Pommes frites

[Benjamin Barrett]

Wow!!

Lotus root chips particularly stand out. They sound scrumptious. http://grocerytrekker.blogspot.com/2007/03/water-chestnut-chips_26.html has water chestnut chips and suggests jicama and bamboo shoot chips.  (Okay, I'm just salivating here. There are no substantial additions to the list below.)

Burdock root chips also get a number of hits. See, for example, http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/burdock-root-chips, which falls into the stix category in that they are not poker chip-shaped. There are also "green bean chips" (http://www.lesleykat.com/Latest-Obsessions-Green-Bean-Chips-13080827). 

There are also beef chips. Looking casually, I see pork and chicken chips for dogs, but the potential is there for them as human snacks.

Are the unifying characteristics: being a food, being cooked and being crispy/having a crunch?

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Jan 22, 2012, at 7:17 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> If we talk about "chips", in general, there are some interesting things
> to deal with. First, there was the attempt by Pringles to be classified
> as something other than "crisps" in the UK--for tax purposes. That
> resulted in some name changes. For one, chips of the Pringles
> kind--i.e., reconstituted from potato or rice flour--are now regularly
> referred to as "crisps" in the US market. There are other items that are
> clearly not "chip" shaped--in the sense that they don't look like poker
> chips. One such item is "veggie sticks" (or "stix"). But there are also
> other "chips" that really do look like poker chips (although not
> necessarily round)--these include pita chips, bagel chips, pretzel
> chips, corn chips (of course! but not necessarily tortila or tortilla
> chips; also includes "popcorn chips"), bean chips, vegetable chips,
> [other unnamed] chips (e.g., Terra--they really just go by "Terra
> chips"), multigrain chips. I have not done any formal research on the
> subject--these are just the ones I can recall from memory. But there are
> a couple of characteristics that most of these share. Potato chips
> (other than Pringles-like versions) and Terra chips are made from slices
> of actual vegetable (usually tubers, but could also be zucchini, banana,
> plantain, apple--theoretically, pear and quince also could be cut into
> "chips", as well as items that are referred to as "chips" in recipes but
> are not sold commercially--sunchokes and lotus, both of which I've made
> in my own kitchen). Pita chips and bagel chips are made from irregular
> "slices" of actual pita and bagels, respectively. Pretzel chips are
> essentially flat pretzels. The rest are reconstituted "chips" shaped
> with dehydrated vegetable or grain flour. The only two things they have
> in common is being more flat than long and usually serving as a vehicle
> for some kind of "dip". "Chips and dip" is a fairly standard item. It is
> not always clear what distinguishes the latter variety (i.e., the
> reconstituted chips) from crackers. Most of the time, people know it
> when they see it, but I've had a few kinds lately that appear to
> straddle the line. Another questionable category is freeze-dried
> "chips"--while such things as whole green beans and whole green peas
> would not constitute "chips", slices of other fruits and vegetables
> (e.g., eggplant or apple) that have been freeze-dried may well fall into
> that category.
> 
> Other than that, I believe my description is fairly exhaustive. Only
> some of these would be considered "crisps" in the UK and none would be
> considered "chips".
> 
>     VS-)
> 
> On 1/22/2012 9:27 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>> On Jan 22, 2012, at 3:23 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>> 
>>> If you travel from "potato chip" to "potato crisp," there is no link to "crisp," but looking "crisp" up yields:
>>> 7. In full potato crisp. A thin sliver of potato fried until crisp and eaten cold. Usu. in pl. of such food produced commercially.
>> BTW, potato chips are no longer necessarily fried. The trend away from fats for dietary reasons in the US resulted in even national brands bringing out baked potato chips. Neither the AHD nor Wiktionary have captured this change.
>> 
>> Also, I wonder how appropriate "spec" (specifically) is. Mixed vegetable chips are commonly found in the bulk section of the grocery store, and sweet potato chips and other sorts are found in national grocery store chains as well.
>> 
>> Benjamin Barrett
>> Seattle, WA
> 
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