Photo by Appleswitch/Flickrcc

Putting toppings on potato chips and serving them to your dinner party guests as an appetizer is such a gorgeous idea! Simple in conception, as time-intensive as you feel like making it, and totally yummy. Either place an alloted amount on each chip for a more formal dinner party, or let your guests dip them themselves if you are creating a casual atmosphere.

From The Atlantic’s Sally Schneider, “Dress Up Your Chips“:

Here are some of my recent potato chip improvisations:

• with Robiola, a soft, mild Italian cheese that tastes like slightly fermented cream (I learned this combo from my friend Peggy Markel on the island of Elba, who designs food and culture adventures in Italy, North Africa, and India

• with sour cream and just about any smoked fish, such as smoked salmon, trout, or sturgeon

• with crème fraiche and caviar (salmon or American sturgeon, for example)

• with eggs: richly scrambled with cream, soft-boiled or fried; or imagine a tiny fried quail egg on a single potato chip (what an hors d’oeuvre!); warm, smashed hard-boiled eggs mixed with mayo andPimenton de la Vera

• with warm brandade de morue (a salt cod, potato, and olive oil puree)

• with Skordalia, a creamy Greek garlic sauce

• with warmed, shredded, slow-cooked meat like short ribs, Seven-Hour Spoon Lamb, or pot roast with a dab of sour cream

• and of course, with Real Onion Dip.

Potato chips are also a perfect dessert with a sliver of fine chocolate sandwiched between them. I like them for afternoon tea. Or dip the chips in tempered chocolate and lay them on a rack or a piece of wax paper until the chocolate hardens.

The ultimate potato chip confection, however, I learned from a reader of my blog, whose mom used to make it for her private snack: a potato chip with a slab of ripe banana—like a crunchy, salty-sweet banana tart.