French Fry Diary 455: Smashburger 2013

Here it is, the report from the annual trip to Smashburger on New Year's Day. I had anticipated this year getting together a whole expedition to go from folks at the NYE party the night before, but it didn't work out. Hangovers do that. And the couple we had wanted to come with us passed because of vegan issues.

I countered with the argument that Smashburger had a wide variety of vegan and/or vegetarian offerings, including a veggie burger and several flash-fried veggies as sides. I was told that just going to Smashburger, and giving them their business, would be like saying what they do is okay, and for them - it's not.

I understand completely. No harm, no foul. We're cool. But it did get me thinking. I suppose there are a lot of folks who feel that way, and it made me wonder. Are the fast food burger outlets just wasting their time by making vegan/vegetarian offerings available, when those folks won't be coming in any way? I would love to hear the thoughts of folks out there in the foodie blogosphere.

Now, on to the regularly scheduled annual Smashburger visit. Unlike the last two years we had been here to the Riverside Square Mall location, the place was packed, and hopping for New Year's Day lunch. After placing our order and sitting down, The Bride and I busied ourselves on our iPhones playing the BurgerSmasher game. You can test your skills here making burgers the Smashburger way.

Our shakes came to the table first. I got a big thick chocolate shake, as thick as McDonald's used to have, and Sonic still does. The Bride thought her Oreo shake was very good. They come in a glass, with more in the mixing cup so you know they did it right. In hindsight, this was the best part of the meal right there.

After the last two trips here, I elected to skip the Smashfries this time, in favor of the delicious Haystack Onions. These thinly sliced and deep-fried onions are a bit greasy, but very good. I ordered my Smashburger plain, as usual, but piled some of those onions on top of the patty. Both the burger and the onions were awesome. The burgers are always good.

Of course, the burger and onions only brought to mind the lunch of the previous day, and I have to say, Smashburger paled in comparison to Little Shanty in nearby Warren NJ. Now I hope to get there sooner, but I think next year we'll have a new tradition, lunch at Little Shanty both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Sorry, Smashburger.

French Fry Diary 367: Helsinki Street Fries

I just recently was writing again about my trip to Finland in 2007, this time for my new gaming blog (The Non-Gamer's Gamer's Blog, shameless plug, clicky-clicky), and it got me thinking about the night of the 2007 Eurovision Final, and my encounter with Helsinki street fries.

The Bride and I went to Helsinki, Finland in 2007 to see Eurovision, as I said. There was only one ticket so I sent the wife to see it live while I watched on television with a group of friends. We agreed to meet up at the gigantic train station in the middle of the city and rude back to the hotel together.

Well, Eurovision is a big deal in Europe, especially in the city where it happens so afterwards the streets were full of people celebrating and having a good time. Picture New Year's Eve in Times Square at midnight, but without the crime, the attitude, or the confetti. The train station and the street outside it were packed, so walking was slow.

As we shuffled slowly past a food cart, we decided to get a snack, mostly because the aroma was so tempting. The Bride, brave thing that she is, got some sort of mystery meat on a stick. I suppose she liked it. I saw what I wanted right away - you guessed it - the favorite fried food.

Gloriously they came in a small paper cone with a plastic fork. These were skinless diced potatoes, cut into one inch by one inch cubes and deep fried. Best of all, they were very hot, almost too hot to eat. They were very good and made the rest of the walk to the train a treat - more than any walk hand in hand with The Bride usually is, you know. Wink wink. I would love go back to Helsinki again someday, and maybe get some more street fries.

Photos by my friend John Donges, who also took the trek to see Eurovision, thanks, man!

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...

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