"potato-chip" news and stories

T.G.I. Friday's actually makes a bunch of snack foods that you can buy in supermarkets, including Baked Onion Rings, Quesadilla, and Mozzarella Sticks. But the only one I've ever latched onto are the Cheddar & Bacon Potato Skins.

These things can't be that great for you (cheddar, bacon, and salt in a chip form?), but who cares? They're very baked potato-ish and hearty, perfect to have with a sandwich. I usually have plain potato chips with a sandwich (not sure why, maybe I don't want any competition between the flavors of the sandwich and the chip), but I make an exception for these.

These aren't easy to find, at least in my area. I usually have better luck finding them at CVS or Rite-Aid than I do the big supermarkets.

From up north (Canada) come these delicious chips that I didn't even know about until this year: Miss Vickie's! I'm addicted to their Country Onion and 3 Cheese (which, oddly, I can't even find on their site).

Actually, Miss Vickie makes some other great flavors, some rather unique chips you a lot of other companies don't make, including Roasted Red Pepper Grill (which my local supermarket never has for some reason), Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar, Honey & Roasted Garlic, and Lime and Black Pepper. But it's the onion and cheese flavor I'm most drawn to. It's the type of chip that tastes like it has dip on it, and the flavor is very strong (but not that fake taste you often get with potato chips).

This is a love story.

When I was a kid, I was hopelessly addicted to Munchos, the chips that Julie wrote about earlier. I still like them, but my current love affair has turned to Natural Lays Thick Cut Potato Chips with Sea Salt.

These fantastic chips are shelved (in my supermarket, anyway) in the aisle with the other "fancy" or gourmet chips: Kettle, Terra Red Bliss, and others. I'm not really sure why. There's nothing particularly different about them (unless you count orgasmic taste as different) and they're not exactly healthy (sorry, the "Natural" in the title is probably very true, but that doesn't mean these are low fat or low calorie). They should probably be in the regular chip aisle. Then again, if they were, more people would buy them and my store would probably run out and I'd be upset that night.

When we set out to find the best of the bunch, we don't go spuddin' around. With the help of Anchor's Chip of the Month, AOL Food's panel munched, crunched, nibbled and gobbled our way through nearly 5 dozen kinds of plain potato chips in search of the tip top chip in all the land. See if you agree with our findings, or if we totally skipped over your favorite tater.

(Note to folks who are writing in saying they can't find the winner -- just use the arrows to navigate through the gallery. The results are ranked down from 15-1. And we hear ya! Cape Cod will definitely be in the next batch of reviews.)

The flavored chip tasting will follow in a few weeks, after our sodium levels normalize.

Read the Plain Potato Chip Taste Test

Buy 'Em at Anchor's Chip of the Month

I don't have much of a relationship with potato chips these days. I consider them a guilty treat, to be eaten at parties but never at home. It's like having soda in the house -- if I buy it, they will eat it. And if they eat it, chips, I mean, they'll be hooked, and I'll never hear the end of it. The best I can offer my kids is the occasional package of tortilla chips, something to dredge up the salsa with.

Ah, but I have a past. And my past is filled with processed foods of the sort that I'd never let my kids near, lest they come to understand the dark pleasures of Hostess products.

My parents had no such compunction with me. I grew up on Wonder Bread and TV dinners and Uncle Ben's Converted Rice. I ate a Hostess Fruit Pie almost every day. But among my most treasured taste memories: Munchos brand potato chips.

Source