SPUD WE LIKE

I’m sure you remember that for Christmas 2019 I was the lucky recipient of a big can of potato crisps (thanks Caroline!)

The company that makes them is Bonilla a la Vista, originally based in Spain, with a mission statement on their website that says, ‘Devotion is our main ingredient.’

Inevitably the crisps were soon gone but I held on to the can thinking I’d find a use for it, but I wasn’t sure what. Then earlier this year inspiration struck. I decided to use the can as a kind of plant pot and grow some potatoes in it. At first it seemed to be a success. The greenery came up and looked great,

but there were no flowers and then the greenery died. I thought ah well, it didn’t work, this is what happens, and so I turned out the contents of the can, to get rid of them, and there to my surprise was nature’s (rather limited) bounty.

Now, you will say that by supermarket standards this is at most 50 pence worth of spuds, but can you put a price on being friendly with the earth?

GET YER FRITAS OUT

Photo by Luna Goodyear Smythe

If Santa’s going to bring you a stocking filler, what could be better than a large quantity of potato crisps? And if they come in an elegant tin, then so much the better.  Of course it would be a mighty big stocking that could accommodate such a tin but that’s the magic of Christmas innit?

It’s a serious business, as you see from the photo above at the top, but open the can and things cheer up considerably.

These in fact are Spanish crisps or, to get bilingual, ‘patatas fritas’ and they’re fried in 100% olive oil (aciete de olive) – there’s sea salt in there too.  In general I think the best crisps (chips) are fried in lard and usually come from Pennsylvania (op cit elsewhere in this blog) but the Spanish result is pretty great; light and crisp (as is only right) and very satisfying, by which I mean that you don’t have to eat a ton of ‘em to feel satisfied (depending, naturally, on how easily you’re satisfied).

The company that makes them is Bonilla a la Vista.  Their website says ‘DEVOTION IS OUR MAIN INGREDIENT - Bonilla a la vista is always with you during your daily moments of enjoyment: after work with your friends, with some beers at the pub, during a youngster’s birthday celebration, when you sit in the sand and feel the sea breeze after a session of surfing… special and unique moments.’

I shall keep that in mind after my next session of surfing.  In the meantime, this is a picture of their factory, a little less artisanal than I’d imagined, but evidently none the worse for that.

Also it appears that Bonilla a la Vista has friends all over the world, or at least in South Korea.