taste test: "natural & cool" potato chips

Remember how I said in my last post (yesterday) that I would try to post once a week? Here I am, going above and beyond already :)

I first had the idea for this post the other day. Ben and I were in the little open market near our apartment, picking up some potatoes and Coke zero (which is becoming surprisingly common here), when we saw that the guy at the dry snacks stand in the market was carrying Lay's potato chips. Lay's are pretty common in supermarkets around here, but this was the first time we had seen them in our local neighborhood open market, so we decided to get some.

There was only one bag out on display. When we asked the snack guy for a second bag (they come mainly in little snack-sized bags--or at least what we consider snack-sized in the U.S.), he gave us one bag of regular Lay's, and one bag of . . . get this . . . blueberry flavored Lay's.

We quickly rejected the blueberry flavored bag in favor of something a bit more . . . um . . . familiar, but after we left the market, I got to thinking: Could those blueberry potato chips possibly be tasty? Maybe it could be a blog-worthy experience to test it out.

Turns out the blueberry flavored chips are part of Lay's "Natural & Cool" line of potato chips, although I can assure you there is very little that is "natural" about them. After surveying the available flavors in this line at the supermarket last night, I decided it was time for a taste test, so here goes:

Blueberry: These chips are, as I'm sure you can imagine, really terrible. Or at least to my very American potato chip palate they are. As soon as I opened the bag, I got a full, hearty whiff of blueberry, an aroma I associate with muffins, pancakes, smoothies, or pie--dense, hearty, calorie-rich sweet treats. I definitely do not associate that aroma with potato chips. The chips definitely taste of blueberry--or at least artificial blueberry flavoring. In fact, the flavor is so overpowering, it's kind of like eating a chunk of blueberry flavoring, if that kind if thing even exists. I usually like sweet and salty tastes together, but apparently that preference does not extend to salty potato and sweet bluebery. I'd give these a big double thumbs down.

Cucumber: I had really high hopes for these chips. I can see how cucumber flavor and salty potato chip could go together really well, the cool, freshness of the cucumber balancing the crispy chip. Maybe someone else might enjoy these, but I, unfortunately, did not. They just tasted so . . . um . . . well . . . cucumber-y. I mean, like really strong cucumber. Is cucumber a strong flavor? I don't think of it that way, but in these chips, it really, really is. If I want to eat something "natural and cool" that tastes so strongly of cucumber, I'll probably opt for a natural, cool cucumber. I couldn't stomach more than a couple of these.

Last, but not least, Cherry Tomato: These chips taste like ketchup, which might sound like a bad thing, but after the blueberry and cucumber experience, it was really a welcome flavor. I know that some of you out there (ahem, Jen K) really love ketchup, so this might be the chip for you. It was definitely the most palatable of the three, but I have to say, I'd pick BBQ flavor, or Sour Cream & Onion, or just plain Lay's any day of the week over ketchup-flavor. On the other hand, maybe I just haven't grown fully accustomed to it yet. As I've been typing this entry, I find myself going back to those cherry tomato chips. Like they are calling my name. Like...mmm...like I really could grow to like them. I'll have to finish the rest of the bag to find out.

I wish I could post a couple pictures of the chips, so you could see as well as read about them. I wish even more that I could post the pictures of Ben trying the blueberry and cucumber flavors (he was not pleased). Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz right now--a situation I hope will soon be remedied.

Anyway, that's it for the "natural & cool" line. My advice: stick with the original. But don't give up hope on a new Lay's flavor sensation. Turns out Lay's has a line of international flavors here, too, including French Chicken and Italian Red Meat. I'll let you know when I round up the guts to give those a go.

apology

Sorry for my long absence from this blog. We are back to school in the Billing-Cartwright household, in the middle of our second week of classes for the semester. The whole back-to-the-grind thing has been keeping us hopping. I'm firmly entrenched in coursework, and Ben is keeping very busy between the classes he's teaching, and the progress he's making toward preparing for his comps. Unfortunately, all of this busy-ness hasn't left a lot of time for either blogging, or doing things worth blogging about.

