Tales of the Salty Bag

 Are you tired, because I'm tired. It's been a minute since I've had a bag of Walkers, definitively, prawn cocktail crisps. So long in fact that I can't really remember what I thought they tasted like, I just recall enjoying them...I think. So lets take a trip in the way back machine to June 14, 2017. Walkers definitevly prawn cocktail (with vle of evesham tomatoes). Not much for flavour smell [not very fragrant], bit of vinegar. Standard flat chip. Average Lays/Walkers weight. Popped it in. Tangy. Tangy vinegar tomato with some sort of salty..I don't know, it doesn't quite taste like prawns..but it's close. Very distinct flavour. I enjoyed the 25g bag but it might grow a little old after more than 50g or so. So there you have it, quite enjoyable in a small dose, not sure what it would be like in a long format. At some point in 2019ish the Murderburgers called it quits with Fraser Murderburger deciding to move onto a new project, Wrong Life. Over the last ye...

 I had a bag of (Old Dutch) Ridgies, Salt and Pepper Wings sitting in the cupboard for a minute, so finally at the start of February I cracked the bag open. I would never order S&P wings at the bar, but I figured I'd enter into this bag with an open mind. They smelled like pepper. Looked sterile with mini ruffles style ridges (1mm or so). The crunch was somewhat formed chip, sort of goes to mush quickly but a low to midlow crunch. My initial impression of the flavour was that they tasted like black pepper, sort of fresh ground, with a hint of lemon (are these lemon pepper [as opposed to S&P] chips..or am I crazy?). There was a hint of faux chicken in the mix and I could taste non S&P "seasoning" from the wing "batter". They actually did taste quite like S&P wings (I said I wouldn't order them, not that I haven't had them before). I'd prefer if these chips were Buffalo wing, but they're a decent wing chip on their own merit. I proc...

 Great expectations, we had the greatest expectations...high expectations can be such a double edged sword. I'm always hesitant to allow myself to get overly excited about things, I've found that having high expectations can often lead to a let down. Allowing for too much of a built up, letting expectations swell can lead to a skewed (first) perspective..even if the thing (in the case of this here blog; chips and music) that you've had high expectations of is absolutely top notch a-ok, the initial assessment is somehow diminished due to unrealistic expectations unjustly placed on said thing.  Now, I believe my memory of these events is accurate, but I'm not 100% positive. I recall reading rave reviews about The Gaslight Anthem's Sink or Swim then Senor and the Queen on [music review website that used to have useful reviews, but now seems to be jerking off to their own contrarian so non-punk that they're punk hot takes]. The reviews got me stoked, (I want to say ...

 Paqui gives you a heat rating on the back of their tortilla chip bags. The ratings are Not Hot, Kinda Hot, Hot, Super Hot, and Freakin' Hot. Tonight I pulled a bag of Fiery Chile Limon out of the salty cellar..they're rated super hot and honestly, I'm not super jazzed about consuming these. I think they'll lean too far towards feat of strength chip territory. With that said, I was going to reach out to my metal connection for a heavy recommendation...but I decided to check out a band that he had posted on his IG story recently, Cancer..specifically Cancer's Death Shall Rise album. Death Shall Rise is a 1991 release from this British death band. The music is undulating between mid and fast to lightning tempo...all the time super heavy while leaving lots space in the songs for banging. The vocals are weird, you can make most of the words out fairly easily. At first the singers voice had me scratching my chin but 10 minutes in I'm down, I'd say he's defin...

 My initial impression of Hardbite (handcrafted-style chips..cooked in 100% avo oil) Wasabi Ranch chips is that they smell like KFC. This was unexpected. I however proceeded to toss one in my mouth and was met by a very nice wasabi bite and a good kettle cooked crunch. A mild creamy ranch flavour kicks in at the back end of consuming. There's a slight butteryness to the chips and the seasoning to potato ratio is pretty much on point throughout the (128g) bag. This is probably the first time that I've had a bag of Hardbite that the flavour name is a perfect description of the actual chips flavour. There's no flowery wording trying to make them sound more important or healthy than they are. There's enough wasabi tang to keep me interested, but it's not blasting open my sinuses. Bangin' bag of chips. Neither me or the Salty Wife saw bags of these around town but she was nice enough to find some online through London Drugs in case you're wanting to get a bag for...

(If you're looking for a review, go to the very bottom to read my words about co-op Gold Pure kettle cooked Jalapeno White Cheddar) Well, 2020 was an odd year. I'm up in Canada so it wasn't quite as odd as other countries, so that was tight..I guess. I believe this was the most growth that my CD collection has seen in years..if not ever. I got some groovy records, still managed to get some American chip flavours. Yeah, so below I'm going to provide an update on what I found to get of note in 2020...it's not going to be the definitive list of cool stuff, but it's the list that you're getting.  Beyond categorization - I kept the annual(?) interview train going thanks to the kindness of Greg Rekus  - People that I don't know that were nice in one way or another: Both Bazooka Joe and Rob Crooks separately, Thomas Quinlan of Hand Solo Records , Jon Lewis of The Dopamines , Epic and Saskatoon Folk Rap Records - Who Wants $2.69 with Martin Urbano on Twitch via...

 This is just a rundown of my postings in 2020 including: the blog title, chip and music reference for anyone that doesn't want to read all them (I've done this each previous year for 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018, and 2019 ): January 2020:   The Beautiful People - Music: Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar     Chip: Miss Vickie's Hickory Smoked Salt Dreamy Little You - Music (for title): Kitty Kat Fan Club. This was a rundown of good things from 2019.   Hardwell Close - Music: The Murderburgers - What a Mess     Chip: Great Value Red Curry February 2020: Death & taxes (or the Greg Rekus interview) - Music: Greg Rekus..it was an interview of Greg Rekus as the title suggests Puncture Wounds - Music: Gatecreeper - Deserted     Chip: Barcel Chip's Fuego Limon March 2020 : The Devil's Martyr - Music: Sacrifice - The One's I Condemn     Chip: Lay's Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle (or Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle ...