Chips

Dear all,

During this present period of worldwide financial crisis, the American presidency being up for grabs and everybody just being out trying to make a living, I figured I would take the time to inform the masses about a subject that I find myself spending way too much time thinking about on a weekly or sometimes even more frequent basis. I know that this isn't really important to many who may be reading this, and as a matter of fact, the actual item discussed isn't even that important to me, in and of itself, but it is a good example of the small cultural differences aren't just noticed in the color of people's hair or eyes, their driving habits or even in their language.

Sometimes the differences can be most drastic by just strolling down the potato chip isle of your local Chinese grocery store. Though this might not be quite as easy for most of you as it is for some, there is quite the glaring cultural difference located just in this aisle, I don't have time to mention the meat department where the chickens are still alive and and cows still have their heads on, or the bread aisle which is virtually non-existant due to the fact that mostly everyone eats rice, not wheat, or even the seafood section that is full of sea cucumbers, live fish of every shape and size and more gross-looking seafood than I could refuse to eat in a lifetime. Anyway, I digress...

As I was saying, since coming to China on the 6th of October, I have been eating a lot more potato chips. I'm not sure why, maybe because they are one of the few foods that I can read the labels of here in Hangzhou. And they remind me of the abstract idea of potato chips that the Chinese have taken and skewed to match their own idea of "Potato chips with Chinese aspects" directly in line with their idea of "Communism with Chinese aspects."

So, I'm eating more chips than I ever would in the United States, and these aren't your "healthy" corn potato chips, I'm talking about Lay's and the like... the ones that I avoid like the plague in the states for fear of chemicals that I can't pronounce the names of and deep fryers that try their best to take the "potato" out of the chip. These are the only ones offered here within China's borders and I have at least a few bags a week.

You might think that this is bad, and it is, but I haven't run out of new flavors yet. You might think that there are only a few different flavors judging by "American Standard" store aisles. However, you would be mistaken, the flavors offered here aren't those preferred by us fat Americans, the Chinese have a totally different view of what flavor tastes good and what doesn't.

"Normal" flavor is always the standby flavor for those without any imagination, but once you diverge from that flavor they go from tomato to Barbecue to the outright unbelievable. Pringles have a presence here and their best selling flavor is Breezy Blueberry. We quickly move on to Cantonese Roast Duck Lays (which aren't too bad), Inca Ethnical Flavor (not a spelling error, at least on my part), and Seaweed Chips.

None of these are to be outdone, however, by my new personal favorite, Salmon Sushi Flavor...


While I am usually a pretty conservative flavor player, I disregarded my usual apprehension while buying this bag of chips that I saw in a store in Guangzhou. Once I opened it I realized that it had two bags inside and it was at that point that I saw that there were directions on the back, luckily they were also pictorally narrated.



Step 1, you opened the big bag, and out came a smaller bag with the chips in it and the other bag with the powder.
Step 2, pour the chips and whatever amount of powder you wished (in my case all of it) into the big bag.
Step 3, Shake it, shake shake it, shake it, shake shake it.
Step 4, enjoy.

And boy did I. These were the greatest chips I had ever tasted. After blocking the thought of what type of chemicals had made this delicious, genuine-tasting raw salmon on a rice bed with wasabi for added taste I managed to eat the whole bag, and then buy another one and eat that one too...

So, next time you cruise the chip aisle of whatever store that you happen to be in, wherever that might be, if you see Salmon Sushi with wasabi powder flavored chips, do yourself a favor and buy two. (And appreciate the cultural differences that brought you those two bags of heaven.)

A public service announcement brought to you by none other than Ai Meng.