The Ultimate St. Louis Snack - Old Vienna Pork Steak Potato Chips

Old Vienna

The real taste of St. Louis - Old Vienna Pork Steak Potato Chips

Well, Provel flavored chips come to mind, but those don't exist. Yet. Old Vienna's come through with the pork steak flavored ones.

Of course we tried them, so you don't have to.

The chip's a typical Old Vienna, which is a good thing. Thin, ridged, and crispy. Since the bag advertised that the pork steak flavored chips contained St. Louis-style barbecue sauce, we expected a thick coating of artificially red dust. Instead, the chips are a bit pale with only a smattering of red seasoning. The sauce flavor isn't predominant. Otherwise they'd just be barbecue potato chips. Good for Old Vienna for not doing that old trick.

There's definitely a pork flavor in the chips. So much so that one taste tester grabbed the bag, looked at the ingredients list, and asked if they contained pork tallow. They don't, but we wouldn't be surprised if they did. Imagine that strip of fat that runs down the side of a pork steak, packed into a chip.

And yet, there's no grease and gristle. Just a bit of the usual potato chip oiliness. It's a weird mental disconnect, having the definite flavor of a strong meat with a completely different texture.

We plowed through an entire bag in minutes, all while saying we didn't know if we actually liked what we were eating. But an empty bag tells no lies. Something about Old Vienna's Pork Steak Potato Chips compelled us to eat like wild dogs, who would be really, really baffled by the meat chips.