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.

French Fry Diary 603: Lay's Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger Potato Chips

After yesterday's Do Us A Flavor taste test of *gasp* Lay's Cappuccino Flavored potato chips I needed something to get rid of that awful aftertaste. I thought Lay's Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger Flavored Potato Chips might be a nice refresher. After all, if my friend and fellow writer Uriah Young digs them, how bad can they be, right?

Wasabi is not an unknown component in enjoyable potato accompaniments. Oh Yoko! in Cherry Hill rocks the wasabi fries, so this could be very good. It's notable that these are one of two of the four flavors that come in an extra special variation - in this case, kettle cooked. I'm not sure why that is in this case, as opposed to the other three flavors.

The image on the front of the bag had me a bit worried as the Cappuccino chips showed exactly what was going on taste wise. I had to wonder if these chips would taste like sushi. I hope not. A glance at the ingredients betrayed no fish, raw or otherwise, but did indicate a couple different kinds of wasabi seasonings, horseradish, and mystery spices. This could be good or bad.

I learned my lesson with the Cappuccino chips, I let The Bride try one first. One bite and she threw out the rest of the chip. Her words were "I like wasabi and I like ginger, but that just doesn't work." I got kinda a sour cream cream vibe with my first taste, and then a slow burn aftertaste that did not go away quickly at all. These weren't bad, and the kettle cook gave them a good crunch at least.

I think the problem is that unlike last year when I definitely would have not only have given Chicken & Waffles and Cheesy Garlic Bread second chances, I would have finished the whole bag - this year that ain't happening so far.

French Fry Diary 602: Lay's Cappuccino Flavored Potato Chips

Having found all four flavors of this year's Lay's Do Us A Flavor contest fairly easily (after some initial panic), and all in one place (my friendly neighborhood Wawa), was a relief after last year's hunt and search. I decided to take on what some folks think are worst of the bunch first - the Cappuccino Flavored chips.

These chips are by far the most feared of the flavors this year. I'm not a coffee person, so I'm not expecting to like these at all. I don't even like coffee ice cream. Of course the word on the package 'flavored' is kinda key. As with many exotic potato chip flavors, this isn't actually what it says it is, but merely 'flavored' to taste that way.

The other thing on my mind is that I have heard others who have tried these say they are sweet. That's the last thing I would have thought. Sure enough, a look at the ingredients reveals not only cappuccino seasoning and coffee flavor, but also cinnamon (which I sometimes have an allergic reaction to), brown sugar, and even butter.

The aroma that rushed out when I opened the bag was that of coffee and cinnamon, enough cinnamon to activate my allergy to it. My eyes watered and I could feel myself breaking out. The smell is thick and strong. I was almost afraid to try one of the chips. Their weird dirty brown coloring didn't say appetizing. 

The Bride tried one first, and for the record, she's not a coffee person either. She did not like them, and described them as like having coffee with cinnamon in it, that someone happened to drop a potato chip into. That did not fill me with confidence. Still, looking at the front of the bag, it's truth in advertising at least.

As I inhaled more and more from the bag as I took pictures, I began to think that not only would I not be able to try even one, but that I might even get sick. But there's a reason I do these reviews. I do it so you won't have to. Thank me later. The Bride pretty much had it nailed with her description, that and an unpleasant cinnamon aftertaste. These Cappuccino Flavored Potato Chips are definitely not getting my vote. Thumbs down.

French Fry Diary 601: The Little Potato Company

The Little Potato Company packages little white, red, blue, purple and other types of potatoes at some of the better groceries around. They're awesome baked, and maybe rolled in onion soup mix. I like the company a lot.

I saw these at Shop-Rite a couple weeks back and knew I had to pick it up, both for dinner and to write about. From The Little Potato Company, these were microwave ready fresh creamer potatoes, tint red and white potatoes in a nuke box. Five minutes later, throw on the 'savory herb' seasoning and you have a serving of hot potatoes. Like many products of this type, I had to see it to believe it.

