British Snack Review
Dec. 14th, 2007 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechA brief pause before I get to the big posts on the London trip...
Britain has better snax. At least, better than the mass-distributed snacks that us-Americans can get. The chocolate is of better quality and British companies seem more willing to try new things.
Specifically, potato chips!
They have steak-flavored chips ("crisps" as they're known locally-- chips will get you a wad of greasy fries in a newspaper cone!), prawn-cocktail flavor, roast chicken and obscure things like thai-sweet-chicken flavor. Not all of these are complete successes, but here's what we found (rated 1-3 stars):
**McCoy's Flame Grilled Steak: thick, corrugated style chip that has a vaguely burnt soy-sauce flavor to it. Okay if there isn't anything better (but there are better flavors out there!).
***Walkers Steak and Onion: light chip that has a faint soy flavor (apparently what they mean by "steak") and a somewhat overpowering sweet onion flavor (in the 'States, they'd call this "sweet Maui onion"). Nice-- much better than the McCoy's steak chip. Walkers is apparently the British division of the American "Lays" brand and the chips reflect this: light, salty chips.
*McCoy's Chedder & Onion: Another heavy chip with a light cheesy-onion flavor. Still don't care for this style of chip: has a kind of starchy flavor.
***Walkers "Sensations" chips-- "Oven Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme": a pompous, over-blown name for...the BEST OF THE CHIPS! Wow-- these are terrific! They really *do* taste like a gourmet roast chicken! Very chicken-y flavor with clear thyme and more subtle lemon flavor-- none of which are over-powering. Wondreful!
*Mccoy's Thai Sweet Chicken: a muddle of flavors-- "mud" being the operative word. Starchy with various spices, the only one that is vaguely identifiable is the chili burn (very mild). Actually, the chili is a lingering burn, so that's something, but the other flavors are just "spices", the combination of which does nothing for me.
**Walkers BBQ Rib: when they say "BBQ" they mean bbq ribs like you get in a Chinese restaurant-- those sweet-sauced ribs. That being the case, these are all right. Kind of a sweet flavor with a touch of chili (no burn) and possibly lemon. Very mild.
*Walkers Prawn Coctail: one of the weakest of the Walkers chips-- vaguely sweet flavor with a -hint- of shrimp flavor (though that could be my imagination-- not sure what I would have said in a blind test). Eh.
***Walkers Smokey Bacon: if you like bacon, you'll be in heaven. Strong, accurate smokey bacon flavor! Like eating really crisp bacon, actually.
**Walkers Ready Salted: pretty much like regular Lays potato chips. I like 'em!
**Walkers Roast Chicken: decent chip-- would have gotten 3-*'s if I didn't try their premium brand later ("Sensation"). More subtle roast chicken flavor-- kind of like Lipton's soup chicken flavor. Nice.
***Walkers Worcester Sauce: Wow, another dead-on flavor-- tastes like chips that have been strongly sprinkled with Worcester sauce! Strong enough a flavor that I wouldn't eat them all the time, but a nice once-in-a-while flavor.
*Wheat Crunchies Spicy Tomato: interesting: crunchy tubes with a kind of sweet Gazpacho (cold tomato soup) flavor. Or like shrimp cocktail sauce with no horseradish in it. Odd, crunchy.
Mr. Porky- Prime Cut Scratchings: I'm guessing they're pork rinds...but I didn't even buy a package. I have a morbid fear that I will like such things far too much and end up on one of those medical shows on Discovery Channel.
British candies (random goodness):
Smarties: better version of M&M's (better chocolate)
Crunchie: chocolate covered honeycomb-- nice!
Aero: Mint-flavored! Thanks for introducing them to us, Amy!
KitKat Dark: chocolate's a bit strong/over-whelming for a kitkat bar.
Oh, and we never found a bad Indian restaurant! We randomly picked several Indian eateries and all were as good as the best in the US. Nice service, too-- and open late!
