The death of potato chips.

Well I feel like something had been taken away from me.

I happen to LIKE potato chips. I don't eat them because I think they are healthy for me. Nor do I care one way or the other. I eat them because I like the way they TASTE. When the wife and I moved down from Maryland to Florida, I was pretty distraught because Utz potato chips were nowhere to be found down here. Lays were close, and over time I became acclimated to them and lost the yearning for Utz potato chips. But I have to admit that every September when we would do the Mid Atlantic Show in Maryland, we did stock up on Utz and smuggled them back across the border.

So not that long ago, we got our usual bag of Lays potato chips when we went to the grocery store, and for lunch that day upon opening the bag, noticed that the chips were mostly brown in color. I figured maybe we just got a bad bag of them (yeah, they got smart and made the bags so you can't see the GOOD ones any longer). I ate a few of them, and yuck, not at all what they should have been. My wife noticed the printing on the bag saying that these were cooked in sunflower oil, something to do with trans fat content or something. So the next trip to the grocery store, we got another bag, and upon opening it, found those same browned chips in it as well.

Well rats...... So I have tried EVERY other brand of potato chips available in the area, and only Wise are even tolerable. Heck, I was already griping about buying those bags that were only half filled with the product, and the other half merely air, but at least I could EAT that half of bag!

So then I hear about some ban in New York or something to eliminate ALL trans fats in foods. There is even a website dedicated to this pursuit (http://www.bantransfats.com/). Shades of Demolition Man!! It sounds just like that make believe society that made everything that some bureaucrat determined to be unhealthy, illegal. I mean what will happen if everything I like to eat becomes illegal? So what if I live to be 125 years old if I am miserable with taste deprivation cravings during all that time? Surely salt is going to be on the chopping block shortly. As will red meat. And what about those starchy smashed potatoes I like? What are our meals going to become? A bowl of pills with filtered and sterilized water to wash them down with? Thanks, but NO THANKS!

But tell you what, if those SOBs start messing with steamed blue crabs, they are going to have a war on their hands!

Trans fat im pretty sure is known to actually slow your metabolism down... and making it harder for the body to get rid of all the bad fats, but also destroying the good ones.

Dont know if im Exactly correct, but im sure one part of it is... But i agree.. I dont want brown potato chips. i want greasy white/gold ones regardless of their nutritional content dang it!!!

What about Cape Cod Potato Chips? dont you at least have those buggers near you?

mmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Cape Cod Dark Russetts or their Blue potato chips *drool* :eatpointe

Originally Posted by techgirl

mmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Cape Cod Dark Russetts or their Blue potato chips *drool* :eatpointe

they make BLUE ones!? oh MAN now youve got me wanting to go hunt some down! they sound delicious!

Are you talking about regular Lay's potato chips... as in the yellow bag???? Potato chips are my downfall; if Lay's chips are going 'healthy,' what in the world am I going to eat now? This is scary... scary indeed.

Nothing like giving you a choice huh? You have the option of regular versus diet in beverages.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

they make BLUE ones!? oh MAN now youve got me wanting to go hunt some down! they sound delicious!

I can swear they make the blue potato chips. Hmmm, gives me a good excuse to go looking for some now. Either way the blue ones are awesome!!

Originally Posted by DAND

Nothing like giving you a choice huh? You have the option of regular versus diet in beverages.

Well for now you do, but there appears to be a trend afoot to take away that choice. For your own good, of course.......

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Well for now you do, but there appears to be a trend afoot to take away that choice. For your own good, of course.......

Actually Rich, the ban in New York City applies only to restaurants and will perhaps be subject to legal challenges. The plain fact is that Lays made this choice, like all other companies do, in response to what they perceived as consumer demand. Your choice is to make the chips yourself, deep fry them in lard, and they'll taste good. Oh, and they will only have a small amount of trans fats. Most trans fats (really "trans fatty acids") are the result of hydrogenation (look for an ingredient called "partially hydrogenated" something and it contains trans fats). They are manufactured by the food industry as a convenience for themselves with your health be damned. They don't really contribute to taste, but rather have a longer use/shelf life before turning rancid.

Meanwhile I'll have to check and see if Utz has changed their "recipe" next time I'm at the supermarket. I'd be happy to ship you a large crate full of them anytime.

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Shades of Demolition Man!!

On the plus side though... Dennis Leary is pretty funny and there's nothing wrong with Taco Bell that an employee literacy course wouldn't fix.

Cape Cod chips are good, but the bags are too small. Lays is sort of high production industrial chips- they're the median, the average by which other chips can be judged as good or bad without really having any uniquely positive qualities of their own. Wise... just once I'd like to find a bag of Wise where there's an unbroken chip and the bag is uniformly salted, or close enough to it that the difference can be explained due to product settling.

Got a frier and a bag of potatos? You can throw away the idea of vegetable oils completely and start making chips (and fries) in animal fat if you really want some artery clogging heart stopping tastiness. Bacon Grease... also makes a brown chip but you can put it on a piece of wax paper and then watch TV through it thirty seconds later.