French Fry Diary 745: Mix and Match

At the recent journey to Whataburger, it was brought up in conversation that sometimes folks, in areas where fast food restaurants are prevalent, folks will mix and match foods from different places to create sort-of-patchwork meals by hitting multiple drive-thrus. 

Now back when we were dating, The Bride and I would sometimes mix Burger King and Taco Bell, mostly because at the time I liked Burger King and didn't like Taco Bell.  We'd go through the Burger King drive-thru for my meal then we'd eat it at the Taco Bell where she got hers.  That's not what we're talking about though, that's just two different meals at one place. 

I'm talking about when you want a Whopper but don't want BK's crappy new fries, so you go to McDonald's for their perfect golden fries.  Then you like to dip them in a Frosty, something you can't do any longer with Wendy's crappy new fries.  One meal, created from three drive-thru stops. 

I'm sure there are many other combinations.  Like for instance, wouldn't Chick-fil-A's waffle fries be awesome sandwiched in a burger?  Or does a Frosty have better dippibilty for burgers than Burger King shakes?  And does the fact Roy Rogers BBQ sauce would go well with anything count? 

What are your favorite mixes and matches?  Let us know! 

French Fry Diary 739: Whataburger

After over a decade of French Fry Diary, and literally over a hundred requests and recommendations for Whataburger, certainly the chain is on my French Fry bucket list. So when we made the move from New Jersey to Florida, and Jacksonville was on our route, we definitely had to stop at the Whataburger there and try it out.

Whataburger was started in 1950 by entrepreneur Harmon Dobson, whose idea "to serve a burger so big that it took two hands to hold, and so good that after a single bite customers couldn't help but exclaim, "What a burger!"" Starting in Corpus Christi, TX, the chain expanded to nearly 800 restaurants across the country, mostly in the south, but pretty much except for the northeast where I formerly resided.

The GPS was a bit wonky finding Jacksonville's Whataburger, but eventually our caravan found it. Besides The Bride and myself, we also had along friends David and Johnny, who were helping us drive our cars to our new home in Florida. Snowy the cat sat in his box in the car while we had burgers and fries, but don't worry, the windows were inched open, and I brought him some burger afterward to munch on. Snowy is a tough bruiser of a cat, and well loved and cared for - if he ate fries, I would have gotten him those too.

We ordered - burgers, fries, and onion rings - and got a number for the table just like Chick-fil-A also does these days. We got our sodas (Coca-Cola products) and they brought our food to us. I got a plain burger as I usually do, and was impressed that there were code words - 'plain and dry' - for the special order. Places where there are such names (like off the grill for Krystal, natural for Red Robin, or plain jane at the old Burger Chef, etc.) have lesser chance of screwing it up, which I like. The burger was also quite big, and very good. I was impressed.

The fries were shoestrings similar to McDonald's with a good crisp to them. They came in standard paper sleeves, and if you 'Whatasized' your meal, you got a box similar to a popcorn box full of fries. The onion rings looked beer battered, but they probably weren't - sweet but a little greasy, but not as greasy as they looked. I wanted to try the root beer milkshake they were advertising, but I was too full.

I suppose we could go back, but Jacksonville is far enough away at this point to warrant an airplane flight so maybe not. At least I got there once, but if it was closer, I'd definitely go more often. And I get to cross Whataburger off my bucket list now.

Cow Appreciation Day 2016

It's that time of year again at Chick-fil-A, Cow Appreciation Day! This year it falls on Tuesday, July 12th - tomorrow! So get yourself some sort of cow mask, costume, whatever, wear anything cow-like (you can find ideas here) and get on over to Chick-fil-A for some free chicken! And while you're there, don't forget to get some of those great Waffle Potato Fries!

