Chips and Chips

Hundred of people have emailed or texted or tweeted or called me saying that “yes, it is great you are studying Roman ceramics, but when are you going to get to the main point of your research trip – your ongoing study of the potato chip on Cyprus?” Today is your lucky day if you are one of those people deeply concerned over the hiatus in my potato chip research. Never fear, when Bill and I went to the store Monday, I was able to snag some chips to evaluate.

The first contestant is Tyrrells Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar. This was a brand I had not seen before on Cyprus. The bag says that they are hand-cooked English crisps and that the company was established in Herefordshire, England. The bag’s design was not bad-looking and it was about average priced when compared to the other chips available. As for the taste, it was nice and crispy. The flavor was a really nice blend of salty and sour. I am a fan of vinegar, and especially apple cider vinegar since it is the base flavor in my barbecue sauce – the proper sauce for barbecue in eastern North Carolina, which is the best barbecue (I know everyone should know this, but it is always worth repeating in case someone reading this is unaware of the undisputed best barbecue in the world.) I score this a *********(9) – a very good score. So good, in fact, I had to run some analytics to check and see where this placed this chip in the overall record of my research. This chip received the second-highest score I have ever given, behind the prawn cocktail chips which achieved a perfect score. In case further confirmation is needed about how I scored them, I finished the whole bag.

To celebrate my return to my chip research, I also evaluated a second flavor of potato chip, Lays Baked Tomato & Basil. It came in a very typically designed bag for Lays, with a very busy design. As for taste, it was very crispy as expected of a baked chip. My first thought on tasting it (regarding its flavor) was that it tasted like a lasagna, which was quickly followed by a growing presence of basil….and then even more basil….and then too much basil. This was something I didn’t expect, I really like the way basil smells, and I use it in my cooking a lot. If I was worried that my evaluation of the cider vinegar chips was inflated due to my eagerness to continue my research, this one demonstrated that wasn’t the case. I gave this a *(1).

So, quite a range in scoring today – from my second-highest score (9) to tied to the lowest score ever (1). This really sums up the field of potato chip research and the way the journey progresses, from the heights of culinary satisfaction to the depths of taste buds’ despair.

RSM

Museum Day #1

Today was our first full day of research in Polis. We did a bit of cleaning, mainly sweeping and cleaning the tabletops before setting up our stuff in our usual places. The first day at the apotheke is always a bit like the opening day of baseball, a lot of ceremony and tradition. Since we had stopped at the bakery on the way to the apotheke, Bill and I each ate our inaugural vanilla glazed doughnut. Then we discussed a plan of action for the day. For me, that meant grabbing some pottery trays to analyze our work in the area known as EF1. Before I could begin studying the pottery, I needed to decide on which songs would be selected as this field season’s opening songs from my pottery playlist – a great honor for those selected. After a few minutes pondering the issue, my opening day selections were:

• Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ – [a repeat selection as the season’s opening song]
• Queen – We are the Champions
• Def Leppard – Rock of Ages
• Bon Jovi – Bad Medicine
• Prince – Purple Rain

Once the music started, then it was just a matter of looking at pottery for the next few hours. It is always a little slow getting back into the groove, and after missing the last two summers, it felt a little harder to get things moving at the correct speed. But, by the end of the day, things felt pretty normal.

RSM

Back at Last!

So, COVID shut down our work in Cyprus for two summers (2020 and 2021). This year, however, we are pushing ahead and trying to get our work back on track. It has been an unusual few weeks getting ready for the trip. In the past, I never really worried about packing or making sure I had what I needed for the field season, but after a few summers of not doing any international travel, I adopted a new approach to my travels – sudden and frequent panic. This technique resulted in frantic buying on Amazon, trips to stores, and waking up one night at 3:30 AM and realizing my rolling duffle had broken down on its last trip back from Cyprus and spending the next two hours reading reviews to order a new duffle.

The trip was relatively uneventful. My Pittsburgh to Philadelphia leg had a large number of Pittsburghers who were on their way to Las Vegas, including the older woman sitting next to me who called me “Bro” every time she talked to me. My Philadelphia to London leg was nice and quiet since the flight was only about 50% full resulting in me having a row to myself. The London to Larnaka leg was very crowded with only one empty seat – fortunately, it was next to me. This flight was on time allowing me to get the rental car and then pick up Bill. We spent the night in Larnaka before driving to Polis this morning. The weather in Polis is sunny and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and is expected to be like this for the next week to ten days.

We are set up at our usual place, Renos – and it looks like nothing has changed – still nice and quiet. We are staying in the same room we have stayed in for the last two trips. Our balcony looks out into a neighboring house’s backyard, which has always been a pleasant view because of the large number of flowers they grow. This year, the flowers have grown so high that you can’t see into the yard. The village looks almost the same, though one of our favorite places to stop by for something to eat or drink has closed.

We ran some errands this afternoon in an attempt to hold off the jet lag which was noticeable – a lot of nonsensical statements and long pauses in an effort to recall names, places, etc. We made a grocery run, and visited with the museum staff to discuss our plans for the summer. We then started discussing our plans for the summer and gathering computer files together to make sure we have everything we need. Since I mentioned going to the grocery store, let me assure you that I did find some potato chips to try out. Thousands and thousands of you have emailed me concerned over the pause in my potato chip research. Well, it starts back this week! Bill is trying to get me to go back through the chips I have already tasted and regrade them, to see if my tastes have changed – we will see if I am up to that. Meanwhile, a quick review of my past work (55 reviewed) will help set the stage for this season’s work.

The Potato Chips of Cyprus: An Exhaustive Study:

• Argentinean Steak — ***** (5)
• Baked Lays with Mediterranean Herbs — *****(5)
• Barbecue — ******** (8)
• Brazilian Mango and Chile — **** (4)
• Caramelized Onion and Balsamic Vinegar — ******* (7)
• Cheese and Onion — *** (3)
• Crunchips Barbecue Flavour — *** (3)
• English Cheese on Toast — ***** (6)
• Frit Ravich Onduladas Jamon Chips (Ham Flavoured) – ** (2)
• Frit Ravich Mediterraneo Chips – **(2)
• Goldies Bacon Extreme. Bacon – *(1)
• Goldies Extreme – *****(5)
• Greek Salsa — **** (4)
• Handy Snacks Cyprus Potato Chips Vinegar and Oregano – *** (3)
• Lay’s Baked Barbecue potato chips – ***** (5)
• Lay’s Cream Cheese and Bacon – ******(6)
• Lays Greek Salad Flavor – ****(4)
• Lay’s Heinz Ketchup flavored – **(2)
• Lay’s Pesto and Mozzarella with Cool Effect – ******(6)
• Lay’s Scoops Chili Flavoured – ***(3)
• Lays Cider Vinegar – **** (4)
• Lays Lasagna Flavored chips – ****** (6)
• Lays Maxx Deep Ridged Chicken Wing Flavour – ** (2)
• Lays Maxx Deep Ridged Salt & Vinegar Flavour chips – ******* (7)
• Lays Mozzarella and Pesto flavored — ******** (8)
• Lays Mushrooms in Cream – ***(3)
• Lays Sensations – Japanese Teriyaki – *****(5)
• Lays Smokey Bacon – ****(4)
• Lays Sour Cream and Black Pepper – ****(4)
• Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean 3 Peppers — ******* (7)
• Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean 100% Olive Oil — ******** (8)
• Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean Provence Herbs — ******* (7)
• Mama’s sundried tomato and basil chips -***(3)
• Mediterranean Herb — ****** (6)
• Mexican Peppers and Cream — ******** (8)
• Oregano — ******** (8)
• Oven Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Thyme — **** (4)
• Prawn Cocktail — ********** (10)
• Pringles Texas BBQ Sauce – ******(6)
• Quavers with Cheese — ******* (7)
• Replay’s Cheese flavored chips – ********(8)
• Replay’s Ketchup Flavored Potato Chips – *(1)
• Replay’s Terra Bites – **(2)
• Salt and Vinegar — ******* (7)
• Thai Sweet Chile — ** (2)
• Tsakiris Bacon and Cheese Flavoured Chips – * (1)
• Tsakiris Chips with Florina Peppers Flavor – ** (2)
• Tsakiris Chips with Graviera Cheese Flavour – ******* (7)
• Tsakiris Chips with Ketchup and Mustard – ** (2)
• Tsakiris Chips with Mytilene Sea Salt Flavour – ******* (7)
• Tsakiris Chips with Oregano – ****** (6)
• Tsakiris Chips with Vinegar Flavour – ****** (6)
• Tsakiris Chips with Santorini Tomato Flavor – ******** (8)
• Tsakiris Chips Sweet Barbeque – **** (4)
• Tzatziki — * (1)

