A Map of the World in Crisps

Through the years, I’ve made a wonderful discovery: the taste of crisps changes from country to country. You’re probably thinking, hello, of course there are different flavours of crisps. But have you ever thought about how much the selection varies, depending on where you are? My big culinary experience has been to discover what flavour crisps I connect with the places I’ve lived. Over the past two years, ‘home’ has been four different cities: Copenhagen, Berlin, Marseille, London. Let me present to you my 20s – through four different flavours of crisps.

After having finished my undergraduate degree at Oxford in 2021, I moved to Berlin to really “live life”. I worked as a journalist and lived in various apartments, a room with a balcony in Neukölln, an Altbau in Kreuzberg with a good friend. On the surface, it was the dream but in reality it wasn’t that glamourous. My workplace didn’t turn out how I thought it would be, so I quit and got a service job, couldn’t register my address and therefore paid the highest bracket of tax. This meant that I could barely survive on my salary and couldn’t afford to eat anything but oatmeal and rye bread every day. I lived in a city full of culture and heavy history, cycled through Checkpoint Charlie every day on my way to work but I didn’t have the energy to enjoy it. This was a time in which I knew that I didn’t really have it that hard compared to so many others, but I still just wasn’t having a nice time. The only form of snack I could afford was Chipsfrisch Ungarisch Paprika, a big bag of cheap potatoes for 80 cents. Perfect for lying in bed after a long day on your feet and binging all seven seasons of The 100. To me, the taste of Berlin isn’t Dönerkebab and Pommesbox or a beer from a Späti and whatever they offer in Berghain, but rather the oily aroma of rounded paprika, where the size of the bag doesn’t lie about its contents. A thin and crunchy crisp, sweet and comforting in a long work day full of German speaking customers and bustle. My sad little highlight. A crisp that took me from the hopefulness and longing of summer into the dark November night, until I finally realized that Berlin wasn’t the place for me, packed my bags and moved home to my parents in Copenhagen.

The culinary journey continued – Denmark in November. Home to my local Fakta. Home to the sofa and Kim’s classic Sour Cream and Onion. Here’s a case of the bag size lying about its contents. The good thing about Sour Cream and Onion, though, is how crisp it is, how wavy it is and just the right thickness. Maybe this can only be achieved with 50 percent air around them. These crisps remind me a bit of my childhood, where Kim’s was what you got for children’s birthday parties. Sour Cream and Onion from Kim’s is the taste of figuring out what to do with your life, the taste of living in your parents’ basement, of having returned home before your time. It was with this taste in my mouth that I made a new plan. I wrote applications for master’s degrees at the dead of night, applied for funding, signed up for language school in France. French would turn out to be my next step.

In January 2022, I moved to Marseille in the South of France. I lived with an older lady in a gated community. Every morning, I ate a brioche with butter and made my way down toward the language school where I studied French for a few hours, ate lunch at Paul’s with my fellow students, drank many cups of black coffee and strolled home again in the afternoon. What do you do with your time when you live right by the Mediterranean? Despite the winter months and ludicrous stares of the French, I went to the beach every day, through the 8th arrondissement, down Avenué Pierre Mendés and all the way to Plages du Prado. Most of the time I’d pass a Carrefour or Monoprix on my way. An ideal place to buy a snack, so one had something to eat while reading by the waterfront or watching the young people surfing in their wetsuits. The taste of Marseille is Chips à l’Ancienne, Saveur Moutarde – or, mustard. This crisp has a sharp taste, a bit peppery, very French somehow. For me, it’s the combination – the sharpness, the cold wind, the bright sun, the sand, the salt in the air, the waves eternally crashing back and forth, the feeling that you are in absolutely no rush. It’s both liberating to know that you’re not expected anywhere, but also a bit lonely that nobody misses you. I’d return home to a very slimming French dinner, some small talk in French, and a TV-programme that my host and I would watch together every day. It was a panel show with an historian, a philosopher, an economist and a journalist, who discussed the news of the day. Then I’d read, do homework before bed, and repeat it all the next day. Maybe the sharpness was something I needed to break the monotony of the day and the solitude.

During the spring, I was accepted into a master’s in London, so after the summer I moved back to England. It felt like the country that had been waiting for me. The prodigal daughter returns. The taste of London was expectant, spicy. The black bag, you know it if you’ve ever stepped foot into a Tesco: Sensations Thai Sweet Chili. I ate so many of these crisps during my first half year back that my lips were slightly damaged by them. It’s the taste of making new friends again, the taste of always buying the same meal-deal, the taste of busy London life, taking too many trains and flying from the airport often. To me, this was the most opposite taste to Kim’s Sour Cream and Onion because London also had so much more diversity, difference, life, happiness, adventure and fun compared to Fakta back home in Copenhagen.

On my walks in Hampstead Heath, I’ve learned that there is always a connection between the owner’s appearance and how their dog looks. It’s pretty fun once you start noticing it. In the same way I’d say there is a connection between the flavour of crisps you choose and where you are located in the world. The taste of the crisps in your local area will permeate your memories of the place, it can’t be helped. Every time you get that flavour in your mouth again, you’ll be reminded of a very special spot on the globe, they’ll become part of that journey. Crisps tie the whole world together, my friends. You heard it from me first.

In my heart, I carry a map of the world in crisps.