French Fry Diary 693: O'Lordan's Irish Pub

On a recent trip to see the in-laws, and especially see the nephew rock the house as part of his school's chorus, we stopped for a late night dinner at O'Lordan's Irish Pub. It being a pub and it being Friday night meant it was very loud, but we were seated behind the stage where the atmosphere was much quieter - and apparently less traveled by the waitstaff.

As the company was good we didn't mind the long wait time, much. I got my regular, a burger and fries, but what I really wanted to try was the Onion Cone. It's described as "Spanish onions in a seasoned batter and fried golden brown." However in my current altered diabetic state, those types of deep fried delicacies are certain death by carb, and calorie, and cholesterol. Maybe next time.

The burger, ordered medium well, was on the charcoal side of very well done, but still tasty on the inside, as long as one could get through the blackened exterior. On the plus side, it was on a sesame seed bun, which I usually prefer.

The fries that came as a side were waffle fries similar in cut and first glance to Chick-fil-A, but that's where the resemblance ended. If one took those great Chick-fil-A Waffle Fries, battered them, deep-fried them until they were crunchy on the outside and greasy on the inside, then over seasoned them... yeah, you got it. They were that bad.

That said, potatoey products purchased by other members of our party (how's that for alliteration?) were quite good, including the Bangers & Mash and the Potato Skins, the latter of which were made from huge Russet baking potatoes. The Irish Whiskey chicken Tenders also looked very good, maybe for next time. And I'm not adverse to coming back, they could have been having a bad night - not as bad however as the singer who was soundly butchering David Bowie and Tom Petty on the other side of the wall...

Cow Appreciation Day 2015

It's that time of year again, Cow Appreciation Day this year is July 14th.

 If you dress up in full cow costume, you get a free meal from Chick-fil-A. Details are here.

Don't forget the waffle fries!

Cow Appreciation Day 2014

It's that time of year again. July 11, 2014 is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A. On this day, if you dress in full cow attire you could get a free meal, and if you dress in partial cow attire, a free entrée could be coming your way.

If you want to check out the rules, the prizes, the ins and outs of dressing like a cow for free food at Chick-fil-A - the website you want to check out is right here.

And whether they're free or not, don't forget to get some of those great waffle fries. Mooooo…

French Fry Diary 566: Church's Chicken

Church's Chicken is the fourth largest chicken fast food chain after KFC, Chick-fil-A, and former partner Popeyes. They are currently often co-franchised with White Castle, which is what their fries most resemble. Most folks only know two things about Church's, and neither is very nice. One, that they are mostly located in lower class minority areas - not true, and two, that the Ku Klux Klan owns them and they are slowly poisoning minorities - also not true, Snopes even says so.

The Church's I visited was quite small, had a tiny eating area, and so I went through the drive-thru. There seemed to be much contention over my order, as if they didn't hear it, record it, or cook it. With only two customers inside eating, two employees working the store, and no one in the drive-thru but me, I had a good fifteen to twenty minute wait for just fries and a soda.

I ordered the large fry, not realizing how big large actually was. The large fry order is a whole box of them, making the previously thought $2.79 price actually a pretty fair bargain. The French fries themselves, as I said above, are much the same as at White Castle. These are standard crinkle cuts, deep fried, and quite probably had spent some time under a heat lamp for a while. The fries were a bit too crispy/crunchy for my tastes, but that might be because of their time in heat lamp prison. Because of that, reheating them at home later was just not possible either in the oven or microwave.

Also notable is the side menu at Church's that includes fried okra and mashed potatoes. Maybe next time. As I wrote this review in the car (because I went through the drive-thru), I have to mention that Church's mobile phone website is nigh impossible to navigate. Many details had to be filled in at home later. Someone needs to call IT.

This was not a great visit, perhaps a second chance is in order, but not for a while.

French Fry Diary 552: Dunkin' Donuts Hash Browns 2014

On a recent episode of The GAR! Podcast, my partner Ray Cornwall espoused the virtues of Dunkin' Donuts Hash Browns. You can hear that episode here. I knew I had reviewed them once, and talked about them again a year later, and was more than unimpressed. Ray raved about them, so I felt it might be time to try them again.

