It’s All About Salt and Vinegar

After my recent Fish and Chips blog it got me thinking about salt and vinegar. Salt and vinegar on your chips, salt and vinegar crisps – we Brits just love salt and vinegar! Whenever family or friends come to Berlin to visit they bring with them some salt and vinegar crisps. It is one thing that British expats miss the most about being in Germany. Aside from tea, beef, fish, pies, gravy, Cadbury’s chocolate and cheddar cheese (many more items could be added to this list) it is salt and vinegar crisps that is of top priority. It is always on my list when friends and family say ‘is there anything that you want me to bring over?’ when planning a visit to Berlin. I also keep a bottle of vinegar in my store cupboard for when I have chips at home.

If you walk down the crisps aisle in a British supermarket you will find all kinds of salt and vinegar crisps. Every brand (including supermarket brand) will have salt and vinegar. In any size, style it is all about the salt and vinegar. An aisle for crisps alone is not something that I miss about British supermarkets. That is a totally different story on supermarkets encouraging Brits to bulk buy and therefore ‘bulk eat’. But I do miss snacking on some salt and vinegar crisps during a film.

So how does an English woman in Berlin survive without salt and vinegar? To be honest, between my visits back to the UK and my friends and family visits to Berlin I do pretty well. It is not exactly a healthy snack that you can eat every day but it would be great to pick a packet up from your local supermarket (I cannot take any more paprika!). Will the Germans take on salt and vinegar? Probably not. Salt and vinegar can be found in a few supermarkets but these are just one type, very rare to find and expensive. Whenever I talk about salt and vinegar to my German friends and colleagues they look at me like I am crazy. On a recent work trip to London my colleague tried some and looked at me in disbelief. Her face when I poured vinegar onto my chips was even better!

For now, I will rely on goodies from home. At least I am not tempted as often ; )