RSM

Two summers..and counting

Summers have become quite strange. I had spent every summer since 1995 in the Greece or Cyprus with exception of the brief period of 2000-2001, when I was finishing up my dissertation and looking for a job. Then last summer (2020) the pandemic shut everything down, but I was on a committee making plans for how my university was going to manage classes in the fall. This involved a wide range of activities, such as meetings, spacing chairs, putting down stickers, etc.) and as a result, even though I didn’t get to go to Cyprus, it was so busy that it distracted me. Not going this summer has really felt different. While there are a fair number of activities going on at IUP due to a reorganization, it doesn’t have the same feeling that 2020 had. As a result, I really find myself thinking a lot more about Cyprus and worried about getting back there. I noticed that I have been cooking a lot more of the foods I normally eat in Cyprus. For example, I made souvlaki, schawarma, tzatziki, and hummus in the last few days and am thinking about cooking Tavas this weekend.

I guess the food will have to do for now.

RSM

Trip to Nicosia…..Moore…Scott Moore

So yesterday I made a trip to Nicosia with Nancy. I had received an invitation to the US Embassy to celebrate the 4th of July and the 243rd anniversary of the founding of the United States. The event was actually celebrated on June 6th (D-Day), and so also celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Finally, there was also mention made of the 50th anniversary of the US crewed moon landing – a picture of the moon landing was on the front page of the invite. Since I had never actually been to an embassy event I was determined to go. Unfortunately the dress code was business professional which meant suit and tie. I spent a lot of time during my undergraduate years working as a sales associate at a retail jewelry store, and had to wear suit and tie. As a result, I really don’t like wearing one to work and seldom wear one, reserving it for special occasions. I realize that wearing jeans and a polo shirt doesn’t fit in with the traditional view of how an academic should dress, but …

Anyway, I really wanted to attend so I actually went to Larnaka last week and bought what I needed to wear. The US Embassy is located near one of our favorite restaurants the Syrian Friendship Club so I had driven by it before. I was amazed at how crowded it was, there must have been 500 people crowded into an outdoor garden area. It was hard to move around and you had to wait in a security line to enter the building. Inside in the outer courtyard they had a fancy Cadillac you could take your picture next to, and a silhouette of an astronaut on the moon with his face cut out that you could stick your head in so that you could take your picture of you as an astronaut.

The event started off by an address of the American Ambassador to Cyprus, Judith Garber. In addition to a number of references to the founding fathers and American history, she spoke about the strengthening ties of the US with Cyprus and concerns over the conflict between Turkey and Cyprus concerning natural gas drilling in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus. Here speech was followed by a speech by the President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades. His speech echoed the ambassador’s though it dwelt more on the drilling issue and how it could impact the energy corridor. So, there were about 20 minutes worth of speeches and then everyone was free to mingle.

I had two goals for the reception. One, to feel like James Bond attending the event (in my mind, and yes I realize I wasn’t wearing a tuxedo. Two, sample some very good or at least fancy food. The ambassador mentioned in her speech that Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with a cookout and that was the theme of the evening. There was a blues musician providing the music and American restaurants providing the food. There were tables set up for you to try out items from Jack Daniels, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, KFC, Pepsi, and dessert items from a Cypriot bakery – Zorba’s. There were servers circulating with wine and little fancy appetizers.

Needless to say, not what I was expecting. But I was hungry and decided to sample what the restaurants were serving. I was able to grab a slice of pizza and a glass of Pepsi fairly easily. I then tried to get to the Taco Bell table and was never able to get closer than two rows of people from it. I was stunned, I am usually very good at working my way through a crowd, but this was a total shutout. It was like when a team has fourth and goal from the one yard line and they send the running back into the middle of the line in an attempt to try to hammer it into the end zone only to meet everybody from the defensive line in the backfield and lose yards. I literally could not get closer than 5 feet from the food without hitting a wall. I backed off and tried it again several times with no success. This also happened over by KFC and Jack Daniels. I eventually settled for a slice of pizza, two cups of Pepsi, and three cookies.

