dips quite suited to the task; not even in the huge Co-op in Conthey. We tried the local version of guacamole but it was very thick and more something you might spread on toast rather than use as a dip.

I think they would be very good indeed with a proper dip. Nice crunch, good salty taste (but not too much) and a little bit sweet,  and in fact a rather pretty shape. Not bad Crak's.... or Tuc.... or LU.

I tried looking on the LU website for further information but it seems you can only access it in Metropolitan France. Which is a shame because I would have like to find out more. Weirdly made in Italy.

One to try again if I had a proper dip.

Kambly Apéro Herzli Bio

Here's an interesting little heart-shaped biscuity salty snack from Swiss biscuit firm Kambly.

I found these in the local Co-op in Switzerland and indeed the smart metallic green packet also has the Co-op Naturaplan logo on it.

I thought the packet seemed sturdy enough to survive an encounter with the easyJet baggage handlers (obviously packed inside my suitcase...) and I was right. There don't seem to have been any breakages at all.

So I tried these crunchy biscuity snacks on the reluctant taste testers at work and after a little thought the team tucked in with a fair amount of enthusiasm. If I leave a bowl of crisps in the kitchen it's amazing how much grazing goes on during the day. Even crisps they claim not to like get eaten, but I think the taste testers really liked these little hearts.

As Very Skeptical taste tester put it, they must be healthy because they're full of nothing but air. Full of nothing but air and organic too.

But the taste? Well, they sort of taste of pretzel. Not very salty but with a little sprinkling of salt on and not very pretzelly but a gentle savoury something that is somehow rather good. And a nice light crunch.

I was a bit baffled when I opened the packet because, well, I don't know quite what I was expecting, but I don't think it was what I got. However, I find I quite like these little biscuits. And I love how they look. I know they are brown but it's a very smart brown. But not very like the hearts on the packaging which look more salty but less brown.

Time to sit back with an aperitif and enjoy a little bowl of Herzli.

M&S Guilt Free Snacking Salted Popped Potato Chips

I wasn't very taken with the Popchips Barbeque flavour so I thought I'd try this M&S salted flavour from their guilt free snacking range.



Here's one held up to the light. It looks rather as though a handful of rice crispsies have been glued together to make a flat crispy snack. A bit weird. But tasty. I think this is rather a good crisp.

The crunch is a little bit soft but not too soft. The crisps are all very round as though they are extruded from a machine or something - who knows? I have no clue how they manufacture these things. Especially with the popping which is suddenly so fashionable. And the taste is pretty good. I'm impressed.

Just about the right amount of saltiness. Impressive.

And now the science bit:

• no artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives
• Suitable for vegetarians
• Portion controlled. What? Is that like a bag of crisps from one of these companies that send you your entire diet for a whole week to make controlling your diet easier? 
• Designed to fit with my Count on Us menu planner. Again: what? I didn't know there was a Count on Us menu planner. I guess I haven't been paying attention.

Some of the crisps have a really weird look. Like brains.... don't let that put you off. I really like them. Top marks.

Walkers Classically Ready Salted

So I tried Walkers Crinkles Simply Sea Salted and I wasn't impressed. But now I'm trying Walkers Classically Ready Salted.

And this is a very simple but truly great crisp which took me back to the good old days when there were three flavours if you were lucky.

Wow! I haven't tried these in ages and what a shame that is. And why are they so much better than the Crinkles? Could it be that I don't really like crinkly crisps?

Not really very much to say except that this is a truly great crisp. Basic in the best possible way. Delicious. And simple.

Top marks. I don't know where the potatoes were grown or what variety they are, but the salt comes from Cheshire.

It's a shame the packaging does not reflect what a classic this crisp is but Walkers are obsessed with some competition just now; Gary's Great Ingredient Hunt (every pack wins), and it's all over both the packaging and the website. Apparently you can win up to £10,000. I won 10% off a holiday I have no intention of taking. Great.