Salty Snacks

[Zeemanb]

We don't have Utz snacks anywhere I shop back home in Kansas City, so when I'm down here in Richmond it's UTZ CRAB CHIPS.....24X7 baby! Found on their website where they sell 3lb bulk bags of chips for mailorder.....so I know at least one low-rent addition to our wedding reception menu in August......

[Zeemanb]

Ooohhh boy, they will never take the place of the Utz Crab Chips, but I found a gem of a snack down at the local handymart upon my return to Kansas City.....

"Sabritones"

Chile and Lime puffed wheat snacks brought to me from heaven via Frito Lay.... probably the strongest-flavored chip I have ever encountered, and I already told the handymart dude that I'll be the loyalest of all customers if he can find other flavors.....

Oh, these are GOOD...

[Mrs. Fink]

from Wikipedia ...."Sisig as is popularly known today is actually sizzling sisig, a Philippine dish made from parts of pig’s head, liver and usually seasoned with kalamansi and chili peppers."

All I know is that my husband made me try it, and now I crave it pretty much all the time. The Filipino cooks claim it is "drinking-beer-food", not a real dish.

Salty, tangy, fatty... everything you could ask for in one plate. Like pork rinds, or chicharones, but moister, spicier....

[Domestic Goddess]

Mrs. Fink, my brother makes a mean plate of sizzling sisig. It's so good paired with rice too. My brother squeezes a calamansi lemon over it and adds a tangy depth to it. The best sisig for me is one mixed with brain in it. Hmmm, creamy.

[buckytom]

i have three to offer that i think have not been mentioned.

tomatoes, peeled or sliced, soaked in worcestershire sauce.

cheddar cheese on a whole wheat cracker, with spicy mustard and chopped raw onions or shallots.

dried seaweed. either korean style roasted laver with grapeseed or sunflower oil, or irish (red) dulse.

[Toliver]

Something new and a little odd:

Doritos Flavor Shots

They're a do-it-yourself tortilla chip snack. It's basically a package of their Nacho Cheese flavor Doritos but with a little package of flavoring powder inside. You're supposed to open the flavor pack, pour it over the Nacho Cheese toritlla chips, close the bag and shake them up to distribute the flavoring, then consume.

Of course this goes against the complete convenience of junk food: Buy it, open it, eat it.

I can't see this as a successful product for those customers with the 3am munchies. Perhaps it's aimed at their OCD customers who want to be able to control just how much flavor their Doritos have.

And if you're buying snacks for a road trip, they aren't ideal either. Again, you just can't open the bag and eat them. You have to prepare them first before consuming.

There were two flavors that I found:

Atomic Chile Limón

Blazin' Buffalo Rush

I thought the Atomic Chile Limón weren't that good. They seemed to have an "off" flavoring to them. You could taste the tartness of the lime but while there was a faint chile kick, the overall flavoring just didn't taste that great.

On the other hand, the Blazin' Buffalo Rush were superb. The flavoring had the distinctive vinegary tang of a typical Buffalo Wings-type sauce. It also had a tremendous spicy kick to it. If you don't like your chips too spicy then this would be the perfect snack chip for you since you could control how much flavoring to put on the chips.

So a thumbs down on the entire concept of this do-it-yourself snack chip. But I give the Blazin' Buffalo Rush a big thumbs up for its great flavor and kick.

[JimH]

Salted pistachios, definitly Zapp's potato chips, popcorn, crispy bacon, hard-boiled egg rolled in salt.

[Julianne_Reddin]

What about drinks? A bloody mary with lots of tabasco and celery salt is pretty good, and I also like a dirty martini - alcohol+ salty goodness!

BTW what on earth happened to Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream? It was the msot divine combination of salty peanut butter chocolate and ice cream ever!Bring it back I say....

[Darienne]

BTW what on earth happened to Ben and Jerry's Chubby  Hubby ice cream? It was the msot divine combination of salty peanut butter chocolate and ice cream ever!Bring it back I say....

←

That sounds like a plan for homemade ice cream. I'll try it!

[iainpb]

for the ultimate in salty snacks - you can't beat a big pack of salty pork scratchings. delicious, (almost) entirely natural and pretty cheap. They do tend to pack half you daily salt and fat into a small pack though.

