As you can see from the package, Skips are a “Tingly Prawn Cocktail.”  So yeah, this is a junk food designed not only to taste like shrimp, but shrimp cocktail specifically.  When you open the package you think “what’s that smell? tomato..shrimp?” in that order.  That’s also what it’s like to eat them.  Actually, maybe the flavor sensation is more like “tomato? or is that vinegar? whoa, shrimp!”  They are really “tingly” when they first hit your tongue- like a tingly, tangy sensation.  It tastes like…cocktail sauce!  That’s some fine junk food engineering.  After the shrimp cocktail flavor fades, you’re left with a pleasant, light, starchy flavor, with a bit of tang, but not as much tingle.  When I finished the bag (because I promptly finished the bag) I hit some pockets of heavily flavor-dusted crumbs.  These little Skips remnants were especially tangy and delightful.

While I obviously enjoyed Skips, I couldn’t help but wonder “when would I crave Skips?”  Maybe I’d crave Skips if I really wanted shrimp cocktail, but found myself too far inland to view seafood without suspicion.  Although this exact scenario- craving shrimp cocktail in Nebraska- has not happened, it is within the realm of possibility.  My sister and I did eat one pound of peel and shrimp EACH in Boston once.  Recalling this memory made me think “is one pound of peel and eat shrimp a lot? Or did it just seem like a lot because I was 10?  I started to google “one pound of shrimp,” and the autofill came up with “one pound fish” and the first hit was this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_miGclPFGs

This prompted more questions, like “is this England’s version of Chocolate Rain?”  Apparently, this guy worked at a fish market and made up a song and somebody thought to produce a dance version and now it has almost 30 million views.  This song, which advertises cheap fish to ladies, went up to number 1 on the UK Asian chart and number 4 on the UK dance chart.  Apparently “One Pound Fish guy” was deported (or wasn’t? Internet newz seems conflicted here), but he was indicted in Pakistan for failing to pay a loan he was given several years earlier.  I can’t find anything about his current situation…but now I need to know!  The Internet has failed me.  I’m so sad I could binge eat some shrimp cocktail-flavored junk food.

p.s. I was so busy eating the Skips that I totally forgot to take a picture of them.  They look like little discs with slightly upturned edges.  Because you were dying to know.