Potato Chips Around the World 17


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I don’t know about you, but potato chips are my personal crack cocaine. Once I open a bag, I just can’t stop until I’m finished. Small, little personal sized bag. . . right on up to the mega-Wal-Mart sized ones. They are bad, bad things.

Back home, I had pretty much eliminated them from my diet. After doing some reading up on some food basics, I had taken out almost all processed foods (and fast food) from my life. I am of the firm belief that both of them are so packed full of chemicals and other stuff that is horrible for you that we are all just slowly killing ourselves with the food we eat.

Try as I might though, I have broken down a few times on the road and bought a bag or two of potato chips, only when getting something to munch on for a long bus or train ride, but since there have been so many of those — have had a few chips (or apparently ‘crisps’ as much of the world calls them).

One of the fascinating things on the road is how products that we are used to from back home are slightly different around the world. Potato chips being a good example. Back in the U.S., we’ve got our regular chips, BBQ flavor, sour cream and onion flavored, and a few others. It is one of the few things in the food area where I have seen more variety outside the U.S. than inside.

Here are a few of the different flavors (mainly of Pringles potato chips) I’ve seen on the road:

Nori seaweed, spicy seafood, hot chili squid, supreme sausage pizza, barbecue max, and kimchi hot plate flavor (all in Thailand). Ham flavored (South America). Ketchep flavored (Europe). Mushrooms and sour cream (Russia).

For the fellow travelers out there — tell me which ones you have seen. And tried. Some of these varieties just sound awful to me. I’ve tried a few. . . with not good results.

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About Michael Hodson

I’m an attorney that took off on my birthday in December of 2008 to circumnavigate the globe without ever getting on an airplane. After 16 months, 6 continents and 44 countries, I made it all the way back home. Right now, I am back on the road writing about it all.

17 thoughts on “Potato Chips Around the World

  • 6p00e54fa8abf78833

    Sometimes chips are all you can get when traveling. Usually arriving at a bus stop late the only option is junk food. We've seen Spare Rib (Kenya) , Marsala (India), Thai lime and Sweet chili (Not in Thailand, Malawi), we also had the ham in South America, really meaty and weird, and our all-time favorite Mrs. H. Balls Chutney (Zambia)

  • Katja

    Pickled onion Monster Munch. As we say in the UK, they’re the dog’s. I’m going to have to get myself some when I go home for Christmas …

  • Michael

    We have some really interesting ones in China. The hazelnut blueberry one I’ve seen often. Seaweed flavored seems interesting. I should take some pictures of these. I can’t seem to remember all the flavors right now.

  • Lisa E @chickybus

    Fun/funny post! I don’t generally eat potato chips at home (although I must admit to really liking the sour cream and BBQ flavors and occasionally losing control while over-indulging).

    But when I’m traveling, I do find myself looking for them. And yeah, I often get Pringles! Usually plain (sigh) due to the limited selection. But if possible, I’ll get sour cream or BBQ. But sometimes, I go with with something more exotic–eg, “muy picante.” But nothing like the ones you mentioned. For some odd reason, I haven’t seen anything like those. They sound really different…and yummy!

    • Michael Hodson Post author

      right up my alley – the sour cream and onion and BBQ flavors are particular weaknesses of mine.

  • Kelly

    In China:

    Cucumber
    Blueberry
    Tomato (similar to ketchup maybe?)
    Lemon Iced Tea
    Lychee
    Roast Chicken
    Lime
    Hot & Sour Fish Soup

    …and so on!

  • Amanda

    I’ve seen some really odd flavors in other countries. But my favorite was actually just a bag of regular-flavored Lays potato chips in China. The novelty wasn’t the flavor — it was what they were called. They were labeled as “American flavor.” I still laugh about that one.

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