Potato Chips Worth Eating

Admittedly this blog is not ancient, but I already see a pattern. Not much on travel, lots on food. I would guess that will continue. Certainly it does today.

In keeping with the name of this blog, I delight in things done right regardless of highbrow or redneck. We're going to discuss potato chips. This, presumably, will be one of the more lowbrow food items, but, once again, there is something to be said.

I am comfortable with a lot of diverse experiences. I've had members of presidential families to my house. I been thrilled to have a job pulling shipping crates apart. I've had coffee with Ted Olson and I've been grateful that beans are cheap. I love the variety of experiences I've been privileged to have. In the world of food, there are qualities at each level and those qualities are what we should celebrate.


Again, this is not about money. This past summer, Kevin grilled some fillet Mignon which made me swear my undying devotion. I believe the cost to have been around $25 a pound. A year or two ago my brother Dirk made some slow-roast venison steaks with an amazing glaze type marinade from a small spike buck he shot the fall previous. Cost there was only that suffered by his pride for shooting such a wimpy deer. Once again, the flavors were amazing. Two totally different price ranges, equal excellence.


I've had a lot of chips in my life. In America, who hasn't. To my mind, however, the huge majority of potato chips pander to some gustatory lowest common denominator. Most are laden with grease or salt or suffer from totally foreign metallic or plastic overtones. Most also have an after taste kick which ruins your taste buds for hours later. What amazes me is how many people continue to eat these same chips year after year.


There had to be a legitimate predecessor to most modern chips with sufficient taste to warrant commercializing them. To my mind there are some that do proper homage to that holy grail of potato flake and oil. Two in particular stand out.


The first, for me, is a new arrival. It may have been out for a while, but I only recently found it and quite by accident. I went into one of our local, smaller, grocery stores. I was about to try (again) a somewhat disappointing salt and vinegar chip which I believes comes from out East. However, and thanks to that lazy person, someone had dropped a bag of Lays Natural Thick Cut Seal Salt chips on the same shelf (where it clearly didn't belong as I'm sure both companies would tell the display clerk). I grabbed it instead. An excellent vintage if I must say. It is exactly what a basic potato chip should be. It still tastes like potato (which surprisingly few do) and has only three ingredients; sliced potato,  sunflower oil, and salt. That's it. Crisp, clean flavors, smells good, and no nasty aftertaste. Really good with chocolate with chili pepper in it and a decent Riesling or Gewurztraminer.

The other is my standby and has been for years. Kettle Brand makes quite a few chips and most are pretty indifferent. Largely they suffer by trying to hard. However, one is excellent. Under their Krinkle Cut sub-brand they have a Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper chip which is always excellent.

Like the first choice, it is relatively simple. It has more spices added for flavor, but, other than that, is just a thicker chip with a good oil. Quality ingredients, simply but properly prepared, will rarely fail. Both these chips follow this pattern. This chip definitely has more flavor and bite. They add not only pepper but also pepper oils and you know it. However, that is balanced by more real potato flavor than any other chip I've ever had. This chip is beefier and goes well with just about any beer or a richer wine like a moderate Cabernet Sauvignon, a hearty Merlot, or even a very present Zinfandel.

My father even likes these (or, as he said, "Well, how can't you like them?"). I don't know whether it is by positional belief or a desire to support my mother's cooking, but anything as pre-processed as a potato chip is highly suspect. Thus his praise is high praise indeed.

One other interesting thing with this chip is that they must be almost hand made. Every bag tastes a little different than the others. I can almost imaging someone hand dishing in the spices, deciding for each batch, "That looks like enough". You never know what you are going to get, but you are never disappointed.

Happy eating, but one more comment is in order. Potato chips are not the most nutritious. They have a lot of sodium, a fair amount of fat, and almost nothing nutritionally useful. I know this. As a matter of fact, that is exactly why this post is important. Like everything in life, if you are going to do it, do it right. And if you are going to imbibe in something so luxurious as a potato chip, make it worth your while. Eat a chip worth eating.