French Fry Diary 703: Whole Cuts

This potato snack, Whole Cuts, comes from Calbee, the same notorious company that makes shrimp chips, seaweed chips, and yes, the infamous French fries in a can. At once I was wary, but as with many things on this blog - I try it so you won't have to.

"Cut like a fry, crisp like a chip." is what the hype says, and these gluten free snacks claim natural simplicity with no preservatives and no artificial flavors. The ingredients are just potatoes, oil, and salt.

After I got into the nearly unopenable package (so tough to open these could have been sold at Trader Joe's), the Whole Cuts had the look of natural cut shoestrings but felt dry and firm and more solid. These were very crunchy and have a thorough potato flavor with just the right amount of salt.

Not bad and quite the crunchy little snack, these were much better than I at first thought they would be. Granted, Whole Cuts wouldn't be my first choice as a snack, but these were quite good.

French Fry Diary 138: Jack 'n Jill Potato Chips, Barbeque Flavor

I go to the Asian Food Market a lot. I know this might surprise some of you out there, but even though I am a catastrophically picky eater, I do like to cook. And an amazing variety of interesting spices and other fun stuff can be had at these Asian places that you can't find at your friendly neighborhood Shop Rite or even Whole Foods.

This particular trip to the Asian Food Market in Barclay Center on Route 70 was to find my current white whale - French fries in a can. This Calbee and/or Jagabee product has been eluding me for quite some time, and this trip didn't prove successful either. If anyone knows where I can find these things in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, please let me know.

However I did pick up a couple bags of Jack 'n Jill Potato Chips, specifically the Barbeque Flavor ones. Despite the name, Jack 'n Jill is part of a huge corporation called Universal Robina in the Phillipines, and that's pretty much why the Asian Food Market is the only place I've seen these chips.

The chips have a mild but appropriately hot regular barbeque flavor, but there is something else about them - a grainy yet not unpleasant something extra. A quick look at the ingredients shows all the normal bbq chip stuff and two other things. Palm oil is different and also rusk powder, which comes from an Asian and African biscuit similar to milk toast. Interesting.

I like them. And at a buck a bag, the price is right, especially when I couldn't find what I was initially looking for. Thank you, Asian Food Market!

Jagabee Commercial

Yes, it’s true. Fries in a can, from Japan. Beyond that, I have no idea what the commercial is about.