Savory Saturday: Lay's Everything Bagel Chips

Hey, I'm back! And so is the Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" group of food outliers. Let's dig in.

The "Everything Bagel With Cream Cheese" chips don't smell like much of anything, which is a shame. I actually put my whole nose into the bag, and mostly smelled the bag and maybe some fried potatoes. (Okay, I'm fighting the dreaded summer-cold, but that can't account for ALL of it.) The cream cheese is front and center in the taste arena, with all the other things hanging waaaay back. I guess it's too much to hope for the taste of an actual bagel in a kettle chip, but I can't even tell much about the seasonings. (The ingredients list includes actual poppyseeds, which of course leads me to speculate that consuming enough might cause a drug-test malfunction, but people who would eat that many of these chips have bigger problems.)

Of the three new flavors, this was the one I was most excited for. With the kettle chip texture, I even held out hope that we might get those wonderful crunchy bits of blackened onion, but this is a letdown there too.

No matter -- I've got two more new flavors to try, and I'm sure to really like one of them. Oh, and speaking of things I'm sure to really like, I'm off to see the live Mystery Science Theater tour tonight, and I'm finally restarting those reviews here in the next week.

As usual, the buy link is a ridiculous price, but these are currently available ALLLLLLL over the country, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding them at a local store.

Saturday Salt: Lay's Beer 'n Brats

Greetings, puny earthlings! It is I, Morbo! Prepare to hear my review of these potato chips. They are flavored with hops and salted meats, for Morbo to devour with his mighty jaws. I gave them to Fawn and the kids, and they couldn't believe it. They were delicious! Pathetic human?

Thanks, Morbo. Hi, folks, it's Mark again. Morbo's right -- these chips are pretty good. The mixture is heavier on the beer than the brats (for some reason, it's real beer flavoring, which I didn't expect). But, these still have that unctuous hot-grease mouthfeel you get from a fresh-grilled sausage, which is a pretty good achievement. In fact, these are so rich that I don't think I'd eat these alongside a sandwich.  Back to you, Morbo.

Morbo has enjoyed this visit to Earth, and the tour of the tiny humans' snack foods. Now, humans, prepare for Morbo to destroy this entire bag of tiny potato slivers! 

While Morbo is finishing off the chips, I better sign off. He hasn't threatened me personally yet, but I know it's just a matter of time. Thanks for tuning in this week. Next week, another green friend (it's March, and all the food models are green) will help me try more snacks.

Saturday Salt: Lay's Southwestern Queso

Gollyzilla's final snack for the week is one of the new Lay's chip flavors (there are three). It smells like cheese and onion when you first open the bag, but not much.

There's plenty of cheese flavoring, and some tomato and plenty of spices. In fact, this is a little past the limit of heat I personally like on a snack chip. (Gollyzilla thought it wasn't nearly spicy enough -- he said it almost extinguished his inner flame. Poor guy.) The spice doesn't overwhelm anything else at first, but it sticks around long after the other flavors are gone, as heat tends to do. I can't imagine eating the whole bag in one sitting, as I did with some of the last limited-time Lay's. (Did I mention how much I loved the Brazilian Picanha, and even the Tzatziki, from the last batch?)

There's nothing wrong with these chips, but they're not quite my style. Like I mentioned, I have two more new flavors to try in coming weeks, so I'm sure I'll find another one I like better.

The price on Amazon is high-markup, secondary-market stuff, so your buy link today is from Target. You're welcome.