Random Tater Pic of the Day #280

This is from dinner at the Royal Palace on board the Disney Dream on our June 2017 cruise. Chateaubriand Roasted Filet Steak, with crushed new potatoes with shallots, buttered green beans, and red wine jus. Sooo good and delicious. Sometimes the French do know their potatoes...

Random Tater Pic of the Day #278

In my last entry here I talked about how bad cruise fries can be sometimes, but they (potato products) can also be fabulous as well. Here's the soft potato gnocchi appetizer from Palo on board the Disney Dream from our June 2017 cruise. Very tasty. Palo remains the place to beat on board. They even brought me fries last time. Palo just rocks.

French Fry Diary 631: Sweet Potatoes Vs. Yams

Last week I posted some really cool pics from my friend Robin Renee of her Homemade Vegan Sweet Potato Pies. A conversation via text later indicated that Robin didn't think they were technically sweet potatoes, but yams instead. This got me thinking about what the real difference between sweet potatoes and yams actually was… and therein I discovered quite the conspiracy.

It would seem that what we think of in America as yams are really just sweet potatoes, just another variety of them. We've been calling them the wrong name for years. It's just like those French taking credit for fries from the Belgians, we've been giving yummy sweet potatoes the name yams when they are not yams at all. You can read about what's really what in the world of yams and sweet potatoes here.

And while we're sort of on the subject of Robin Renee and the holidays, you might want to check out these two YouTube videos, "Hare Krishna Christmas" and "The Yule Song." Enjoy!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #157

Random Tater Pic of the Day #130

Recently on Twitter when I good-naturedly teased friend, fellow writer, and occasional French Fry Diary contributor Sarah Hawkins-Miduski for going to a French restaurant and not getting French fries, she sent me this.

Nice, I guess that makes up for it. ;-)

The question still remains, why don't French restaurants ever have French fries?

French Fry Diary 532: Amora Moutarde

One of the things The Bride got involved in on this Disney Cruise is something involving a community of fish extender people. I know, sounds weird, but long story short, it's sort of like an onboard secret Santa - passengers give each other small gifts by hanging them on the fish ornaments outside their cabin doors. Sometimes the gifts are food, sometimes toys, and sometimes something from the giver's region of the world.

Today, we got a plastic bottle of mustard from fellow passengers who are either French or French-Canadian. There's not much on the bottle I can read short of the brand name Amora, and moutarde, which I'm relatively sure is mustard. What an interesting and generous gift.

What makes it relevant to French Fry Diary is the note they taped to back of the bottle. Their suggestion read thusly: "The Original French Mustard to eat with your meats, potatoes, hot dogs, burgers… and add a French flavor to your meals…" Now I'm not a mustard guy, but potatoes, really? Who puts mustard on potatoes?

Seriously, if anyone knows of any instances or recipes, hit me up, and maybe I'll feature it here on the blog. This is a new one on me, and I would like to learn more.

French Fries Day 2013

July 13th is French Fries Day, be it National French Fries Day or Happy French Fries Day, I suppose that's really up to you.

There are many celebrations going on in the tater world today, believe it or not. News services are alive with suggestions as to where the best fries are. Various towns in Idaho are hosting picnics and parades. And of course many restaurants have fry-oriented offers and promotions today.

The French and Belgians are fighting (as always) about who invented the favorite fried food. We all know it was Belgium, but in this one case, somehow the French won't surrender.

The question is - how will you be celebrating today? Will you be cooking your own fries? Will you be going out to dinner, and getting fried spud as a side? or will you purposely seek out your favorite potato and celebrate specifically. Whatever you do, enjoy.

For me, I celebrated for dinner last night, by making Paula Deen's recipe for the favorite fried food.  There's an image to the left of the finished product.  Mmmm... fries...

Shameful woman, but I gotta say, she knows how to make a damn good French fry.

Happy French Fries Day, folks.

French Fry Diary 264: Royal Palace, Disney Dream

Day two dinner of our cruise brought us to the Royal Palace. The ritziest of the three free restaurants on board the Disney Dream, the Royal Palace is Disney princess themed, mostly Cinderella but they are all included. It's also a French restaurant, as beaten into me by my friend Dom (who spent much of dinner doing French quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), so I ordered - of course - French fries.

The catastrophically picky eater in me also got daring at this meal. I ordered an avocado citrus salad and wild boar tenderloins. Yeah, I went waaay out of my comfort zone. And the coolest part of the meal so far - our traveling companions Dom and Cindy's little girl got a kids meal with French fries, and a Mickey Mouse made of ketchup. Awesome.

