In the Chips... er, Crisps

I know that we here in the US like to believe that we're on the cutting edge of things. Its part of our national identity. So yesterday, while I was celebrating Independence Day with friends at a pool party, I was in for quite a shock.

There are few things as American as our affinity for junk food. One would presume that our junk food would be the best in the world. Take potato chip flavors, for example. I've seen BBQ, salt and vinegar, jalapeno, and various cheeses. What I hadn't seen (or tasted) until yesterday was roasted lamb with Moroccan spices.

One of the party goers had brought a bag back from a recent trip to the UK. I was floored. Here are these innocuous looking chips exploding with sublime meat flavoring. I come to find out this morning that they also have flavors such as roasted chicken with lemon and tyme, lime and thai spices, and vintage chedder and red onion chutney.

I'm not a big chip eater these days -- I've tried to reduce the number of nutritional disasters in my diet but if they had chips like that here I'd weigh 500 lbs. What a day to find out that we've been bested by the British.