Tales of the Salty Bag

The annual Lays "Do Us a Flavour" contest has a similar plus/minus as the weather man so when I saw that one of only four Canadian flavour contestants last summer was Wavy Lays Cowboy BBQ Beans it should go without saying that I was less than enthused. My inner monologue when I saw them, "Yay, an unrecognizable salty flavour that will taste like faux bacon and nothing, all at the same time. YOU GO LAYS!!". Why did I even pick up a bag you might ask? Well, addiction doesn't discriminate. Being that I had pretty low expectations it took me a while to get around to opening them. A couple weeks ago it was finally go time. *Snatch* *Tear* *Sniff*..well, they smelt like a can of brown beans. Into the mouth with ye, and I was met with what I had assumed, smokey "bacon" chips..there was however a hint of sweetness. Did my taste-buds deceive me, were these chips better than I thought they'd be? Yes. Were they good? Meh. Salty slightly faux smoke flavour. Af...

This past March my in laws went on a lil' vacation. When they returned to the homeland I was presented with a bag of Hawaiian Values Surf's Up Big Waves for Dipping Potato Chips (plain). These fellas come in a big 283g bag that's graphics fit the brand name perfectly; a surf board, some waves, a nice blue sky and a sun peaking out from behind the Hawaiian Values text. The packaging alone gets a big smile and thumbs up. Crack the bag open, pull out your loupe for full on inspecting and you will find a chip that falls somewhere between a Ruffles chip and a Wavy Lays. About 3/4 Ruffles and 1/4 Wavy Lays I'd say. These chips are average leaning towards lightly salted. Since Surf's Up Big Waves are towards the Ruffles end of the spectrum they're on the more puffy side of crunchy. Not a bad chip, they are, however, a little weak for my dipping needs (I can be an aggressive dipper). Ever since (I want to say January 2013) every time I hear a mention of surfing or rip...

For some reason the man wants you to believe that dip should be primarily consumed on top of a fairly plain conduit (be it a chip, cracker..knife, spoon..finger). I'm not sure who trend setter zero is in this instance, but that person should have been slapped. I'm not saying dip's not enjoyable with plain (salted) chips/crackers/what have you, but if you stop there you're going to miss out on a whole world of flavour. I've previously mentioned ketchup chips into dill pickle dip , but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Most people can enjoy an artist recording/getting up onto stage with just their voice and a guitar. I can also confidently say that people need more than that sometimes..if not most of the time. Throw in some drums, bass, another guitar..some brass or a fiddle, how bout a slide whistle or a back up singer..shit, even a beer tray. Take Red Roses for Me, The Pogues first album, for example. They literally used a beer tray on multiple tracks. Go li...