All in all an interesting evening.

RSM

Last Full Week in Polis

This is out last full week in Polis. Bill leaves for Greece on Monday and I leave for PA a week from Friday. It is also the point in the season where we go from feeling like everything is under control to worrying about getting everything done. We used Sunday for catching up on computer work. Then we spent Monday at the apotheke continuing to refine our work in EF1, this time looking at the earlier Roman material. This morning we spent some time at the Polis Archaeological Museum looking at stamped pottery and the lamps, or more accurately lamp fragments, that came from EF1. There were a couple of nice lamps, but most were small fragments. This involved cataloguing them and illustrating them. We spent the afternoon back at the apotheke working through some more pottery. The rest of the week will be pretty busy. I am going to the Kourion Museum tomorrow to look at some pottery from the Kourion Amathous Gate Cemetery and Thursday I am going to a reception in Nicosia. That really only leaves Friday and Saturday to get things wrapped up at the apotheke, so it will be tight to get everything done.

RSM

Saturday Chip Day

Since I have been a little behind on my potato chip research, I decided to double up this afternoon. I thought I would also provide everyone a little glimpse behind the curtain to the large scale operation that is potato chip research in Cyprus. The main thing is to approach it employing a “scientifical” method avoiding any of the techniques of the softer social sciences or god forbid, the humanities. This is science, people!

• 

• 

Anyway, I also conduct potato chip research in the middle of the afternoon, so I am neither too hungry and looking forward to dinner, or too full from my midday repast. Too close to either lunch or the evening meal could “skew” (notice the correct use of scientifical jargon) the results, which could then lead to issues with my funding agencies. The only thing that I make use of during my double blind, peer-reviewed research is water. Plain water, purchased from the store. BUT, and this is critical, not just any water purchased from the store. Research has shown consistently that the best water for potato chip research is square water, which in Cyprus is Ayios Nikolaos (Saint Nicholas). The square water molecule is more neutral flavored than a circular water molecule, allowing it to be a more effect palate cleanser. If I need to, I will diagram this in a future post to help the less scientifically inclined of you (historians, classicists, mathematicians, physicists, etc.) understand the cutting edge technology being employed in my research.

So, first up today. Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean Classic, with 100% Olive Oil. As I am sure all of you remember, the Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean flavors have scored well so far. And…..this was no different. The chips were crunchy and flavorful. A well-crafted chip. I liked the flavor, the crunchiness, and the slight olive oil taste to them was enjoyable. While I do personally prefer flavored chips, for a plain chip this is a solid contender. I score it a – ********(8). Now that I have tried all three of Lay’s Taste of Mediterranean, or all of the ones available at the local grocery store, I have to say that they are a good go to chip.

• 

• 

Contender 2 – Crunchips Barbecue Flavour manufactured by Lorenz. The bag is what attracted me to this chip. It has chips around a small grill on which rests two kebobs or kebabs depending on you preference. Upon closer inspection I realized that the kebobs consisted of alternating slices of potato (maybe a russet) and something else that I first thought was a slice of meat, but now I am not sure. It looks more like red pepper slice. In checking the ingredient list, it does have paprika flavoring, so maybe it is a red pepper slice. We are fortunate to have an unpaid intern with us this summer (Bill) who is considering a career change from history to the food sciences. Unfortunately, all he could say was that he did not know what was pictured, and expressed no interest in researching this further. I think he might be stuck in his current field since he doesn’t seem to have that scientifical drive to conduct complicated research.

Anyway, I tasted the chip and…..my first taste was barbecue, but it quickly became a “flat barbecue” taste – that is never good. As someone raised in the south, my DNA has literally been modified to provide superior knowledge and tasting skills concerning both “real barbecue” (pulled pork) and “pseudo-barbecue” (all other forms of barbecue) to use their technical terms. As a result, to me these chips tasted like flat barbecue – no depth of flavor, just a quick hint of barbecue that quickly becomes a little bitter in the mouth. So, I give it a – ***(3). A disappointment, even the superior square water qualities of Saint Nicholas had a hard time cleansing the palate.

