Amy Lu's View

I use the word “chip” as an umbrella term for all types of salty, crunchy snack foods–chips, crackers, pretzels, puffs, etc. And I eat a lot of them. More than I wish I did. 

So I feel like I should find it easy to write about “National Tortilla Chip Day,” but two-thirds into my holiday blog challenge, I’m feeling stumped. Maybe even overwhelmed, like a tortilla chip overloaded with toppings. 

I can see how someone could be a connoisseur of tortilla chips, and perhaps have a great deal to say about them, or about the toppings they put on them. But I basically just like anything non-meat based that I can obsessively munch on. And I usually have my chips plain as I eat them while wandering around the house, and to attempt to minimize the calorie damage.  

I thought about buying some specialty or at least interesting tortilla chips today for the sake of this post while I was doing some desperation grocery shopping, but decided just to stick with the tortilla chips I had on hand. These happen to be cauliflower tortilla chips, which I’m sure violates various culinary, moral, and spiritual laws. I think I bought them because they were on sale, and I like cauliflower snacks, even though I don’t think they are “healthier” (I’m not at all concerned about my grain or carb intake). 

It shouldn’t be surprising to me, but I am somewhat frustrated by how many of the fake holidays I have to choose from for this blog challenge are food based. Maybe I just should have went with an all food-themed holiday blog challenge–then I wouldn’t feel like I was being extra boring every time I decided to write about food. Or I would feel like it was okay to be boring because I was sticking to a theme. 

But as I’ve already written in posts about other food items, all I can really think of to say is “I like this food, but it stresses me out when I eat too much of it, although I continually do so.”

I thought perhaps I would have some interesting photos of tortilla chips, or at least a photo that would spark a blog-worthy memory or anecdote, so I spent a fair amount of time today looking through old photos. While this was enjoyable and sentimental and startling and funny, I didn’t find any tortilla chip photos. I did find lots of food photos (french fries, noodles, sticky buns, and on and on) but no tortilla chips. So I decided to go with the classic “selfie while holding the food in question” photo. 

I am also including a picture of the inside of our oven–which we use for “chip” (in the larger sense) storage (along with bread). We often tell people this is what we use our oven for, but I think people usually think we’re joking, so this seemed like a good time to provide photographic evidence. It makes sense for us–we don’t bake or do anything that requires an oven (except possibly for making a tofurky once a year), and we always have way too many chips on hand to store anywhere else. Plus, the oven is basically airtight and keeps them nice and crisp. 

Clearly, I am a little grumpy about this blog post, even though I do really love chips–tortilla and otherwise–and know I should be thankful I have such a plethora of chip sensations to choose from. It’s not the chips’ faults that I am not a great food writer–I shouldn’t have a chip on my shoulder about it. (Yes, I went there).