Review: Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips & Borrowing Scissors / My Co-Worker Is Trying To Kill Me
JFG Nation, I had this whole post I was going to do about grunge rock songs I grew up with, but I decided to just highlight and delete all of it after I was almost assaulted this morning.
Picture this: I’m minding my own business, and I need to use a pair of scissors at work. I go by my co-worker’s office, and ask, “Hey, can I borrow your scissors?”
She says, “Sure.” And then she proceeds to stab me several times with the scissors! Ok, I made that last part up.
No, what she did was hold the scissors out to my, POINT SIDE OUT. I looked at her incredulously. “WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?” I exclaimed. “What? What??” she replied. “POINT SIDE OUT?? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME.”
Basically, I was shocked that she was giving me scissors point side out. Now, look – I admit I was overreacting, and I did so half comically, half serious. But straw poll, JFG Nation – WHO DOES THAT? I grew up being taught by parents, by TV shows, by teachers, by camp counselors – when handing scissors/knives/screwdrivers/anything with a point to another human, you hand it over handle side out. HANDLE SIDE OUT. MY CO-WORKER WAS TRYING TO CUT ME FINGERS OFF.
So, let me know in the comments below – am I wrong? Am I right? Agree or disagree, and what do YOU do?
Today’s junk food: Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips!
Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips!! The second of this year’s Do Us A Flavor varieties I’m trying (yesterday I tried the Greektown Gyro one – it was ok).
According to Wiki: “Truffle oil is commonly used to make ‘truffle fries,’ which feature French fries tossed in truffle oil, Parmesan cheese, pepper, and sometimes other ingredients.” I’ve eaten Truffle Fries a bunch, and besides the potato goodness, the thing I’m looking for is BOLD TRUFFLE FLAVOR. Of course, there is always a risk of overdoing the truffle – too much truffle can be too powerful and kill any actual savory taste.
This picture of truffle fries is pretty accurate – I love the large smattering of parsley that is shown there. Of course, one might wonder, as someone did on Instagram: What do truffle fries have to do with the West Coast? A very good question – tell us, Angie Fu:
Ah, I see – she lives in California and likes truffle fries.
….
WHAT THE HELL, LAY’S. You did it with Greektown Gyro yesterday with a dude from Texas, and now you’ve tied truffle fries to the West Coast because this woman lives there? BOOOOOOOOO. You are ruining the geographic element here, Frito-Lay.
Whoa, these Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips actually contain a .00000001 % bit of black truffle? Might be microscopic, but color me intrigued.
I opened the bag of these Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips and inhaled deeply, deeply, deeply. Um, these did not smell like truffle fries. These smelled like the shrimp chips I grew up eating. Like, there was no mistaking the fishy smell – SHRIMP CHIPS. Spot on. Let’s hope these don’t TASTE like shrimp chips.
Ok, phew – these Wavy Lay’s West Coast Truffle Fries Potato Chips did NOT taste like shrimp chips, despite the smell. But did they taste like truffle fries?
I licked a chip, and didn’t really get a distinct mushroom-y flavor right away – more cheese, creaminess, and a bit of herb flavor than anything else. Licking was giving me nothing. Time to munch.
Munching five-six chips at once, I immediately got a very faint, truffle oil flavor – VERY faint, but I could taste it. Then it disappeared after my saliva washed over the chips once. It was there, and then it wasn’t there. What flavor was leftover? A decent parmesan and parsley flavor. Coupled with the semi-oily Wavy Lays, the resultant savory flavor was really tasty – cheesy, creamy, and herbaceous.
So these tasted good. I mean, as an overall basic chip, I’d rank these ahead of the Gyro ones, just as a more balanced flavor. But what about the truffle?
To me, not enough. I would hesitate to say there needed to be a LOT more truffle, but just a little bit more to help punch up just a basic mushroom flavor. Now, maybe people who have eaten truffle fries LIKE the subtlety of the truffle oil on these. And maybe, as Ryan suggested in our recent Nosh Show, my tastebuds are more weathered and require more seasoning, whereas many out there might taste these and think WHOA TRUFFLE.
In either case, these tasted good, nice and savory with a good parsley and parm taste, and I liked them better then the Greektown Gyro, but would’ve liked more truffle mushroom flavor. I’ll still kill the whole bag, though.
PURCHASED AT: Walmart, Germantown, MD
COST: $2.48
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 35 Comments
I seem to recall a whole page in the Girl Scout Handbook on proper handling of scissors and knives, including always handing it to someone handle out. So it’s second nature to me, but some people…
@Jessica: ALWAYS HANDLE OUT!
i’ve never had truffle fries.. but i do live on the east coast 😉
I was a huge fan of last years Lay’s winner – The Wasabi Ginger chips. So much so, I stalked the stores and several websites to see when they’d be available after their win. I’m wondering if they’re going to be around still or they’ll be gone from the shelves after this new contest. I’ve never really liked a chip or cared about it so deeply – haha. But the Ginger Wasabi’s are the mammaries.
@Rocketgirl: The mammaries – HA!
So your co-worker goes against the grain! It’s not like she threw them at you while obnoxiously exclaiming, “HERE, CATCH!”
@Rulebreaker: MIGHT AS WELL HAVE
See, the trend with this year’s entries has me kicking myself for not being the one who thought of submitting Wasabi and Pickled Ginger. “I live in Indianapolis, and I really like this sushi joint I used to go to when I was in college years ago, so, uh, that’s why I think wasabi should be a Lay’s flavor please.”
@Icedus: And you would’ve won!
