French Fry Diary 511: Nathan's Cheddar Cheese Crinkle Fries

These aren't the great French fries that Nathan's has at their restaurants (except for the one at the Moorestown Mall food court, which is inexplicably always staffed but never open when I've been there recently), these are corn meal snacks. I took a pic when I first saw them at Shop-Rite, and finally got around to buying a bag.

They also come in Honey Mustard and Chili Cheese, but I opted for the Cheddar Cheese Crunchy Crinkle Fries, mostly because those first two flavors really didn't grab me. The bag has both the great story and history of Nathan's as well as the ingredient list that verifies that potatoes had nothing to do with these fries.

Basically these are mediocre cheese curls but a lot of effort was put into making them look very close to how regular Nathan's French fries look. It works to a certain extent. The flavoring is uneven on the fries so you get a lot of cheesiness on some and hardly any on others. These are pretty good, but not great. If I want cheese curls, I think I might go for the real thing rather than these.

French Fry Diary 497: Herr's Bacon Cheddar Cheese Curls

I was very conflicted over writing about this one. Herr's Bacon Cheddar flavored Cheese Curls. I saw them and bought them immediately, I had to try them. The question was, having zero potato content, did it really fit the website?

Granted, I have made allowances for onion rings, the adoptive stepbrother of French fries in the world of fast food, and through that onion snacks, so these are that out of the realm. Cheddar and bacon go great with potato products, and heck, Herr's makes darn good potato chips... so, why not?

Herr's makes pretty good cheese curls to begin with, and these are extra cheesy, but they also have a smokey bacon-ish flavor. No real bacon however. And the taste is closer to what you get with the various kinds of bacon salt, than actual bacon. That said, these are pretty good, and I would get them again.

Real French fries tomorrow, I promise.