The wild boar was very tender and delicious, much to my surprise. The favorite fried food was the same as last night - the baked steak fries. Wonderful. Again, as always, good company and good food, was topped off tonight by creme brûlée, Dom's favorite dessert.

Now I've mentioned how much I love the waitstaff on the Disney boat, and how they take care of you so well. Dom had mentioned loving the crème brulee on the last trip, and they remembered. He got it every night this time, and when I said I liked it as well, guess who got it every night thereafter on this trip? Yep, now that's cool.

French Fry Diary 241: Freedom Fries

Here's the gist. America went to war in Iraq, and it was a very unpopular war. Among the many countries that opposed this, one of the most vocal was France. In response, many American citizens started calling French fries by a new name - "Freedom fries." That's all there is to it. President Bush did not mandate this, none of the major fast food companies did this, and let's face it, this was not the first time France had behaved arrogantly and we made fun of them for it.

And bottom line, no matter how much they whine about it, the French didn't create the French fry, the Belgians did. It's just a name, and it doesn't matter. Come on, there's no dog in a hot dog and nobody has a problem with that, right?

Why am I irritated by this all of a sudden? I just saw a movie called Freedom Fries: And Other Stupidity We'll Have to Explain to Our Grandchildren. I say movie, because even though it tries very hard to look like a documentary, but it's basically an opinion piece by writer/director/producer Carl Christman. It's not about French fries, despite the title. Christman has a problem with President Bush, and made a movie to express his opinion - which is wonderful, because I am all for expressing your opinion, but for some reason he felt the need to sully the name of the favorite fried food to do it.

He's not as bad as Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, but he does only want to present his opinion, and everyone else's is stupid. Carl Christman seems to be as anti-French fries as much as he is against Bush, the war, the government, God, bumper stickers, Disney World, protest (unless he agrees with the cause), money, buying American, buying anything for that matter, etc. - it goes on and on. Just about the only thing he's not against is bitching - cuz he does a lot of that. Oh yeah, and France. He seems to like France a lot.

The other thing that bugs me about this movie (more than it not really being about French fries) is that when he does show fries, they are from McDonald's (and I'm willing to bet he's anti-Mickey D's too), but McDonald's never changed the name of their product to "Freedom Fries," so why imply that they did? Shame, shame, more research and more fries I think are in order for Mr. Christman.

French Fry Diary 172: Triton's, Disney Wonder

Day four brought us to both brunch and dinner at Triton's. For our late brunch I had the French toast, bacon and roasted red potatoes. At Triton's there were a bit better and hotter than they had been up at Beach Blanket Buffet, and in a much larger portion. Also the bacon was reasonably cooked, not crunchy like glass as it has been most mornings up there. I guess it is a matter of where you go.

For our last dinner on board the Disney Wonder I had the best meal of our cruise. French bread as an appetizer, aged Angus beef tenderloins, bacon (yes, bacon!) wrapped green beans and side order of French fries - because it's a French restaurant after all.

These larger than usual regular cuts were the exact same delicious and nearly perfect fries from our first aboard ship at Animator's Palate. Dessert was an old-fashioned ice cream sundae. This definitely made up for last night. Not just the best meal on the cruise, but the best meal - not to mention service, Stafford and Myriam were first class - I've had in a long time.

French Fry Diary 130: Herr's Potato Stix

When it comes to potato sticks, it used to be hard to beat French's (also known as Durkee in some places at certain times). The relationship between French's and potato sticks was like Scotch tape or Kleenex tissue. French's was the brand for the snack, what you thought of when you thought of potato sticks, but unfortunately the folks at French's have discontinued their potato sticks. The bastards. Now we have to rely on folks like Herr's. They make great chips, but sometimes their sticks ... not so good.

I bought two packs of Herr's Potato Stix on a recent late night Wawa snack run, one regular and one barbeque. The idea of the latter just blew my mind and I couldn't wait to try them - imagine barbequed potato sticks! I tried the plain first unfortunately, and they were just horrible. Not recommended. After that, the barbeque pack just sat on a shelf at home for a while. I didn't want to try them any more.

The other night, in lieu of doing another snack run, especially in this heat, I finally turned to that bag of Herr's Barbeque Potato Stix. They really could have been terrible, but instead they were exactly what was promised. Surprise. Crisp tasty potato sticks and hot spicy seasoning. Recommended. I don't know what they did wrong with the regular, but they did it right with the barbeque.

The French Canadian

After the blog was removed from My Yahoo! mysteriously, it took a while to find This Is Why You're Fat again, but here it is, back again.

