Forget All the Artisanal Cheese: France's Potato Chips Are Utterly Sinful.
I recently spent time in France, a place that seemed exuding refined charm. Elegant, shimmering illuminations, village market booths overflowing with exquisitely fresh fruit and vegetables, and a vast array of cheeses that could line the whole Eurotunnel with dairy fat. Piled platters of glistening shellfish atop ice beds seen through misty restaurant glass. Upon seeing a extended but civil line of elegant residents collecting their artisanal *Bûche de Noël*, I mused, with some guilt, that my home town, York, that transforms into a present-day version of a scene of decadence at this time of year with e-cigarettes tasting of mincemeat and BuzzBallz, would do well to absorb a few lessons.
The Elegant Facade
But this entire “art de vivre” affectation is just a polished mask – The country succumbs just as easily to its lowest desires similar to everywhere else. Merely enter any grocery store and you’ll see. The snack food corridor stands as a monument to decadence, lined with the likes of blue cheese, falafel, beer-braised beef and *beurre salé* flavours. Who eats a fried potato snack flavoured like dairy spread? It’s like an item typical of those infamous American fairs where they deep fry sticks of butter. An entertainer recently claimed they are the ultimate chip she’s ever tasted, though she has clearly been influenced by an instance of Breton brainwashing – after all, her childhood was in that very region.
A Global Lawlessness
I know the snack flavour business worldwide is just as anarchic as big tech. There is a refusal to permit the tuber to taste of itself, adorned only rightly with just a dignified dusting of salt. We have a checkered past when it comes to snack tastes across Britain, notably around Christmas. Recently, after all, introduced gingerbread Doritos and exclusive steak-and-pâté flavoured chips. And who could forget the instance where a famous high-street chain thought “festive fizz and berries” made for a good idea on a potato chip? I had higher hopes from the home of haute cuisine.
What next? Foie gras crisps? Choux pastry flavour? Cigarette-tasting crisps? It's best I halt, before I accidentally suggest the next big thing.