Despite Ray's description of them as UFOs and flat pancakes (not necessarily incorrect or accurate either), I knew as soon as I saw them, these were the same hash brown discs I had tried years ago. These hash browns are inch wide, quarter inch high discs of shaped potato bits, similar to the offerings at, as I've said before, Burger King and Chick-fil-A.

When I saw them pulled from a drawer where they had been kept since a first deep fry, then put into a quick bake oven, I shuddered. This was not going to be pretty. They put them in a bag this time rather than a cup, but they still stuck together in a nasty greasy way.

These hash brown-ettes do have an herbal spicy kick (I'm still betting on Mrs. Dash), but that's not enough to recommend them. I imagine they might be good if they were hot and not so greasy, but I get the feeling they cannot be found thus. Sounds like Ray might have found that one percent occurrence.

Cow Appreciation Day 2013

Chick-fil-A has had some bad times in the last couple years. As I have said before, just because the owner is a twisted misguided man, doesn't mean that everyone in the company agrees with his opinions. There are some very cool Chick-fil-A franchises locally that fully support gay marriage and are in fact owned by gay families with gay employees. So, don't believe the hype.

Anyway, tomorrow, July 12, 2013 is the annual Cow Appreciation Day. Go into your local Chick-fil-A dressed as a cow and you get free food. And whatever you do, don't forget those great Waffle Potato Fries!

And as long as we're talking free, don't forget that today is Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven…

French Fry Diary 395: Chick-fil-A and Choice

Whether it's McDonald's keeping other restaurants off the Olympic grounds in London, or the Burger King employee standing in bins of lettuce, it hasn't been a very good couple of weeks for fast food restaurants. But probably the biggest and most controversial news is the one that nobody, or at least nobody sensible wants to talk about - the gay cow in the middle of the room - that Chick-fil-A is anti-gay.

Apologies ahead of time, folks, the fry guy is going to talk politics, but at least it is sort of topical to the favorite fried food.

The news about Chick-fil-A is better covered here. The statement that Chick-fil-A is anti-gay is just not entirely true. Chick-fil-A is pro-heterosexual marriage. And yes, it is a game of semantics. I am pro-choice for instance, but that doesn't mean I support abortion. I'm pro-choice because as a man that decision is not meant for me to make. This too is one of those things, sooo gray, and not black and white.

I have a hard time with this issue because I like Chick-fil-A a lot, and also because I have many gay friends. Some of whom, I should point out, work for Chick-fil-A, and even run franchises. We've talked about it, and while the company's policies and opinions are very strongly against gay marriage, they themselves have never experienced any problems from corporate. It is a conundrum.

Although I love Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fries, and a lot of their chicken menu as well, I will not be going there as often, if at all any more. Still I want to support my friends who work there, but not necessarily the folks who run the company. I guess I'm pro-choice, and anti-Chick-fil-A corporate.

Remember, you can always make your own waffle fries (maybe I'll post a recipe for them soon), and yes, you can even make your own chicken sandwich…



Hopefully in the future Chick-fil-A will change their official stance. After all, losing a major percentage of their customers, as well as the Muppets, is just not smart business.

French Fry Diary 393: Special Double Holiday

July 13th 2012 is a very special day here at French Fry Diary, and despite it being Friday the 13th, it's actually very lucky. Not only is it Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A, it's also National French Fries Day.

So make sure you get out there today at some point and have the favorite fried food at your favorite restaurant, or better yet, make your own fries at home, but whatever you do, don't forget to celebrate National French Fries Day.

And if you like Chick-fil-A, and feel so inclined, dress like a cow, and get free food. The details are here. And while you're there, don't forget to have some of those yummy Waffle Potato Fries.

Now just for fun, here's a video of a cow eating French fries...

French Fry Diary 376: Burger King Hash Browns

One would think Burger King Hash Browns would have everything going for them. They have had years to study the competition before they got into the game about ten years after the Golden Arches when it comes to breakfast, theirs should be perfect.

They are essentially constructed identically to McDonald's hash browns with diced potato pieces condensed into little bite-sized crown discs instead of a big oval. They also have deep fried crispy outer layers, with the bonus of a little bit of seasoning.

Even with what looks like more flavor, the BK crowns are kinda tasteless. Really, they are just terrible. They're not as bad as Chick-fil-A, but nowhere near as good as Mickey D's. As far as fast food hash browns go, McDonald's is the clear winner. At least BK has French Toast Sticks.

French Fry Diary 353: Bassett's Original Memphis BBQ

The Bride and I had our hearts set on Sonic as we headed back across the Walt Whitman Bridge from a day in Philly. We quickly had our hearts broken as we saw no lights or cars at the Sonic. They were closed. Like closed for good. I personally was kinda shocked as this was the same Sonic Drive-In that was blocking traffic when they first opened.

Hungry, we looked around. It was Sunday so no Chick-fil-A, we didn't really feel like Five Guys, so we decided on Bassett's Original Memphis BBQ. They had fries, so good deal.

The Bride got brisket and I ordered chicken tenders and fries. The drink selection was interesting. Besides Stewart's in bottles they had some odd flavors on tap, among them real sugar cane cola, outlaw orange and a diet cola as well - all Bassett's brand microbrews.

The Memphis Fries, as they were called, were standard crinkle cuts and probably frozen and deep-fried, but they were hot and very tasty. They were also perfect for dipping and soaking up the barbecue sauce. I got the mild, but I probably should have gotten the hot. No worries, both are at the table.

The Bride loved her bacon and cheese fries, though she wasn't sure what kind of cheese was used. My chicken tenders were regular breaded tenders but smothered in that terrific barbecue sauce. This was a great meal and a great surprise. Maybe it's a good thing that Sonic was closed, we'll definitely be back.

Oil Change

Nothing as drastic as the shenanigans at Wendy's or Burger King, Chick-fil-A has made a change in the favorite fried food at their restaurants recently. They made an oil change. Chick-fil-A now cooks their Waffle Potato Fries in 100% canola oil, as opposed to the peanut oil previously used.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #29

Looks like someone Grinched Chick-fil-A! Where did the Waffle Potato Fries go?

This is a close-up shot of the Christmas tree at the Marlton Chick-fil-A.

Traditionally the trees at Chick-fil-A are decorated with the boxes the food comes in, without the food.

Just so you know, somebody (myself included) didn't swipe the fries off the tree.

But they might have...

Random Tater Pic of the Day #26

The Bride took this of a recent lunch at Chick-fil-A at the Echelon Mall (or whatever it is they're calling it this week) food court. Notice the yummy cheese sauce, and the wonderful Waffle Potato Fries of course!

French Fry Diary 291: Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries

I usually get the store brand of this variety of the favorite fried food as it's less expensive, but this was an impulse buy, so I gotta roll with the punches.

Surprisingly, on the package for Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries, other than that name, there is nothing that describes the product or explains why they are called that. Oh, it says they're made from Grade A potatoes and that they have zero grams of transfat, but nothing about the product itself.

Curiously the baking instructions are for a half a bag, and three quarters of a bag. This bothered me. What about instructions on how to cook the quarter bag that's left after you make the three quarter bag serving? I mean, come on, if you're doing instructions for dummies, be complete. So, ignore the instructions, they won't do you any good. My suggestion - twenty minutes at 450 degrees, stopping once halfway to turn.

The fries come out a bit crisp, as they do have a slight batter covering, but not enough to be offensive. They are excellent for dipping or dripping. The accompanying pic has them with Chick-fil-A Polynesian barbecue sauce. Yum. Not fantastic, and not exactly a good semblance of actual fast food fries (other than being shoestrings), but still very good.

Cow Appreciation Day 2011

It's that time of year again.

Tomorrow if you come into Chick-fil-A dressed in any way like a cow, you get free food. Cow costumes, even partial cow costumes get a free meal on Friday, July 8, 2011. Details are here.

And of course, while you're there, don't forget the Waffle Fries!

French Fry Diary 225: Chick-Fil-A

The claim to fame of Chick-fil-A is their sandwich. The Chick-Fil-A Sandwich was originally created by S. Truett Cathy at the Dwarf Grill in 1946. The chicken is pressure cooked in a deep fryer, the buns rolled in butter, with the trademark pickles of course. The pickles were originally intended as a surprise for the customers. Wow, what a surprise! And while the sandwich, sans pickles of course for the catastrophically picky eaters among us, is darned good, that's not what we're about here. We're here for the favorite fried food.

When I first encountered Chick-fil-A, it was an overlooked little diamond in the rough at the lonely end of the Echelon Mall back in the 1970s. Nobody but a select few knew about it, but those lucky few loved it. Among them were my fry-enabling older sister and brother - thank you, Bobbie and Warren. I still love Chick-fil-A, and them, to this day.

While today Chick-fil-A is world renowned for their amazing Waffle Potato Fries, that's not how they started. Their original fries were shoestrings, similar to Burger King's fries of the time (the good ones, although maybe a bit limp and greasy, but in a good way) and came in single orders in paper sleeves the size of a BK or Mickey D's small fry. A large order however, was a long sleeve, about eight to ten inches long that three of the small orders could be put into one on top of another. Yep, you got it. One large order of the old Chick-fil-A fries was actually three small fries. As always, they were innovative and ahead of its time.

After a while Chick-fil-A caught on and malls everywhere had their own stores and soon, Chick-fil-A began to open their own free standing restaurants outside of malls, hell, sometimes nowhere near malls. In that space of time, specifically 1985, they changed their fries. I'm not sure it was for the better, but it was for the different, and a good kind of different, as Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fries are among the best in the fast food world.

The waffle fry is a complex beast, and a combination of several potato-cutting styles. They appear to be discs that are natural cuts in a criss-cross pattern that allows for more even cooking when deep-fried. Chick-fil-A fries are always hot and perfect for munching in the car ride home, so getting two orders on a drive thru run is always necessary. They're addictive.

The waffle fries themselves are huge, sometimes requiring three or four bites. This is truly a prime potato product for the favorite fried food. Now I'm not a fan of potato skins so the tops and bottoms don't thrill me much, but for those that do dig them, those are treasures. And also the tiny bits at the bottom of the bag are very yummy.

Part of the original charm of the Chick-fil-A franchise was that you could take the Chick-fil-As, the boneless white chicken 'patty' (for lack of a better word), and re-heat it when you got home, sometimes days later. They would come six to a box, shaped like a barn (it may have even been called a barn, I don't recall). You could even buy your own Wonder Bread hamburger rolls, butter them, heat them and make your own sandwiches. When the Chick-fil-A sandwich became more popular, they kinda stopped selling the chicken patties unfortunately.

Reheating their food at home still works for any of their chicken products, and also their fries - whether you're using the microwave or the conventional oven. That's really something. But remember if doing a sandwich in the microwave, take it out of the bag. There's foil inside, and if you forget, there be fireworks and eventually fire. Soooo not fun.

I love these fries, they rock. Many try to recreate the magic of the Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fry, but nobody comes close. Highly recommended.

Free FryDay

Tomorrow, March 4th, isn't just Friday, it's also FryDay - Chick-fil-A Free FryDay!

Celebrate the national launch of Heinz' new Dip & Squeeze ketchup at your local Chick-fil-A restaurant!

On Friday, March 4th, 2011, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, get one free medium order of Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fries when you mention you're there to try the new Heinz Dip & Squeeze ketchup.