Herr's Pizza Flavored Potato Chips

This video was a long time in the making and I'm really happy with it. My parents, the two other crazy people you'll hear in this recording, are the ones who got me into tasting stuff. They always have new snack products around the kitchen to try and we always experiment when we go out to eat or to events. Both of them are great with words and fantastic at storytelling, so I thought they'd make excellent potato chip testers. This slideshow proves that I am correct, again!

                                                                                                 

Last Night the Music Killed My Taste Test

This evening, Dante and I stopped at Mendocino Farms for dinner before I dropped him off at work for the graveyard shift. They have really interesting and delicious sandwiches there, if you've never gone, I highly recommend ordering a familiar sounding sandwich because more than likely, there will be some ingredient that gives you a little pleasant kick in the tongue, as has been my experience. And their spicy dijon potato salad is truly divine.

Mendocino Farms also has baskets full of chip varieties you just don't find too many other places if at all. Well, Dante and I got our sanwiches, sides and chips and sat down to enjoy them. We were going to start by recording a chip tasting of the Sour Cream N Chive and Barbeque flavors of Route 11 Potato Chips, but almost right before we started, this mind-scrambling music started playing overhead and it totally threw me off my chip-tasting-game. My crazy response to the music influenced Dante and there we have the perfect storm of bad taste tests. It is funny nonetheless. Enjoy.

Oh, the music festival I refer to is the Moogfest, and if you go to the Live In Concert from All Songs Considered site, you will see some Moogfest concerts available so you can experience them for yourself. That's just not my kind of music.

Beer & Pizza in Jingletown: An Audio Tasting

Watch/listen to this, another audio tasting, done with my friend, Aram, while we were in Jingletown, an arts district in the Bay Area, for its biannual artwalk.

The beer you see in the slide show that we refer to as Steelhead, isn't one of the Steelhead Fine Ales, but made by a former Steelhead brewmaster named Larry Lesterud. So we should have probably called it Lesterud's Suds, at least that is what I'm going to call it from now on! Lesterud is also a fantastic photographer. That's how we came to meet him. While perusing the galleries and workspaces that were participating in the artwalk, I found an awesome print of some graffiti that spelled out my name (Crazy serendipity!). I bought it and we got to talking with the photographer. I asked him for a card or something and he gave me one of his old brewmaster business cards, which got Aram to asking questions. Turns out he brewed a special beer just for the occasion and well, we just couldn't keep ourselves from trying it.

The pizza you see in the pictures is from Fist of Flour Pizza Company. Owned and operation by a really awesome master of pizzas named James Whitehead. Other artwalk goers, Aram and I stood around and talked with him and his assistant in front of his mobile wood-fired pizza oven for a while. The pizza, by the way was Freakin' Delicious. I had 3 slices of veggie and 1 slice of Margherita. All the slices as you might be able to tell from the slide show, were a quarter size of the whole pie. Whitehead uses a distinct sauce that set all other toppings off beautifully. It was the perfect combination of spicy, sweet and tangy tomato. The veggie had arugula and some type of mushroom on it from what I could tell. And the crust was like a soft cracker, a bit lavash-like,  charred at the edges. It wasn't like any thin crust I've tried, but I'm no pizza expert.

I would highly recommend attending the Jingletown Artwalk, if not to experience great original works, but to at least sample Lesterud's Suds and grab a slice. 

Ruffles Ultimate Sweet & Smokin' BBQ

Dante, on his tour of liquor stores, found another bag of experimental chips. Ruffles seemed to have come up with a line of what they're calling "Hardcore Flavors." The back of the bag says: "You're hunger's about to get blown up by a spicy, sweet and smoky taste bomb. Boom."

I was trying to wait for Dante and I to get together one day to taste them, but I gave in to peer pressure (and Dante's insistence) to open a bag. Mr. Brown and I tasted them today:

Mr. Brown: The texture is phenomenal because usually when you get barbeque flavored chips they're flat chip but this time its Ruffles so its a nice change. I'd like the flavoring to be a little on the sweeter side especially since its the first word in the flavor title and they could be less spicy. The flavor is good because it tastes like its cooked into the chip and not just dusted on top. I give them a 3.75 out of 4. By the way, the caption on the front of the bag says: "Chip enlarged to show texture." Did they think we were going to really believe that they were really that big?

