A while back, I was standing in line at my favorite Asian supermarket. Like grocery stores everywhere, colorful snacks were placed near the checkout lanes for impulse buys. These eye-catching packets were bright and cheerful, labeled in Chinese with cryptic visual clues on content.
Cryptic Crackers
A little inspection showed that these were a brand of crispy rice crackers. Closer inspection didn’t reveal the flavor; that required a bit of imagination.
On this packet, a laid-back koala bear with a Hello Kitty cap relaxes in a neighborhood bar. Given the picture, I’m guessing that libations with friendly feline buddies need nothing more than plain salted crackers.
The next packet was a bit more challenging. Koala bear seems to be spitting out … a Belgian chocolate seashell? I looked for the English sticker at the back. Nope, it wasn’t chocolate flavored. It was SNAIL! If it was me and I’d read the label after tasting, I’d probably be spitting it out too.
Snail crisps notwithstanding, rice crackers in China got me thinking about salty snacks in Canada. In this part of the world, salty snacks are primarily potato or tortilla chips. Popcorn and orange colored Cheetos are second stringers.
I used to love Cheetos with their powdery fake-cheese flavor. All that stopped when I fed my baby daughter her first Cheeto bit. One diaper load later I saw its neon green remains and vowed to never feed or eat Cheetos again.
Nowadays, potato chips are a once in a while treat. High sodium and saturated fats make these guilty pleasures. When I do buy them, I’ll get Regular flavor for me and All Dressed for everyone else.
All Dressed Chips
If you’re not Canadian, you might wonder what flavor is All Dressed. It is a unique salty, sweet and tangy blend of BBQ, ketchup and vinegar which is Canada’s #1 favorite chip.
It used to be available exclusively in Canada but in 2015 Frito-Lay decided to introduce Ruffles All-Dressed chips to the US market. But first they had to explain it to the Americans.
Have you ever tried an All Dressed chip? What did you think about it? What’s your favorite salty, savory or sweet snack ? Is there a regional treat that’s unique to your part of the world? Have you ever had an encounter with a decidedly odd snack?
For the next two weeks the Friendly Friday Challenge is to tell us about UNIQUE TREATS from your (or different) part(s) of the world.
Create a post, tag it ‘Friendly Friday’ and link back here. I look forward to reading it!
The Sandy Chronicles 
here’s the link for my Malta treats that we tried on our recent Malta trip : https://theredphoneboxtravels.com/2022/05/27/unique-treats-from-malta/
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Wonderful! It’s almost as good as going there myself 😉
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That Koala going ‘Ptuuiii’ after eating a snail-flavoured chip is quite the advertisement for the chips. It made me think of every food I tried that I had a Koala Reaction to… Hmmm…
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Koala reaction sounds like a good meme 😉
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Yikes ‘all dressed..’ hmm not yet. But I like the regular sour and cream. 🙂
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If its not regular flavor, I go for sour cream too.
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I’m still trying to figure out how to do this interesting challenge of yours. I hope I’ll get around to doing it soon. 🙂
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Singapore has so many interesting & unique treats and snacks … the hardest part is choosing what to feature!
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Hahah that’s true, we have plenty!
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Can’t eat regular chips anymore, too greasy. Lays Baked Original for me, same salty crunch, less grease 🙂
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I’ve never tried Lay’s Baked chips. Less grease, same crunch sounds good to me.
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My unique treats may not be all that you’ve bargained for…. https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2022/05/21/friendly-friday-challenge-unique-treats/
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Kanga Banga! Austrailians do have a way with names 🙂
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It is the rhyming slang, the dialect of trades and bogans.
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I had to google ‘bogans’, never seen that word before. I thought it might be ‘bogarts’ per Harry Potter, but see that it’s more Aussie and English 🙂
You’re teaching much today Amanda!
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Bogans – yeh, our land is full of them. I am sure you came across one or two when you visited, Sandy?
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Well … I had mostly business trips with the suits in Sydney’s financial district and they were all on best behavior 🙂 But I’ve met equivalents in my part of the world. Lord knows, they’re all over the place.
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That is true
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Oh boy, it’s been years since I’ve eaten all-dressed chips! Thanks for reminding me of their existence. Apparently ketchup chips are a Canadian thing too. I’ve aged out of these crazy flavours I think…and now prefer a good ol’ plain chip…preferably kettle-cooked. Nice post, Sandy!
Deb
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Plain & simple does it for me too. Thanks for dropping by Deb 🙂
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yummy post!
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What kind of snacks do you have at home?
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many, but they probably are not unique
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They would be unique to me!
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Your posts always catch my eye. This reminded me of the time I bought prettily labeled beauty cream from China with itchy consequences! Of course I had no idea what it was because I couldn’t read the text. My adventurous shopping stopped there!
The baby story was cute. (Yes, a diaper story cute! I’m a mum!) I was super neurotic about the boys’ food when they were smaller. I think they were probably 4 when they had their first chips! Chocolate at 3.5 years, maybe. Recently, candy. I dislike candy myself, but I’ve noticed it keepa them busy for a while, so there’s that! Slower to eat than chocolate!
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Glad to hear that my posts grab you 😉
Mum’s everywhere relate to diaper stories. On the other hand, never-mums don’t know what they’re missing & they’re glad for it!
It’s a good thing to be careful about food, esp when you can still control what they eat. Soon enough they’ll have unlimited access to everything.
When my kids were small I didn’t buy candy. As a result, Halloween and Easter were occasions to hoard up their goodies. Often I’d find last year’s Halloween treats stashed away with their Easter eggs.
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They learned to save up! We have a rule that on weekends they can have some treats. Holidays like Easter mess it up though! And there seems to always be sime excuse…
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All Dressed sounds a rather over-the-top flavour, although generally I prefer flavoured potato and other chips over plain (what we call ‘ready salted’). Nacho cheese tortilla chips are a favourite 🙂
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Given a choice between potato & tortilla chips, I actually prefer tortilla chips. I like them plain & salted but a little spicy lime flavor is nice too.
Seems to me that British chips come in unusual flavors too … like Cheese & Onion and Bacon? Funnily enough, meat flavored chips are not popular here 🙂
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Cheese & onion crisps are nice but I’m not especially a fan of bacon although it’s popular. But it’s better than roast chicken flavour, which is a bit weird 😀
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I wonder if any other country has meat flavored chips? I’d love to hear!
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Not fond of flavoured snacks
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I checked with my hubby and he says he never had packaged snacks growing up in Paris. His idea of a childhood snack was pain au chocolat or croissant!
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I can believe that because the French don’t snack!
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Haha very funny Sandy, I love the way Asian foods depict what’s in the bag
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It’s a different approach, isn’t it. Every culture seems to have its own approach to marketing.
I hope you’ll join in and tell me about your favorite snack 😉
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Mine are very boring.. plain crisps!
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Thanks for the visual image of the neon green diaper contents. Unique treats indeed! A fun topic.
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It was one of those things as a new mom that I will never ever forget!
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Kind of sticks there along with kids projectile vomiting, doesn’t it? Lol
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🤣🤣😅
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‘All Dressed’ is Canada’s No. 1 potato chip flavour? I never would have guessed that. I would have gone with S & V, barbeque and plain first (probably in that order). For me, it’s plain lays chips or none at all! 😀
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My source of reference is the Ruffles packet, so it must be true, right? 😉
You think Salt & Vinegar is everyone’s favorite? I dont get that flavor at all. The first time I had it, I thought it was a cruel joke. I had a definite Koala reaction then.
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I like salt&vinegar crisps. tried it for the first time in the UK.
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I hear you, Donna and am the same as far as potato chip flavour goes.
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