Welcome to Say What?!, a newsroom feature wherein important issues are debated and petty scores get settled.
In today’s edition, Surrey Now-Leader reporter (and Say What?! instigator) Tom Zytaruk faces off against Peace Arch News reporter Tricia Leslie in an important battle for snackers everywhere.
Today’s topic: What’s better, popcorn or potato chips?
Tom says: Why popcorn is prime
Mmm, caramel popcorn – what a treat.
Or simply unadulterated. Or lightly buttered, maybe with a dash of salt?
Just as excellent.
Caramel potato chips, on the other hand, are inconceivable. Might as well eat spider goulash. In fact, I apologize outright for introducing the concept, a faux pas on par with expelling gas in a crowded elevator.
Firstly, let’s consider the history of popcorn – a go-to snack for thousands of years, probably before even potatoes, let alone potato chips, were invented.
Have you ever heard of cave popcorn? It’s a thing. Might be even older than in the beginning, when darkness was over the surface of the deep and God’s spirit hovered over the waters.
Cave chips? What’s that, flint? Can’t eat flint, no.
Secondly, there is utility in popcorn. It made for an inexpensive meal during the Great Depression – and sure, while it can get stuck in your teeth, at least you have a snack for later.
You see, popcorn is food. Fibrous, and nutritious. Potato chips are junk.
Popcorn can be a suitable snack for people with diabetes. But chips?
If there were a Latin term for potato chips, it would probably be carbohydratilicum commotio cordis. Steeped in heart-busting trans-fats, over-processed, greasy, can’t microwave them, troublesome.
Ever heard of acrylamide? Google it, if you dare. Dr. Eric Berg, author of The Healthy Keto Plan, says it’s “The #1 Most Dangerous Ingredient in the World.” Guess where you’ll find it?
Don’t fear the kernel. Popcorn generally has a lower level of this compared to the lowly potato chip.
Thirdly, eating popcorn is iconic.
When you’re on the edge of your seat in a movie theatre – stuffing your face – that’s popcorn you’d be putting down your neck, as opposed to potato chips getting stuck in your neck.
That’s what the theatres are selling; Hollywood knows what you want. (And people, I’m told, are willing to pay a premium for it).
Finally, when you order popcorn, that’s what you get. With chips, you can’t be too sure. French fries? Crisps?
What the heck? It’s too risky.
So pop the popcorn, and skip the chips. Because, essentially, chips plus dips equals mighty, giant hips.
Tricia says: Why chips are champ
There’s something so tasty about a salty, crunchy snack, and chips are a favourite choice for many munchers.
Chips come in so many flavours, and as someone who adores having plenty of options, it’s great to have such a variety, from plain to salt and vinegar, tikka masala to all-dressed, dill pickle, honey dijon, avocado lime or even sweet ghost pepper.
There’s also a wide range of yummy chip dips, and chips made from whole grains, such as Sun Chips, or tortilla chips, which are fantastic by themselves or elevated with cheese and toppings into a delicious plate of nachos.
Chips — unlike popcorn — don’t get stuck in your teeth, remaining impervious to dental floss and brushing.
Popcorn is also pretty pricey, especially at the movies, where they charge extra to add a substance called “butter topping” (but is actually, butter-flavoured oil with less water content than butter to prevent sogginess). Yikes.
Some chips offer stackable fun, like Pringles.
Ever try to stack popcorn?
It would be a slippery, salty hot mess.
Literally.
The earliest known recipe for chips is from 1817, in an English cookbook that included a recipe for “potatoes fried in slices or shavings.”
Another popular tale says they were invented in 1853 by a restaurant chef, when a finicky customer kept sending back his French-fried potatoes, so the cook sliced the potatoes ridiculously fine and fried them — and the customer loved them.
Present-day Michelin-star chefs know the value of potato chips, with many creating their own delicious versions of the snack, or incorporating chips into Michelin-starred dishes including omelettes, cannoli, and wagyu beef carpaccio.
Wagyu beef car-popcorn-o?
No thanks.
With Trump’s ongoing tariff war, many Canadians have been purchasing products only made in Canada, dubbed the “Elbows Up” movement.
Old Dutch is one brand of Canadian chips that offers several flavours to Canadian-minded consumers, as well as Hardbite, owned by fourth-generation farmers Peter Schouten and Braden Douglas of Surrey-based Naturally Homegrown Foods Ltd. — chips made from potatoes grown locally by the Heppell family.
Orville Redenbacher?
American.
Chip is also the name of our adorable (unofficial) office kitten, and he’s the coolest.
In short, chips are the cat’s pyjamas.
Popcorn?
Something people throw at movie screens when watching A Minecraft Movie.
Got an opinion about this battle? Got an idea for a future battle? Contact the newsroom.
