Snack Review: Su Guttiau Italian Crispy Chips
When I saw these chips in Whole Foods, I was drawn to them, and I immediately realized that this was because I was just the kind of borderline-yuppie they were obviously trying to appeal to. This made me suspicious, of course. And since, having been raised in an Italian family I am prejudiced in favor of anything Italian, foodwise, were they just trying to trick me there too? You know, like using the name Häagen-Dazs on a product that has nothing to do with a foreign country.
I was torn. So I read the label. They were really made in Italy. And it said this:
“Based on an ancient Bronze Age bread made over 3000 years ago on the island of Sardinia, Guttiau is probably the world’s first snack food.”
OK, they are probably full of it, but how could we not review something that claims to be the world’s oldest snack food?
Still, the “bread” thing… was this just a sneaky way to get me to buy what would basically be bits of stale bread, like pita chips? I was finally convinced to buy them by the fact that the flour in the ingredients list was semolina. I realized that I didn’t exactly know what semolina was, but they make pasta out of it, and that can’t be all bad, right?
I was a little disappointed when I opened the bag and there seemed to be no hint of rosemary – no herby fragrance, no little green bits in the chips – and looking at the ingredients again I realized there’s only “natural flavors,” no real rosemary.
And I didn’t taste any herb flavor, either. But I didn’t care. I really liked them. They are nothing remotely like stale pita, and I apologize to them for thinking that. They are nice and crisp and thin and the flavor is simple but rich like a good bread. If you prefer something with seven million toppings and a taste that punches you right in the face, you will probably find them boring. But if you are attentive to subtler flavors – like if you notice the taste of bread rather than thinking it just exists so that you don’t have to hold the sandwich fillings with your bare hands – you may appreciate these.
By the way, after the exhausting research technique of reading the semolina Wikipedia entry, I am still not sure if I understand what semolina is – it’s made from part of the wheat kernel, so I don’t really know why it should taste different from any other kind of white flour. It might partly be just that it’s really Italian flour, which does taste different – like the crust of the imported frozen pizza I get at Trader Joe’s tastes different from any other that I’ve bought.
From the Su Guttiau Italian Crispy Chips website comes this charming history (now sadly removed as the website undergoes renovation):
Many times ago in Ardauli, a little village in provinces of Oristano, the families were large and not much wealthy.
The standard of life followed the severe rules that the nature imposed, at which nobody could escape. The economy was foremost based on agriculture that was a strong and unprofitable activity, so families had continually to face poverty and hardship situation. All this make “important and interesting” the everyday life’s things. Grandparents grew corn and they picked olives.
Corn and olives were obtained with great extertion, and they were necessary for the everyday nourishment, the women of our country learned to transform them fancifully!
Children, sat by the fire, took part in a rite, that they meaning as a sort of magic event, because it seldom happened in a year… this event was the “cooking” of oil!
Before the consummation was custom to boil the oil in large pans in the required amount for months; for the event women prepared thin puff of dought toasted in the oven and then they cut the plate in small part and put them in the pans where the oil was boiling … all this made kids mouth water, and they waited that the puff became golden brown, and then they could salt and … tasted them!
Maybe because puff couldn’t be often tasted or maybe because they were very few… children remembered for long time the fragrance of these small plates!
From this ancient tradition, today is born “Su Guttiau of Ardauli”; they are crisp salad puff that have the power to disclosed ancient and genuine taste of our country of Sardinia.
2 Comments
Bluesea on November 19th, 2009
I have to disagree with DM’s comment. There is something special about Sardinian foods in general.
No discernible flavor … there is no overpowering artificial flavor of ‘bacon’ or ’spicy cheese’ and this in my opinion is a good thing.
DM on September 3rd, 2008
Just tried these “crisps” for the first time today. Total disappointment. I too wrestled with the obvious yuppie marketing angle, but in the end, curiosity won. My experience with these was precisely contrary to yours. That is to say, they tasted precisely like stale pita chips with no discernible flavor, other than salt.
On a scale of 1-5, I’d give these a 1.