In my last post, I wrote about my spring semester placement exam score. I was really happy to have done so well on the test, but my high score left me with a dilemma: what level of class should I actually enroll in? After much thought, perusal of textbooks, and discussion with my teacher from last semester, I finally decided to enroll in the Intermediate 2 class. That's three levels higher than the class I was in last semester, but two levels lower than the class I tested into. Right in the middle sounded just about right.

However, I'm finding that this level is more than challenging. In fact, I'm struggling to keep up on the work right now. We have one or two quizzes almost daily, and I have to work pretty hard to learn the new material for those quizzes and simultaneously make sense of the vocabulary I should have learned before entering this level. This all adds up to me spending 5 or more hours outside of class every day, just trying to study sufficiently and get my homework done. Between 4 hours of class every day and 5+ hours of study, there isn't a whole lot of time for doing much of anything else. Unfortunately, it also doesn't leave me with a lot of brain power to think of anything to write or say when a few moments of free time arise.

So, all of this is to say I may not be such a frequent poster on my blog this semester. I'll try to put something up once a week, but if I miss a week, don't worry. It doesn't necessarily mean any catastrophe has occurred--well, no catastrophe other than me being buried up to my neck in Chinese textbooks, anyway.

put me in my place

Our spring semester is about to begin. I'm sure that sounds strange to you students and teachers back home who are almost halfway done with your spring semester, just a couple weeks away from Spring Break. But for us the semester doesn't begin until March 2; I guess that's the tradeoff for having our fall semester stretch past New Year's Day.

This morning I had to go up to campus to take my semester placement test. Last semester I tested into (and completed) the Beginners-2 level of Chinese language classes at Nankai University. I could just go directly into Beginners-3 this semester if I wanted, but in our program we also have the option of taking a placement test to try get into a higher level class. I was hoping to skip right over Beginners-3 and get into Intermediate-1.

I had originally planned to spend a good chunk of my semester break studying and reviewing, in order to ensure that I could test into a higher level. Unfortunately, those plans were never really put into action. After spending the majority of the break traveling and recovering from traveling, my last minute plan was to cram for the last week of the break. Unfortunately I came down with the flu Ben has had, so I've spent the past few days doing little but lounge on the couch, nap and watch X-files.

With essentially no study/review under my belt, I felt pretty underprepared when I walked into the classroom this morning. Sitting in the test room, I convinced myself that, while I would give the test my best shot, I would be okay if I didn't test up a level.

Then I started taking the test, and was amazed to see how much I knew without having studied or reviewed. The answers just came to me, completely naturally, with little thought at all. Even when I came across words I didn't know, I felt like I could understand well enough from the context of the sentence to figure them out. I started to think that maybe--just maybe--I might be able to test two levels higher, into Intermediate-2 instead of Intermediate-1. I walked away from the test feeling pretty good, but a little anxious to find out if I had done as well as I felt I had done.

Well, my friend Lawrence called a little bit ago. He was standing in front of the test scoreboard outside our classroom building, and he wanted to know if I wanted him to look at my score while he was there. My heart skipped a beat, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to know or not, but I finally told him to tell me how I did.

He told me I didn't test into Intermediate 1 or 2. In fact, I not only skipped over Beginners-3, but also skipped Intermediate levels 1, 2, and 3, and tested directly into Advanced 1! I couldn't believe it! I tested four levels higher than I would have been at without testing!

I still haven't decided if I'm actually going to enter Advanced 1 on Monday. I'm not entirely convinced that my Chinese level is actually that advanced. I may just try it out for a couple of weeks, see if it's a good fit or not, and then go from there. Or I may chicken out and go into Intermediate-2. Either way, it's good to know that I really am learning, I'm really making progress in my language study--maybe even more than I know.

trip update: Dazu County

My last trip-related post was about our train-ride to Chongqing. Unfortunately, Chongqing itself was not one of the most pleasant stops in our month-long trip. So much so, in fact, that I'm not really going to post much about Chongqing. Actually the big highlight of Chongqing was the one day we left Chongqing proper to see the stone carvings of nearby Dazu County.

The stone and cave carvings of Dazu county are actually located in a number of spots all over the county, but we had the opportunity to visit only one of these spots. That one location was enough, though. The carvings are generally depictions of scenes and figures, influenced by Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist beliefs. They are incredibly intricate, and really impressive. Some of the carvings are quite large, like the reclining Buddha below. Others are broad scenes with hundreds of small figures, carved in incredible detail. It wasn't really something we had planned on seeing, but it ended up being one of the most impressive places we visited on our entire trip.

One of many Buddhas

Scenes of filial piety

Figures of the underworld

Me and the reclining Buddha

Ben's getting better!

I hope the last post, about Ben being sick, didn't worry anyone too much. The good news is: things are looking up. The meds are working! Eastern, Western, hot toddies, some, or all--makes no difference to us. We're just glad he's on the road to recovery. Thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers.

He's not 100% yet, but he's definitely on the mend. Hopefully he'll be all better by the time we both start classes again on Monday, March 2.

poor, sick Ben

Poor Ben has had a terrible cold ever since we were in Chengdu, complete with runny nose, hacking cough, sore throat--all the terrible stuff that comes with a cold. He has had an awful time trying to sleep at night because his cough and congestion (and the accompanying inability to breathe) wake him up. He just hasn't been getting better, and in fact today, he was feeling worse. And his sinuses were hurting. And he was pretty sure he had developed a sinus infection. Poor Ben.

So, we decided to go to a Chinese pharmacy, in the hopes that we might be able to get our hands on some amoxycillin (I guess you don't necessarily need a prescription for that stuff here). Ben is more than ready to get this nasty stuff knocked out of his body.

We walked into the pharmacy, and the first woman we saw asked what was wrong. I told her Ben had a cold, and she directed us to the appropriate counter. The woman there asked what Ben's symptoms were, and she started pulling out boxes of medicine for each of the symptoms. I explained to her that Ben had been sick a long while, hoping she would understand it was serious (I wasn't sure how to say sinus infection). Her response (which I actually had to call Sam to have him help me understand) was that she thought Ben had too much heat/fire in his body, and if you have too much heat for a long time, it will develop into a serious cold, but it wouldn't be unusual for it to last so long. She then pulled out some more boxes of Chinese medicine.

Meanwhile, Ben was standing, looking longingly at the boxes of antibiotics, muttering under his breath, "They have amoxycillin. I just want some amoxycillin." Poor Ben.

We ended up leaving without the amoxycillin, but with a whole bag full of various remedies, including effervescent vitamin C tablets, licorice lozenges, and some kind of pill that I was supposed to take too, because the pharmacist thought I probably had too much heat, too. We also had one box that the pharmacist identified as "Western medicine." What kind, we didn't know.

Ben's many boxes of pills

I just got done giving Ben his first dose of everything: 7 pills, an effervescent glass of vitamin C solution, and a sachet packet of medicine meant to reduce his "heat." Ben was feeling pretty unhappy about walking away without an antibiotic . . . until he did a little research and found out that the unidentified Western medicine was an antibiotic after all.

So, we've got the Chinese herbal medicine, and we've got the Western antibiotics, too. Hopefully something in that mass of medicines will do the trick, and Ben will be back to his old self soon.

trip in review: train to Chongqing

After we left lovely Guilin, we took a long train (21 hours, I think?) to Chongqing. Along the way we gained a new little friend.

This little guy is probably about 4 or 5 years old, and was riding with his dad in the sleeping berth next to ours. He was kind of scared of us at first--didn't even want to make eye contact, even though he couldn't stop watching us--but we eventually lured him in using Oreos and the opportunity to wrestle with Nathan, the supersized foreigner.

After I took a couple pictures of him, he became enamored of my camera, and asked to take a few shots of his own. Here are some of the things that caught his attention.

The guy sharing our sleeping berth who was not amused, not amused at all.

The bottom half of Nathan's face

The ceiling light in our berth

The patch on the knee of his jeans

Super-close-up of the book Ben was reading


His dad

He probably took a dozen other shots, but this last one was the one that brought about the end of his photo-snapping extravaganza.

Definitely made the 21-hour trip seem a little shorter.