Junk Food Nation, yesterday LeBron James won his first ring. And Miami deserved the NBA title – they were the better team (sidenote: I called it. Yep. Don’t mind me. Just bragging.)  After all the criticism the refs were getting in the Finals, the decisive victories that the Heat put up just showed how much better they were than the Thunder.  Through it all, James was workman-like – taking care of business, dealing with criticism, and not showing up the OKC Thunder with any theatrics – just putting up stats and winning.  LeBron, in the end, said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, and that he’d changed since last year’s Finals loss.

In the end, James learned what many before him finally learned (I hope) – that winning it all IS hard. It just IS.  When I look back at why I had (and it hasn’t all dissipated) so much venom towards LeBron, it wasn’t because of the Decision (an immature move, but one that I could care less about after a month).  It wasn’t because they had assembled a superstar team (many NBA teams are similar, and I am, after all, a Yankees fan.)  It wasn’t even because I had heard stories of how LeBron was personally (after all, I rooted for MJ, who was by all accounts also a friggin weirdo and rude as hell.)

No, my main beef was the pre-season celebration in Miami’s arena.  It was the proclamation that winning championships (six + to be precise) was easy, before it had happened.  Any champion – Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Aaron Rodgers, Shaquille O’Neal – knows that mere assembled talent doesn’t win you the ring.  You think when Denver signed Peyton Manning, they held a press conference guaranteeing a Super Bowl?  Heck no. Why put the target on your back? Real champions know how hard this shit is.  Champions are champions because they had to REALLY persevere through adversity. They had to grit their teeth and dig in.  Like LeBron did during the Finals.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done as a basketball player,” James said. “You just put a lot of hard work into it and you hope that one day it will pay off for you.”

That’s right.  Will the Heat win again? I’m sure they are the favorites next year.  But I’m hoping LeBron sees how everything had to come together just right for the Heat to win. And hopefully when the next NEXT Jordan comes along…he or she won’t make the same silly proclamations beforehand.

Today’s junk food: Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps!

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: The Money Shot

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps I picked up at the Fancy Food Show.  An English-based crisp, I dunno how I missed these while I was in Ireland…Tyrrell’s makes a whole bunch of weird flavors.  Personally, I’d love to try their Honey Roast Ham and Cranberry Crisps.  Apparently, according to the sales reps, you can buy these in Whole Foods.  I’m skeptical, but maybe someone out there can report on this.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: Is this was porn looked like back in the 1920’s?

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: I like how the apostrophe is a leaf

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps are marketed as “Hand Cooked English Potato Chips” here in the US.  But we all know what’s up.  I mean, the rest of the bag has French on it – and we ain’t in Montreal.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: A PRODUCT OF ENGLAND APPARENTLY

Not to mention that the back of the bag has GIGANTIC LETTERS labeling this as an English product.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: English version

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps has very few ingredients, which is nice, and they love to have large rambling blocks of text. I swear the back of this bag looked like a newspaper.  I mean, check out the OTHER side of the bag:

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: version française

Parlez-vous français? No, no I don’t, weirdo.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: BIG pieces of cracked pepper

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps smelled a bit like cracked pepper. I immediately noticed the very large noticeable pieces of cracked pepper – much more visual than other Salt & Pepper chips I’d had.  Let’s take a closer look.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps: CLOSE UP

Yeah, those are some good size specks.  A little thicker cut, Tyrrell’s chips clearly resembled Kettle Chips – folded over and crunchy.

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps

Tyrrell’s Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Hand Cooked English Crisps were pretty good.  Like a standard Kettle Chip, they crunched pleasingly and didn’t just fall apart.  While sometime Kettle Chips can feel a little greasy, these did not – they left virtually no oil on my fingers, and did not leave the bag greasy either.

The taste? Also “pretty good” – it had the nice salt and pepper savoriness. Not very salty and not very peppery.  The cracked pepper actually started out strangely sweet and then grew in peppery taste as I chewed.  The flavor was overall not too overpowering – very unlike the EXTREME flavors US companies have been pushing as of late. Just a good, solid salt and pepper chip – nothing I was wowed at, but I could demolish and entire case of these with no problem.

Not bad, Tyrrell’s.  A safe start to our reviewing relationship.

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy