Retro crisps are simply the best

There’s a few pregnant women in my life at the moment and I’m always fascinated by the concept of “eating for two” and listening to your body when it tells you what it’s craving.

Yes, I know, that whole eating for two thing is a myth and mums-to-be actually need less than 500 extra calories a day. That’s eating for one and scoffing a couple of chocolate bars.

But still, it’s a great excuse isn’t it? You can imagine how delighted I was when pregnant with my twins to discover I had a “legitimate” reason for stuffing my face with enough food for three.

Food is the last thing on the mind of one of the expectant mums I know.

The poor thing has a terrible case of morning sickness which is happening morning, noon and night.

She sorrowfully revealed she didn’t even fancy eating anything ... apart from salt and vinegar Chipsticks.

“Chipsticks!” I blurted out excitedly. “Do they still make them?” And so began an enthusiastic and nostalgic discussion about the crisps of yesteryear. Like most things retro, they seem to be making a comeback.

During my own pregnancy, I craved prawn cocktail crisps. Except Hubby tells me they weren’t a craving at all as I always want them. If I had as many children as I’d had bags, I’d have thousands of nippers.

My friend’s unborn baby has certainly developed its taste buds.

What’s not to like about deep fried potato smothered in salt and flavouring?

One thing we did ascertain during our 
in-depth debate about crisps was that the savoury snacks of our childhood were definitely the best.

Although some are still available or have made a comeback, others have disappeared from supermarket shelves.

Who can forget the round balls bursting with tomato flavour of Tangy Toms?

Or the Walkers Snaps crisps featuring the dragon which came in spicy tomato and cheese flavours and were only 10p a pack.

Or the other inexpensive snack of Space Raiders in the tongue tingling pickled onion flavour.

And don’t forget Discos or the various flavours of Monster Munch including the rather vile vanilla ice cream flavour.

Who remembers Hedgehog flavour crisps? Makers Hedgehog Foods thought it would be a great joke to produce Hedgehog flavour crisps. These were actually flavoured with pork fat and no prickly hedgehogs were used in the manufacturing process.

It backfired when Hedgehog Foods ended up in court on a charge of false advertising.

They changed their ingredients and called the crisps “Hedgehog flavour” instead of “Hedgehog flavoured”!

Then there were those Salt ‘n’ Shake and Flavour ‘n’ Shake crisps that came with the flavouring in a separate sachet.

Oh the thrill when you got two sachets by mistake!

They don’t make junk food like they used to – and you definitely used to get more crisps in the packet.

With 80s music, fashion and food making a revival, my friend’s foetus is right on trend and showing impeccable taste.