Me: Someone must've sued them for misrepresentation! I thought they were too spicy. I agree with you, the "Smokin" took over the"Sweet." I thought the Ruffles texture was distracting. With that much flavor, I'd much rather have a flat chip, but then again, I really like flat chips. These kind of reminded me of the Sweet Southern Heat Barbeque, but I liked those better. These get 2 out of 4 potatoes.

Boulder Canyon Red Wine Vinegar Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

I have to admit, this was my second bag of chips this week. I had to break down and rip open a bag when I was dealing with some frustration. Yes. Chips sometimes help me deal with life. C'mon! You can't have just figured that out! I have a blog dedicated to snacking...duh? So you've moved on and are wondering what was my first bag of chips? Well, friends, I stuck to my old, reliable and delicious stand-by: Lay's Barbeque. They never let me down.

So, back to potato chip tasting. This week, while at Big Lots with Dante I came across this here bag of Boulder Canyon Red Wine Vinegar Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. Red wine vinegar? Now that's different. I picked those up and headed straight for the register with an armful of other items.
After the two-chip taste I found the flavor to be nice. There was a detectable difference from other vinegar flavored chips: These were sweeter, less acidy and the flavor was weak in comparison. As far as texture, these did not crunch like your normal kettle style chips. In fact, I wouldn't even have thought these were kettle style if it wasn't for the bag telling me so. They appear, and crunch like a slightly thicker cut of a regular potato chip.

Dante found the flavor pleasant and thought the wine really came through, but described them as a Goldilocks bag: One chip has too little flavor, another has too much flavor and then some have just the right amount of flavor.

Mr. Brown says "If I didn't read the label I would have thought these were BBQ flavored chips." An interesting take, and after I tasted them again, I totally see where you can get BBQ from, and I 'm sure it has something to do with the flavor intensity level. These get 2 out of 4 potatoes.

Lay's Classic BLT

My BFF, Dante (of Dantania) found these chips at his local liquor store (a great place to discover new and limited release chips) and saved them for me. The next chance we got to hang out, we sat in my car, cracked open the bag and gave them a go.

I tried one chip, then I had to try two at a time to really get the flavor. My tongue sent this information back up to my brain: Sour cream and onion with bacon flavored salad topper thingees. Not particularly pleasant. Not something I'd like to repeat.

What was your take on these chips, Dante?

Dante: I felt lied to. A BLT is like one of the best sandwiches ever and the fact that I didn’t taste B, L, or T was shocking. When I first bit into one I said “Hotdogs.” I think at the factory they just had some random flavor sitting around and asked someone “What does this taste like?” and they said “Bacon.” Then they went home laughing at the fact that Lays believed them. Even the multiple method didn’t work for me. I hope 7/11 has this flavor done the right way.

Oh, yeah! You did taste those 7-11 hot dog chips with me! They were good! Have you found any other chips of note in liquor stores?

Dante: Not yet but I will keep you posted. The latest thing I have seen there but haven’t tried yet was the Cheeto’s Popcorn. This is a product that was out when I was a kid and I wonder if they’ve managed to make it taste good. Companies are sneaking old products onto shelves. When they bring back bacon flavored Cheeto’s my heart will jump with joy.

Thanks for tasting potato chips with me and I hope your chip dreams come true! I give these chips 1 out of 4 potatoes.

7-11 Big Bite Hot Dog Potato Chips

7-11 brand chips are great. They’re cheaper than the name brand right next them on the rack, but they’re right on par with quality and flavor. So when I came across a bag of hot dog flavored chips I didn’t hesitate to buy them. Dante was there, so we cracked open the bag right then.

The first chip was good, you could taste something familiar going on there, but when I did the double-chip taste that’s when it really hit me: Relish, mustard, hot dog! It was pretty amazing that they were able to successfully capture those flavors on the chip, but the really Willy Wonka part (insert link to everlasting gobstopper) about it was how the flavors hit my palate separately. I’m just glad I didn’t blow up into a giant hot dog and have to be rolled away by 7-11 uniform wearing Ooma Loompas.

Dante... Whadayasay?

Dante: I loved these chips! I was afraid to have one of those weird Columbian chicken flavored chips that tasted like Vienna sausages flashback. This was not the case at all. Like you said, the flavor came in waves of taste. 7/11 has rows and rows of chips that I haven’t tried yet. These were a good start.

I gave these 4 out of 4 potatoes!