Potato Chips (Crisps) in the UK

I've often said that living in the UK is different than living in the US in several small ways that create a huge difference.  One of the small differences is potato chips.  First of all, they are called crisps here.  (Chips are fries.)  But the real difference is in the flavors of crisps.  As an example, I'll examine the Walkers brand of crisps.  The plain crisps are called "Ready Salted" and these taste, feel, and look like Lays chips in the US (the logo of the brands are also very similar).  They also have Salt & Vinegar crisps.  Nothing shocking there, as we have those in the US too.  From here it starts to get interesting.  They have crisps in the following varieties:  cheese & onion, steak & onion, smokey bacon, roast chicken, prawn cocktail, pickled onion, tomato ketchup, BBQ rib, and worcester sauce.  When our friend Shelby visited, she decided we needed to try one of the unusual flavors, so we tried the roast chicken flavored crisps.  The ingredients do not list chicken or anything remotely similar to chicken, yet the crisps taste surprisingly like chicken.  (Yes, I even exclaimed after eating one, "It tastes like chicken!")  However, to me, there is something disconcerting about crisps that taste like chicken but don't have any chicken in the ingredients. 

Walkers is currently having a Flavor Cup to find a new favorite flavor.  People can vote for their favorite at the Walkers website:  http://www.walkers-crisps.co.uk/flavourcup/  The flavors in contention are:  American cheeseburger, Argentinean flame grilled steak, Australian BBQ kangaroo, Brazilian salsa, Dutch edam cheese, English roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, French garlic baguette, German bratwurst sausage, Irish stew, Italian spaghetti bolognese, Japanese teriyaki chicken, Scottish haggis, South African sweet chutney, Spanish chicken paella, and Welsh rabbit.  Clearly, they were going with an international theme with these flavors.  While I think many of these dishes when actually prepared are great, the thought of crisps artificially flavored to taste like these dishes is rather unappealing to me.

One great thing about the funky flavored crisps is that the vending machine at our office does not hold very many tempting treats for me.  When I get that mid-afternoon craving for something salty, my choices of steak or chicken flavored crisps reminds me that I probably don't need whatever is in the machine.  So, chalk one up for my waistline.

Comments

[vending machines]

I have visited the Canada last month.. It is really nice.. I liked it very much..Thing I liked the most was potato chips vending machine..