French Fry Diary 640: Ponderosa Steakhouse

There was a time when you couldn't turn a corner in this area without running into a Ponderosa restaurant. They have all gone away. I think I'd have to drive all the way to New York state or Virginia to find one now. I don't know what we did to offend them, but they're gone. One particular old girlfriend and I used to go there all the time, we loved it.

Ponderosa was part buffet, part cafeteria style, part self-serve, and part service restaurant. They were not as classy as, say the Rustler Steak House or the Bonanza, the latter of which is owned by the same company, but it's not like a Burger King either, ya know?

I would always get the same thing, the two grilled chicken breasts and a side of fries, sometimes the chicken would even come with a barbeque sauce. And when I wasn't in the mood for fries (it does happen), Ponderosa made absolutely awesome baked potatoes. As crazy as this must sound, and as many times as I was there, I don't think I ever once got a steak. Or if I did, I went right back to the chicken, I liked their chicken that much.

The fries at the time, this would have been waaay back in the 1980s, were simple regular cuts, and as I remember you got a pretty good portion. Looking at their current menu online, the baked potatoes look just as awesome, and the fries are pretty much the same, just natural cuts with the addition of some pepper as well as the salt.

From all indications, Ponderosa seems to be more of a buffet type place now, as opposed to what it once was - more Golden Corral than Rustler. Maybe someday I'll get up to NY or down to VA, or maybe on the next trip to Orlando because I saw one there too, and find out.

French Fry Diary 342: The Chopped Challenge

A while back I talked about an episode of "Chopped" where frozen French fries were one of the mystery ingredients. My buddy Ray, who initially turned me on to "Chopped," noted several things about the episode after I posted my review of it.

Ray said, "I'm glad you picked up on how dull those chefs were with the French fries. There were so many things they could have done with them. I'm surprised someone didn't try remashing them, or coating them in Japanese bread crumbs to restore the crunch, or something other than what they did.

"I have a brilliant idea - you should recreate that Chopped event. Buy the four ingredients, get someone to film you making a dish, and then put it up on YouTube. I'll even eat it."

Now I'm not so keen on filming me cooking, but I think Ray's got a hell of an idea, and I think I might take him up on it. Let's call it the French Fry Diary Chopped Challenge. What do you folks think? Should I do it?

French Fry Diary 327: Chopped: "Frozen Fries With That?"

For Food Network Friday, I have something special today. The Bride and I love the Food Network show "Chopped." After being turned on to it by my friend Ray, we became quick fans, tuning in every Tuesday night at ten in the PM to see four chefs compete to make the best dishes from mystery ingredients in a limited amount of time. It's a hoot hosted by chef Ted Allen.

This past week, one of the mystery ingredients was a favorite of French Fry Diary - frozen grocery fries in an episode called "Frozen Fries With That?". Yeah, baby.

The four competitors were actually of extra interest this time out as two were from restaurants that I have gotten as French fry recommendations, and also one of the chefs had worked for one of the others in the past, so it was a bit of a grudge match going on. There is always fierce but friendly competition on "Chopped," but this episode was more charged than usual.

Competing this time were Chef Ian Friedman of the Rainwater Grill in New York City, Chef Adrienne Grenier of 1500 Degrees in Miami Beach, Chef Clark Barlowe of the Tower Oaks Lodge in Rockville Maryland, and Clark's former employer, Chef Dan Giusti of the 1789 Restaurant in Washington DC. A juicy grudge match of employer and employee, young and old, that promises to rock the house. The judges this episode include Maneet Chauhan, Amanda Freitag, and Chris Santos.

The favorite fried food, in the form of Frozen French Fries, was introduced in the appetizer round, along with three other mystery ingredients - Cube Steak, Salsa, and Queso Fresco. Truly it was a challenge masked in simplicity. That said, I am quite stunned by how little was done by the competitors with the fries - after all originality is one of the marks of the contest.

Chef Dan decides to make Steak Frites, deep frying the French fries and seasoning them with southwester spices and scallions, chives, and lime zest. Seriously, just deep frying the fries? Wow.

Chef Clark attempts a Chimichurri Steak & Fries. He is frying his fries in a pan, but he is also julienning some purple potatoes to join them for a little color and taste difference, nice.

Chef Ian is kinda arrogant, stating that he is above the ingredients. Great, another fry snob. He makes Marinated Steak with Two Salsas, 'truffling' his fries. He also added some wacky mustard to his salsa... ewww...

Chef Adrienne is the only one who is even slightly original, insisting that just making fries is too obvious. She chops them up into a hash with peppers and onions, to go with her Steak & Eggs. Rock on, Adrienne.

I'll leave it up to you to decide who got chopped in this round, and in the entrée and dessert rounds, as well as who wins the whole fry bag... just as I'll leave it up to you to watch this episode when it comes around in reruns. It's a great show, made even better by the presence of the favorite fried food. Mmmm... fries...

French Fry Diary 289: Lamb Fries

I was watching "Chopped" on the Food Network recently and one of the mystery ingredients was 'lamb fries.' Immediately my eyes and ears perked up. They were going to do fries on "Chopped." And then I was shocked to find out that lamb fries have nothing remotely to do with fries. They're more like the quizzically named 'sweet breads,' in other words, they're lamb testicles. Yep, serious serious ick.

This video clip from 1988's Funny Farm sheds a bit more light on the subject:



Remember, folks, lamb fries are NOT fries. This has been a public service announcement from French Fry Diary.

French Fry Diary 140: More Shake Dipping

Something a bit different this week for Food Network Friday, I'm going to talk about something I saw on "Chopped Champions" last week.

"Chopped Champions" is the a trumped version of "Chopped" for the new season. In this reality television competition series, four chefs go up against each other in three rounds - appetizer, entree and dessert - using four mystery ingredients they find out about just seconds before they start. Sometimes the ingredients make sense, and sometimes they are as twisted as say - celery root, chicken wings, salt water taffy and a pickle. The chefs have to produce something amazing, creative and tasty in a limited time using all four ingredients. Hilarity ensues.

In "Chopped Champions," the competitors are all chefs who have won on the show before and are going for a bigger cash prize and more difficult challenges. The first round of this new competition aired last week and featured in the dessert round two specific mystery ingredients - fingerling potatoes and some type of chocolate. So guess what one chef made? Yeah, you got it. Matchstick fries, and some sort of chilled chocolatey sauce in which to dip them in.

Nope. I'm not crazy. Mmmm... fries... and shake...