Junk Food Nation, I was just getting out of the subway after work when my phone buzzed with news of the death of Robin Williams. Immediately, my shoulders slumped. And as I read more news about the circumstances surrounding his death, they slumped further. Just sad. RIP.

But I don’t want to discuss the details or talk about depression etc. – there’s a lot of news articles already getting into that written by people WAY more qualified than me. Instead, I want to celebrate his memory and career. I grew up watching re-runs of Mork and Mindy. I watched Good Morning, Vietnam, even though I was too young to understand what the movie was about.  My favorite R.W. movies: Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society, Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Birdcage, I even have a soft spot in my heart for Popeye. Here are my favorite R.W. moments:

The banquet scene in Hook:

The “It’s Not Your Fault” scene, Good Will Hunting:

The “What Will Your Verse Be?” scene from Dead Poets Society:

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. Good words, Walt Whitman. Thank you for your verse, R.W.

What’re YOUR favorite Robin Williams moments? Tell me in the comments below.

Today’s junk food: Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips!

Since the snack world is currently abuzz with Lay’s Do Us a Flavor feedback (catch my reviews here and here), I decided to pull out another foreign potato chip bag I’d been saving: Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips. No, these aren’t a test flavor in some Asian market – this is a NORMAL flavor. Well, a MAX flavor…whatever that means.

Foreign chips always have flavors we might not recognize, and Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips certainly qualify. Although, to be fair, who DOESN’T love a good seafood platter.  I mean, seriously? Shrimp and crawfish boils are some of my favorite things.  This joint in DC does huge bags of crawfish/shrimp boils with sausages, potatoes, corn, and $1 Miller Lites.  You can’t beat it. And mussels with white wine and garlic? Forget it – I could eat buckets.

Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips contain some interesting ingredients, like “crab powder” and “the maltose fine.” The maltose fine?  There’s something lost in translation, I’m sure.  Maybe that was supposed to be finely ground maltose?  And more importantly, what does it mean that two of the next four ingredients after potatoes are sugar?

Opening this bag of Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips and sniffing, I definitely smelled a shrimp-y aroma. Sort of like a bag of seafood boil – like a bunch of shrimp shells being boiled to make seafood stock. Time to taste…

I munched on these Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips and was slightly confused.  Basically, these tasted sooo familiar, and then I realized – they tasted EXACTLY like these Lay’s (Thailand) Hot Chili Squid Potato Chips I reviewed last fall! Like, almost to a T, without the spice. Reading over my description last fall, the same words could be used to describe these chips!  In fact, let’s try it, replacing the name of the chip:

Describing [Lay’s Max Seafood Platter Potato Chips] flavor requires a story.  Growing up, as an Asian kid, there was lots of Asian versions of jerky lying around the house.  Beef jerky, prok jerky…and my parents would sometimes have squid jerky!  I know, sounds gross.  I loved it.  Essentially, it was a seafood-y chewy bit of calamari that was dried and seasoned with sugar and salt.

Anyways, for any Asian kids out there who know what I’m talking about, these chips taste EXACTLY like that squid jerky.  It was shrimp-calamari tasting…that general seafood flavor… with a bit of sweetness to it, almost like a mild sweet barbeque smokiness…

Yeah, I know this isn’t the best description, but the point is, I LIKED THESE.  A lot.  But if you’re someone who didn’t like when Lay’s did the Chicken n Waffles flavored chips recently, then you’ll probably find these off-putting.

Yep, description still works. These tasted like sweet cuttlefish jerky, like the red sauce at the bottom of a seafood boil plus a bit of sugar. I know it sounds weird. I’m sorry I can’t describe it any better. But I enjoyed these. Let me know if you’ve tried them – would love to hear other opinions.

PURCHASED AT: Great Wall.

COST: $0.99

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy