Hidden Wonders of France: Curly Chips
What is your favourite thing to stuff in your mouth mindlessly as you drink beer? Before you answer incorrectly, I’ll tell you: it’s peanuts and corn puff chips. Mmm, savoury calories are the best. But what about the tiresome business of putting your hand in the bowl of peanuts – chomp chomp chomp – then putting your hand in the bowl of corn snack – crunch crunch crunch. Why I’m exhausted just thinking about it! If only someone would invent a snack that combined these two delicious superstars into one megasnack…
*discrete clearing of throat* “En fait, on a deja ce megasnack en France.”
“Speak English, France, no one can understand you!”
*long-suffering sigh* “We have already this snack in France.”
It’s true. Presenting Curly chips, hidden wonder of France. Essentially, it’s a peanut butter-flavoured corn snack. That deeply savoury nut flavour coats the top of your mouth while airy corn puff shatters and dissolves with the mearest application of pressure from your teeth. In an instant it’s gone and I challenge anyone not to instantaneously go back to the bowl for another fistful. Peanut deliciousness without all mastication. It’s a lazy person’s delight.
Imagine licking your fingers afterwards. Oh yeah.
In the UK, crisp manufacturers have been coming up with more and more elaborate crisps (Aldi’s Gin and Tonic, M&S’s Prosseco and Winterberries) yet none have created a peanut-flavoured crisp. Why? Combining two of the most popular beer foods together doesn’t seem that much of a stretch of the imagination. It’s like putting Superman and Batman together in a movie. (Hang on, scrap that comparison, that sounds awful.)
I have misty memories of a friend who, in the pub, would regularly pour peanuts into a packets of crisps*. (I have no idea who it was; if you recognise yourself: Hi!) Most people, myself included, were initially hostile to this bastardisation of snacks but were won over by the resulting taste sensation. I’m sure my friend was not a beery genius and that this is being done across the UK, so – manufacturers – why no peanut-flavoured crisps?
That it should be France that has led the way with Curly chips comes as a surprise. France’s association with food is usually at the high end of cuisine, not the sort of thing eaten with one hand while the other holds a glass. Well, yes and no. True, there is only a very limited range of flavours of crisps in France (salted, chicken, paprika, cheese) but it would be a mistake to underestimate French affection for this component vital to the apéritif.
In fact Curly has existed in France since 1963. A quick look on Wikipedia tells me they’re actually probably German in origin. Ah well. I can’t tell if they still exist in Germany. A quick google for “curly deutschland” returned a picture of this dog. I’m not a journalist so I left it at that. So, though perhaps not quite as French as originally thought, we still salute you, Curly chips, hidden wonder of France.
