Current Cravings: Plum Potato Chips

While at the Asian supermarket I took a quick pass down the junk food aisle. I usually refrain from buying any junk food because it’s really easy for me to eat the entire bag or box or package of whatever goodies I get (in part because they tend not to be overly rich or sweet and in part because the serving sizes are much smaller than American junk food sizes).

However, as I swiftly walked down the junk food aisle, prepared to buy nothing, a pink bag caught my eye: plum potato chips. I stopped. I was intrigued. Plum potato chips were a seasonal item. When I think of Japan and plums I immediately think of pickled plums, and I happen to love pickled plums—so I impulsively bought the potato chips. And that evening I ate the entire bag of chips (although to be fair it only contained two servings worth of chips). They were delicious. They were salty and sour and sweet (although no where near as sour as actual pickled plums), they just had a hint of plum flavoring.

Pickled plums are an acquired taste. The first time I had them I didn’t like them at all. They were very sour, and I wasn’t really accustomed to sour foods. I wasn’t brought up with many sour food options (other than dill pickles and lemon desserts). But for whatever reason, I came to love pickled plums (with rice of course). I like the soft juicy ones that are about the size of a quarter; a little nibble of one of those wakes my taste buds up. [Pause.] And I should probably stick to eating the healthier pickled plums themselves rather than plum potato chips (that I can oh too easily polish off an entire bag of). [Sigh.]