Today I throw my body in the front of impending danger and take all the damage that would otherwise have inflected on you dear readers by eating thinly sliced starch covered in fats and salt. Specifically Smith’s Spag Bol flavoured “chips” (as they are uncouthly referred to in Australia*)
Disappointing really. I was hoping for a really strong tomato flavour but it was bit more generic smoky taste. I note that the packet says “contains milk or milk products” so at any moment I might be assaulted by one of the many gangs of roaming vegan vigilantes (or vegalantes as they are known) funded by shadowy sources (or perhaps shadowy sauces). Also the packet notes “contains soybeans of soybean products” which might enrage right wingers – thus putting these snacks in the radical centre. Gluten free though, so I’m not likely to angry any celiac street gangs.
42 responses to “Today’s junk food: Spag Bol flavoured crisps”
It’s a good thing there’s a picture of a bowl of spaghetti otherwise I would have been asking what the heck “spag bol” was — that sounds a lot more uncouth than “chips” to these American ears! 😉
Not just in the UK, either. Spaghetti Bolognese a.k.a. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and ground meat (which is quite different from the way it’s actually served in Bologna) is the ur-Italian food in Germany, too. Even back when I was a kid, pasta meant either Spaghetti Bolognese (tomato sauce and ground meat) or Spaghetti Napolitan (tomato sauce, maybe with some vegetables), usually badly made with powdered “Just add hot water” instant sauce and some sawdust like powder that pretended to be parmesan. This was what was served at every bloody children’s birthday and was the reason why I, who absolutely loves pasta these days, didn’t like it at all until i was well in my teens. Because I don’t like Spaghetti Bolognese and never have.
Meanwhile, Marinara means “tomato sauce with seafood” in Europe, which is why ordering spaghetti marinara in the US and getting just plain tomato sauce is very confusing.
The chips I spent years looking for were Walker’s Marmite Flavoured Crisps. When we lived in Virginia, I could get them at the British Market in Hampton sometimes, and I found them a time or two here in New York at a candy shop in Fairport that vanished one day, taking all their Big Hunk bars with them. Sob.
I had some pretty darn good spaghetti bolognese at the Snow Lion resort in Guilin. I liked the place in a lot of ways—it was in Guilin so there were limestone karsts to look at, the wi-fi was better than what we could get in Beijing, and there were hillside tombs all around—but it was so humid, it was impossible to use the pool table without sweaty hands, which made any sort of attempt at precision futile. They may have had a piano there as well, which was useless for the same reason. But no complaints about the spaghetti.
“so I’m not likely to angry any celiac street gangs”
That’s what you think. We don’t need an excuse to get angry, in large part because we’re always hungry.
Well, at least I am. It’s a pain in the neck finding food that satisfies one of my many dietary issues (I think I’m up to half a dozen now). My life would be a lot easier if I could have a (real) sandwich every now and then.
I remember the first time I heard someone say “spaghetti bolognese” and thought it must be some exotic version of spaghetti that we just didn’t get in the US. Maybe you had to go to an “authentic” Italian restaurant. Little did I know…
On the topic of weird potato chips, every year or so Lays puts out “limited edition” flavors of their chips. The main problem I have is that if you find one that you like it will shortly disappear never to return. This year I didn’t even get that far with all of them disappearing before I had a chance to try any of them. Maybe it was for the best that I was protected from Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Remix potato chips.
Spaghetti Bolognese seems like it should be spaghetti made with bologna.
It’s possible those chips are the best in the world. I don’t know, and I’m still bitter that they discontinued the wasabi-ginger kettle chips once they got me addicted to them. DAMN YOU, FRITO-LAY!
To my mind:
wasabi
garlic
tomato
Are three core flavours that would work by themselves with crisps but which aren’t canonical crisp flavour. I get that wasabi would have been too exotic back in the day but horseradish also would work.
ketchup (or tomato sauce as they call it Aus) is an irregular flavour. Dill pickle? Not something I’ve ever seen. Barbecue is common and Salt & Vinegar is one of the Founding Flavours.
Proposed: a fantasy series with a magic system based on crisp flavours. “By the Power of Cheese & Onion!”
(Crisp packet colour/flavour matches are pretty canonical in the UK also but don’t translate overseas)
I forgot Sour Cream ‘n’ Onion. That’s another one of the big 5.
You could have a fantasy system based on these flavours. Or you could rename the signs of the zodiac via chips 🙂
Quite obviously Very Angry Cow would be barbeque flavor, ideally Zapp’s Mesquite Barbeque.
OMG Zapps chips!!! I forgot about them.
Friendly amendment: New Orleans Zapps are #1, Lay’s limon chips #2.
Well, I guess you have no choice but to click on over to Expedia and book a flight to New Orleans.
