FitBite – Cassava Chips Sea Salt

I love trying new chips that use less conventional ingredients. They may not all be winners, and in fact most are a bit of a dud to be honest, but I am ever hopeful I will find one that makes its way past my lips, and into my heart. Some chips do come down to how they are made. Some feel very airy and light, likely due to other ingredients, while others like some radish chips I’ve had that end up a little soggy and oily.

I previously had the chili lime flavour from this same brand, and while I enjoyed the texture, the flavour was a little too spicy for me. So I figured I’d give a basic, non-spicy flavour a try and really experience the texture. I guess in that way, I already have a decent impression of cassava chips, and specifically this brand.

The texture is hard to describe if you haven’t had root vegetable chips before. The best I can describe it is like eating a potato chip that’s gone slightly stale. It doesn’t have the same clean snap you get when you bite into a potato chip, but it still has that firm crunch when you bite down. If like me you grew up in a very traditional Asian environment, the best proxy I can use to describe these is a crunchier taro chip.

In some really old Chinese style restaurants, they have dishes called birds nest where they make a bowl out of either taro, potato, or rice paper now, into the shape of a nest. As a kid growing up I loved the ones made from taro strips, but it’s become much less common now due to labour and cost. But I bring that up because the texture somewhat reminds me of that and that’s one of the main reasons I enjoy this. It has that same starchy, hard, solid crunch to it.

The flavour is very plain, and really is just the chips with some sea salt on top. This allows the roots true flavour to come out, which is very reminiscent of taro. I would say the flavour is more neutral than taro, and has an earthy, slightly nutty flavour. It’s not too far off from a potato, but more resembles and sweet potato without the noticeable sweet. Really though, this is being consumed mostly for the texture. For me at least. If you find that to be bland, I’m sure these would go great with a dip or sauce. The limits are endless with a blank slate like this.