Happy National Onion Ring Day

Today is National Onion Ring Day, or depending on how many you eat, National Onion Rings Day. So get out there and celebrate by having some of the second favorite fried side, onion rings!

Some of the best I've tried are at Red Robin, Manny's, Sonic, Bahama Breeze, Zaxby's, Red Lobster, Square 1, Long John Silver's, and the much-missed Little Shanty. Where will you be celebrating?

National Onion Rings Day 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014 is National Onion Rings Day, so how are you going to celebrate?

Maybe you could go out to dinner to your favorite restaurant, or better yet, your favorite restaurant that has your favorite onion rings.

Some of my favorite rings include those at Little Shanty, Raglan Road, Long John Silver's, or those great coconut onion rings at Bahama Breeze.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #152

Yucca Fries from Bahama Breeze.

French Fry Diary 559: Writing and Onion Rings

It's been a couple years since I've been to Bahama Breeze. I've been there more than a few times, sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, but always, above it all, the Island Onion Rings are awesome. They are, with their coconut shavings and Panko bread covering among the best, period.

When my friend Marni got sick, she passed along the doorprize she won at Women 2 Women to The Bride and me, that doorprize? A free Happy Hour at Bahama Breeze, woo hoo! So we scrambled together and asked a whole buncha folks, but Tuesday being the middle of the week, and a blizzard looming, and a variety of other reasons, only a handful of folks showed up. Most of them were my writer friends.

Having just talked about inspiration and motivation over at the South Jersey Writers Blog this week, it was a topic heavy on my mind, and the company of writers is always a strong motivation to write and get work done. So amongst a barrage of appetizers, and those fabulous Island Onion Rings, we settled in for an evening of writing chat, made new friends, and just in general had a good time.

It was close company and good food. Fran Metzman, Terry Mergenthal, Maryliz Clark, her husband, Jim Knipp, his wife, and The Bride and I had a terrific time. And Jim, just for the record, those O-rings tasted just great after reheat in the oven at home. Trust me, you regret not taking them.

I have to say that Bahama Breeze in the Cherry Hill Mall went above and beyond to make us feel welcome, serve us perfectly, attend to our every need. The chef even came out and chatted with us, and we talked about how the onion rings were made.

Stuff like this goes a long way toward future visits. Our wait staff was perfection. It will be a very short time between visits to Bahama Breeze next time. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 345: Bobby's Burger Palace

Bobby Flay knows French fries, other people's French fries. His own, not so much. Remember those great fries from Balthazar that he talked about on "Best Thing I Ever Ate: Totally Fried"? Well, apparently he knows where to go for good fries, but not how to make them himself.

Bobby's Burger Palace opened up at the classy new Cherry Hill Mall a few months back. It is settled in between Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52, so it's dead center in the valet parking zone. In other words, if you're going to BBP, be prepared for a serious walk cuz you can't park anywhere near it.

This was a night out for The Bride and me, and we invited my buddy Ray to come along. Ray had been to the BBP in Eatontown before and was not impressed. In the words of my friend Ray, "It's not a burger worth waiting in line a half hour for." Well see. He also said the place looked like a 1970s Burger King threw up, and I gotta say, he's absolutely right.

So, stand in line, big menu on the wall, order, sit and wait some more. We sat at the counter, not much choice there. Notably Bobby's Burger Palace has Fresca. They get extra points from The Bride for that. But they also get minus points for the anti-bigger people seating. No chairs in the place are movable, in other words, no chair can be pulled out. I think for a place that sells fast food, gourmet or otherwise, that's a serious faux pas. Condiments included yellow mustard, ketchup, chipotle, jalapeño, and the mysterious burger sauce. Oddly the shakes came first. Isn't that dessert? Weird. The food came quicker than I thought though, but not all at once.

