Well I said I was going to write, and write I shall – even if I’m too tired to write anything but appalling gibberish. So, be warned!
So, why is chicken green? “Green?” you say, “What sort of strange drugs have you been taking man?!”*That’s a plummy colonial British ‘man’ by the way, not a stoned San Francisco hippie ‘man’. Just thought I’d make that clear.. “None!” I say for I’m talking about chips*That’s “potato chips” for you Americans and “crisps” for the Brits. Just thought I’d make that clear too..
I don’t know if it’s the case elsewhere in this world of ours, but here in Australia bags of chips are colour coded according to the contents. By reason of law, tradition or old charter all the brands ahere to the same ancient colour system, which is as follows…
Ordinary salted chips are dark blue. Salt and vinegar chips are red, or (for those companies who like to flirt with heresy) reddish purple. Cheese flavoured chips are yellow, with variants such as cheese and onion also yellow – although of a lighter or darker shade. But chicken is green. WHY?!
In the far distant past when the Government gathered together to draft the “Potato Chip Packaging Act 1834” (or whatever) why did they light upon this particular hue? Did they have some kind of sinister underhand motive? Were they perhaps insane? Or were they colour blind? Were they referencing some badly done aquatints or – even stranger – a now extinct 19th century variety of poultry with iridescent green plumage? Or was chicken the last flavour on the list and they’d simply run out of colours? Where, oh where does the truth lie?
I’m sure I can’t say. But I still think about it every time I pass the chip rack at the supermarket.
