Chips, Crisps & Wafers Pop-Up Potato Chip Shop
About 2 weeks ago, I stopped by a market in Little India to get some supplies. In the impossibly long check-out line, the people behind me were carrying armfuls of Lay's India's Magic Masala chips. Chips have been my favorite unhealthy indulgence for a long time and over the years, I've more or less managed to wean myself off them. It wasn't easy.
Now they are a very infrequent treat, and this enticing flavor seemed to be worthy of breaking my chips ban. I enjoyed the Indian "chaat" type of flavor.
I found out that for more than 30 years, Barbecue flavored chips were the only flavor available outside of plain salted chips. In the 1990's, other flavors started coming in. Many crazy flavors can be found for sure these days, but after comparing them to some of the international and even U.S. regional flavors, I craved something more than Zesty Ranch!
When a friend emailed me a link to this global Potato Chip Pop-Up shop, in the IAM8BIT art gallery, called Chips Crisps &Wafers, I knew it had to fit into my busy holiday schedule somehow.
I was detained at another event during opening night, but later on in the weekend, we managed to squeeze a visit in. Good thing because today is the last day it's running.
The exhibit is pretty straightforward with over 50 varieties of chips flown in from around the world as well as within the U.S. The bags went for a fairly steep 5 bags for $20 and a bit more for larger bags.
Samples were not offered, nor were bags of sold out chips on display, so the mysteries inside each bag could only be discovered on your own. They'd also make stocking stuffers anyone would love.
On opening night the inventory practically got decimated. I read that the first flavors to sell out were President's Choice Maple Bacon from Canada and Haldiram's Aloo Masala from India (which might have been similar to the bag of Magic Masala). Even the Ketchup flavor had sold out.
Here are a few flavor highlights from what remained during our visit. Let's start closer to home.
USA
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| Herr's Baby Back Ribs - Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Zapps' Cajun Crawtator - Louisiana, USA |
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| Zapps' Cajun Dill Gator-Tators - Louisiana, USA |
Zapps chips seem to have a cult following, and like most food from Louisiana, they never disappoint. The Cajun Dill Gator-Tators is a flavor I tried and they were fantastic. I love sour and love spicy, so this blend worked on all levels.
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| Utz The Crab Chip - Pennsylvania, USA |
I didn't taste these, but one can hardly go wrong with crab + old bay seasoning on something fried. An added fun fact is that Utz was a product represented by ad agency Sterling Cooper on Mad Men, my favorite TV Show.
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| Dirty Potato Chips Funky Fusion - Tennessee, USA |
I stared at this bag for a long time wondering what Funky Fusion entails. The woman from the gallery noticed and shared that it mixes all of the Dirty flavors. Sold! They were very highly seasoned, to the point where I couldn't taste the potato, but I do enjoy over-spiced food.
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| Herr's Fire Roated Sweet Corn - Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Dandy's Hot & Spicy Shrimp - Louisiana, USA |
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| Herr's Old Bay - Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Zapps' Voodoo - Louisiana, USA |
Louisiana clearly wins on tempting flavors, in the US category.
UK
England definitely loves their meat and potato flavors, but also managed some creative combinations.
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| Seabrook's Beefy - Yorkshire, England |
Notice the "Lovingly Cooked in Yorkshire" slogan. Charming.
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| Tesco's Goat's Cheese & Sticky Chili Jam - UK (sold out) |
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| Tesco's Hoisin Duck - UK (sold out) |
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| Seabrook's Prawn Cocktail - Yorkshire England (also lovingly made) |
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| Walker's Roast Chicken - UK |
These chips had a mild chicken flavor, very subtle. The potato taste shone through. Walker's makes the shortbread cookies, very popular in the US also.
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| Walker's Salt & Shake - UK |
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| Roysters' T-Bone Steak & Golden Wonder's Sausage & Tomato - UK |
Let's move on to Asian flavors, which always come through on creativity and taste.
Japan
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| Calbee's Seaweed & Salt - Japan |
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| Calbee's Seaweed & Salt - Japan & Haldiram's Aloo Masala - India (sold out) |
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| WME Wasa Beef's Plum Wasabi - Japan |
Canada
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| President's Choice Spicy Peri Peri (African Birds Eye Chili) - Canada/South Africa |
Within about 15 minutes we were checked out with purchases and on our way.
