Heyo!
Welcome to The Move! I’m writing today’s newsletter after taking half of a Xanax. Damn, remember anxiety? What the hell was that all about???
Folks, it’s not just the alprazolam talkin’, I’m the middle of a truly spectacular Saturday. I’m full of sandwich after finishing up a big beautiful hike at the Dawn Mine in Alta Dena. If you’ve never done the Dawn Mine hike, I highly recommend it. It’s in the Los Angeles National Forest, and begins with a winding, shaded dirt path that runs adjacent to the San Gabriel Mountains. You get this gorgeous view of the mountain peaks and ravines and the big blue Valley sky. After about a half of a mile of that lush scenery, you journey downwards into a forest that’s filled with creeks, pools of water, rocks, and plenty of trees.
From there, the Dawn Mine hike is a steady incline, so your legs get a work out. Still, it’s a welcome break from the sun oppressed, dirt road trails that seem to plague this city. Oh, and the best part about the Dawn Mine hike? After you do it, you can go get Roma Market’s Italian sandwich afterwards for only 6 bucks!
Just about every food writer in the city has written about Roma Market’s the sandwich, and I’m no exception. If you’re a paid subscriber, you can look back into my catalogue and find what secrets Roma Market has other than their iconic, simply made Italian sandwich on crusty Sicilian bread. Roma is a great place to pick up all kinds of Italian provisions, and they also do cannolis on Saturdays. My favorite part about said cannolis is that they’re just kind of….loose. Take a look at the video below to understand what I’m talking about.
If you want a big hunk of Grana Padano or some anchovies submerged vinegar, sorry you’re going to have to move a couple containers of displaced cannolis first. It’s kind of a genius marketing plan. You already have to pick up the cannolis to move them, so why not just take them to the register?
Anyway, an Italian sandwich and a Xanax after an early morning hike? Talk about moves, my goodness: I’m having the most chill and relaxing day ever. Be careful with your benzodiazepines, though. I’m not condoning drug abuse here!
Alright, now on to one of my favorite topics: CHIPS!
If you follow my writing, you know I’ve got a column for The Takeout called Chip Country. In it, I shine a light on lots of different chips—from lard fried Grandma Utz to Canadian ketchup chips to the secret ingredient in spicy sweet chili Doritos. That column is bi-weekly, though, so I don’t get to cover nearly as many chips as I want. So here’s some overflow, and I’m going international with it. Three different countries. Three very different potato chips.
Before we get to these deliciously global chips, subscribe to my damn newsletter if you haven’t yet!!
Belin Chipsters from France
France has a pretty incredible snack game, but their products usually skew sweet. Petit Beurre biscuits, made by French manufacturer LU, are ubiquitous in France, and they succeed because they’re so damn buttery and simple. Bonne Maman, famous here in America for their jams and spreads, is owned by the company Andros, which makes its home in Biars-sur-Cère in Southwestern France. Everywhere you look there’s some cookie or biscuit or sweet treat that comes prepackaged and ready-to-eat. However, there’s a complete dearth of potato chips. That is, except for this brand called Chipsters, made by the company Belin.
You can purchase these chips on Amazon, but I found a box at my local French café, Loupiotte. This outstanding French restaurant in LA serves awesome breakfast and lunch (get the omelette and side salad), but it also shines a nostalgic light on French snacks with a whole cupboard full of biscuits, cereals, sweets, and the aforementioned Belin Chipsters.
Weirdly, these chips are quite small and come in a box packaged like cereal. You could fill a bowl with 30 or 40 of these things and eat it with milk if you wanted to (don’t do that.) The taste here is buttery and salty, but also surprisingly processed. Checking the ingredients label, Chipsters list potato flakes, starch, palm oil, salt, rosemary extract, and turmeric. Quality potato chips these are not. They taste a lot like Muncho’s, actually, which are also made with dehydrated potatoes. Both are a far cry from a well-made, authentic potato chip like Grandma Utz. They’re fine, but shoot I’ll say it: France you need to step up your chip game. You’re a country known for your fried potatoes. Come on, now.
Lay’s Grilled Pork from China
I am continually stunned at how some meat-flavored chips actually taste like meat.
These grilled pork chips from China are so wonderfully porky and smoky. Read again: They actually taste like pork. This isn’t just some barbecue flavor knock off, friends. No, these chips are pronounced and meaty.
When you see these Lay’s brand chips from other countries, keep in mind that you aren’t getting a straight-up 1:1 recreation of a Lay’s potato chip. These aren’t thin, light, and poppable. They’re thick and ridged. Also, holy shit, one serving of Lay’s grilled pork chips contains 25% saturated fat. That’s insanely high. Like, a hot dog amount of saturated fat. By comparison, one serving of original Lay’s potato chips contains only 11% saturated fat. When you taste these chips, you can legitimately taste that extra fat. They are somehow grilled pork flavor infused directly into a wavy, ridged chip. Astonishing.
I mentioned the smoky flavor, but it goes deeper than that. It’s almost a charred taste, like the chips themselves have been grilled. I looked at the ingredients to suss out what that could be, but they only list potatoes, palm oil, bbq seasoning, MSG, and aspartame. That doesn’t tell the whole story, but the MSG certainly helps.
These chips are loudly crunchy, very meaty, but subtle too. It’s not too many flavors, just one very upfront grilled pork char siu experience. Lovely. I picked them at Bhan Kanom in Los Angeles, but they’re available on Amazon, too. These are some of the best international chips out there. Pick. Them. Up.
Sweet Crab Chips from Thailand
Tasto is the company that makes these crab chips, which have a simple and sweet stone crab flavor to them. The flavor profile is strangely reminiscent of a seafood boil. You know, where chunks of corn and potato mingle in a big ol’ pot of well-seasoned crustaceans. It’s the same flavor, and it rocks.
The chips themselves are ridged and very dense. While the aforementioned grilled pork Lay’s were thick, these are Thicc. The whole bag might only contain 15 chips in total because they’re so big and heavy.
Asian countries do seafood flavored chips better than we do here in America. Tasto’s crab chips are certainly better than the crab chips that Utz puts out. Those crab chips taste like Old Bay and Old Bay seasoning only, whereas these taste like the buttery, hearty, slightly sweet crab itself. Thailand, China, and Korea don’t fuck around. When they say their chips taste like meat—crab, beef, or pork—god damnit they taste like that meat.
I actually can’t find these chips available for purchase online, but if you run into this bright purple bag at any Asian market, pick it up because it’s quite the find. The real move? Bring some fun bags of international chips to whatever Super Bowl party you attend this coming Sunday. While everyone else is bringing bags of Cool Ranch Doritos (boo) or plain old Ruffles, be a hero and bring some grilled pork or crab chips. Everyone will thank you for it.
That’s it! Thanks for reading Monday’s edition of The Move. I’ve got 4 weeks left in Los Angeles!! ahhhh! I’ve got plenty of restaurants to hit, and if you’re one of the people who come by apartment for pasta, there will be two final services happening on 2/18 and 2/25. Follow me on Instagram for the deets there.
Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe! I’m up to 320 of you now. That rules. Thank you.