I got just a plain burger as usual, but I got it 'crunchified,' in other words with potato chips on top. Now I applaud the attempt, but I've been putting potato chips on my burgers since I was a little kid. Just piling them on doesn't work. You have to lay them on, cover the whole burger, not just the middle. Also Bobby just uses regular sub-standard store brand potato chips. You need to use flavored chips like barbeque and a quality brand as well. The chips on the burgers done Bobby's way was not a treat and will not bring new folks into the chips-on-burger family. I dumped my chips off after a few bites.

The burger was very good though. Well, mine was at least. Ray had complaints. He got the Bobby Blue Burger, which purports to have blue cheese on it. One would expect, as Ray would, it to have crumbled bleu cheese on the burger, but not the case. It's a bleu cheese sauce, not quite the same thing.

The fries on the other hand, were not good. The Bride suspected they were the last of a batch, very hard and stuck together. They were pretty terrible actually, like at the end of the night at Five Guys. Way too crunchy, overdone, and just bits and pieces. Looking at the fries of others, this seems to be the standard. Now when I asked our waiter if this was the way the fries usually are, he told me yes. Still, the website showed quite tasty looking fries, that bore no resemblance whatsoever to anything I saw in the restaurant the night we went.

The special BBP fry sauce was just some type of salad dressing. Ray had the sweet potato fries and described them as bland. Not good for Bobby so far. We did like what we saw when an order of onion rings went by - gigantic. They looked awesome. Maybe next time, cuz I will be back for the burger, but definitely not the fries.

I remain puzzled. If Bobby Flay thinks the best most perfect fries in the world are from Baltthazar in New York City, why not produce something similar at his own restaurant? Those at Bobby's Burger Palace are not recommended.

French Fry Diary 340: ShopRite Panko Breaded Onion Rings

When I saw these in the freezer section of my local ShopRite, I was really excited. Panko bread crumbs are the gold standard for onion rings, and being a store brand meant they were cheap. Also being frozen, it meant easy prep. I immediately snagged two bags of these babies.

First impressions were not great when I opened the bag. They looked pretty average, not covered in big crunchy Panko bread crumbs or made from giant whole onions as I had come expect from places like Red Robin and Bahama Breeze. And now I'm aware that 'Panko' is a way of cooking bread but it still bothered me a bit that word appeared nowhere in the ingredients.

I still couldn't wait to try them out and I was thrilled to see directions for both deep frying and baking. Feeling both industrious and hungry, I decided to do both.

I only did five rings of varying sizes in the deep fryer. They cooked very quickly and came out with a very crunchy outside and a hot juicy oniony inside. They were a bit greasy, but they were cooked in oil. Again, not what I expect in a Panko, but pretty good.

The baked batch, on the other hand, were like Baby Bear's bed, just right. Still crunchy, but tender as well, and not one bit greasy - ah, the wonder of baking. I put some seasoning on them, dipped them in BBQ sauce and they were great. Easy and great.

French Fry Diary 320: Bahama Breeze 2011

It's become tradition to meet up with friends from college and their families in the week after Christmas. Sometimes all of our schedules sync and we all get together, and sometimes it's just a few of us. This year, it was just The Bride and I with Dom and Cindy and their kids. You might remember they were on the last Disney Cruise with us. We got together again for dinner at Bahama Breeze in the Cherry Hill Mall.

They, like me, have a thing for the Island Onion Rings there. It was the first thing we ordered. It had been some time since I'd been to Bahama Breeze, so I'd forgotten how really big an order you get, so we made the major mistake of getting two, for the six of us. Yeah, we took a lot home. If you look at the image of the Island Onion Rings accompanying this blog entry, it's worth noting, that picture was taken after we had started eating - yeah, there were a lot more onion rings than you see there.

What makes Bahama Breeze's Island Onion Rings so good is the cocoanut shavings they mix in with the Panko bread crumb covering those gigantic slices of onion. The cocoanut adds an extra sweet kick that almost makes them addictive. I say almost because you can fill up on them rather quickly. And for the record, they reheat very well, baked in the oven later at home. Still the best reason to come to Bahama Breeze.