Zapp’s Mesquite Barbeque, Cajun Crawtator, Voodoo flavor. OMG. Now I think I have to go to New Orleans.
I don’t get why ketchup potato chips aren’t available in the US. I mean the whole point of getting fast food french fries is putting ketchup on potatoes. Years ago I could find small snack size bags of Old Dutch ketchup chips, but not the regular sized bags.
If you fall in love with any “special” flavor, you’re bound to have your heart broken at some point when it disappears – never to be seen again. Twice as likely if you’re getting them from Trader Joe’s who must discontinue favorite items as a sport.
I tried some crisps with “meat pie” taste when I was in Australia. I am skeptic. Also I bought some crocodie jerky. It tasted like swedish falu sausage. The Emu Jerky we sacrificed to Heimdal at a local rock festival.
Now you’ve got me Googling potato chip info, curse you.
These sound interesting: “Lay’s potato chips sold in Indonesia is available in 6 flavors; honey butter, sour cream and onion, nori seaweed, beef barbecue, classic salty, and salmon teriyaki flavors.[48] Potabee sold in Indonesia offers two flavors; beef BBQ and grilled seaweed.[49] In 2018 Chitato launched “Do Us A Flavor” campaign that sell three unusual flavors; beef rendang, fried crab golden egg yolk, and mango sticky rice.”
Camestros Felapton 
42 responses to “Today’s junk food: Spag Bol flavoured crisps”
It’s a good thing there’s a picture of a bowl of spaghetti otherwise I would have been asking what the heck “spag bol” was — that sounds a lot more uncouth than “chips” to these American ears! 😉
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I thing ‘spag bol’ is a British term or it may have evolved in both nations separately.
The other flavour in this line is ‘mac and cheese’ which is a more obviously American term.
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I like the Thai or other Asian-inspired flavors, like “Mango Habanero” chips. Have you got those types over there?
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I haven’t seen any like those. The range of flavours isn’t as good as the UK either.
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Mmmmmmmmmmm.
You have my sympathies.
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I was very confused. I think of ‘spaghetti’ and ‘bolognese’ as two seperate dishes. Spaghetti with marinara. Bolognese with rigatoni.
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I think for British palates spaghetti bolognese was the ur-Italian Food, post-WW2.
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Not just in the UK, either. Spaghetti Bolognese a.k.a. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and ground meat (which is quite different from the way it’s actually served in Bologna) is the ur-Italian food in Germany, too. Even back when I was a kid, pasta meant either Spaghetti Bolognese (tomato sauce and ground meat) or Spaghetti Napolitan (tomato sauce, maybe with some vegetables), usually badly made with powdered “Just add hot water” instant sauce and some sawdust like powder that pretended to be parmesan. This was what was served at every bloody children’s birthday and was the reason why I, who absolutely loves pasta these days, didn’t like it at all until i was well in my teens. Because I don’t like Spaghetti Bolognese and never have.
Meanwhile, Marinara means “tomato sauce with seafood” in Europe, which is why ordering spaghetti marinara in the US and getting just plain tomato sauce is very confusing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My mum cooked a great spaghetti bolognese, so it’s always been comfort food for me.
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I’m used to seeing cream sauce with seafood and pasta, not tomato sauce, here in the US.
Who knew I’d learn so much about pasta dishes and chip flavors today?!
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The chips I spent years looking for were Walker’s Marmite Flavoured Crisps. When we lived in Virginia, I could get them at the British Market in Hampton sometimes, and I found them a time or two here in New York at a candy shop in Fairport that vanished one day, taking all their Big Hunk bars with them. Sob.
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I can’t say I’ve eaten such a thing (or a vegemite flavoured crisp in Aus) but it’s a pairing that would obviously work.
I miss Twiglets.
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Research offers this:
https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/entertainment/nostalgia/a-brief-history-of-crisps
I do recall Bovril flavoured crisps.
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I had some pretty darn good spaghetti bolognese at the Snow Lion resort in Guilin. I liked the place in a lot of ways—it was in Guilin so there were limestone karsts to look at, the wi-fi was better than what we could get in Beijing, and there were hillside tombs all around—but it was so humid, it was impossible to use the pool table without sweaty hands, which made any sort of attempt at precision futile. They may have had a piano there as well, which was useless for the same reason. But no complaints about the spaghetti.
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Too many syllables spaghetti bolognese. Australians don’t like to have their mouths open that long, ’cause flies.
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Oooh, bolognese. I thought they were too lazy to type a ‘w’. Forget the spaghetti! You need rigatoni for bolognese sauce!
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* in
Too many syllables *in* spaghetti bolognese
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“so I’m not likely to angry any celiac street gangs”
That’s what you think. We don’t need an excuse to get angry, in large part because we’re always hungry.
