Pringles Xtra Tangy Buffalo Wing

Xtra. Did we as a culture, at some point, decide that the letter E was below our notice and that words need to start with X? The package is emblazoned with a great big X, just in case you missed the fact that they are "Xtra-ordinary" or "Xtra tangy". The fact of the matter is that they are chips, and therefore unlikely to run off and fight Magneto, regardless of how many X's they put on the package. For whatever reason the people at Pringles really love their Buffalo wings, because they actually have quite a few variations such as Buffalo Ranch, Xtreme (ugh) Blazin' Buffalo Wing, and Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing in addition to the aforementioned Xtra Tangy. I can only imagine that the people at Pringles host all their meetings at Hooters. Even though they are playing havoc with my spell check, they are remarkably good. They have a strong cayenne pepper kick, that won't leave you screaming, but that you aren't going to forget either. There's also a distinct vinegar flavor that takes the edge off the heat but isn't too sour and finally a slight undercurrent of garlic that rounds it out. Pringles chips (or crisps, as it says on the container) are always uniform in their shape and size. The same cannot always be said for their flavoring distribution, sometimes the powders are spotty or even quite sparse. Thankfully the Buffalo Wing flavoring on these is almost perfectly spread out, so every bite tastes good. If I didn't have dozens more types of chips to try out i might have bought these again, even if I think the name is dumb.

Found at Walmart

Nabisco Cookie Dough Oreo

As much as in enjoying this years crop of interesting Oreo flavors, I'm also a little bit nervous. What are they going to do next year to top it? Only things I can think of are Cookie and Cream filled Oreos which even The Department of Redundancy Department thinks is overkill and Reverse Oreos where there is a cookie sandwiched by two discs of creme, which sounds like a humongous mess if you actually tried to eat it. I do like the idea of having cookie dough between two cookies although I wonder if you went ahead and cooked it would it simply turn into a stack of three cookies? All of which brings me to the actual review. It is freaking awesome. Of course it's awesome. I do have a couple minor bones to pick though (don't worry, there aren't any actual bones inside). I've long ago made my peace with it being creme as opposed to cream, but why does it have "chocolatey chips"? It actually has chocolate in the ingredients, so where is it if it's not in the chips? Also, I feel like there has to be some sort of size limit on what constitutes a chip, they are so tiny that really they should just called flakes. I guess "chocolatish flakes" just doesn't have the same ring. Really though, I'm just being picky, these are great and I can't wait to find the next limited time flavor.

Found at Shoppers

Phancy Soda Chanh Vietnamese Sparkling Limeade with Strawberry and Lychee

Soda Chanh is a Vietnamese lime drink that is made with sugar, soda water and limes obviously. I'm told it's quite popular and that you can get it at many Vietnamese restaurants. Since I always get carry out I've never had it, so I can't say if it's like the handmade stuff. Lychees are fragrant fruit with a slightly acidic sweet taste that reminds some people of grapes and perfume. If you don't know what a strawberry is, I can't help you, but hey, welcome to Earth, spaceman! So what happens when you combine all these distinct flavors? You create a drink I find utterly repulsive. I find it too cloying sweet with a fairly acidic aftertaste that makes me want to scrape my tongue against a tree. I generally like all the ingredients (it's all natural by the way) indivually, but instead of working together like the Super Friends they form a lame Legion of Doom. After doing my research I am however curious to try restaurant made Soda Chanh or even Soda Chanh Muoi which is made from limes pickled in salt (I expect it'll be gross, but I'm still curious), so if you have a Vietnamese restaurant in Northern Virginia that you like and that has either, please let me know in the comments.

