Food For Thought

It seems as if there are a plethora of exotic foods everywhere one looks. Heck, it was just a couple of years ago I thought sushi was about the most exotic dish I'd ever heard of...and it was available here in Titletown! Of course, I'd eaten caribou, but that was in Finland where one might expect some offbeat dishes. But there is something sacrosanct about foods considered our own. Nobody had better mess with Little Debbies, for example, or those chocolate Easter eggs that some group is always selling as a fundraiser...and potato chips.
There's something primitive and safe about chips...or crisps as other English-speaking folks (and the Geico lizard) call them. Branching out from the basic chip was timid at first: ridges instead of the flat, salty treat we grew to love. Then, of course, came flavors in the form of vinegar and salt, barbecue and jalapeno. Now, though, producers have simply gone too far, in my estimation...and not just newcomers into the market. I'm talking about Pringles and Lays as well as brands of which I've never heard like Walkers. It is in that vein, therefore, that I offer you a peek into the future of potato chips from three of the players I have already mentioned. Without further ado, here are (seriously) flavors that are now available for each of these brands of potato chips.

1. PRINGLES: now offers flavors such as barbecue chicken, bacon Caesar salad, Balsamic vinegar and feta cheese. Stunned? It gets more interesting.

2. LAYS: now brings us chips flavored as blueberry, mango, kiwi and curry (yes, curry!)

3. WALKERS: this company now features flavors such as cajun squirrel, chili and chocolate, lamb and mint, and pickled onion.

It amazes me that something like pickled onion as a flavor almost seems normal in this context. Strange days, indeed.