Pringles are kind of fun, until you realize they are pretty much empty of any nutrition (I’m speculating based on my knowledge of the food label here.)  So if I’m going to eat Pringles, they have to be fantastic enough to override my inner need to ingest food of some inherent value. The flavors of Cheese, Pizza, Sour Cream, and may of the other novel flavors are terrible and I never eat them.

Finally I’ve found a flavor I enjoy enough to spend money on a can. The Pringles Sea Salt and Pepper, at least in this Japan edition have met the criteria. They do not have an overwhelming pepper taste, though you can see plenty of pepper grains on the chips. This is good because some snack chips with pepper do overwhelm. I hope I can find these stateside sometime again. Pringles are fun every few months or so  in moderation.

Could writing about snacks be more challenging? You look for tasty things, snacks you can share, even ones that have more wholesome ingredients, and then you find out that you can be undermined by a small detail like Acrylamide. Such is the case for several brands of potato chips that I have enjoyed in the past. Apparently, a carcinogen Acrylamide forms naturally when starchy foods are baked or fried. Which resulted in some lawsuit, settlements and eventually, some labeling requirements.

The company, Jay’s, makers of Krunchers was not named in the lawsuit but since they still are making kettled fried chips, who really knows if their chips are any safer. I figure, if you are eating chips anyway, these aren’t going to kill you any faster. Look for the Krunchers Chips in the white bag. They are 40% Less Fat, plus less salt, and the ingredients are only, potatoes, salt and oil. I thought they tasted great and seemed to have a lot going for them. I can’t say whether they are more or less a risky food, when it comes to Acrylamide. All I know is, I have no reason to eat the black bag of Krunchers, when the white bag is a little more pure, from what I can see.

My bag of these Archer Farms Wasabi-Mustard Chips from Target is tattered and torn up so forgive me for not posting a picture. I’m way too lazy, and this snack is just not good enough to for me to make the effort. Not that these are terrible chips, they just make me say “meh.” I like kettle-style chips but this flavor is quite tiring. I love wasabi, but the mix here is too sweet and it ruins the experience. I’d rather just get the wasabi burn without the honey, or whatever is in there. If I wanted the sweetness, I’d get mesquite barbecue flavor. Blech, I hate barbecue chips.

I encourage Archer Farms to keep trying and innovating because I’m happy overall with the things they are doing in the snack world. My advice for you snackers is spend your money on a salt and vinegar kettle chip, which burns just as well and has a purer and less childish flavor.

I saw this bag of Spicy Thai Kettle chips the other day when I was browsing the World Market. I instantly thought, what a perfect snack to try out and even maybe write about. I should have known anything at World Market is hardly new. Still though I will compliment Kettle Foods for concocting the flavor. It was fun and much better than those awful plain Lays that have more street credit than they deserve. And I won’t get sad despite that these chips were already reviewed here and here. So I’m like a year too late. The reason I’m not getting mad is because I found a cool snack store to buy from. It’s called the Snack Aisle. I’m off to go watch this new TV show I just heard about called “Lost.”