Colorful discs puff up into delicious shrimp chips in no time.

Fry up shrimp chips in a jiffy

There's no obvious need to make your own shrimp chips. After all, the ready-made version is available almost anywhere and it's not going to cost you any more than Fritos.

But making your own is one of those intriguing adventures in frying that you could even pass off as a magic trick to children (OK, very small children).

Shrimp chips in the raw resemble tiddly-winks -- hard, thin discs, but unevenly shaped and in translucent shades of green, pink, white and yellow. To make them edible, heat a small pot of vegetable oil to 325 to 350 degrees and carefully lower in a chip or two. Don't do too much at once or you might have trouble fishing them all out in time.

In seconds the rock-hard disc will puff up into a chip. It's lots of fun to watch. Uncooked shrimp chips come in 1- and 2-pound boxes for about $1.50 per pound.

Find them in Asian and Chinatown groceries and in the Asian sections of some supermarkets.