RSM

Hello My Old Friends

So Wednesday Bill and Amy spent the morning looking at EF1 (current work), EF2 (previous work), and EG0 (future work…maybe). This meant that I was at the apotheke by myself. This also meant no earphones and loud music (AC/DC, Def Leppard, Journey, etc.). The pottery, insects, lizards, all appreciated my music choices – at least no complaints. It was probably a good thing Bill wasn’t here – a bee flew into the apotheke and I at first thought it was a drone because it was that large. Bill would have lost his mind. After a few minutes it flew back out. As I mentioned yesterday, we are going back through some of our older pottery analyses for EF2 to see if they can be tightened up. This means Cypriot Red Slip (CRS) and lots of it. Tons of it. But, this is my favorite type of pottery (Late Roman Fine Ware) and my favorite ware (Cypriot Red Slip) so it was a good morning.

• 

• 

After we finished up for the day, Bill, Amy, and I took a ride into the hills and visited two churches, and a mosque/church. It was a nice trip, except for the bugs. The little annoying gnats are everywhere. Everyone says it is because Cyprus had a lot of rain recently and it has now dried out – leading to an explosion of these bugs. Everyone you go when you are outside, a swarm soon appears. Fortunately, this is supposed to only last for about two weeks and then they will go away. For dinner we went up into the hills in a different direction and ate a restaurant in Neo Chorio, Pavlaras Prengos Tavern. The food was good, the view was spectacular (looking down over the coast as the sun set), but the drive back to our hotel in the dark, not so great. We got lost for about 10 minutes before we worked our way out of the hills.

• 

• 

Thursday was more of the same as far as the apotheke. Things are getting crowded at the hotel since another project has started arriving. This project is large enough that they booked all of the remaining rooms at the hotel and even had to arrange lodging at another hotel for some. My only concerns are noises at night (I’m old and need my sleep), and the internet slowing down because so many people are using it – we’ll see how it works over the weekend.

• 

• 

Friday was sort of a day off. We took Amy to the airport and showed here around Larnaka a little bit. It also meant that we were able to eat lunch at my favorite souvlaki restaurant on the island – it was great as ever. It is amazing how much hotter it is in Larnaka compared to Polis. Since we took off Friday we are going to work at least Saturday in the apotheke to catch up on illustrating and cataloguing.

RSM

Back to the Apotheke

Yesterday we ran into Larnaka to pick up Amy at the airport. We stopped at Zygi for lunch on the way back. The fish restaurant we always eat at was closed, so we had to pick a new one, but we still had the same meal – calamari, octopus, fries, salad, and olives. It was a nice relaxing meal.

• 

Today I was back in the apotheke with a new task. Our work with EF1 is pretty much done for the season, so I am back plundering in the pottery from EF2 which is the south basilica area. Our article on our work there is going to press later this week, so that was good news. The goal now is to work with the cooking wares and a few of the finewares from EF2 and see what sort of refinement is possible. I always hate going back into pottery I have already read since I am always worried that I made some sort of huge mistake that I will now catch.

RSM

Quiet Weekend

So, it has been a quiet weekend at Polis. The weather has been perfect – sunny, no clouds, just a hint of a breeze, and 75 degrees or so. So, since the weather was so good, I spent both days inside doing computer work. Saturday I created the ceramic catalogue for our upcoming EF1 publication.

By upcoming, I mean we plan to submit it somewhere in the coming months – our goal is to have the text ready to submit by when we leave Polis. That will leave me to finish inking the illustrations. This entailed making sure that all the artifact entries matched each other in format and all had the requisite information included.

Today I spent the day breaking apart our large files of drawings for PKAP II into files containing only one illustration and labeled accordingly. This is done in Illustrator and I’m not bad with it, but when I go a couple of months without using it I tend to forgot some things, so it was an uneven start to the process. Tomorrow morning we are going to run to Larnaka to pick up Amy from the airport. Maybe this will be a good chance to stop at Zygi for lunch.

RSM