Chips

I discovered these recently, and they are now my favorite potato chip ever...

Herr's Baby Back Ribs chips



I shit you not, they taste exactly like ribs, no joke. The best bbq flavor chip ever. I motored through bags and bags of them. Where things stand now is that my wife actually has to hide them from me, and dish 'em out to me on a meal by meal basis. Pathetic, but that's how good they are. Our neighborhood Sav-a-Lot had a display case of them. I bought them out. Now the chips are all gone. I did find another store in the next town over that sells 'em, and the distance between my front door and their shelves is great enough that I've been forced to moderate. Also, they're a thick ridged chip, so they'd be good for dipping, though it's inconceivable why you'd want to dilute the baby back ribs taste. Herr's has some other flavors that I'll make some posts about soon, but this Ribs chip is out of this world.
I have no idea whether you Chicago people can get to them or not. But if you can, buy them.
Cheers.

Snyder's was into that thing for decades. They had a grilled steak chip, Kosher dill chip and buffalo wing chip way before anyone else. For my taste, Kettle brand is currently the industry leader on flavors (and excellent chips).

http://www.kettlefoods.com/our-all-natu ... ucts/chips

spinynorman99 wrote:Snyder's was into that thing for decades. They had a grilled steak chip, Kosher dill chip and buffalo wing chip way before anyone else. For my taste, Kettle brand is currently the industry leader on flavors (and excellent chips).

http://www.kettlefoods.com/our-all-natu ... ucts/chips

I agree on Kettle. My three favorite chips are currently Kettle Spicy Thai, Kettle Death Valley Chipotle, and Utz Crab Chips.

My favorite chip that no longer exists was the Kettle Royal Indian Curry that failed to win their peoples-choice flavor competition a couple years back (it lost to Island Jerk). Bet potato chip I've ever had.

As much as I love the flavors, there are some days when a bag of Kettle rippled salt & pepper chips are the sine qua non of potato chip eating. A nice little hint of lemon in the background and pure potato goodness up front.

I like the concept of the salt & pepper chip, but what I cannot fathom is why every maker then adds sugar so that there is a real perceptible sweetness right out front.

You could make the case for a sweet/salt (kettlecorn) sort of chip, but that's not what I buy a "Salt & Pepper" chip for. I've given up. My go-to flavor is the salt and vinegar. I like Michael Seasons pretty well.

spinynorman99 wrote:As much as I love the flavors, there are some days when a bag of Kettle rippled salt & pepper chips are the sine qua non of potato chip eating. A nice little hint of lemon in the background and pure potato goodness up front.

Agree. In the Chip Hall of Fame, ridged Kettle with sea salt and pepper is the Babe Ruth.

I'm a let you finish, but Kettle had the best chip of all time. OF ALL TIME!

I really like Kettle chips, in particular salt and vinegar. Also enjoy Vitners Salt and Sour.

I'll have to seek out those Utz crab chips. Those sound interesting. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of kettle cooked chips. Something about them texturally just doesn't do it for me. They require too much effort to crunch through.

I am not much of a chip fan, but when I do eat them, my preference is Tim's Cascade. Don't see them much around these parts, but they've got a fantastic crunch and their flavors (especially jalapeno and the Hawaiian flavors) are delicious.

Edit: I really do know more than one adjective...

Funny, I was thinking about chips this evening. The best potato chips I've ever had are Maui Kitch'n Cook'd.

Every time I know of anyone going to the island I ask them to bring back a case. You can order from the factory, but pre-economic downturn, it was almost impossible to get someone answering the phone to take the order if you were on the mainland.

I am more than willing to pay a shipping fee.

I had a torrid love affair with Uncle Ray's Chips back when I lived off of Lake Shore Drive and Irving Park. One of the little convenience shops in a nearby condo tower sold them. I was especially smitten with the Coney Island chip, but also enjoyed bags of Dill Pickle, Jalapeno, and Roasted Garlic. Occasionally, I'd have a Ketchup or plain ol' BBQ. Here's some pictures just because I like giving visual aids with my posts...



Uncle Ray's aren't so much a great chip as they are a great "trashy" chip. They're not to be savored, so much as devoured. But damn they're good. After a while, though, it seemed like they stopped selling them in Chicago. I did discover, however, on one of our many drives between Chicago and Louisville, that interstate gas station/convenience store chain Family Express sold them, making it the only reason to look forward to the Indiana leg of our journey. I now live in small town Kentucky, and as it turns out, the little grocery store/lunch counter around the corner from our new home sells Uncle Ray's. Sadly, it appears that both the Coney and Jalapeno chips have been discontinued (or are unavailable in our zip), but I get all the Dill Pickle, Garlic, and BBQ I could ask for. The Salt & Vinnegar is okay, but I'm not much of a connoisseur of that kind of chip, so my opinion shouldn't rate much there. In any event, it would appear that my life is fated to live near tiny grocery stores that sell these wonderful chips.
To any of you Uncle Ray's addicts in Chicago, the closest place I could find was the Family Express in northwest Indiana (Wolcott, I think).

Chicago Expat wrote:I had a torrid love affair with Uncle Ray's Chips back when I lived off of Lake Shore Drive and Irving Park. One of the little convenience shops in a nearby condo tower sold them. I was especially smitten with the Coney Island chip, but also enjoyed bags of Dill Pickle, Jalapeno, and Roasted Garlic. Occasionally, I'd have a Ketchup or plain ol' BBQ. Here's some pictures just because I like giving visual aids with my posts...

The good part about Uncle Ray's is that they can generally be found at Big Lots or other dollar stores for very reasonable prices.

MincyBits wrote:I am not much of a chip fan, but when I do eat them, my preference is Tim's Cascade. Don't see them much around these parts, but they've got a fantastic crunch and their flavors (especially jalapeno and the Hawaiian flavors) are delicious.

Edit: I really do know more than one adjective...

I love the Sweet Maui Onion chips. Hide the bag from me, please.

I love home made chips

So, found these Herr's Baby Back Ribs for 99c/ bag today. Deespite my better judgement after reading the sodium content, I bought them and also a bag of Horseradish and Cheddar flavored. For 99 cents, how do you NOT buy that flavor. They also had a Worcestershire and Steak flavor which also seemed appealing, but I know 3 bags of chips would just mean 3 bags of stale chips in a few days in the seebee household, so I didn't partake. First bag opened was, of course the Baby Backs. Interesting. Not thick n crunchy like your standard kettle, but regular ridged chips. The flavor? Think jays bbq, with a very, very light sprinkling of a more pronouned bbq chip flavoring like a kc masterpiece with a bit of fake bacon flavoring in there as well. Good? Depends on if you like the salty snax or not. I could prolly eat a handful of these things and be sated for my potato chip intake for about a week. Very rich, very salty.

It has been a long time since I had some, but these were some mighty fine chips - Zapps

For some reason I found the Kettle Thai a smidgen too... tart, artificial?, I dunno something not right.

seebee wrote:So, found these Herr's Baby Back Ribs for 99c/ bag today. Deespite my better judgement after reading the sodium content, I bought them and also a bag of Horseradish and Cheddar flavored. For 99 cents, how do you NOT buy that flavor. They also had a Worcestershire and Steak flavor which also seemed appealing, but I know 3 bags of chips would just mean 3 bags of stale chips in a few days in the seebee household, so I didn't partake. First bag opened was, of course the Baby Backs. Interesting. Not thick n crunchy like your standard kettle, but regular ridged chips. The flavor? Think jays bbq, with a very, very light sprinkling of a more pronouned bbq chip flavoring like a kc masterpiece with a bit of fake bacon flavoring in there as well. Good? Depends on if you like the salty snax or not. I could prolly eat a handful of these things and be sated for my potato chip intake for about a week. Very rich, very salty.

