Thought Leadership

Bad food

I like food. I am not a fussy eater. Obviously I have preferences, likes and dislikes, but I will give most things a try. That willingness to give something new a fair chance has led me to discover the Worst Food Product Ever Created during a visit to the US …

So, what is this foodstuff that has failed to impress me in such a monumental way? The answer: a humble potato chip [or crisp to my British Brethren]. It is not the chip itself that is the problem; it is the flavor. I am fine, conceptually at least, with any number of flavors: Cheese and Onion, Roast Beef, Salt and Vinegar – even Sour Cream is reasonable. But the offensive content of this innocent little bag are flavored with lemon! That is: lemon as in gin and tonic; lemon as in “-ade”; lemon as in toilet cleaner. What possessed someone to even conceive the possibility that lemon flavored potato chips could even be remotely nice? It is just wrong on so many levels.

OK, they actually call the flavor Limón, but spelling it in Spanish does not make it taste any better. There are a number of inspirational phrases that start: “When life hands you a lemon …”, but none of them end with: “… consider using it to flavor potato chips.”

Please excuse my outburst. I just needed to get that off my chest try to avoid unnecessary suffering.

Colin Walls

I have over thirty years experience in the electronics industry, largely dedicated to embedded software. A frequent presenter at conferences and seminars and author of numerous technical articles and two books on embedded software, I am a member of the marketing team of the Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division, and am based in the UK. Away from work, I have a wide range of interests including photography and trying to point my two daughters in the right direction in life. Learn more about Colin, including his go-to karaoke song and the best parts of being British: http://go.mentor.com/3_acv

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/embedded-software/2010/11/11/bad-food/