[Toliver]

Doritos Collisions: Cheesy Enchilada and Sour Cream

We have a winner.

The cheesy enchilada chips are quite cheesy (ie, a lot of orange cheese powder ) and have a dash of spice to them (cumin, maybe?). While the sour cream chips don't have a sour cream tang, they do have an overall creamy, almost cheesy, flavor to them.

All together, a good combination. Thumbs up.

[OliverB]

I had no idea there are so many Doritos versions!

As for favorite snacks, real Bavarian Pretzel with butter (see my avatar) fresh from the oven are hard to beat, but also not fast food in any way - sadly.

And potato chips, the kind they have in Germany etc. Cut super thin, non of that extra thick or crinkle cut, almost paper thin, press against the roof of your mouth with tongue and experience flavor explosion! I've tried many many chips here in the US, few come close, California Chips being among the best: http://www.californiachips.com/ the earthquake ones are really good. Unfortunately they don't sell them in many stores here, I hope that will change!

TJs peanut butter filled pretzel pieces are also great. They have a new product, roasted nut mix on a wafer, I think form the Philippines or somewhere over there. Sweet and savory, quite good.

Little pretzels with hard or blue cheese and salami plus something pickled, olives or caper berries. Late night heaven :-)

PS: if somebody knows of any other very thin cut potato chips I can get in NorCal, please let me know! Pringles are ok, but I find that I can "feel" that they're made form mashed potatoes or what ever process they use. Not the same as a real slice of a potato.

Maybe I'll just have to get a fryer someday and experiment myself.

Edited November 3, 2009 by OliverB (log)

[Toliver]

I had no idea there are so many Doritos versions!

There's a Frito Lay plant on the outskirts of the town where I live. That may be the reason why we get all the different varieties of Doritos in the local stores. I'm not complaining.

[Jenni]

Currently addicted to tapioca chips. Am completely incapable of stopping at one.

[zoe b]

Lick finger, dip in fleur de sel, repeat.

to improve even that perfect snack--pull off the super crispy skin around the cavity of a chicken just after removing from the oven, dip in salt & eat.

[s0rce]

hawkins cheezies are great, taste a lot more like cheese compared to cheetos. Never seen them outside Ontario though. I miss them.

[emmalish]

hawkins cheezies are great, taste a lot more like cheese compared to cheetos. Never seen them outside Ontario though. I miss them.

Are they a Canadian thing? We have them here in Vancouver, and I remember them from my childhood in small-town BC. Every once in awhile I'll get nostalgic for them, but I can only have a few before I hit cheezy overload.

[LoriZig]

I hope my keyboard still works after all the drooling, reading the last 4 pages!

I would trade all the chocolate in the world for salty and savory snacks without hesitation. Here are some of my favorites:

Grilled Halloumi cheese. If no one was looking, I think I could actually eat an entire package.

Salami, sopressata - any hard, delicious salami-type meat.

Proscuitto, speck - and if i'm in the mood for salty/sweet, nothing beats proscuitto wrapped around ripe cantaloupe.

Gardetto's Snack Mix - pretzels, mini breadsticks, and the most delicious part- the dark rye rounds. Salty, worcestshirey goodness.

Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds - could easily down a small can as a meal.

I am a chipaholic (believe it or not, I even married a man named Chip!):

Madhouse Munchies chips. I can't pick just one flavor-- the regular sea-salted, the french onion dip or the salt and vinegar- you can't go wrong. Super crisp and salty and delicious.

Cape Cod chips. All the flavors are deliciously salty, but the regular & reduced fat are my favorites.

Ruffles Cheddar Sour Cream chips. I have loved these for so long and although I succumb to passing dalliances with Cheetos or the occasional Dorito, I always come back to these.

ONE MORE! Whenever I'm home visiting my mom in CA, I always return to MA with a few bags of Emperor Norton's San Francisco Sourdough Snacks. They are extremely salty, crunchy and herby. The ranch flavored ones are delicious as well. If you ever have a stopover in SFO, look in one of the giftshops- they usually have them there!

Edited February 15, 2010 by LoriZig (log)

[merstar]

Savory Thins (sesame rice crackers), Trader Joe's Spicy Soy and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips, and TJ's Veggie and Flax Seed Corn Tortilla Chips.

[s0rce]

hawkins cheezies are great, taste a lot more like cheese compared to cheetos. Never seen them outside Ontario though. I miss them.

Are they a Canadian thing? We have them here in Vancouver, and I remember them from my childhood in small-town BC. Every once in awhile I'll get nostalgic for them, but I can only have a few before I hit cheezy overload.

according to wikipedia they are made in belleview, ontario

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheezies

I've never been to the west coast but I didn't see them in the east coast. Never seen them in Chicago (where I live now).

[blurby]

I dont know if this was mentioned yet but I'm in love with Quaker Baked Cheddar Snack Mix. Nice and crisp, salty, with that great fake cheese flavor. There's something about the sweetness of the Oatmeal Squares in the mix that sets off the whole deal.

[Toliver]

Doritos 1st Degree Burn Blazin' Jalapeño

Another winner!

I'm not a fan of the yellow colored bag, but the image of a melted bag of Doritos on a bag of Doritos is kind of funny.

First off, the jalapeño flavor is most excellent. It's quite bold and got me thinking of what dishes I could crumble this chip into to take advantage of that flavor.

The second thing is when they say "Blazin'" they ain't kidding. I am an avowed chilehead and this chip got me sniffling. It has more than a kick to it. This chip is not for the wusses out there.

Thumbs up!

[Toliver]

Doritos 2nd Degree Burn Fiery Buffalo

This is a scan of the empty bag, having consumed its contents yesterday.

If you are a chilehead, run, do not walk, and get yourself a bag of these chips.

They are quite spicy hot which I found amazing for a mass-made tortilla chip snack item. "Fiery" is a an appropriate title for them and they are not for the faint of heart.

They also have a slight vinegary tang in flavor like a Tabasco-esque sauce would have on buffalo wings. It doesn't quite remind me of the full on flavor of a true Tabasco sauce but it's enough to justify the name.

Two big thumbs up for these chips.

[crinoidgirl]

It surprises me that no one has mentioned Puffcorn. It's a Frito-Lay product, and I think they've put crack in it.

[Toliver]

Doritos 3rd Degree Burn - Scorchin' Habeñero

This is a scan of the empty bag having just consumed the contents myself.

Wow. And here I thought the Doritos 2nd Degree Burn were spicy hot chips. This new flavor blows those chips clear out of the water.

I will freely admit that I do not like the flavor of habeñeros. I like the heat of the chile but not the flavor. If there's a hot sauce with just a scant amount of habeñero in it, I will still be able to taste it.

That being said, there is absolutely no habeñero flavor whatsoever in these chips that I can taste. (Yeah for me )

They are, however, nuclear spicy hot. I mean OMG hot. I mean so hot your future grandkids will be born sweating if you eat these chips. The burn also lingers in your mouth long after you've eaten the chips. They are really, really, really (that's three "really's" so you know I'm serious ) spicy hot and not for the faint of heart.

As a chilehead, I give these chips two huge spicy thumbs up.

I found it humorous that on the back of the chip bag there is a side bar box of info containing a suggestion from Frito Lay that these chips should be consumed while drinking "Pepsi Max Cease Fire" (regarding that link, you may have to select the Cease Fire version on the left side of the web page for the soda info to appear on the right side of the web page) to help cool the burn from the chips. Having read this info after consuming the chips, I did not heed their suggestion and have no idea if the combination really works well together (PepsiCo owns Frito Lay). I'm a decaf guy now so I won't be drinking that soda (it has twice the normal amount of caffeine in it). According to the Pepsi web site, the difference between the regular Pepsi Max and their Cease Fire version is that the Cease Fire version has a hint of Lime flavoring. It's a limited edition soda.

I've heard a spoonful of sugar can help remove the spiciness left in the mouth after consuming spicy hot foods. I think the sugar helps dislodge the capsaicin oils from the mouth and I don't think a sugary soda would do the same. I believe it's the grainy texture of the sugar that helps dislodge the oils and not the sugar itself that does the trick. Take this assumption on my part with a grain of salt, if you wish.