Always finding Jay's bbq as a fine complement to a bagel and lox sandwich from Arnold's Deli, I'd have to disagree with putting them in there as a premise for comparison to Herr's baby back ribs chips. Salty, on the other hand, very much, yes. I haven't yet had the horseradish/cheddar kind; while I'm a big fan of horseradish, I typically despise cheesy chips, so I'm torn about buying some. The Worcestershire are pretty boring. Also, just an fyi, the Kansas City Steak chips are inedible. It may have been the first bag of chips I was unable to finish.

In the name of science cracked open the Herrs BB Rib again this am. Same flavor to me. Jays bbq with a hint of a stronger bbq chip flavoring, and an aftertaste of bacon flavoring all bound by salt. Also, just because I couldn't control the urge, I had to crack the Cheddar Horseradish for a crunch or two, or seven. These would be in my favorite top 5 tater chips with about 1/3 of the salt. The sodium count is higher than the bb rib flavor, and runs about 3 times the amt of a normal plain chip. Totally inedible to me. Cringingly salty. Almost painful. Quite sad, too. I could eat these. The horseradish flavor was very pronoucned - kinda like a good brand of wasabi peas. Strong kick right up front. I'm gonna be saddened to throw these away.

seebee wrote:In the name of science cracked open the Herrs BB Rib again this am. Same flavor to me. Jays bbq with a hint of a stronger bbq chip flavoring, and an aftertaste of bacon flavoring all bound by salt. Also, just because I couldn't control the urge, I had to crack the Cheddar Horseradish for a crunch or two, or seven. These would be in my favorite top 5 tater chips with about 1/3 of the salt. The sodium count is higher than the bb rib flavor, and runs about 3 times the amt of a normal plain chip. Totally inedible to me. Cringingly salty. Almost painful. Quite sad, too. I could eat these. The horseradish flavor was very pronoucned - kinda like a good brand of wasabi peas. Strong kick right up front. I'm gonna be saddened to throw these away.

Well, not being one to turn my back on science, your post has nudged me to action. I'll have to pick up a bag of the horseradish cheddar chips, and finally give them a taste. If I agree with your salt assessment (which I'm guessing is inedible, because Herr's doesn't exactly hold back on their other chips), I might spend a few unretrievable minutes of my life writing a little letter to Herr's that there are people out here who might scoop up more of their chips if a couple of their flavors had less salt. Except for the baby back ribs chips, of course. Those must remain untouched. They are perfect as is.
Cheers.

If you can make it worth your while, as of yesterday, Kmart in Forest Park has a display with the rib, cheddar, steak, Ragin Ranch, Jalapeno, and the popcorn for 99c / bag for normal sized 8+ oz bags. The rib flavors that I picked up all appeared to be short dated (Oct 10th, I believe, IIRC.)

Thanks. I'll have to check out the Kmart I've got in the next town over. They have sales on the Herr's from time to time.
On a totally unrelated note, we spent the day Saturday finally going through a lot of those boxes we swore we'd clear out before the next time we moved. Of course, that promise was repeatedly broken... until yesterday. In any event, after throwing away/recycling/donating a ton of stuff, we had several open spots in our various storage drawers. My wife asked what I wanted to put in one of the empty drawers that "belongs" to me. I immediately thought of the many bags of single serving chips we pack for lunches, and stated that's what I wanted to get stored there. My wife sighed, then gave me the bad news that the drawer no longer belonged to me. I didn't hear a word she said; I was entranced by the image of a drawer of chips. I couldn't stop thinking about. Even the phrase 'drawer of chips', when vocalized, has a hypnotic effect on me.

For kettle chips, I'm partial to the thick, slightly oily and lightly salted Cape Cod Potato Chip:

Trader Joe's used to have an avocado chip. I can't remember if it had a brand name associated with it. It's been years since I've seen them carry it. A mostly green bag with a picture of a green triangle-shaped chip on it. I used to plow through bags of that stuff. A decent chip, nice avocado taste, though an odd powdery texture which didn't ruin it for me.

