The Potato Chip

Guess what is the most popular snack food in America? If you answered "kale" or "chia seeds" you should be shot! No it's not that junkie, tasteless health food. It's that junk food favorite, the potato chip. In fact, the world likes the too. Worldwide the population consumes about 16 billion dollars worth of potato chips each year. They are tasty and the salt makes them addictive. One company, Lays Inc., has sold billions of them with the slogan, "I bet you can't eat just one".  Even though it fits even better for their product, the cigarette companies would not have dared use that motto because addiction is usually a bad thing. But no potato chip addict thinks their chips will kill them.

According to legend( no one is exactly sure where the potato chip first emerged in a kitchen), the potato chip was born when Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A restaurant chef  named George Crum presented the first plate of chips to Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1853. Crum was trying to get back at Vanderbilt, who kept insisting that his french-fried potatoes weren’t thin enough. Sick of having the potatoes dish sent back, Crum sliced a fresh batch of potatoes paper thin, cooked them until they were too crisp to be picked up by a fork, and had them brought out to Vanderbilt, expecting to get a rise out of him. Instead, Vanderbilt loved them, and a new tradition was born.

The problem then was potato chips go bad quickly. Until 1936, when a lady named Laura Scudder invented the wax coated bag to preserve the chip's freshness, the chips had to be eaten the same day they were cooked. Today, your favorite potato chip bag is inflated with nitrogen gas to keep them fresh for an even longer time. And in the 50's an Irish company had the idea to flavor potato chips, something I hate with a passion. Flavoring potato chips is like flavoring a piece of chocolate It's sacrilegious.

Today they make potato chips with cheese, onion, oregano, vinegar, parsnips, barbecue sauce, tapioca, carrot, paprika, cassava, mint, mayonnaise, hoisin duck, Cajun and banana flavors. In Japan ,soy sauce and seaweed flavors are the favorites. But the Japanese will eat anything.  But in Germany the most popular flavor is Paprika, in India they are spicy Cassava ( nt potato) chips There must be more types as well. I never eat a potato chip that has been altered, so I am not sure what other altered chips are out there. The most weird and objectionable of all to me are those Pringles. Pringles are made from, among other ingredients, dried potatoes rather than fresh potatoes. They are like artificial boobs. Once you look at and touch one you realize what they are. They are definitely not a potato chip.

I think you have enough potato chip info here to munch on. Now go out and enjoy a handful of chips