Tales of the Salty Bag

About a month ago I was gifted a bag of tortilla chips (thanks Robert), La Cocina Fiesta Flavour Tortilla Chips to be exact. Upon close inspection..I'm pretty sure I've had La Cocina before..but never really paid any attention to them. Robert was kind enough to point out to me that they are straight outta Ste. Anne, MB (score) and as far as I can tell they're independent (double score). The bag advertises that these are made of Stone Ground Corn. The smell..tortilla chips (what'd you expect). The chips are beautifully light with the edges turned up making them ideal for dipping (and also adds some structural integrity to counteract the light weight of the chips). The seasoning isn't super heavy, but, once again, that goes well with the lightness of the chips. The chip to flavour ratio is pretty good. To me the seasoning had a bit of onion, a bit of garlic and..not shown on the bag but..cheese? They're on the mid to high end of salty. Honestly, my first impressio...

Have you gone to a hardcore show in the last 15 years. Have you seen a sweatshirt/hoodie/tshirt/long sleeve T with BANE across the chest? If you answered yes to one of those..you likely answered yes to both. There's a reason, they were a good band..and for some reason they ended up being seemingly every hardcore band/fans name check band. I first heard them right before my first (and only) time seeing them..opening for Comeback Kid on October 12, 2008 (googled the show and holy shit, I didn't remember the bill having so many bands, 6, wowzer [seeing them perform has stuck with me since. Great stage presence and their singer is such a big gangly guy who wore a sweatshirt during the whole set, like damn that had to have been hot]). Anyway, I didn't get hooked on Bane the first time I heard them, maybe I wasn't in the right mood..I dunno. But as time went by they kept turning up in the rotation and my enjoyment increased with each listen. All this brings me to 2014, they r...

Boulder Canyon Malt Vinegar & Sea Salt hand made style potato chips. Hand made style ? The packaging for the chips makes me think that they're going for a more natural 'healthy' feel, so...that's something. When I opened the bag and took a whiff..well, lets just say that they're  not very fragrant. I popped a kettle cooked seasoned potato slice into my mouth and was met with a nice crunch, the chips are kettle cooked but not overly greasy. The seasoning is somewhat light but, you know, they're still pretty good. There is a hint of sweetness to the chips, might be in the potato but likely that's a result of the malt vinegar flavour. The vinegar flavour is in the background, however, it is definitely present. I'd categorize these chips as being a pretty good light chip..not light as in healthy, but light as in..you know, light. Boulder Canyon Malt Vinegar & Sea Salt are nice for when you want to just down a bag of chips and try to trick yourself in...

Music and alcohol (excessive consumption) always seem to be associated with one another..but the older I get, the less I understand why. Speaking from my own experience alcohol tends to make one lack concentration and forget things and/or be incapacitated and no longer capable of enjoyment. If I'm making an effort to go see live music then why would I want to forget it..I don't know, it just seems counter intuitive, should I not want to remember seeing/hearing a band? I've typically, sometimes intentionally..sometimes out of necessity, tried to avoid mixing alcohol with live music consumption (at least to the point of inebriation). When I was younger I'd often end up being the DD for shows which actually turned out pretty well (necessity); as I've gotten older it's turned into more of an intentional choice to not get dickered before shows. I'd say a major turning point towards intent came in November of 2005..(took me a while to google it, I thought it was...

This past summer I was in an independent dollar store and I came across a brand of chips that I had never heard of; (Beyond Good Brand) Uncle Rays ( Always Made Fresh from Nature's Best). There were some interesting flavour titles which piqued my attention. Upon closer inspection of the bag I noticed that there was a "chapter" of "The Life and Times of Uncle Ray ", what the what? I started looking around at the other bags, each bag had a different "chapter" (and it wasn't flavour dependent). I'm not sure how many chapters there are to Uncle Ray's story but I can tell you there are at least 36. At this point it should go without saying their marketing sucked me in, I took home a handful of Uncle Ray's (hopefully tasty) chips. Fast forward to Uncle Ray's Kosher Dill. Visual Inspection: standard potato chip. Density: Light and thin Flavour: Well..the seasoning is quite light in general and fairly uneven. Some chips tasted like s...

I think I'm starting to go crazy. I swear that I saw CLOWNS - Bad Blood on some year end lists for 2016..which makes no sense being that it was a Feb 2015 release. Maybe I saw their Destroy the Evidence single on a list and stumbled my way backwards. Or maybe because it was released in Europe in 2016...does it even matter? Now that's out of the way. CLOWNS , amiright. This group of Melbourne punk rockers put out Bad Blood just about 2 years ago and I must say it is quite the enjoyable 38 minutes (11:21 being the final track). The singer goes from yelling to screaming with the odd guttural growl and/or screech, it can be quite manic..which in my books is fantastic. Overall they traverse the hardcore spectrum; melodic to street punk to straight forward HC. There's rock and roll present throughout the whole thing with just a dash of pop. The singer's range of delivery brings Pears to mind (but slightly less frantic). Every once in a while I get a real The (later era) Un...

When I review Pringles I can't just sit there, crack open a specific flavour and write down my findings. This is mostly because Pringles are the 98° of the chip world (if they never existed most people wouldn't really care). I have to add in a little twist to make it fun for me (and not just a mouthful of mediocre at best, terrible at worst "chips"). I've had a couple salt and vinegar tubes of "chips" waiting in the salty cellar for a while. I had picked up a Pringles tube a while ago intending to review it in the mass Pringles review of 2016 . At some point before said review I came accross some no name (the brand sold at Superstore) chip cans I came to the conclusion that, due to salt and vinegar being one of my favourite flavour families, I would consume the can of Pringles S&V against the no name S&V (this was mostly out of a curiosity whether all tube chips tasted like flavoured potato paste and/or salty garbage). It took me a while to get...