I was recently watching a culinary travel show with Marcus Samuelsson, and in one scene, a woman asked him if he eats exotic food. He’s a chef, he said, of course he does. She went on to describe a dish where she kills the duck, drains the blood, then cooks it. All good so far. But then the duck is served in the blood, which she said by that time has gelled. Blood jelly.

Samuelsson stuck to his guns but asked a question that says it all:

“Do your kids eat it?”

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She said they don’t, and we never saw Samuelsson eating it either.

Luckily, duck blood jelly was not among the 19 assorted flavors of Lay’s potato chips Chris Herrington, Eric Barnes, our producer Natalie Van Gundy and I sampled on this week’s two-fer of Sound Bites and the Sidebar. But I’m going to use the gauge of whether a kid would eat it the next time we step in these waters.

We started with cucumber, which was non-offensive and tasted mostly like cucumber. They were small chips, about the size of Cheez-its. We liked roasted fish, a savory chip, lightly smoky, not fishy. Some were, like cucumber, just OK: Not bad, not good. Tomato, for example — it was sweet, which was off-putting but meh, no big deal. Chili crab should have been “krab” because they tasted like surimi, the fake crab you find in the grocery. Same for spicy lobster.

But it gets worse.

Boat noodles smelled like cat urine.

Shrimp tom yum hot pot carried the distinct odor of Lemon Pledge.

But we had fun, as we always do when we step outside our everyday experience. Want to try it with your friends? Chris picked up all the bags at Viet Hoa on Cleveland, so get over there and have an experience. We should all do it more often. But when it gets real iffy, ask yourself: Would a kid eat it?