Three excellent potato chip specimens

[Jinmyo]

There is a range of olive oil chips in Canada sold by the Loblaw's grocery store chain under their house brand, "President's Choice". Roasted garlic and onion. Black pepper. Rosemary. About another five kinds. They're thick cut, quite crisp.

I don't much go in for packaged crisps, but these are better than most.

[stefanyb]

I haven't chipped since my pre-Atkins days so I don't know what's a good chip now. Also they don't sell UTZ (sounds like the call letters for a Bulgarian radio station) in the land of Bean and Cod, so I cannot comment on them.

The things that I cannot eat, due to health or dietary restrictions, I have once a year on my birthday when I eat for 12 straight hours without stopping and having anything that I would ever want.  I plan the whole year for that day.

I figure once a year can't kill anyone although last year on the day after my birthday I wasn't exactly feeling great.

[franklanguage]

I haven't chipped since my pre-Atkins days so I don't know what's a good chip now. Also they don't sell UTZ (sounds like the call letters for a Bulgarian radio station) in the land of Bean and Cod, so I cannot comment on them.

The things that I cannot eat, due to health or dietary restrictions, I have once a year on my birthday when I eat for 12 straight hours without stopping and having anything that I would ever want.  I plan the whole year for that day.

I figure once a year can't kill anyone although last year on the day after my birthday I wasn't exactly feeling great.

This is not an unusual concept, and it sort of makes sense, in a twisted way. There's an out-of-print book by Gail Parent (one of the co-creators of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) called "Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York" where our heroine Sheila, on the night before she begins a new diet, has a "Farewell to Food Night" where she eats everything: "Monday night was Farewell to Food night for me. That's when I eat everything I can get my hands on because I know I'm going on a diet the next day. There have been many of them..." and she recites the things she puts away on these nights: "I ate roast beef and cream cheese on rye. I ate chopped liver and rocky road ice cream. And I ate a whole container of Cool Whip."

The more things I give up, the more I feel like a Farewell to Food Night would be a great way to "get it out of my system", so to speak, but as you mentioned, you pay for it afterward.

[Peter B Wolf]

When Catholics have a "Farewell to Food Night", they will call the next day and thirty-nine more: "LENT"

[franklanguage]

I too noticed Kettle Chips last time I was in London. They were quite welcome, because I've never been able to understand most British snack foods. Like, it's impossible to get a normal bag of pretzels. They're always flavored with strange stuff.

Yeah, like how about "Pork scratchings"? And don't they have chips flavored with prawns? (Not to say they don't in Chinatown, too, but the Brits make such a deal out of it.) Although I've never been to England, Paul Theroux paints a brilliant picture of it in "The Kingdom by the Sea"; I was actually sorry to finish that book.

That being said, I think Kettle Chips are pretty good but not at the apex of the chip hierarchy. That style of chip -- similar to Cape Cod, New York Deli, etc. -- has always seemed to me to have too much of an oil taste. I prefer a more balanced chip.

Oh my gosh, that was a very geeky thing to say about potato chips. "I prefer a more balanced chip." Yikes.

Oh: but Kettle Chips make one variety that's "Oh-my-god" good - their "salsa and mesquite" chips. I can't believe how good they are; I bought a bag the other day, and was leaving the deli and popped one in my mouth and stopped in my tracks. I brought them back to work and my boss ate most of them.

[Liza]

D. is mildly addicted to Tayto Crisps from Ireland, which his sister sends to us fairly regularly. Out here, they're called Kings for some reason. Very very thinly sliced and therefore very crunchy. And yes, they have wacky flavors, too, like bacon and cheese, which tastes delicious but not so much of bacon and cheese.

Frank Language, I'm indebted to you for the Frito-Lay no-GM info - they will now be my chip of choice.

[franklanguage]

These are the three best chips I've had from a bag. Of course they can't compare to fresh potato chips. Has anyone ever tried the Chippery? I recall there was a Manhattan branch of this Canadian company, though I don't know if it's still open. Fresh potato chips made all day.

There was, and I believe still is, a Chippery on 23rd street just east of the Flatiron building. I went there once just to try their ketchup variety - but I tell you, I still prefer Herr's ketchup flavor potato chips.

Also a few of the steakhouses do fresh potato chips, as does the Seagrill (fried in duck fat).

Bemelmans bar on Madison in the 70s reportedly has freshly-made potaro chips, although I only went in to look at the murals one time.