Tales of the Salty Bag

Salt & Vinegar Ruffles, what up! According to the bag "IT'S BACK FOR A LIMITED TIME". So if you're not familiar with Ruffles, they're a light to mid-weight mini ridged chip (like the ridges are 1mm or so). They're fairly uniformly yellowish white in colour. The crunch is decent considering the density of the chip and the fact that they're not kettle cooked (2 to 3x the crunch of standard flat Lays). How is the flavour you ask, well let me tell you..bangin'. The vinegar is very present (which is what I'm always looking for [not quite "extra salt and vinegar" but they're somewhere between regular and extra]), you're tongue feels it about 70g into the 220g bag. Good crunch and somewhat aggressive vinegar flavour with some nice mini ridges for dipping. Don't sleep on this, like the bag says, "LIMITED TIME". While we're on that limited time tip, Iron Chic and Off With Their Heads are coming/coming back to Winnip...

Lets preface this with the fact that I know that Japan and China are distinctly different places. Now that that's out of the way, Potshot was a Japanese ska-punk band that existed (according to their wiki) from '95 to '05. I was introduced to them through (I believe) Napster. Around 2001 (give or take a year) I stumbled upon Radio from their first album Pots and Shots , which being the killer track that it is, quickly made it to a mixed cd and forced the band name Potshot to stick in my head. A few years later, torrents rolled around and I got my download on of full albums. Fast forward to 2007 (give or take a year), Asian Man Records had record bundles for sale and 2 of Potshot's albums were in the deal, Pots and Shots and 'til I die, I jumped at the chance to hear more Potshot. They're a super uptempo (verging on frenetic) ska band (I'd put in the same family as the Suicide Machines..with less aggressive vocals and more brass) with plenty o' harmonie...

Culo (with the double dot above the 'u') and sriracha. for some reason those words seemed to go together. Now do the flavours? Well let me tell you... Wavy Lays Sour Cream & Sriracha. They're wavy lays. The actual chip is nothing to write home about, fairly sterile with enough thickness and crunch to be adequately dippable. What about the seasoning you ask? Well, coverage is okay. First impression is that they taste like typical sour cream based flavours, you get a lot of potato with em and a simulated sour cream not quite sour but you know, smooth-sour? The sriracha is present but not overpowering, it takes quite a number of chips before you start to feel any heat. There's a mild sweetness to these lil thangs. If you're into sour cream based flavours and want to get a lil frisky, give em a go. I'd like to see another chip brand try this flavour combo on for size, could be really interesting on a better chip base. I'd recommend trying them at least onc...

Cayetana is a weird name. Anyway, earlier this year I read something about Cayetana releasing their second LP New Kind of Normal ..on twitter..IG..I honestly don't know exactly where I read about it..maybe it was in Razorcake? Does it matter? Either way, the words I read made me want to check them out. I ended up heading to their Bandcamp and listening to half a song at which point I decided that I'd wait to get the album before listening any further. A couple weeks ago I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it..came in this past Thursday. Not gonna bury the lead here, this three piece delivered a killer sophomore album. Beautifully raspy emotive vocals often delivering melancholic lyrics. Very lively bass lines with an 80's effect now and then (lazy explanation..the bass at times reminds me of The Cure). Twee comes to mind along with a mix of 80's and 90's alt rock (I want to say there's a similarity to The Cranberries but I don't fully agree with that..y...

Winners is the weirdest place. I always just think of it as a cheap place to find cloths, but it's also a bangin' place to find weird/import/off brand chips. A couple months ago I picked up a bag of Burts British Hand Cooked Potato Chips (it's kind of weird that they're not referred to as crisps as Burts is a UK company) Vintage Cheddar and Spring Onion Flavour. I've talked about Burts previously on this here blog but it's been a minute and they're not very common in my area of the prairies. When I peeled the metalized polypropylene apart and took a whiff they faintly smelt like sour cream and onion. I popped a few in my mouth and masticated. They have a fairly strong sweet (green?) onion flavour (very similar to a lot of sour cream and onion chip flavours). There's a presence of cheddar flavour..but I'd say it's more in the background. The onion is the frontman in this band. The chips themselves are pretty good. Skins are left on, they're ...

Is chili a dip or a meal? In my humble opinion, it's both. True greatness comes from collaboration.  Sure you can have something that's absolutely fantastic on it's own but to truly reach it's full potential some form of collaboration is almost always required. In the case of chili, once you get past the mental barrier that it's a meal AND a dip (society wants you to think that dip can't be a meal [pscha {I'm going to be eating the chips anyway, why not get a little party going in ye olde maw}]) you can enjoy it for it's true potential. The first hurdle is tossing the spoon away and bringing in some corn/tortilla chips. Not much of a stretch there, and I was at that stage for a while. Then one day I didn't have any 'plain' tortilla chips around..in stepped the Doritos (I always try to have some in stock). Still in the corn family and yeah dude, they mesh well with chili. Some sweet chili heat or nacho cheese..tasty..and in my mind that's ...

I missed the boat last year, so this year as soon as I heard that it was Donair ("Greco Donair 310 30 30 Atlantic Canadas #1 Donair" according to the bag) season in the Covered Bridge world I ordered a half dozen bags (limited batch yo!). It should go without saying that I have mild expectations for this salty bag of (hopefully) goodness (to say the least). It took me a week to get down to business and now here I sit with the beautiful blue bag in front of me. Tear, whiff, medium well done potato chips with some sort of indistinguishable (by scent) seasoning. With the ol' maw watering I tossed one in..the actual chips being Covered Bridge are as usual bangin', a nice shade of brown with the skins and a mid level kettle cooked crunch. The seasoning isn't overly aggressive. Slightly sweet with an almost hint of tomato, onion and..mayo? After consuming for a while there's a hint of almost mesquite bbq flavour (mostly in the aftertaste). I was initially a little u...