Wow, Irvine is not known for truffle fries at all. Irvine and the OC have a large Asian population…SoCal is really only known for mexican foods and fish tacos. I don’t think fish taco would sell well…
California burrito? That’d be interesting
@Johnny: Hey, *I”D* eat fish taco potato chips, for sure!
Hell yeah we have truffle fries here in OC! The rich areas (like Irvine and the neighboring beach cities) make good truffle fries. West Coast is best coast!
Similar to the Finkle-Einhorm….
“Laces Out, DAN!!!!, Laces Out”
@MarcP: LOL
I’ve had truffle fries before, but I’m not sure I have a concrete understanding of what truffles actually taste like. Maybe it’s my own fault. But did you think these were too similar to sour cream n’ onion or does that satisfy a different niche for you?
@Junk male: Coworker said that – “These taste exactly like sour cream and onion” – I can totally see where she/you are coming froM!
I totally agree with strong sour cream even possible taste of chives … I make a stuffed mushroom with creamcheese chives/and or powdered onion/have even used garlic powder and the taste of these are similar to these.. I like but truffles well they are a mushroom so maybe somewhat but I have never had a truffle just good ole earthy mushrooms stuffed cooked in over or even microwave with the stems saute in butter stuck in the middle of the stuffing to make them look pretty.
Wow…duck and chicken fats. Interesting.
Have to finish the Gyro ones before I open this bag, though…
@Dana: I still need to find the Reuben ones. STUPID WALMART
Truffle oil and duck fat those are some pretty gourmet flavors for a Lays potato chip. I haven’t tried these yet but I have eaten truffle fries and other dishes with truffle oil and sometimes the flavor can be intense so maybe they wanted like a vanilla version of the truffle oil experience. Great review and I may just have to try these, I hope you review the last two flavors as well.
@Ashley: Thanks! Agree – they needed to dumb the truffle down. Still – maybe just punch up the general mushroom flavor a little bit?
They’re probably Chinese black truffles. Chinese black truffles are still black, but they don’t have the flavor of their much more expensive French counterparts. They’re what truffle traders use to scam each other.
@Rodzilla: RODZILLA! Been a long time. And thanks for the insight on the truffles – I had no idea!
Remember when George Foreman had his own half-hour comedy? Yeah, I barely do either. But I do remember the one episode where George taught some young man (and me) the proper way to hand someone a knife. Thank you Mr. Foreman, my parents dropped the ball on that one.
@Sara: +1 for a George Foreman reference
MY god, you are a blithering idiot, yakking away about shit.
All I came here for was Truffle Chips; yay or nay. and you hardly answered it, blatting about scissors and co-workers.
@Lassie: Agree, I *TRY* to tell the author of this blog that no one cares about his co-workers, but he won’t listen!
Embarking on my own journey through this four-pronged Lay’s ‘Do Us a Flavor’ chip campaign. My votes are in. Results associated with each chip flavor on its featured page here at JFG’s site.
First flavor I tried was Truffle. Opposite of JFG: I found nothing interesting at all about this chip. It didn’t seem to have any identifiable flavor whatsoever, to me. Of course, I barely know what ‘truffle’ tastes like anyway so I’m likely ill-equipped to rate this flavor. I just don’t know much about it. I wouldnt know a truffle if someone threw it in my face. I never pay extra for ‘truffle’ ingredients in a recipe (here in NYC, its more just a silly scam to jack-up-the-price; only trendy and foolish foodies ever go in for truffle dishes). Anyway with this purchase, I could taste a little bit of parmesan but otherwise, a total dud.
This reinforced my notion that I generally don’t flip out over Lay’s chips no matter what the company attempts. Lays and Herr’s and Ruffles are all among the tier of chips I consider boring because they’re not hefty robust corn chips. It doesn’t even impress me when they’re kettle-cooked. Potato chips –flat ones like these, just don’t work any magic on the roof of my mouth.
But I tried these Truffle ones first and I figured I would go ahead anyway and sample the other three.
And what I discovered proved I was wrong about all of the above. No, these truffle flavor chips were still the lamest…but the other three flavor, woah. Blew me away. Was not expecting anything any better from them than what I found with ‘Truffle’ but I am totally taken aback…Lay’s has done the impossible: made a flat, uninteresting chip impress me. I mean the whole thing with the flavor-contest and the creativity they put into it all.
Howsoever much money they poured into this project –except for the truffle fries flavor–it was totally worth it. Because I’d buy anything else like this which they choose to do.
Way to go Lay’s! You slay me…
@C: WHOA you liked them! Nice.
I loved last year’s Wasabi Winner so the first flavor I tried this summer were the Truffle Fries, tasted more like a French Truffle Flop, now after this intolerable Fry experience I do NOT want to Try the other three Lay’s Specialty Flavor Chips this year, I couldn’t stomach more than a handful of these, I am a foodie, even worked in food service during college, but these were so bad – so much so I went back to the store and asked for a refund on the opened yet full bag of ’em!! Bye Felicia Fry!!!
@Anna: OH NO! I hope I didn’t lead you astray! Sorry you had such a bad experience! (BTW, I laughed out loud at the “Bye Felicia Fry” haha)
The creator of these chips is from Irvine, which is a city here in OC (yes that OC from the tv show “The Real OC” with Mischa Barton). That said, I live nearby in Anaheim (yep, where Disneyland is) and truffle fries are the best! They’re usually done well at more upscale places in Newport, Laguna or Huntington Beach. Take it from a born and bred California girl: truffle fries are the best! This is why I never want to live on the East Coast. Ew.
we really like the truffle chips and think they are spot on…any more truffley would be too much. love them. don’t assume all taste buds are created equal..is what i have learned!
@Linda: Too true. I’m glad you enjoyed them!
I found the truffle fries and love them
It is the best I can them anywhere
HELP