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| Gallery's window display, from inside |
Shanghai No 1 Seafood Village
So many great Chinese restaurants come and go in the San Gabriel Valley, sometimes it's hard to stand out. Or even keep track of the action. I don't often repeat places or dishes because it's fun to try something new.Within the past 6 months, one place I've been to twice and still dream about is Shanghai No 1 Seafood Village, a branch of a chain in Shanghai. It exudes luxury in both its palace-like ambiance and food. Even the artful picture menu, showing the very creative plating, resembles a brightly colored magazine and is just about as long.
Let me briefly touch upon some standout features of this place, noted during my 2 visits.
Dinner Highlights
First things first. At this place it's ALL about the pan-fried pork buns, the sheng jian bao. Light as a feather, half steamed half pan fried and sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds and chives, they are at once light, chewy, crunchy and juicy.
When the broth escapes from the bun into your mouth, along with the seeds and toasty bun, you won't know what hit you. I could make a meal out of a couple of orders of this alone and be happy.
The Stone-Pot Fried Rice is another soul satisfying dish. I don't normally order fried rice, but when Jonathan Gold said it's the best fried rice he's ever eaten, it moves to my short list of dishes to try.
Also fluffy and loose, it remains moist, tasting of broth and accompanied perfectly by various Chinese greens and cubed smoky Chinese meats.
Our server recommended the Chili and Garlic Fried Crab among a list of delicious sounding crab dishes. I've never had or seen crab like this, dry pan fried in seasoned bread crumbs. And I'm not talking the tube if Italian seasoned crumbs you buy in the grocery.
These toasted crumbs are mixed in with sliced red chili, garlic, ginger and salt. You bite into a piece and the crumbs fly around. In a strange way it's as fun as it is tasty.
And when you think there is no improving on that trio, this stunning plate of Spicy Eggplant blew us away. The very large platter holds 3-4 huge Japanese eggplants, scored diagonally and crosswise, then steamed with chili, peppers, garlic slices, ginger and herbs.
I've never had anything but wok fried eggplant at Chinese restaurants in the past, and would not have expected something so healthy to taste as decadent. The dish packs quite a bit of heat in it's watery sauce.
Almost every table orders the pork cubes and squid, two gorgeously presented dishes that look almost lacquered. I find the sauces a bit overpowering on both dishes and the proteins a bit too chewy for my taste.
A more satisfying meal I cannot dream up. In the end we had only some eggplant and 1 bao left. We packed it up along with the remains of the bread crumbs from the crab dish (which I froze and repurposed in a salmon cake I made a few weeks later).
Decor & Ambiance
The opulent interior is modeled after a Shanghai palace, complete with old photographs of Shanghai and gorgeous artifacts. One look and you feel like you are in a special place and it's a big occasion.
Dim Sum
My first meal there was during brunch with a large group. We sadly learned that a different team of chefs prepare the mostly Cantonese dim sum menu. At the time, dishes from the regular menu were not available during dim sum. Last time I called they told me they serve both menus in the afternoon, and of course, only the main menu for dinner.
The dim sum serves up fairly standard dim sum fare. I found it as pricey as some of the high end dim sum places such as Seafood Harbour (my favorite) and Lunasia. However while everything was perfectly fine, it didn't wow me, especially for the price.
I couldn't wrap my head around having Cantonese basic dim sum in a Shanghai style restaurant.
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| har gow |
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| spring rolls |
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| egg tarts, chili and mustard, assorted dim sum |
I hear the soup dumplings, xiao long bao, are well flavored albeit not as brothy as those in at the king of soup dumplings, Din Tai Fung.
But with the bao around, I'm not likely to find out. This is the one dish that made me want to come back for more after this first dim sum meal.
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| my dim sum plate |
Final Tips
Two important things to note about the menu. The restaurant's specialties are listed on 1 of the pages, which really helps. Many of the dishes are listed by price per person. For example if you see an abalone dish for under $5, it probably is 1 piece for 1 person and you are meant to order several to comprise a plate to share.
Also they only accept 1 form of credit card regardless of the size of the party, so plan on being prepared to pay cash.
And like most of the great Chinese restaurants in the area, show up before 11:00 a.m., after 1:00 p.m. for lunch or you're in for a long wait. There is a reason more than 10 large crystal studded sofas are placed outside the front door.
