9-Pack: DJ&A Veggie Crisps
Our Take
- Veggies, but make them a snack
- Great for adding onto salads (or not adding onto salads)
- Really, just eat 'em straight out of the bag
- Everything from mushrooms to potato wedges
- Can they make a margarita: No, but if you eat veggie crisps instead of potato chips, you might feel less guilty drinking a margarita later
Your Take
Crunch The Numbers
Ah, eating out in 2026!
You go to the local bar & grill. You know, the one that’s fine, not super fancy but not a dive either. You and your dinner partner each order a burger and fries and a drink, maybe a beer or a glass of wine. Then, at the end, the server drops off a bill for $150, and when it comes time to pay, they swipe your card and hand you a tablet that asks if you’d like to tip 25%, 38%, or 79%.
You leave light in the wallet and heavy in the stomach, your tongue swollen from the salt content of the fries.
Unless, that is, you order a salad instead of a burger. In which case, you leave lighter in the stomach and somehow even lighter in the wallet. (Now with the exciting potential of losing further weight and/or money in the coming days, as you call in sick to attend to the toilet. Thanks, Cyclospora!)
And what makes this even more insulting is that making a salad is an assembly job. Yes, maybe there’s some finesse in cooking the protein you added on (+$6 for chicken, +$9 for steak, and next to salmon, it just says, “Leave the keys on the table and Uber home; your car is ours now”), and some of the other accoutrements require roasting, toasting, or baking. But when you look down, you essentially see a grocery list. And you know that the price you paid for one salad could buy you the ingredients to make roughly fifteen of them at home.
But let me tell you from experience, it’s not as easy as it looks.
Sure, the individual steps might not be difficult, but there are too many components. I tried to replicate a salad from a restaurant recently, and to get everything done, I had three burners occupied and the oven and the toaster running. For the vinaigrette alone, I dirtied two cutting boards, a measuring cup, and a bowl.
The obvious solution here would be to simplify things. But the simpler the salad, the easier it is to see it for what it is: just a big pile of flavorless greens that are a chore to eat.
That’s where these veggie crisps come in. Right out of the bag, they’re ready to bring a little crunch and umami, and thus elevate your boring dinner salad without adding five tedious steps to the preparation process. And with 9 bags for 20 bucks, you don’t have to pay the typical convenience premium.
Now, you might be looking at the array of offerings and think, Really, you’re telling me to add potato wedges to my salad? Which is why I should also mention that you can just eat them as snacks, no salad required (like they’re intended).
But that would mean I wrote all this for nothing. Except the money I get paid to do this.
Whatever, do what you want.
Today’s SideDeal
Snap-on power, no plug
- Snaps on with magnetic MagSafe alignment
