Skip to main content

Letter F

In the spring of 2010 I saw a notification that Brother Ali was to tour through the prairies. Since this was the first chance I had to see the black albino since I got into his music I jumped at the chance to see him perform. Initially I could find no mention of a Winnipeg show, there was however a Saskatoon date. My sister was living in Saskatoon at the time so what better excuse to visit than what I could only assume would be a stellar rap show. The opener for the tour was listed as Fashawn, I had never heard of him before but that wasn't overly surprising. I took it upon myself to check out Fashawn's myspace in the weeks leading up to the show so I would at least be familiar with a few of his songs. Upon first listen of Boy Meets World (his Oct 2009 debut album) I was hooked. The production (from Exile), lyrics, flow.. everything was absolutely top notch, dare I say flawless. Fast forward to April 6, 2010..Brother Ali, BK One and Fashawn blew me away. I was now hooked on Fashawn, I thirsted for more from this young emcee. In the years following the Saskatoon show I kept tabs on Fashawn; there was often mention of The Ecology (what was to be his solo follow up to Boy Meets World) but no singles were coming out, no release date, no Ecology. Fashawn wasn't just sitting on his hands, he released the Ode to Illmatic mixtape and a colab with MURS but The Ecology was still just a word. Finally in 2014 there was a light at the end of the tunnel, he signed to Nas' newly formed Mass Appeal Records and The Ecology was given a late 2014 release date. The Ecology was finally released this past Feb 24, 2015; the wait was over. With majority of the albums production once again being handled by Exile and Fashawn being..well Fashawn, I had very high expectations for this album. Were my high expectations met? Yes. The Ecology is well worth the 5+ year wait. I'm not going to go into details of the album/songs, just go listen for yourself.

In the spring of 2013 my wife and I went on a trip to Europe. I was excited to see what interesting chip flavours I would stumble upon during the trip. Our first stop was in London, it was in that fantastic city that I first saw Walkers Famously Worcester Sauce crisps. As soon as I set my sights on the bag I was transfixed, I love Caesars that are heavy on the worcestershire sauce so by my reasoning those chips were bound to be damn tasty. I promptly grabbed a bag and headed back to the hotel to get my crunch on. My suspicions were correct, Worcester Sauce crisps were fantastic. This is when I found myself in quite a predicament, I had no plans to travel back to Europe. Once back in Brandon I was left with mere memories of those fantastic foreign wonders. For the last few years I longed to taste Walkers Worcester Sauce crisps again. I've looked into getting a case from amazon.co.uk but it seemed a little silly to get a case of chips shipped to me from across the pond. It wasn't until this past week when I was in Calgary that I took it upon myself to find a uk food import store so that I could get me some of those weird UK/EU chips including the Worcester holy grail. It has been years of build up in my mind, would they be able to live up to my high expectations? I honestly don't know, they were pretty good. I cracked a bag tonight and crunch crunch crunch. The first taste sensation is very similar to all dressed flavouring then all of a sudden you get a somewhat tart worcester zing. The actual crisps are your standard Walkers (Lays) light and crispy potato chips. The seasoning is fairly evenly spread accross the chips, it's adequate. Walkers Famously Worcester Sauce crisps aren't my favourite chips but they are a fantastic treat to crush every once in a while. If you get a chance to try them, go get you some.

Stay hydrated,
Marc

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Not Tomorrow but the Next Day

 When I cracked my bag of Off the Eaten Path Hummus Crisps (Rosemary & Olive Oil flavour) I didn't have high expectations. They were quite past their best before date and typically anything that's not potato based goes stale rather quickly. When I popped one into my mouth I was met with a fluffy crunch, similar to popcorn crisps (mid to mid light on the crunch scale [that only really exists in my own head]). The seasoning was sour cream and onion textured, kinda creamy, but undeniably rosemary..not overwhelmingly so though. I didn't get much of a chickpea flavour out of these hummus crisps. With each chip I kept getting drawn back to the seasoning, it was just oddly creamy. Because I tend to group things my laziest way of describing these would be that they are cousins to sour cream & onion. Did I mention that they didn't taste stale, not at all. Pretty good snack. Fat and sodium are 14% and 13% respectively, per 50g serving. All in all, I didn't have the hi

House is Sinking

Lets start this off with, I have some great friends. Recently Joj' ( 5'1 Perspective [DIY maker. Started with wood based decorations then moved onto some other materials and projects. If you like crafty stuff I would strongly recommend giving her site a browse.]) and her husband went on a trip to Iceland. About a week after they got back into Canada I found a bag of Nordical (a taste of Iceland) Fish & Chips Salt & Vinegar (potato chips and dried fish) in my mailbox (Joj' and her husband have always been super supportive of the blog and wicked thoughtful with chip recommendations). What a pleasant surprise. The packaging for these is awesome, it's faux newspaper artwork. 40g bag of chips with 10 grams of protein. Sodium is off the charts with 30% of your daily in 40g (37.5% converted to 50g), fat ain't too bad 11% per 40g (13.8% per 50g). They smell a little fishy, but not aggressively. At first glance I didn't think there was fish in there, but upon cl

Lean On Me

I first saw The Flatliners on May 9, 2003. They were opening for Bigwig/The Planet Smashers on the grind tour and kicked ass. Their sound has changed since that date but it hasn't stopped them from becoming one of my favourite bands both recorded and live. Because of my affinity for The Flatliners I was drawn to The Warehouse (Calgary) on September 26, 2007. Having never heard the other bands that were to be playing that night I had very few preconceived notions (I did very little, super lazy, research), I was just there to see The Flatliners and hoped the other bands didn't suck. To my absolute surprise and amazement, the opening? band (might have been 2nd of 4, I can't remember for sure [it really doesn't matter]) The Peacocks absolutely slayed. This 3 piece punkabilly band from Winterthur, Switzerland owned the stage. There was no fancy lighting, costumes or pyrotechnics..just three guys in jeans and black shirts rocking out. When they played there was pure uncut en