Doritos in Botswana

One of the interesting and often humorous things about traveling or living abroad (outside the U.S.) is discovering American brands in new disguises. These surprising variations on the ol' tried and true can frequently be found in the snack sections of convenience or grocery stores. For example, I believe I was in Bali when I had a bag of Cheetos that did not taste like Cheetos at all, as most Americans would know them. Cheese flavoring was non-existant and instead they tasted like sugar-coasted corn fritters, which I found to be a rather disgusting but understandable variety on the brand in a culture that basically doesn't eat cheese (except on something they call "pizza"). But it begs the question: why are they still called Cheetos?

Here in Botswana, I've found Kellogg's corn flakes, which are exactly like American Kellogg's corn flakes except the box has the catchy, somewhat patronizing slogan: "If it doesn't say Kellogg's on the box, it's not Kellogg's in the box". Is that right...? Wow... who knew?

Snack foods (like the Cheetos above) are often completely different when they cross borders. For example, exhibit A: Doritos. I have not seen Nacho Cheesier Doritos here yet. Maybe they simply haven't evolved past the archaic Nacho Cheese-flavored chip stage to the ultimate, Cheesier variety. But I did one day see this flavor party of a corn chip: Poppy seed, roasted garlic and Italian cheese flavor flavored Doritos. As I love garlic and Italian cheese (flavor) and do enjoy a poppy-seed bagel or muffin now and then, my curiosity gave way and I tried these out. If you look closely at the photo, you'll note that I bought into the marketing and did try these tortilla style corn chips in a bowl, but that I decided to leave out the chunk of unidentified Italian cheese (flavor?), the clove of garlic and the two scoops of poppy seeds that were "suggested" in the "serving suggestion". I figured they were already in the chips:

How were they? They were...interesting and...unlike any Doritos I would ever expect to be developed and sold, at least in the U.S. I will not buy them again as I'm not convinced that garlic and cheese flavor goes well with corn chip-flavor and poppy seeds, but they definitely looked interesting, with the poppy seeds somewhat impregnated in the corn chips.