Bank holiday Blood Bowl bashfest

My monthly Blood Bowl showdown with Bryan was a battle of two "bash" teams. I was playing Norse for the fourth time, in search of my first win with them. Bryan was fielding his trusty dwarves again.

Previously my encounters with the dwarves have been while playing low-strength, low armoured, agile teams. However, the Norse line up had players who could go toe for toe with the dwarves and had a couple who were stronger. That led to two dwarf serious casualties, depleting their line up. Having a trollslayer sent off also didn't help them much.

Injuries and naughty trollslayer

Star player Thorsson Stoutmead had a decent game, using his special move 4 times to take out an opponent by lobbing a keg of beer at them. It's a useful way to open a hole in a defensive line. 

It was a breakthrough like that which led to the first Norse score. The dwarf ball carrier got sacked and four Norse players showboated to party in the end zone. 

In the second half, the Norse were receiving from the kick-off. The ball was collected by one of the valkyries, while her team-mates bashed a clear pathway through the reduced dwarf defence. She was then able to run the length of the pitch to score, fending off an attempted blitz on the way. 

But the play of the game led to the third and final score and saw Bryan overcoming his usual incredible terrible dice-rolling luck. With the Norse streaming forwards towards the dwarf ball carrier, Bryan rolled the required 6 to ensure a successful long pass and then successfully rolled to receive the pass. 

With three dwarves free and bearing down on the end zone, a Norse berserker tried to stop them but failed and ended up injured. 

There were a few turns left for fun bashy aggro, but no real chance of scoring as we ran the game out. The final score meant the Norse have finally won a game - it finished 2-1 to them.

Snacks: spicy crisps and mango jaffa cakes, washed down with Tango "Thirst Trap".

Easter crisps

Bryan bought these for us to snack on while we were playing Blood Bowl this month. (Read my match report)

Easter is the really big chocolate holiday and, it turns out, crisps can be chocolatey too. The cocoa flavouring on these made them look like the much-missed Bovril flavour crisps of yore, but they tasted like chocolate before a mild spicy tang kicked in. There is a potato aftertaste as well. 

Although we both liked them, Bryan and I agreed that we didn't want to eat too many of them in one go. But these would be an ideal snack for chocoholic friends.

Snack of the Month - purple sweet potato chips

Another find in the world foods aisle in Asda. I was intrigued by these Malaysian-made potato chips in a can. Not least, by their self-defeating "No Brand" brand name.

Made in Malaysia. Imported by Korea Foods. A real pan-Asian experience just getting them into the shop.

On opening, it's apparent a good chunk of the tube was used for shipping air halfway across the globe.

They are very purple. Very. 

Purple.

Size-wise, they are a bit smaller than a Pringle. They're also much sweeter than I anticipated, more like mixed sweet and salty popcorn than a straight up savoury snack. They have a decent crunch and are suitable for a telly snack but I didn't eat too many because of the sweetness. 

Snack of the month - pickled plum crisps from Japan

These crisps were in my Christmas stocking although I think Santa Claus may have had some help from my sister, Sarah (hi Sarah!)

According to the packaging Sweet & Sour Pickled Plum is a popular flavour in Japan. I can see why. The crisps were a unanimous hit among the three people (including me) who tried them. Cathy liked them a lot. Bryan gave them the thumbs up too. 

I wasn't sure what to expect with these. I was a bit trepidatious after the last crisps to feature as my snack of the month were totally disgusting. Pickled Plum tasted like a slightly sweet salt and vinegar flavour. The sweetness gave the vinegar flavour a tangy edge that was very moreish. The crisps were nice too, crunchy but not cut too thick and not too oily, either. 

So overall, a very nice snack which maintains the success rate of decent snack-of-the-month snacks for 2024.

Chrimbo Snack of the Month - Christmas pudding crisps

I really wanted to like these... I mean, I like Christmas pudding and I like crisps. So...

Here's the rationale behind the crisps.

And if you want to know what's in "Christmas Pudding Flavour", here you go.

They look like normal crisps.

Close up of the flavouring.

Conclusion: Well, I wanted to try them for the blog and at least I got a Snack of the Month post out of it. But they won't become of my yuletide traditions unfortunately.

A "strong and Northern" snack of the month

Phew! Almost missed the deadline for Snack of the Month. This month its a packet of "Hendo's" that I think was sourced in Home Bargains. 

The snacks are flavoured with Henderson's Relish. There was a good explanation on the back but I could only get a photo when the packet was empty.

Consistency-wise Hendo's are very similar to other lentil snacks like Pop-chips. 

They hadn't skimped on the flavourings and the chips had a little powdery coating.

I'm not familiar with Henderson's Relish but these didn't make me want to seek it out. There was an unpleasant after-taste. Maybe it was just a bit too strong and Northern for me.

Snacks of the Month - delicious dill and disappointing "delights"

I bought these crisps in a pub. They are amazing!

There's no pictures of the crisps because they look like crisps. And also I ate them. They had a real spicy tasty kick. Probably my best crisp discovery since finding out Rib'n'Saucy Nik Naks are sold in six packs.

At the other extreme of the snacking continuum, Cathy picked me up these to try.

I used to be quite partial to a Fry's Turkish Delight. And these were cherry flavour, and generally I like cherry flavour. (I still grieve the loss of cherry Tango from the soft drink pantheon.)

The seven bars in the packet were individually wrapped.

This next picture has my finger in to give a sense of scale. The chocolate enrobing the Turkish Delight was very thin.

These were unpleasantly sweet. The milk chocolate didn't work with the cherry flavour at all and not enough flavouring was added to the Turkish Delight to counteract the sweetness. The overall effect was pretty horrid and left me very disappointed.

Snack of the Month - Nudie Snacks Cauliflower Crisps

Cathy spotted these in a shop and suggested I get them as a snack for the blog. It was only when I looked at the receipt afterwards that I realised how expensive they were. I kind of hoped they would be worth it. Also, "Nudie Snacks" sounds like something that wouldn't be suitable for work, but these are perfectly safe in that regard. 

With them being made from "fresh cauliflower" (it never crossed my mind that they would be made from any other kind of cauliflower) I thought they might be a lower carb option to regular crisps. However, a quick glance at the back proved they weren't particularly low on the carb front. The fat content was a little bit higher than I expected as well. 

The bag was a bit big for a random snack so I waited until we had a movie lined up to watch (Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, since you ask), and then I opened them. They look a lot like lentil chips or similar snacks rather than crisps.

The crisps were cheese and caramelised onion flavour. They smelled sort of cauliflowery, but didn't taste particularly of cauliflower. Cathy thought they were very cheesy, but not in a bad way. There was also a slight sweetness to them, although that might have been from the beer I was drinking while munching. 

As a snack they were munchably moreish and didn't last long into the movie. I quite liked the taste and they had a pleasing crunch without being too hard. However, at about £2 a bag, they're a bit too expensive for everyday snacking purposes and I probably won't be buying them again. 

Snax of the Month - Doritos Stax

It's always interesting when snack food brands try to muscle into territory that is already occupied by a successful product. Walkers are clearly having another run at dislodging Pringles in the 'savoury snacks sold in tubes' category. Their previous attempt with "Stax" presumably didn't come off because the product seems to have disappeared.

I didn't pay full price for these but when I spotted them in Home Bargains I thought I'd give them a go. I wasn't that impressed by the first iteration of Stax. But these are Doritos Stax, and Doritos are some of the best corn chps around. And the "tube" is now triangular.

The hinged lid is a nice touch.

I'd already sampled a few by the time I took a photo down the tube.

The tube worked protecting the chips. They came out in really good condition. There were barely any crumbs at the bottom of the tube. 

Taste-wise, the smoky bbq rib flavour is dangerously tasty. It would be very easy to polish off a tube of these in one short sitting. The chips are thinner than a normal corn chip and have a great crunch. They also don't have any of the horrible waxy fatty consistency of Pringles. 

As an added bonus, the triangular tube can be recycled, unlike Pringles tubular tubes. So that's another point in Stax's favour. I'd recommend them to anyone who is thinking of buying their crisps in a tube in the near future. 

Snack of the Month - canned crisps from Yorkshire

We were sent a hamper at Christmas that included a can of Yorkshire Crisps. Last year I blogged a Snack of the Month from a Christmas hamper that lasted until September. We got round to these crisps much more quickly.

The side of the can made some bold claims, as you'd expect from a relatively fancy brand. They kept it Yorkshire, though, with the promise of "nowt artificial".

Opening the drum reminded me of the phrase I first read on boxes of breakfast cereal. "Some settling of contents may occur." About a third of the can was air.

But they filled a bowl for snacking.

Overall, there was a mild taste of tomato, basil and mozarella. I was expecting more from them. They had a lot of salt on them and the sodium really overpowered the flavourings. 

(On the plus side, the can was fully recyclable. Unlike other canned crisps like Pringles!)

Unintelligent design

When we went to see Dara O’Briain last year he reeled off a list of funny reasons why he didn’t believe humans were created. The only one I can remember is that if we were created, then why were we made so that occasionally we bite the insides of our cheeks and hurt ourselves? What kind of mean-spirited deity thinks ‘I know, I’ll make it so they can bite the inside of their own mouths because that’ll be good for a laugh.’?

He’s got a point, but then the reverse is true too. Why would you evolve that particular talent? What evolutionary advantage would there be in occasionally lacerating your cheek interior? Unless without the risk of cheek chompage you’d end up stuffing so much in your mouth, you’d choke on it, thereby dying earlier and reducing your chances of passing on your non-cheek chomping genes to the next generation of primitive hominids…

But, then, if there was an evolutionary advantage, you’d assume that having the ability to bite your own face from the inside meant you were superior to those luckless proto-humans who couldn’t do it. That means, if you were trying to design the best kind of human being, you’d build in potential cheek-biting anyway.

So, basically, it seems we’re stuck with it. Incidentally, I ate a pointy crisp at lunch today and now the roof of my mouth is rather sore.