Here is the Flickr photo set with all the package pics!
Britain has better snax. At least, better than the mass-distributed snacks that us-Americans can get. The chocolate is of better quality and British companies seem more willing to try new things.
Specifically, potato chips!
They have steak-flavored chips ("crisps" as they're known locally-- chips will get you a wad of greasy fries in a newspaper cone!), prawn-cocktail flavor, roast chicken and obscure things like thai-sweet-chicken flavor. Not all of these are complete successes, but here's what we found (rated 1-3 stars):
**McCoy's Flame Grilled Steak: thick, corrugated style chip that has a vaguely burnt soy-sauce flavor to it. Okay if there isn't anything better (but there are better flavors out there!).
***Walkers Steak and Onion: light chip that has a faint soy flavor (apparently what they mean by "steak") and a somewhat overpowering sweet onion flavor (in the 'States, they'd call this "sweet Maui onion"). Nice-- much better than the McCoy's steak chip. Walkers is apparently the British division of the American "Lays" brand and the chips reflect this: light, salty chips.
*McCoy's Chedder & Onion: Another heavy chip with a light cheesy-onion flavor. Still don't care for this style of chip: has a kind of starchy flavor.
***Walkers "Sensations" chips-- "Oven Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Thyme": a pompous, over-blown name for...the BEST OF THE CHIPS! Wow-- these are terrific! They really *do* taste like a gourmet roast chicken! Very chicken-y flavor with clear thyme and more subtle lemon flavor-- none of which are over-powering. Wondreful!
*Mccoy's Thai Sweet Chicken: a muddle of flavors-- "mud" being the operative word. Starchy with various spices, the only one that is vaguely identifiable is the chili burn (very mild). Actually, the chili is a lingering burn, so that's something, but the other flavors are just "spices", the combination of which does nothing for me.
**Walkers BBQ Rib: when they say "BBQ" they mean bbq ribs like you get in a Chinese restaurant-- those sweet-sauced ribs. That being the case, these are all right. Kind of a sweet flavor with a touch of chili (no burn) and possibly lemon. Very mild.
*Walkers Prawn Coctail: one of the weakest of the Walkers chips-- vaguely sweet flavor with a -hint- of shrimp flavor (though that could be my imagination-- not sure what I would have said in a blind test). Eh.
***Walkers Smokey Bacon: if you like bacon, you'll be in heaven. Strong, accurate smokey bacon flavor! Like eating really crisp bacon, actually.
**Walkers Ready Salted: pretty much like regular Lays potato chips. I like 'em!
**Walkers Roast Chicken: decent chip-- would have gotten 3-*'s if I didn't try their premium brand later ("Sensation"). More subtle roast chicken flavor-- kind of like Lipton's soup chicken flavor. Nice.
***Walkers Worcester Sauce: Wow, another dead-on flavor-- tastes like chips that have been strongly sprinkled with Worcester sauce! Strong enough a flavor that I wouldn't eat them all the time, but a nice once-in-a-while flavor.
*Wheat Crunchies Spicy Tomato: interesting: crunchy tubes with a kind of sweet Gazpacho (cold tomato soup) flavor. Or like shrimp cocktail sauce with no horseradish in it. Odd, crunchy.
Mr. Porky- Prime Cut Scratchings: I'm guessing they're pork rinds...but I didn't even buy a package. I have a morbid fear that I will like such things far too much and end up on one of those medical shows on Discovery Channel.
British candies (random goodness):
Smarties: better version of M&M's (better chocolate)
Crunchie: chocolate covered honeycomb-- nice!
Aero: Mint-flavored! Thanks for introducing them to us, Amy!
KitKat Dark: chocolate's a bit strong/over-whelming for a kitkat bar.
Oh, and we never found a bad Indian restaurant! We randomly picked several Indian eateries and all were as good as the best in the US. Nice service, too-- and open late!
Here is the Flickr photo set with all the package pics!
