Chip Away

My 10-year-old is a bit of a potato chip connoisseur.

And he is quite proud of the fact that he knows his way around the land of chips.

"I love potato chips," he said the other day as he snapped open a pack of Miss Vickie's Original Recipe Sea Salt that I had leftover from a lunch meeting.

"So what is the best potato chip?" I asked.

"Depends on the brand," he said while tossing a few in his mouth.

"Okay," I said. Then I bellowed out a brand and he would counter with his answer.

And this is how he broke it down…

Pringles: Sour Cream and Onion
Kettle Brand: Sriracha
Lays: Honey BBQ
Utz: Old Bay

The best he's ever had?

"Some I got from a friend in third grade. He had them at snack," he explained.

"And what flavor were they?" I asked.

"Bacon, egg and cheese," he said.

"Huh? Say what?" I retorted.

"They were some Asian brand," he explained.

"We need to hit up an Asian market and see if we can find some of those," I said.

"Definitely," he said.

Are You Experienced?

Have you ever been experienced?

I have.

I've been to over a dozen beer festivals in my day but yesterday was my first Bull City Food & Beer Experience.

The concept, in its second year, is to pair the area's craft beer scene with our locally acclaimed culinary world. It's a match made in heaven and one brought to fruition by DPAC, Tyler's Taproom and Sam's Quik Shop. 

Some of my favorite pairings was Saltbox Seafood's spicy mussels dish with Founders Brewing Co.'s All Day IPA.

I sampled far too many food vendors and beers to go on a mention all my favorite pairings. I was too engrossed in sampling the pairings that I never got to hear the panelists speak. But I did make it down to the Cask section and enjoyed some Heavy Seas Winter Storm Imperial ESB and Starpoint Brewing's Weaver Berry Stout infused with ginger and lemon zest.

Of course Sam's Quik Shop serving up Founders' KBS and Backwoods Bastard couple and that special bottle of North Coast's oak-aged Old Rasputin imperial stout in the VIP section. Yummy yum.