When it comes to restaurant chips, homemade ones are few and far between. Good homemade ones are even more rare, especially in Minnesota.
Basically the only places you will find them are Mexican restaurants. No idea why, but you can bet they aren’t always fresh, and sometimes the dippings are lacking.
Now, in all my life, I have never been to a town that has more than one restaurant that isn’t Mexican cuisine but that serves homemade chips. Greenwood had three! (That I know of.)
The first is my favorite. It’s a small place that has a loyal clientele of Greenwood have been. On top of delicious food the restaurant gives you the choice of homemade tortilla chips as a side to any meal. These chips are fresh, they are warm and they are just the perfect thickness and crunch!
When you think of tortilla chips, you may think Tostitos, so don’t be surprised when these chips come out a bit thicker, a bit crunchier and a whole lot more delicious.
No ordinary dip comes with it, either. There is a healthy helping of spicy salsa, the degree of hotness varying depending on the batch.
The second place in town I’ve discovered makes its own potato chips. If you want homemade potato chips, this is the place for you. You can put your own salt on them, or they also come with garlic vinegar and chive sour cream. These chips are so thin they almost don’t crunch and are so fine they practically melt in your mouth.
According to a friend of mine, once you start on them, you can’t stop — and that’s how I feel about the tortilla chips. Give me a platter of them and a bowl of the special salsa, and then let the fiesta begin!
At the final place, I’m not positive that the chips are homemade; they may just be deep fried in house. Either way, they come with a mild salsa and are a free appetizer before the meal.
This place was actually a Mexican restaurant, so I wasn’t really that surprised that they had homemade chips.
However, these chips have just the right amount of crunch, and if you don’t like a lot of kick in either your chip or your salsa, this is the place for you.
They save the kick for their nacho platters, which they pile high with chips and all the trimmings to fill you up with good flavors.
Honestly, it’s the little things like homemade chips, that make restaurants stick out in the diner’s mind. These little special offerings come about for many different reasons. Maybe the chef has a special connection, or it’s a specialty. Sometimes it’s just a matter of keeping with tradition like many Mexican restaurants.
Regardless of the reason why, these specials make a diner feel just as special and more connected to the particular restaurant, not only because they are getting more for for the buck, but also because they feel included and a part of the place where they are dining.
I personally love when a little bit of home is added to my meal, whether it’s mine or theirs. It makes the experience more memorable, and in the case of chips, it makes it hard to eat just one.
•Contact Laura Kay Prosser at 581-7233 or lprosser@gwcommonwealth.com
