Can you imagine a world without a wide variety of crisp flavours?
Hard and almost painful to imagine, I know. I have lived in such a world and let me tell you it was, well, it was pretty rubbish.
Growing up, I wasn't allowed nice things. We had no treats cupboard in our house, only apple flavoured vitamin pills which I used to try to trade at school for real snacks. Some of the dumber kids or those who had no friends would fall for this ruse but mostly I was stuck with my piece of fruit and soggy salad sandwich. Sad times.
On a rare occasion I was allowed some of those Salt n Shake crisps, which I'd fight tooth and nail over with my brother and sister. This was quite exciting but nothing compared to what I was about to discover when I went to secondary school. The Vending Machine! Charlie & the Chocolate Factory in a big black box. Ace!
When I was in my late teens, I spent a year in the South of Spain. Everything about this year was fantastic. I'd even go so far to say it was the best year of my life but there was one thing that tainted the experience, you could only get plain crisps. Not even fancy plain crisps, just rubbishy plain crisps.
I'm talking about the potato variety. You could get cheesy puffs but these were quite rubbish too and I'd classify them as a different corn-based snack.
Luckily my friend visiting from the UK came to the rescue. She brought with her the holy grail, a mouth-watering, family-size, variety pack of Golden Wonder crisps! Forgetting that everything shut after midday on a Saturday, we found ourselves without food in the house. So, we had a 3 course meal which consisted entirely of crisps.
Prawn Cocktail to start, Beef for main with some Plain ones on the side and finished with the Cheese (& Onion) course. A gastronomic triumph!
My top 5 crisp flavours are:
5. Sour Cream and Chive Pringles. It really is amazing that once you start popping these rascals, you really can't stop. A bit on the pricey side and after about 30 they do get a bit sickening.
4. Black Pepper Kettle Chips. Can't get these in Spain as far as I know. These are tasty but overpriced in my opinion.
3. McCoys Cheese & Onion. I like the crinkle cut texture and they are nice and cheesy. Again, unavailable here but I like to include them in my meal deal at Boots when I'm back home. I feel satisfied after a bag of these and don't feel like I need anymore. Maybe just a tad too cheesy though.
2. Campesino (Spanish country peasant flavour) They taste sort of like paprika crisps but much nicer. Whenever these are purchased, they are wolfed down by urban family in less than 2 minutes.
1. Got to be Salt & Vinegar. Just love them. Unbeatable. Simply the best.
I like Salt & Vinegar McCoys, Discos, Squares, Lays/Walkers. Any variety really, you can't go wrong with a packet of S&V.
What's your favourite crisp?
