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Everyone has at least one guilty pleasure. Personally, I have 2,434,521, and everyday I seem to find a new one. Today, however, I’m not going to talk about a new vice; but an old one. Oh yes, it is time to discuss the most delectable of snacks, the potato chip.

Growing up I never thought much of the esteemed potato chip, I just knew that I loved my Cool Ranch Doritos and Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion. That was then. I largely stopped eating chips when I was in college, not for any reason other than I always had french fries available at lunch; and not chips. So my college years were largely devoid of overindulgence of potato chips, instead it was filled with overindulgence of alcohol, which I did imbibe quite often at the time.

After finishing up college and starting my first job I often got the munchies as I sat staring at the computer screen for hours on end. A candy bar, not even a Snickers, satisfied my cravings. That is when I rediscovered the king of the snack world, the potato chip. It was about this time that Lay’s was doing a “Tastes of America” series of potato chips, with different flavors from different parts of the country. This chips brought me back into the potato-lovin’ fold with bold flavors like Tennessee BBQ, California Dill, and Chicago Loaded Baked potato. Personally, my favorite was the California dill, which was divine.

Experiencing these new flavors of chips I decided that I wanted to expand my chip palate. Every time chance I got I bought a new flavor of chip. Then my friend Michelle went to her first trip to England since I had met her, and because of my reputation for trying different flavors of chips, she brought back an assortment of chips from across the sea. Now I had the opportunity to experience chips as the english did, complete with odd flavors like ‘grilled flank-steak.’

I must admit, I was nervous when I took my foray into these chips, flavors like “slow roasted lamb and mint” or “slow roasted lamb in Moroccan spices” are intimidating. But I mustered the courage to expand my culinary experiences to these new flavors, and they were good. So good in fact that I’ve bribed Michelle on every trip she’s taken to our grandfather nation to bring me back more of the salty goodness. Yes my friends, I am a dork. But I am a dork who is a potato chip connoisseur and proud of it.