Herr's Baby Back Ribs Potato Chips

Engaged in my courses and knowing that I had only mere minutes available to me in which to solve my developing problem: a sudden rising hunger that was becoming more and more difficult to resist pushed me in a direction that is incredibly rare for me to venture. The Vending Machine is an incredible monument to the American lifestyle: the constant availability and partaking of unnecessary junk. Bith Min Nguyen wrote about how processed foods characterized america for her. America was a land of factories and automation and standardization, seen most readily in the mass produced food-like ingestibles we find so readily on market shelves, and in this case, encased in yet another machine for consumer-side distribution. It is very rare that I find myself in the position to use such a machine, and even more rare that I would willingly eat processed potato chips... But had you seen what I saw at that moment, you would find yourself making a great deal of personal compromises, as well. Behold:



I had to know. I had to. There were other things in the machine that I would hav prefered, perhaps, but those were no longer an option. This came before all other things. It had to be experienced. I soon found that the bill acceptor, which generally gobbles dollars as greedily as the typical patron gobbles the snack foods behind its alluring window, was not working. I then made the trek to a crowded campus café just across the street and snuck to the front in hopes of aquiring coins with which I could meet my fate, but it was not to be so. Instead, I left with a larger bill broken into the small denomination I would need were I to find another, more operable machine that carried the same good. What luck would have it that the building neighboring my original destination would have a string of machines, one of which housed Herr's Artificially Flavored Baby Back Ribs Potato Chips (Finger lickin' RIB flavor!). Having made my purchase (Plus some Peanut M&Ms, for good measure) I was ready to make my assessment.

The first disc of crispy matter that was probably less potato and more something else was not entirely shocking in terms of flavor. The second, however, brought forth everything desired: a lush complexity of flavors, met by an intense smokiness that spoke of foods roasted over warm coals. It seems to me, when I study these selections more, that 'potato chips' have been growing to accomidate the flavors of many popular american foods, most notably pizza and cheeseburger flavors. Is there a steak flavor? Surely. People once dreamed of a day when a small pill would replace a whole meal, with an explosion of flavor mocking some particular dish. Perhaps that day is much nearer than we expect. Perhaps it is already here in a form we never predicted. If we found a way to blanket the chips in nutrition, we might truely have created something wonderous. And, at the same time, created something hidious and evil.