French Fry Diary 741: Lay's Wavy Hickory BBQ Potato Chips

This one was written a while ago, but the chips still rock, so there you go...

I had picked these chips up for this year's Super Bowl, not realizing I hadn't written about them before.  Our Super Bowl celebration this year, our first in Florida, was just the two of us, and late in the evening.  Yes, it was quite a game, even though we watched most of it in fast forward, only hitting play for the mostly mediocre commercials, and of course the truly stunning and amazing halftime show. Lady Gaga definitely won this year's Super Bowl. 

Speaking of bowls, I got the Lay's Wavy Hickory BBQ Flavored Potato Chips mainly because the Lay's Wavy are thick and perfectly ruffled for dipping.  The dip in question was slightly melted vanilla ice cream, 'cause that's just how I roll. 

Unlike other Lay's BBQ chips, the Hickory flavor isn't overseasoned, doesn't burn, or have a hot after taste.  These are sweet and tangy to which the ice cream gives an excellent contrast.  Now that I have written about them, I'll remember how much I like them and get them again.  These are darned good BBQ chips. 

French Fry Diary 730: Lay's Wavy Hickory BBQ Potato Chips

I've talked about Lay's Wavy Potato Chips before, and was rather impressed, and whereas I've seen chocolate, truffle, and even mango salsa versions of the Wavy chips, I have never seen my favorite flavor, BBQ, until now.

I found a bag of Lay's Wavy Hickory BBQ Potato Chips and I was pretty happy. Hickory BBQ flavor is a bit tricky, it's smoky, one would suppose from hickory wood, but mostly it has a molasses and maybe honey taste. Sounds good. Before opening the bag, I checked out the ingredients, and that was no help - "Hickory BBQ Seasoning" - just like the mystery ingredients of the Do Us A Flavor chips.

When I opened the bag the aroma was rich and sweet, I couldn't wait to dig in. Like the other Wavy Lay's, they are thick cut and excellent for dipping, especially cold stuff because of the heat of the flavor. It's a sweetness with a bit of a kick, and addictive, like all good potato chips. Thumbs up.

French Fry Diary 725: Lay's Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

We've talked about chocolate covered potato chips before. Usually it's a special or gourmet thing. Here a major potato chip company, Lay's, has them, of course in limited edition just for the holiday season.

Now I got the Wavy Milk Chocolate, but they are also available in Dark Chocolate, and Milk Chocolate with Almond Bits. These are decisively decadent, but it is worth mentioning that the Dark have less calories. That said, they're not too bad. Just don't eat a few bags in a sitting, even though they're just fifteen chips per bag.

The chips are thin, but not completely covered with chocolate so you get a good portioning of both the salty and the sweet. These are really good, they almost melt in your mouth, and they just might be a bit addictive. Yeah, that's a recommendation. Good thing they're only around for a limited time.

French Fry Diary 673: Jessica's Do Us A Flavor 2015 Taste Testing

Guest Post by Jessica Walsh

Although the Lay’s Do Us a Flavor contest was established in 2013 (as far as I could tell), I had never participated in taste-testing or voting. Instead, I lived vicariously through Glenn and his reviews, taking his word for it. The man knows his spuds. After a winner was declared, I knew better than to complain if I disagreed since I hadn’t utilized my voting power.

This year, after reading Glenn’s lackluster review of what I assumed would be my favorite flavor, New York Reuben, I decided to get off the bench, get in the game, put my taste buds to the test and exercise my right to vote.

Like all red-blooded Americans, I have an opinion and I figured with thirty years of potato chip-eating experience, I am more than qualified to weigh in. Some gals like chocolate and sweets; this gal once considered giving her guinea pig’s salt lick a taste. I am a self-proclaimed potato chip connoisseur.

To make things more fun, however, I called on my gang of guys to help me out with the taste-testing. My husband, Mike, our friends, Rudy and Jay, and myself have 130 years of cumulative chip-eating experience. We know chips.

Some stats:

Jessica’s favorite chips: Herr’s ruffled sour cream and onion & Herr’s Boardwalk Salt & Vinegar Kettle Cooked.

Rudy’s favorite chip: Herr’s Boardwalk Salt & Vinegar Kettle Cooked (this is why we’re such good friends).

Mike’s favorite chip: Herr’s Kettle Cooked Jalapeno. (For the record, this is the only potato chip I have ever encountered that I prefer NOT to eat. I don’t believe it’s Mike’s favorite based on flavor, but on the fact that it is the only snack he can bring into the house and know it will still be there when he wants some.)

Jay’s favorite chips: Jay is an Utz guy. He goes for Grandma Utz Plain Kettle Cooked or Utz’s Kettle Cooked Smokin’ Sweet.

We are kettle-cooked people. Nothing beats that crunch. Poor Lay’s. Not one of us has a favorite among their extensive selection. Let’s see if these flavors win us over…

“Okay, gents, let’s begin!”

We started with the Wavy West Coast Truffle Fries. I read the ingredients, and what Angie Fu had to say about her flavor. I was pleased with the appearance, which greatly resembled my beloved sour cream & onion. Upon taste though, I felt they were lacking that earthy, mushroom-y flavor that truffles are known for. Rudy commented that they tasted like a spice cabinet, and that he wanted ketchup to dip them in. Angie Fu, we ain’t fuled by your finalist that fell flat.

With fungus on my mind (not literally), I told the story of the mushroom that was sad he couldn’t stay at the party. “I’m a fun-gi! I promise I won’t take up mush-room.” Rudy said the chips were at least better than my jokes.

“I don’t know,” Jay began thoughtfully. “They say wavy, but they just laid there.” Yeah, it was time to move on.

Next we tried the New York Reuben. Having all grown up near New York, we have all had MANY Reubens in our lives. The Reuben is to North Jersey what the cheesesteak is to South Jersey. Glenn never had one so he cannot be trusted on things such as this. After all, he doesn’t write for The Amazing Sandwich Diary.

I don’t know how the chemists do it, but we absolutely all agreed that these chips taste EXACTLY like a Reuben. For me, the most prominent flavor was the rye bread. I got the caraway (all the best rye breads are seeded), the tang of the Thousand Island dressing, the cheese… I only wished they were a little saltier.

The dreaded four-chips-in-one tower bite

“I wish I had a pickle to go with these,” Rudy commented. “Oh, even better would be dill pickle potato chips mixed with these chips! Or a Reuben with a side of fries,” he added as he plucked a truffle chip and a Reuben chip from the tray and popped them in his month at the same time. I promptly followed suit. Nope, not good.

Jeff Solensky, the finalist who chose this flavor, grew up in Long Island so he has credibility. But even though the Reuben chips taste exactly like they should, they’re not my favorite. If the contest was based on accuracy to title alone, they’d be the clear winner. But I don’t want my chip to taste that much like something else because it just confuses me. I rather just eat a Reuben. Sorry, Jeff.

Next up was the Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro. I already established that we all love kettle cooked chips. These were nice and crunchy. Too bad they were also DISGUSTING! First of all, they look dirty. They’re dark and the seasoning looks like cigarette ash and dust. I was hesitant even putting it in my mouth. “That is not good,” I said after one bite.

If James Wagner is happy with the chip he came up with, then I think it is fair to say that they serve crappy gyros in Texas, a place not at all known for its Greek cuisine.

Jay actually threw his chip out, rather than finish it. Hey Lays, I betcha we CAN eat just one. Sorry James, there’s no way you’re winning the big bucks.

Little did we know we were saving the best for last. First, let me state that I have never in my life eaten Southern Biscuits & Gravy. It is my understanding that above the Mason-Dixon Line we have something called cream chipped beef served over white bread or some sort of bread that’s not a biscuit because we have bagels here. Both look unappetizing. Bread drowning in a white gelatinous goop of butter, flour, some sort of dairy product and meat drippings? Gross.

So imagine my surprise when I loved these chips! I immediately got a breakfast sausage flavor and I love breakfast sausage. I also got a hint of butter. This was such an obvious winner for me and so far beyond the others in terms of flavor. I would actually buy these chips again!

Hailey Green, I hope you win $1,000,000! I am going to spend the remainder of the voting period supporting you. When you win, please reimburse me for the Vote for Hailey pins and lawn signs I just ordered from Café Press.

I’m still not ordering that goopy mess at a diner, though.

I must sadly report that although Southern Biscuits & Gravy was my favorite flavor, it was not unanimous. Rudy adamantly and stubbornly voted for pretzel rods and salt & vinegar chips, adding that truffle would be in dead last and the remaining three were tied for third.

Jay and Mike, brothers by different mothers, chose the Reuben first, followed by the biscuits and gravy, then the truffle fries, and then the dirty disgusting gyro chips. James Wagner, GO HOME.

Lastly, we stacked all four together and put the towers in our mouths. It was pretty bad.

“It’s like a Reuben with gyro meat and a side of fries coated in sausage gravy!”

