We may have hit peak weird potato chips. Lay's makes more than 200 flavors of chips and some of their strangest are in the China market: Spicy Crayfish, Roasted Cumin Lamb Skewer, Yam Crisps (Cucumber Flavor), and Mexican Chicken Tomat. Here are a few of the reviews from "A Guide to Lay's Chinese Potato Chips" on Eater:
Lay's Spicy Crayfish Flavor
These chips taste like potato chips, and they're crisp. Unfortunately, the flavor seems a little off the mark. Crayfish are the freshwater animals known as "little lobsters" in Sichuan Province's capital of Chengdu. There you will usually be able to find an appropriately mala version in the city's Kuanzhai Alleys, where red chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, and garlic invariably liven up the dish. None of this is conveyed in these chips, the main seasonings here being finely-ground dried shrimp shells and chiles.
Lay's Pickled Fish Flavor
These are even better than the garlic oyster chips. Hard as it may be to believe, they actually transported me to a specific meal and place, namely a mind-bendingly delicious braise of freshwater fish seasoned with pickled mustard and fresh red chiles, served in a quiet mountain village in the province of Guizhou in China's humid southern highlands. That really is pretty much what you get here. I don't know how they did it, but these chips are genius. Even the bag with its frolicking koi fish is remarkably pretty.
Lay's Italian Red Meat Flavor
Spaghetti is so popular in China that it's a no-brainer that Lay's would incorporate something Italian into its lineup. This is why, when I noticed the Chinese name on the bag — it literally translates as "Bolognese sauce" — I became downright thrilled. I opened the bag with the expectation of a heady tomato sauce aroma rounded out with hints of meat, onions, and garlic. Nope. Not by a long shot. These chips taste of those little packets of ketchup that sit in the junk drawer until they're brown and hard. That and a lot of sugar.