Here's an entry called The French Canadian, it's a poutine sandwich filled with those awful gravy fries the Canadians like so much, using two pieces of French toast as the bread and topped with maple syrup.

Yep, it's very patriotic if you're from the Great White North, but it is definitely why you are fat...

French Fry Diary 124: National French Fries Day

From My Punchbowl:

July 13, 2010 is National French Fries Day. Oh how we love those deep-fried strips of potato we know more commonly as French fries (or "chips" in England). The Belgians claim to have invented French fries, but no one knows for sure.

According to a Belgian historian, French fries date back to the 1600s when the inhabitants of a region formerly known as the Spanish Netherlands (currently Belgium) had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish. When the river froze and they could not fish they turned to potatoes, which they cut lengthwise and fried in oil. The term "French" was introduced during World War I when soldiers arrived and tasted the fries. They called them "French" as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at the time.

Today, we have many variations of French fries. Waffle fries, curly fries, sweet potato fries, shoestring fries - what's your favorite? Whatever variation you prefer, chances are you'll be eating them away from home like most Americans. In fact, one fast-food chain's famous fries are so popular, they have their own Facebook page with more than half a million fans!

So hit up the drive-thru and super size your order to celebrate National French Fries Day!

Other ideas on how to celebrate National French Fries Day comes from eHow. Click here for their suggestions.

As for me, I think I'm going to make my own French fries. Mmmm... fries...

Robert Plant’s Freedom Fries

I’m really not sure what it has to do with the whole Freedom Fries thing (or even the favorite fried food at all) from a few years back, but it sure does rock...

Belgian Fries Conquer Abu Dhabi

From The National, by Si Hawkins

United Arab Emirates, December 28, 2009

The Frites of the Matter

It is hard to believe that the humble chip has become so contentious across the globe. A potent symbol of American business success but also a virtual pariah in the United States, it’s been patronised by presidents, played a prominent role in several wars and had its origins called into question. The size, shape, taste, nutritional qualities and even the name are issues that have occupied some of history’s most influential figures. It’s a hot potato.

In the UK, the very concept of the fast-food French fry is anathema to those brought up with slow-moving fish and chip shops. For Brits of a certain age, the sights, sounds and smells of the traditional chippy are to be savoured. But ever since the big US eateries moved into UK high streets several decades ago, the chunky old chip has been struggling manfully against those stiff little fingers from the States. It’s one skirmish that continues to simmer.

As patrons of the Abu Dhabi Intercontinental Hotel’s new Belgian cafe are discovering, however, the battle to be top chip isn’t quite as cut and dried – or cut and fried – as the Anglo-American axis might assume. The finest fries may, in fact, derive from a different European source, where, indeed, they were invented. And it isn’t France.

For the full article, click here.

French Fry Diary 66: Lumiere’s, Disney Magic

On my last trip on the Disney Cruise, on board the Disney Wonder, I found some amazing French fries, English chip style, along with a lunch burger at Triton’s. This trip, on board the Disney Magic, I figured I would try the fries at Lumiere’s – the Magic version of Triton’s.

The obvious choice for lunch at Lumiere’s is, duh, the Lumiere Burger. This came with, and was even labeled on the menu as, steak fries. No biggie. Actually I had kinda expected this. Upon request at dinner the night before, I was also brought steak fries. Like I said, no big deal, cuz these were really good steak fries.

Presentation counts. Here I was in a French restaurant, surrounded by French bread, French onion soup, French escargot, and I was having French fries. It works. There’s an old saying that you can’t dress up a pig – you still have a pig in a dress. Sometimes, just sometimes though, you can dress up French fries. Such is the case with Lumiere’s steak fries. And the burger was damned good too.

Poutine

Poutine is one of the worst tortures one can do to the poor French fry.

It comes from the French, or more accurately the French Canadien folk. It should be noted, despite the name, the French are the ones who lay claim to creating the favorite fried food, but we all know it was really the Belgians. I think that, right there, should tell us how much we should trust the concept of the poutine.

Poutine, roughly pronounced poo-teen, as in poop and teeneger, which is also very telling, is the process of drenching poor French fries in cheese and gravy. Just to make sure it's even more inedible, it's usually cheese curds and hot brown gravy. Come on, really, what did French fries ever do to you?

You can find a powerfully pictorial recipe for poutine here. The fries sure look good before getting tortured, don't they?

Despite my dislike for this variation on the favorite fried food, I have been assured it is quite tasty, and is actually quite popular in the great white north. All across Canada, chains like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC all have choices of poutine on their menus. If you're into it, enjoy!


.