I do not recommend eating all four at once. However, I do recommend you VOTE! Remember, if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem and if those Greektown Gyro Garbage chips show up on my grocery store shelves, we WILL have a problem.

Do Us A Flavor 2015 Roundup

Just for the sake of ease, here are my reviews of all of this year's Lay's Do Us A Flavor Contest Finalists in one place.

Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips

Wavy West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips

Southern Biscuits and Gravy Potato Chips

New York Reuben Potato Chips

Those are my thoughts, so what did you think, and which were your favorite? And if you haven't voted yet, you can do so here.

French Fry Diary 684: Post-Fantastic Four Denny's

If you're a regular listener to The GAR! Podcast, you know the dread and anticipation involved in the new Fantastic Four movie. The comic is my podcast partner Ray's favorite, and he's very protective of the FF. His feeling about the movie has the topic of many episodes (here, here, and here, including a recent one where he watched the trailer live on the recording. This past weekend, we saw it together, and then went to Denny's to record the newest episode.

Why Denny's? Because Denny's is currently featuring menu items that are Fantastic Four specific. There's the Fantastic Four Cheese Omelet, the Invisible Woman Slam (with hash browns), the hot Human Torch Skillet (with season red-skinned potatoes), the death by chocolate Doom Lava Cake, and the Thing Burger. Of special interest to readers of this blog is that last, as the Thing Burger not only comes with Denny's unique wavy-cut French fries, but also has crispy hash browns on top of the beef patty. Awesome. Like the Thing. …but what is in that 'Thing sauce'?

Anyway, the plan was for Ray and I to see the new Fantastic Four movie, and then record an episode of the podcast about it afterward… at Denny's. This is how it went right here. We both talked a good fight over a bad movie, but eventually ate none of the Fantastic Four food, although the Doom Lava Cake was darned tempting. And how come Doctor Doom gets an item and Reed Richards doesn't?

Either way, the fries were good, the staff of the Blackwood-Clementon Road Denny's was extremely cooperative, and it was a pretty good episode of the podcast too. Check it out here.

French Fry Diary 623: Utz Wavy Baby Back Ribs Chips

I've talked before how much I love Herr's Baby Back Rib Potato Chips, or pig chips as I like to call them, before. So when I saw these - Utz Wavy Baby Back Ribs flavored crisp all natural Potato Chips (another contender for longest chip name ever), I just had to get them.

I can only really compare them to the Herr's version. These chips are thinner, and their ridges are ever so slightly smaller. The thinness, usually a Lay's trait, makes them a little less functional as dipping chips.

I have to say the flavor isn't as strong as Herr's, but I think that's a good thing. The baby back ribs seasoning flavor is still there, just very subtle. I like it. So much so that if I have a choice between pig chips - Herr's or Utz, I think I'm going for the Utz.

French Fry Diary 604: Lay's Wavy Mango Salsa Potato Chips

Well, we're up to the third contender in Lay's 2014 Do Us A Flavor contest, and so far, no winners, hell, nothing I would vote for yet. Today I'm looking at Lay's Wavy Mango Salsa Flavored Potato Chips. It's intriguing that Lay's decided to make these Wavy, which is usually designed for dipping - because this flavor would actually make a good dip. Nice irony. Ironic or not, I just hope these taste better than the Cappuccino or the Wasabi Ginger chips.

The aroma I got when I opened the bag was interesting to say the least. Not unpleasant, but I couldn't really place it. I was expecting something a bit, oh I don't know, more citrusy. Having learned from the last two, I let The Bride try them first. She didn't spit them out or go pale, but her face said volumes. She didn't think they were as bad as the other two, and found the mango flavor disconcerting, "a potato chip shouldn't taste like that."

Again The Bride was on mark. These chips might not have smelled all that citrusy but man, did they taste like mango, and it's a fairly good taste. She compared it to Violet Beauregarde's final piece of gum in Willy Wonka. I think more in terms of Jelly Belly flavors like Buttered Popcorn or Toasted Marshmallow, where the taste feels wrong in this format. It's not bad really. This is the first bag that I've eaten more than a few chips from in this year's contest.

"Not as bad as the other two" is not a ringing endorsement, Lay's. I certainly hope the last flavor is something amazing because so far it's been nothing but disappointment.

Do Us A Flavor 2014

It's that time again, time to vote for the next flavor of potato chips from Lay's in their Do Us A Flavor Contest. The final flavors have been announced, and they are a bit different. Here are the finalists - Wavy Mango Salsa, Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese, Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger, and Cappuccino. Wow.

These are nowhere near the insanity of some Japanese and Filipino flavored potato chips I've seen, but they are a bit off the beaten track. Which one will you be voting for? You have between July 28th until October 18th to vote.

Head over to DoUsAFlavor to vote for your favorite, or vote via Twitter, Instagram and/or Vine using the hashtags #SaveCappuccino, #SaveBaconMac, #SaveWasabi or #SaveMango; and/or via text message by texting "Cappuccino," "Bacon Mac," "Wasabi" or "Mango" to 24477 (CHIPS).

And now my search for these chips begins...

French Fry Diary 577: Charles Chips

I've talked about Charles Chips briefly once or twice before on this blog. They used to be one of my favorite potato chips, especially their barbeque variety. I remember grabbing a snack bag for lunch a few times a week when I worked Pennsauken in the 80s and 90s. At the time I started French Fry Diary however, they were pretty hard to find - only at Cracker Barrel or a mom and pop deli in the same strip mall as Cool Dog Café - and then they vanished altogether.

They're local, out in Pennsylvania, which in my time writing about potato chips, I've learned is where many chips come from. Started in 1942, with the ingenious business model of home delivery in huge cookie tins, they've been doing this for almost three-quarters of a century. The Bride fondly remembers getting those Charles Chips cans just like milk brought by the milkman. However, sadly, just like milk delivery, the chips stopped coming directly to homes in 1974.

The Charles Chips company began to have financial troubles in the 1990s as they were sold several times to various unsuccessful owners who often fell to bankruptcy and other problems. Recipes were changed, distribution suffered, and soon Charles Chips were gone or just about impossible to find. The Scardino family bought the company in 2011 with the intent of online sales and bringing the memorable tins back. So far so good.

Reminiscing recently about milk delivery, and home chip delivery as well, The Bride and I looked Charles Chips up online. We could have gotten three bags - Original, Barbeque, Waffle (rippled) - in a tin for roughly $25 or without for $20. We had no idea what we'd do with the big cookie tin when the chips were finished, so nostalgia aside, we opted for without. And being so close to the factory (in general), there was no shipping fee.

A little less than a week later, our package with. The three nine ounce bags arrived unharmed, marked fragile, and well packed. The bags themselves seemed a bit streamlined from what I remember, but that's okay, I hoped the taste was unchanged. Notably I'd never tried the Waffle chips from Charles before, and their Barbeque was among my favorites. I hoped it was the same.

The Original chips were very simple - potatoes, cottonseed oil, and salt being the only ingredients, so they're all natural and gluten free as it says on the bag. Honestly I remember Charles Chips being a bit bigger and thicker than these. Now they have more of a Lay's feel, but with a much better taste. Honestly though I remember them being great, but these are only just okay.

Next up, I tried the Barbeque chips, and expectations were high, but cautious after my experience with the Original flavor. While these were not the barbeque potato chips from Charles that I remember, these were still quite good. These chips were notably bigger than the ones in the Original bag, and possibly thicker. The flavor was similar to Wise Honey BBQ with just a tad more sweet and honey taste. I liked these quite a bit, but as I said, not the chips I remember at all. I think there's been a recipe change in the intervening years.

The Waffle chips are decidedly thick and excellent for dipping. They are comparable to Lay's Wavy, but better. Yes, it's another Lay's comparison but this one's a good one. I liked these a lot, so it's two out of three, not bad for mail order chips. Maybe next time we will get the tin, and maybe just the Barbeque or the Waffle.

French Fry Diary 436: Lay's Wavy

I gotta say right up front that I am not a fan of Lay's potato chips. Like Wise's chips, I find them just a bit too thin for my tastes and sometimes too greasy as well. I guess that's why I found Lay's Wavy Original potato chips such a pleasant surprise.

These chips, while being rippled, similar to Herr's 'pink foil,' are substantially thicker than the usual Lay's chips. This means more potato flavor and also a better dipping chip. This is a great party chip.

I was also very surprised by the amount of large and sizable chips in the two packages I picked up (two for one sale at CVS). There were many many more than other bags of chips. When most bags are nothing but crumbs and broken chips, Lay's Wavy still had big whole ones.

I have to admit puzzlement over the 'Original' claim on the package. I understand that these are the regular chip flavor, but by saying that, doesn't it imply there's a Wavy version of say, barbecue or sour cream and onion? If so, I've never seen them. And if a barbecue does exist, bring it on!

Great party chips, great dipping chips, recommended.