On a trip to Baltimore last week, I stumbled on a Nepalese grocery in the northern reaches of the city that had an attractive display of Lay's potato chips -- but these weren't just any Lay's potato chips. This assortment was from India, where Lay's is aggressively invading the snack-food market.

I bought the two bags they had -- India's Magic Masala and Spanish Tomato Tango, apparently part of a five-bag international collection of flavors, perfect fusion food.

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You can't get them here, or can you?

I love potato chips, but I look upon the wildly flavored ones with a jaundiced eye. Usually, the declaration of ingredients doesn't list any of the things the chips are supposed to be flavored with, meaning that an elaborate series of powdered chemicals are used to achieve the flavors. Roast-chicken-flavored chips, for example, taste almost nothing like chicken, and the chemical cocktail used to produce them brings nothing but a salty burn to the lips. In the same way, Doritos Tacos at Midnight chips taste nothing like a real taco. Then I tried Tyrrell's Salt Marsh Lamb & Mint.

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When was the last time you saw a black potato-chip bag?

The Brits have been racing far ahead of the Yanks when it comes to potato-chip flavors. As Fork in the Road has frequently reported, the snack flavors found in the U.K. often verge on the shocking. While we plod along with the usual Sour Cream & Onion and Nacho Cheese, the English are munching things like Roast Chicken, Worcestershire Sauce, Salt Marsh Lamb & Mint, and Pickled Onion chips.

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The Taiwanese menu is littered with playfully named dishes, and fly heads is one of them. Really, it's ground pork cooked with lots and lots of garlic chives and the occasional fermented black bean, for a very allium-driven flavor, and bright-green color.

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Pot roast goes there.

If you're turned off by the idea of doggie ice cream, then read no further: Dog-friendly menus, it seems, are an idea whose time has come.

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Who knew that bears like to get high, too? Though we can't vouch for the scientific veracity of this video, it sure is fun to watch, and we're wondering where we can find mushrooms like that in the forest, too! Or maybe at the Union Square Greenmarket? It comes to us from Literal Bears I'm Jealous Of, and the link was supplied by Francis Lam. Thanks, Francis!

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The Hofbrau Bierhaus pretzel is almost a foot in width.

Sure, pretzels come in a variety of sizes and styles -- there are hard pretzels in a bag, small enough that you can probably eat the entire bag, and rock-salt-snowed street pretzels big enough that one's almost a satisfying meal, especially if you smear on the grainy mustard.

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Lately, it's become fashionable in some circles to brag of one's fearless consumption of bugs, grubs, and pretty much anything else that can be scraped off of a forest floor. And if your circle happens to be in New Zealand, you will soon have the option of chasing it all down with a shot of horse semen.

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The absurdist text on the side of the box reads: "Your old friend is back ... there's no way of getting away with this love affair."

Though the official New York area relaunch of the McRib is not until this coming Tuesday, a quick canvass of the area McD's demonstrates that the sandwich was already being touted at most franchises. Accordingly, I grabbed one.

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Canada's Crunchie bar: not for Yanks?

For Canadian expats living in the U.S., Halloween can be a painful reminder of all the sweet snacks of their youth that remain largely unavailable this side of the border. Some of them stock up when they go home and smuggle their favorite goodies back. Others order online from sites like Canadiansweet.com and Bellamiacandy.com.

As the resident Canadian here at Fork in the Road, I thought I'd round up 11 of my favorite sweets from home that I won't be able to enjoy this Halloween.

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