I love to travel, I love to explore every corner of the earth and see what's around the next bend. I also love to snack, and my snack of choice while traveling is often banana chips. The great thing about banana chips is that they're available almost everywhere. Sure in some places they're a little harder to find, and often more expensive, they make such a great snack and are often worth it. There is one very strange thing I find all over the world about these yummy little chips.
The strange thing is their name "chips". In many places all of the the world a potato, deep fried, and put into a bag is known as a bag of crisps. Chips, in their crispy, bagged potato form are pretty much only available in North America. For more of the world "chips" are the fried potatoes you get on the side of a hamburger. I have no problem with this at all, it's a cultural difference, most people that call them crisps still understand you when you call them chips. It's a fun difference between cultures. In the case of banana chips, I think it's strange because not one of these "crisps" using countries calls their banana chips, banana crisps.
To me a banana chip is pretty much the sweet brother of a potato chip. A banana chip is thinly sliced, cooked (fried or dried), and put into a bag. A potato chip is also thinly sliced, cooked (in this case almost always fried), and put into a bag. I think for the sake of this argument you can pretty much say that both of these products are produced the same way. So why do so many places that sell "crisps" call their banana chips, "chips"? Why not call them banana crisps, they are after all crispy versions of bananas.
It's fairly difficult to figure out the exact origins of the banana chip, some say South America, others might point to Africa, and in many countries they go by a completely different name. But every English, and a few non-English countries I've ever visited calls these snacks banana chips. Even if I don't get them as a side dish to my hamburger.
CC
No comments:
Post a Comment