For my entrée, that I barely had room for, I got the Breeze Wood-Grilled Chicken Breast, replacing the regular veggie accompaniment with French fries of course. The chicken came soaked in a thick citrus butter sauce, that was at first cloying, but had a delicious aftertaste. I really enjoyed it, and it even tasted good on the pretty standard natural regular cut fries.

All in all, it was a great meal with old friends. Good food, good conversation, a terrific holiday get together. We should really do this more often.

French Fry Diary 174: Johnny Rivers' Grill & Market, Orlando International Airport

Southwest Airlines always has their gates off the beaten track no matter what airport you go to. If you arrive at any airport, be assured that Southwest will be the furthest point from where you are. In an airport like Orlando, one so big that they need a train to get you to your baggage, Southwest is pretty far from any of the malls or food courts. What is close to Southwest's gates is a place called Johnny Rivers' Grill & Market.

This is a tiny little oasis squeezed between two gates with an unimaginably tiny seating area and an even tinier 'market' where you can order and purchase stuff like sodas, candy and peach barbeque sauce. It does smell really good, specializing in Cajun fare, with delightful pictures rather than a menu. Here I was, with lots of time on my hands, and a taunting picture of golden brown steak fries overhead. So I ordered fries and a Dr. Pepper (which was odd, isn't Florida the land of Mr. Pibb?).

Ten minutes later I got a very generous portion of shoestring French fries. They were very hot as they were made to order, and they were sprinkled heavily with salt and cracked black pepper that gave them quite a kick. Not bad for an airport snack, and I would have been more than satisfied had it not been for that teasing pic of golden brown thick steak fries on the menu.

This place really has no web presence. I did find numerous bad reviews of the food at this particular location. The chef Johnny Rivers (not the Memphis Secret Agent Man from the Poor Side of Town, it should be noted) is apparently also responsible for the menus at such myriad restaurants as Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze, the Hawaiian Tropic Grill and Prime Minister Steakhouse. I guess he didn't spend much time at the airport.

French Fry Diary 120: National Onion Rings Day

Today, June 22nd, is National Onion Rings Day.

Yeah, I know this is French Fry Diary, but onion rings run a close second to fries when it comes to most loved side dishes, and the rings get more popular every day. Now they will never surpass the favorite fried food, but they are still a favorite.

Some of the best onion rings in my opinion can be found in some odd places. Cheeburger Cheeburger has excellent rings, so does Sonic and Red Robin Burger. The Bloomin' Onion at Outback is amazing and the Potato Onion Web at Orlando's Rising Star has to be seen to be believed. Props also go to Arby's onion peels, Alexia's frozen rings and especially to Bahama Breeze's coconut breaded onion rings. And of course, once you learn the secret to making them at home, nothing beats that.

So what are your favorite onion rings?

French Fry Diary 102: Bahama Breeze

We went to Bahama Breeze at the Cherry Hill Mall on a family excursion so it was a big party. I had never been there but some of the family had before, and had liked it enough to come back and to recommend it.

The first thing that caught my eye on the menu was the coconut-breaded Onion Rings, that surprisingly is not on any menu on their website. If it’s only available at the Cherry Hill location, it’s a serious loss to everyone else.

Our waitress Melissa seemed to have a problem with our end of the long table. She was almost determined not to move when taking our orders and we had to shout down to her. We also had to collect menus and dispense drinks for her. At first it was funny, as the meal continued it became very annoying.

The onion rings were huge rings, sweet and spicy, constructed into a lopsided but solid tower of rings (unlike the straight ones on a stick at Red Robin). The coconut added an extra zing to these crispy wonders with lots of onion. I loved these, and they would definitely be a reason to come back.

I got my usual burger, due to my catastrophic pickiness, and fries came with it. The burger was unseasoned and quite bland, and I didn’t finish it. The fries weren’t much better either. They were spicy natural cuts with black pepper. These had an odd spiciness compared to the delightful zing of the rings.

As the meal went on, the waitress never came down to our end of the table, except at the end where she finally cleared our plates. Bahama Breeze is not recommended, except for those onion rings.