Found at World Market

B More Nutz Nutterz Potato Chip Coated Peanuts Dill Pickle

Peanuts inside of potato chips. If they could manage to put them inside of pretzels and cover that with Cheetos dust I could get all the basic snack groups in one bite. It cool though, these are extreme enough as is, you can tell because of the Z  in the name. I'm not sure I would call these potato chip coated, it's really more of a potato breading, they don't have the oiliness or the saltiness that are the hallmarks of potato chips. That's not a bad thing at all though, because what they do have is a terrific crunch that continues as you chew and yet are not so hard that you think you are going to crack a crown. The dill pickle flavoring is done well. Not as much vinegar taste as most other dill pickle offerings, which allows the the dill to really shine. They also come in a bunch of other flavors such as Bacon Cheddar, Nuclear, and Bloody Mary. I'm definitely going to have to buy more.

Found at Giant

T.O. Williams Virginia Smoked Link Sausage

In nature certain animals have colors that warn other animals that they are dangerous, such as black and yellow stripes that let you know things will sting and poison you or that they are Charlie Brown. There is a similar process that when food is red you expect it to be hot.

When that food is so very bright red that it could be used to signal fertility in baboons, you expect it to be hot enough to vaporize your tongue. Once again my expectations are totally off. It's really quite mild. There is a heavy smoke flavor that isn't all that surprising since it's called a smoked link, and that probably contributes to the red coloring, although there are food dyes listed in the ingredients. The meat is finely ground so it has more of a hotdog consistency than a proper sausage. 

 The casing is rather thick, while I was cooking them I heard a startling pop come from the grill, when they finally burst. I'm not sure if I was supposed to eat the skin or try to peel it, so I went ahead and ate it. It tasted fine and as of this writing I am more or less still alive. If it does kill me, please let my tombstone be a warning to peel them before eating. But dignified, or as dignified as a warning from beyond the grave on safe sausage consumption can get. They aren't bad, but nothing really to write home about either, although since I'm writing about it right now, you can probably discard that advice as well.

Found at Shoppers

Arcor Saladix Snacks Sabor Jamon

For those if you who don't speak Spanish, or speak it as poorly as me, "sabor jamon" means ham flavor. Arcor is the Argentine equivalent to a company like Nabisco, although these were bought in Uruguay. Don't ask me what Saladix means, I don't know and I refuse to look it up. Even though it's advertised as just ham it's actually ham and cheese. I really don't know why ham flavored snacks never really caught on here the United States because these are pretty good. It's a bunch of tiny crackers that while individually don't taste like much they certainly build to a pleasant taste. They are far less salty than most similar style American treats. There's also the fact that saying "jamon" pronounced "ham on" kind of makes me feel like I'm doing a poor Michael Jackson impersonation, so that's kind of fun too.

Found in Uruguay

Donated by my mom

Skittles Darkside

I figured I was getting some kind of Star Wars themed candy (the Sith-berries taste like Sith-berries), but instead it turns out I bought the worlds first goth candy. It even has a slogan "The Other Side of the Rainbow" which sounds deep and dark until you realize that rainbows don't work that way. So I did what I had to do, put on The Sisters of Mercy, and dug in. Chances are, you eat Skittles like a normal person which is by taking a couple at a time and just tossing them in your mouth, and this works fine. The flavors all play nicely together and you may even be able to distinguish one or two individual tastes. I mean, only a complete psychopath would separate them individually.

No really, they came out of the box like that.

The individual flavors are loaded with pretentious goth names. Forbidden Fruit, which in classical art is often depicted as an apple is here some sort of grape punch flavor. Blood Orange, which is richer and slightly less sweet than regular orange. It has blood in its name so it's scary. Pomegranate, the fruit used to trap Persephone in the underworld for part of the year, is remarkably tangy and probably the most interesting out of the group. Dark Berry, which I've heard has the sweetest juice (or at least that's what my ex girlfriend told me) is here some kind of blueberry and maybe blackberry mix. Which leaves us with Midnight Lime. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A "MIDNIGHT LIME"? There is no such thing as midnight lime. It might be covered in eyeliner, black lipstick and wearing fishnets on it's arms, but it's just regular old lime. Still, all the flavors are actually pretty good and it has been a while since I played a Bauhaus album.

Found at Walgreens