This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

Yeah, I know – I write a lot about snacks. But isn’t recommending snacks better than recommending something horrible? What if I was recommending pollution? Or talking during movies? Would you still read this blog if I started recommending not wearing a helmet while riding a bike? (I would stop reading this blog if I started recommending not wearing a helmet while riding a bike.) Have you stopped reading this blog already?

If you haven’t, I would take some inspiration from the stock photo with a simple Squarespace design overlay above and get yourself a goddamn snack. Because you made the right decision. And you deserve it.

I highly recommend chips and salsa.

Why?

Crunchy But Not Too Crunchy

When it comes to snacks, texture is everything. (When it comes to all food, texture is everything.) I do everything in my power to avoid things that can be described as mushy, goopy, gloppy, or slushy. If you enjoy snacks that can be described that way, that’s fine – just don’t eat them around me. I will throw a fit and ask to have chips and salsa instead. Because the extreme crunchiness is tempered by the extreme mushiness of salsa, creating optimum textural balance and exceptional mouthfeel. (That sentence made me sound real scientific. A snack scientist would be a better job than part-time blogger.)

Simple Flavor Equation

Based on a foundation of salt, the combination of fried tortilla, pepper and tomato isn’t complicated. It’s one of those 1 + 1 = 10,000 scenarios: put salsa on a chip creates something greater than the sum of its parts. (I know that salsa isn’t technically “one” thing. But I don’t know how to make salsa, so I shouldn’t be required to know how it works. I should only be required to eat it.) As a rather uncomplicated man, I don’t need very complicated snacks. And when it comes to things I put in my mouth, the less variables the better.

Available In Different Varieties

“Chips and salsa” as a snack is more than just chips and salsa. It’s Mission Tortilla Strips and Newman’s Own Organic Garden. It’s Garden of Eatin’ Sesame Blues and Green Mountain Gringo Mild. It’s the snack that’s both the same and different every time you eat it. Name another non-mealtime food that can always give you consistency and spontaneity.

Sometimes Complimentary

Up until now, I’ve been focused on eating chips and salsa at home. That’s primarily what I do because everything is in my control: the types of chips and salsa (see above), the amount consumed (a whole bag of chips) and where I consume it (on the couch). But my love for chips and salsa was first cemented while visiting the subpar Mexican restaurants of my youth, specifically El Maguey, a chain in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. I was the King of eating too many chips and salsa before my inauthentic hard shell tacos arrived. And because the chips and salsa were complimentary, I would ask for more, even after my entree had arrived. Sometimes you need a snack in the middle of your meal. And when you do, it should always be free. Moving to the big city has improved my quality of life in a variety of ways except one – it’s much harder to find places where you don’t have to pay for chips and salsa. Maybe I should start a blog that lists all of them. At least that blog would have a point.

Meditative

I totally understand that having to dip a chip in salsa requires more effort than just throwing something like a pretzel in your mouth. But engaging in that one-two step over and over (and over and over and over and over) again can be restorative. It helps clear my mind like nothing else.

There’s got to be one thing you don’t like about chips and salsa.

Incredibly Messy

Despite doing so for everyday for the past 27 years, I’m not very good at eating. Every single article of my clothing has been stained. Some of my favorite articles of clothing have been stained twice. Some of my articles of clothing have even been so irreparably stained that I had to throw them in trash. (They were so stained that I couldn’t even donate. No one should have to wear something so stained.) So when I’m eating something that requires scooping a runny substance (that doesn’t make salsa sound very appetizing) onto an angled, not very sticky surface, I’m going to spill.

Discussion Questions

Did you get yourself some chips and salsa?

Which variety of chips did you get?

Which variety of salsa did you get?

Did you enjoy your chips and salsa?

Will you read another highly recommended?

Will you recommend highly recommended to your friends?

love,

nicholas