Shamrock Potato Chips Obsession
Shamrock Potato Chips
I was walking down the aisle at Fairway supermarket on the upper west side of Manhattan when I spied, arranged tantalizingly at eye level, a package of Keogh’s Shamrock Potato Chips. I stopped. I picked up the package with the best copywriting I have seen in a long time on a bag of chips.
Grown and cooked on our family farm in Ireland. Thick cut with skins on. Sour Cream and Shamrock Irish Potato Chips. I eagerly turned the bag over hoping to read ingredients that would confirm my wanting to immediately put this in my cart. Hand cooked. Uses Irish potatoes, of course. Made with potatoes, Irish shamrock extract, sour cream, onion, garlic, parsley and cheddar cheese. That’s it.
I am all in. I get two and as soon as I was out on the street I pulled one open and tasted my first real shamrock potato chip. SOLD! I pivoted and walked back into Fairway and bought more, plus, after taking a look at their other flavors chose Keogh’s Sweet Chili and Irish Red Pepper potato chips. Awesome.
Taking a deep dive online to purchase more, I found Keogh’s Guinness and Flame Grilled Steak Krinkle Cut Chips (!!), Keogh’s Truffle and Irish Butter Potato Chips, Irish Whiskey BBQ Chips, Roast Turkey and Secret Stuffing Potato Chips….
Now I am totally absorbed with and a total fan of Irish potato chips, and the amazing flavors that the Keogh family produces. As for the Shamrock chips that started my journey? Shamrock plants are grown in Ballinskelligs Co. Kerry by the Living Shamrock company, in an area that has produced fresh shamrock since 1952. Shamrock is real, it exists, it is delicious. And it’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!!
You can buy Keogh’s potato chips online at FoodIreland.com, Amazon.com, WorldMarket.com, and Keoghsfarm.com
Let me know if you try them, or share your favorite chips:
Food Destination:
Zabar’s, 2245 Broadway (at 80th Street), New York, NY 10024
(212) 787-2000
zabars.com
I have a secret. I go to the prepared food counter at Zabar’s in the afternoon and ask if they have a ham bone, because as they finish carving ham during the day, they save the Jurassic-Park-size ham bones and sell them. Without advertising that fact. So I usually am able to score one and bring it home to make a fabulous split pea soup with the bone and chunk it up by cutting off all the meat they leave on the bone and mixing it into the soup. The cost? Usually around $6….
Zabar’s was also reputedly J.F.K. Jr.’s favorite food store in the city. It certainly is mine. Number one, for the cheeses. Great variety and unbeatable prices. Even better, there are small shopping carts sprinkled throughout the cheese area that hold cheeses on sale. Then the bread department. Talk about bagels. However they also stock great breads from all over the country, so I can usually find Pain D’Avignon bread from Hyannis on Cape Cod, one of my favorite bread bakers. They make homemade soups you can take home, freshly ground coffee, specialty condiments, hard to find food items, and more.
Another tip: to the right of the prepared foods counter, there are small stacks of plastic containers of smoked salmon bits and bobs left over from the carving of big slices. Inexpensive and from the same smoked salmon they are famous for, these are ready to go for making hors d’oeuvres or for delicately layering on top of scrambled eggs.
My Condiment Obsessions:
Chat Masala:…is a magical little box of spices from India made with dried unripe mango, black salt, musk melon, cumin, pomegranate seeds, coriander, mint leaves, ginger, nutmeg, chili, caraway, cloves…and a bit more. Meant to be sprinkled on top of food, I love it on fresh cut watermelon or even corn on the cob!
Cookbook Review:
Grandi Vini: An Opinionated Tour of Italy’s 89 Finest Wines by Joseph Bastianich, 2010
I can think of no greater treat than traveling throughout Italy with Joseph Bastianich, the author of Grandi Vini: An Opinionated Tour of Italy's 89 Finest Wines and having not only a food lover guide me but a world expert on Italian wines.
Joseph is co-owner, along with his mother Lydia Bastianich and Mario Batali, of twenty or more restaurants. He brought one of my favorite foodie havens, Eataly, to New York---and he owns vineyards in Italy.
Rather than giving us a grand overview, Joseph chose to hand pick 89 wines that he thinks you should try and then literally takes you by the hand to the vineyards to meet the owners and learn about their terroir.
I almost wish it had been a bigger book, with luscious photographs to go along with the prose, although being the size that it is makes it easy to tuck into your bag when you're traveling. And being the way it is organized, by region and then by the wines he recommends in that region, it becomes a veritable driving guide to the wines of Italy. This is the book I would pop in the glove compartment while whizzing around on a culinary voyage.
"Kurni may be the first example of a wine whose popularity was directly propelled by new social media. In the last decade, Kurni has become an underground favorite able to excite---but also divide---wine lovers like no other."
I had never heard of Kurni. Even the name didn't sound Italian. And where was it from? It is from Marche, where montepulciano grapes grow. Ahhhhh. Now I see.
"When the first bottles of Kurni were released, people thought a miracle had occurred. The wine had a dark, deep color; it had an intense nose and an explosive, powerful, almost chewable structure."
Now I want pasta. I want pasta and a bottle of Kurni. This is what Joseph's writing does to you. He takes you into the unknown and intrigues you. Can I find this wine in America? Yes. Joseph made sure to only recommend wines we can find here. Thank you! I'm going to stop into the wine store at Eataly, where I am sure they stock the wines featured in this book. I already go there to buy the Proseco from his vineyard outside of Venice, which I really like and is really well priced. Now there is another reason to go. Or to order online from the comfort of my desk!
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