Santander wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:As much as I love the flavors, there are some days when a bag of Kettle rippled salt & pepper chips are the sine qua non of potato chip eating. A nice little hint of lemon in the background and pure potato goodness up front.

Agree. In the Chip Hall of Fame, ridged Kettle with sea salt and pepper is the Babe Ruth.

I'm a let you finish, but Kettle had the best chip of all time. OF ALL TIME!

Yahoo has our back, Norm -

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/the ... st-516802/

We're ever so much more mainstream than we thought.

Yahoo wrote:#1 Kettle Krinkle-Cut Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
#2 Boulder Canyon All Natural Malt Vinegar & Sea Salt
#3 Hawaiian Original Kettle Style Chips
#4 Terra Sweets & Carrots
#5 Kettle Brand Baked Potato Chips
#6 Trader Joe's Popped Potato Chips
#7 Kettle Yogurt & Green Onion
#8 Tim’s Reduced Fat Lightly Salted Chips
#9 Lays Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ Extra Crunchy
#10 Rock 'n Roll Gourmet Hippie Chips

Wendy, Cape Cod is another favorite and should have made Yahoo's list. I made my folks detour a family trip once so we could go to the factory, and they're my chip of choice for Adria's potato chip tortilla.

Has anybody tried the "fresh" chips at Fresh Farms Market (I forget the brand) At something near $5 per fairly small bag, I balked at the price, but during the early days of the Grand Opening (which has extended to 3 months now) they had the vendors frying them up right there. Just curious if they were worth it: they're between the deli and the meat section.

sazerac wrote:It has been a long time since I had some, but these were some mighty fine chips - Zapps

For some reason I found the Kettle Thai a smidgen too... tart, artificial?, I dunno something not right.

Being a Louisiana native, Zapps are the chips I grew up on, and are probably my favorite brand overall. You can find a few varieties at Fox & Obel (not that it will help you much in Pittsburgh), although they do not have some of my favorite varieties (Cajun Crawtator in particular). Last time I went to Potbelly's, a few months ago, I also noticed that Zapps appears to have replaced Vintner's as their potato chip brand (at least at the store I went to, which was in River North on Clark a few blocks north of the river).

On the Thai-flavored chip front, I tried some Thai flavored chips a few months ago that were the Whole Foods house brand (365 label), and found those to taste a bit more "natural" than the Kettle Thai version. I actually think I prefer the Kettle Thai version (the Whole Foods brand does not have quite the same distinct sweet/spicy contrast as the Kettle version), but found the Whole Foods brand to be pretty good and a good value (as is the case with a number of the house branded items) as well.

Zapps are pretty widely available if you hunt around, but if you're at North and Damen and need your fix, Santullo's has a wide variety, including Cajun Crawtator and the new Voodoo Gumbo flavor, which is a mixture of several of their flavors on one chip.

gleam wrote: including Cajun Crawtator and the new Voodoo Gumbo flavor, which is a mixture of several of their flavors on one chip.

I have to find these flavors.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Kruncher's, which are available in KC and are just *killer* chip-y: lovely oil, good salt, extremely very potatoish. Maybe they're not available in Chicagoland??

A purely local chip is Art's and Mary's a really premium chip, with a jalapeno that's to die for. Really.

Geo

Geo wrote:I can't believe no one has mentioned Kruncher's, which are available in KC and are just *killer* chip-y: lovely oil, good salt, extremely very potatoish. Maybe they're not available in Chicagoland??

A purely local chip is Art's and Mary's a really premium chip, with a jalapeno that's to die for. Really.

Geo

Krunchers are available here. They're a Jay's brand, which was a Chicago company before being bought by Synder's of Hanover a couple years back. I think they've gone downhill lately, since Synder's closed the Chicago plant.. I did once have a serious addiction to Jalapeno Krunchers, though.