During the cook time in the nuke there was much steam sizzling sound and a few times cooking pops. Toward the end of the quick cook, a baked potato aroma could indeed be smelled. It should noted though that the clear plastic cover was pretty hard to remove, even after I cut it, it remained difficult to remove. I had to add some spray butter to make the seasoning adhere.

These are quite good actually, and I might add that the 'savory herb' seasoning has tiny bits of bacon in it. These microwave packs also come in Zesty Italian and Garlic Parsley varieties. I found these were best cut in half, spray-buttered then nuked for another minute. Your mileage may vary, but either way, these are really good.

French Fry Diary 600: Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen is one of the few big chains I haven't yet reviewed here at French Fry Diary, mainly because they have been so hard to find. The just ice cream versions of Dairy Queen are everywhere, but it's been darn hard to find one that serves hot food, a Brazier. There are a couple down in the southern South Jersey area, but you have to navigate the traffic hell that is Route 42 and the Black Horse Pike to get there, not an easy task.

Decades ago, when I was just a wee one, back in the late 1960s, early 1970s, there was a Dairy Queen walking distance from where I live now in Cherry Hill. There's a strip mall there now. At that Dairy Queen I remember, a picky eater even then, raising a fuss because I didn't want those things on my hamburger bun. After trying them however, and until even today, I like sesame seed buns better than regular seedless buns. Oddly, they don't seem to have sesame seeds on most of their burgers at Dairy Queen now.

After braving the traffic hell one day and actually finding the Dairy Queen, I got down to the business of reviewing them. The burger was good, and nothing beats real ice cream as a dessert compared to other fast food places that have dessert as an afterthought. Dairy Queen does ice cream, and it shows. Best fast food dessert, hands down and thumbs up. Sundaes are awesome, as are the shakes, and if your taste turns toward smoothies, DQ also owns Orange Julius and you can get that here as well.

Now on to the main event, I got two small orders of French fries and onion rings each, and they came in small cardboard boxes reminiscent of White Castle containers. The French fries were thick shoestrings with a slight batter covering for extra crisp, soft and very hot inside, a little greasy but not enough to be worrisome. These fries are substantial, excellent for shake dipping. These fries are good, but wow, they pale in comparison to the onion rings.

Dairy Queen onion rings are heavenly, medium sized slices of onion, with bread crumb batter just enough to make them crispy. With a hot succulent delicious whole onion inside, they have a lightly baked quality, and that's even though I know they're deep-fried. They don't taste deep-fried. Seriously, these are superior onion rings, too good for a fast food chain. Highly recommended.

Vote for Larry's South Philly Retro Dog!

Remember a little while ago when I told you about the 3rd Annual Create-A-Dog Contest at Cool Dog Café?

Well, The Bride entered the contest with a special hot dog in honor of her late father - Larry's South Philly Retro Dog, and made it to the finals!

She designed this special hot dog to be reminiscent of the legendary classic hot dogs at Levis Hot Dogs that used be in South Philadelphia, a favorite of her father's.

So get on over to the Cool Dog Café and get Larry's South Philly Retro Dog, try the others too, but vote for the Larry Dog, and don't forget the fries!

Free Fish and Fries!

If you get on over to participating Long John Silver's this Sunday, from 11 AM to 3 PM, you can get free fish and fries. Looks like lunch is all taken care of this Sunday by America's fish fry!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #158

The cover of Nova #21 from Marvel Comics, due out in September. Special thanks to my friend and podcast partner Ray for hunting the image down for me.

The Hunt Is On

Okay, so far the search has been fruitless (or is that chip-less?). I haven't been able to locate any of the new Lay's Do Us A Flavor potato chips this year. So I'm reaching out to you folks.

If you're in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, and you've seen the Mango Salsa, the Cappuccino, the Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese, or the Wasabi Ginger, please let me know where… so I can write about them here. Thanks in advance!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #157