Gibble's No More

Another potato chip company bites the dust, joining the ranks of Wonder Bread and Yodels on the list of foods we wish were still around. Here's the official story.

So, "the president of Martin's is married to the daughter of Gibble's founders." That's going to make Thanksgiving and other family get togethers very very interesting.

Maybe I will be able to snag some Gibble's to review before they disappear completely. Thanks to my buddy Ray for verifying what I think we all have been suspecting for a month or more. Thanks, Martin's Famous, now we know what you're famous for.

French Fry Diary 230: Tasti-Fries

There are apparently holes in the internet, holes through which some information falls and is never to be seen again. There are forgotten foods like Quake cereal, Marathon candy bars, Chip-O's potato chips (I will get to these sooner or later), or Fudge Town cookies (*drool*) that have just slipped through the cracks. Case in point - the Tasti-Fries, a product that I remember vividly in the 1970s that seems to have completely disappeared at some point in the 1980s.

Tasti-Fries were sold in the frozen grocer's section. They were processed and shaped potato stuffings with six vertical ridges striping them that cooked up very crisp while the inside was soft and hot. They were quite tasty, pun unintended, and made by American Kitchen, or perhaps Birdseye - I'm not sure, the memory is hazy on that.

My enabling big sister Bobbie remembers them, adding that they were made like cheese doodles, the shape given by the cookie cutter extruder. She also noted, as I remembered, a type of Tasti-Fries that went by the name of Yankee Doodles or Yankee Clippers, or something patriotic like that. Not sure what the reference is but it's a wonder they weren't re-released during the 'Freedom Fries' craze of a few years back.

I have been able to find very little on this potato snack on the internet, except for the box shown and this commercial squeezed in between others from the 1970s. The clever Tasti-Fries TV spot starts at 1:33, check it out.



I wish they would bring these babies back, they were good. Do you remember Tasti-Fries?