Well, at least I am. It’s a pain in the neck finding food that satisfies one of my many dietary issues (I think I’m up to half a dozen now). My life would be a lot easier if I could have a (real) sandwich every now and then.
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“Tormented by Glutens!” great story title for a pulp magazine cover from the 1950s
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“Glutens ripped my flesh!”
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“Glutens ripped my intestines”
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“Look, I happen to know that this is the Gluten Express.”
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“Glutens ripped my intestines” is a bit too accurate for my taste.
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Indeed!
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You must send these to Kevin and Ursula, For Science!
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I remember the first time I heard someone say “spaghetti bolognese” and thought it must be some exotic version of spaghetti that we just didn’t get in the US. Maybe you had to go to an “authentic” Italian restaurant. Little did I know…
On the topic of weird potato chips, every year or so Lays puts out “limited edition” flavors of their chips. The main problem I have is that if you find one that you like it will shortly disappear never to return. This year I didn’t even get that far with all of them disappearing before I had a chance to try any of them. Maybe it was for the best that I was protected from Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Remix potato chips.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spaghetti Bolognese seems like it should be spaghetti made with bologna.
It’s possible those chips are the best in the world. I don’t know, and I’m still bitter that they discontinued the wasabi-ginger kettle chips once they got me addicted to them. DAMN YOU, FRITO-LAY!
LikeLiked by 1 person
To my mind:
wasabi
garlic
tomato
Are three core flavours that would work by themselves with crisps but which aren’t canonical crisp flavour. I get that wasabi would have been too exotic back in the day but horseradish also would work.
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Wasabi Ginger’s day was about three years ago.
Speaking of China… Chocolate Flavored Jerky!
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Canadian canonical best sellers = dill pickle, ketchup, barbecue, and salt and vinegar.
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ketchup (or tomato sauce as they call it Aus) is an irregular flavour. Dill pickle? Not something I’ve ever seen. Barbecue is common and Salt & Vinegar is one of the Founding Flavours.
Proposed: a fantasy series with a magic system based on crisp flavours. “By the Power of Cheese & Onion!”
(Crisp packet colour/flavour matches are pretty canonical in the UK also but don’t translate overseas)
LikeLike
I forgot Sour Cream ‘n’ Onion. That’s another one of the big 5.
You could have a fantasy system based on these flavours. Or you could rename the signs of the zodiac via chips 🙂
Quite obviously Very Angry Cow would be barbeque flavor, ideally Zapp’s Mesquite Barbeque.
OMG Zapps chips!!! I forgot about them.
Friendly amendment: New Orleans Zapps are #1, Lay’s limon chips #2.
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Amazon says “currently not in stock” but in theory they would deliver a packet to Australia if they had any 🙂
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Well, I guess you have no choice but to click on over to Expedia and book a flight to New Orleans.
Zapp’s Mesquite Barbeque, Cajun Crawtator, Voodoo flavor. OMG. Now I think I have to go to New Orleans.
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I don’t get why ketchup potato chips aren’t available in the US. I mean the whole point of getting fast food french fries is putting ketchup on potatoes. Years ago I could find small snack size bags of Old Dutch ketchup chips, but not the regular sized bags.
If you fall in love with any “special” flavor, you’re bound to have your heart broken at some point when it disappears – never to be seen again. Twice as likely if you’re getting them from Trader Joe’s who must discontinue favorite items as a sport.
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I’ve seen ketchup-flavored potato sticks in the U.S. Seemed logical to me.
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I had blueberry Pringles in China once. Gross.
Best chips in the world, without question, are Lay’s Limón flavour. OMG.
https://www.fritolay.com/snacks/product-page/lays/lays-limon-flavored-potato-chips
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I have got to try some Cajun Crawtator….
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Ha! I’m getting a Zapps variety pack, free shipping. The Age of Amazon!
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I tried some crisps with “meat pie” taste when I was in Australia. I am skeptic. Also I bought some crocodie jerky. It tasted like swedish falu sausage. The Emu Jerky we sacrificed to Heimdal at a local rock festival.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now you’ve got me Googling potato chip info, curse you.
These sound interesting: “Lay’s potato chips sold in Indonesia is available in 6 flavors; honey butter, sour cream and onion, nori seaweed, beef barbecue, classic salty, and salmon teriyaki flavors.[48] Potabee sold in Indonesia offers two flavors; beef BBQ and grilled seaweed.[49] In 2018 Chitato launched “Do Us A Flavor” campaign that sell three unusual flavors; beef rendang, fried crab golden egg yolk, and mango sticky rice.”
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Seaweed – I think that would work quite nicely
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