French Fry Diary 744: Boulder Canyon Barbecue Potato Chips

Now I have reviewed Boulder Canyon potato chips here before, about five years back, and they looked quite different.  The packaging referred to natural rather than authentic and didn't make so much of the oil, as opposed to this current packaging which has 'Coconut Oil' taking up nearly a quarter of the bag front. 

These chips are again in the tradition of long-named potato snacks, properly titled Boulder Canyon Coconut Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips, Mesquite Barbecue Flavor - wow, that's a mouthful.  Hopefully it will be a good mouthful once I open the interesting new bag.

Previously Boulder Canyon made much of their healthy ingredients.  Their saying on the front, 'Live Better. Eat Boulder.' kinda still puts across the point in a clever way, and the chips are still gluten free, kosher, vegan, low sodium, with no GMO, MSG, transfats, or cholesterol, and are cooked in 100% coconut oil.  The problem with the chips I tried before was a lack of both salt and taste.  Hopefully now, especially with BBQ flavor, these'll be better. 

There's a nice mesquite aroma when the bag is opened, that's about where it ends.  The flavor is only okay with a sweetness so particular I had to check the ingredients for sugar. The chips are still a bit bland once you get past the BBQ. Disappointing.

Fries - Deadly or Not?

Last week there was a bit of controversy, and several folks sent the articles my way, about how French fries can kill you. Can they? Apparently I'm still alive and kicking, but might I be gone by next week?

First there was this article from WSOCTV, a 'news' station in Charlotte, South Carolina. I put 'news' in quotes not because of any political 'fake news' nonsense, but because they got this article on fried foods killing us, with a title that includes key words like 'could' and 'suggest,' from a content farm, these sites are usually click bait and of low research quality and veracity. Just saying. The WSOCTV website also includes a 'news' story about people who believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. I think that should say all we need to know about WSOCTV news and their audience. Again, just saying. Feel free to read the article (both!) and enjoy.

Then there's this article, almost a direct rebuttal to the first about how potatoes won't actually kill you. This one is from some magazine called Popular Science, for those unaware, it's a science and technology magazine/website/network that has been around in some form or another for about a century and a half. They don't say fries are great for you, but they explain how data can be manipulated as in the article they refute. Fries are delicious, and great in moderation, and in combination with healthy diet and exercise.

So don't panic, folks, science is still on our side, as long as the current administration allows it to be…

French Fry Diary 711: Good Thins

I saw these while fighting with the pharmacy automatic refill system at Walgreens (don't do it, it rarely worked, at least for me). This new potato/wheat snack from Nabisco is called Good Thins (or stylistically GOOD THiNS).

They're baked, and have no artificial flavors or colors, no cholesterol, no partially hydrogenated oils, and no high fructose corn syrup. I didn't even know that last one was a thing with potato snacks.

I got the original flavor, because as regular readers know, I'm so darned adventurous. These Good Thins, which have 60% less fat than regular potato chips by the way, also come in sweet potato, spinach & garlic, rice, chickpea, with more to come.

Sealed in a foil bag inside a box, these silver dollar sized discs have a Cheez-It texture but a Pringles taste. More cracker than chip, they do have a bit of that you-can't-just-have-one addictive potato chip quality. Quite better than I expected, these are really quite good.

French Fry Diary 706: Wai Lana Chips

These snack chips made from cassava rather than potato began to show up at local Wawas maybe a year or two ago, and yes, I'm just getting around to reviewing them now. Wai Lana the person is apparently the world's most famous yoga teacher, watched by millions worldwide on television. She's not just a teacher or media phenomenon, and it's not just a cassava chip, Wai Lana is a lifestyle.

All that said, on to the chips. Cassava is a root vegetable native to the South American tropics. According to the packaging, these cassava chips have 30% less fat than regular potato chips, and they're also gluten free with zero transfats. Furthermore they have no GMOs, cholesterol, artificial flavors or preservatives. They come in a dazzling variety of Asian inspired flavors including sweet & sour and Tai curry & lime, also lime chili, as well as more traditional ones like sea salt & vinegar and barbeque.

I chose three flavors to try - the Sweet & Sour, Thai Curry & Lime, and my favorite potato chip flavor, Barbeque. The chips actually look similar in size and shape to the various air popped chips out there.

I didn't really get a sweet and sour taste from the Sweet & Sour, not sure what the flavor was, but it wasn't bad. The Thai Curry & Lime had a tiny bit of a kick to them, with the lime really standing out. The Barbeque was very smoky but without the sweet vibe that flavor needs.

These weren't bad, and were certainly tastier and more flavorful than most healthy snacks, but I think I'll stick with more traditional potato chips myself.

The Loaded Bloomin' Onion

The Outback Steakhouse's specialty is a caloric monstrosity called the Bloomin' Onion. It is absolutely terrible for you healthwise, but don't get me wrong, it is delicious, dangerously delicious. I love them.

Outback has made it worse, and that is to say, better. They now have a Loaded Bloomin' Onion. It's the standard Bloomin' Onion, but topped with the Outback's Aussie Fries

French Fry Diary 666: Bare Fruit Cinnamon Apple Chips

Apples have for some time been considered a healthy alternative for the potato, fried or otherwise. Apple 'fries' are a popular substitute for real French fries at Burger King as well as other fast food chains.

The apple has also moved into the chip arena. Of the fruits and veggies traditionally dried, baked, or fried as a potato chip substitute (Brad's Raw Chips have a dazzling variety), the apple is by far the most popular. Case in point - Bare Fruit Cinnamon Apple Chips, which were brought to my attention by my friend Marni.

Bare Fruit Snacks make healthy snacks, including dried pears, mangoes, cherries, and of course apple chips. The chips, made in Washington state, are organic, kosher, gluten and fat free, with no sugar, preservatives, or additives.

Once opened, they smelled good, but quite honestly looked pretty ugly. Thick natural cuts, they might have good for dipping that they been actual potato chips. They were more dried apple than apple chips. Not a pleasant experience. Thanks, Marni, but next time I'll pass on these.

French Fry Diary 653: Crunchy Cookie Chips

This is an interesting item. My friend Marni, who is always on the lookout for potato chip oddities, found these for me. From HannahMax Baking, these are Crunchy Cookie Chips. She got me the Chocolate Chip variety but they also come in Sea Salted Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Raisin, Cinnamon Sugar, Original, and Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

Why am I talking about them here though you're probably wondering. Because they're more than cookies, they're chips. As the packaging promises, "Tastes like a cookie, eats like a chip." That's just about right on target with these large flat crispy and crunchy chocolate chip cookies. They also have that addictive chip vibe of not being able to eat just one.

And it gets better. These Crunchy Cookie Chips may seem decadent but the truth is they no artificial flavors, artificial colors, preservatives, transfats, or GMOs. The sugar, sodium, and cholesterol are all there but at reasonable levels. Sounds like a win-win.

These are very good, so if you like cookies and you like potato chips, you can kill two birds with one stone. Buy two bags, as they will go quickly. Glass of milk required. Thanks, Marni!

French Fry Diary 624: Wholesome Goodness Potato Chips

Wholesome Goodness, whose slogan is "love foods that love you back," has been showing up in local Rite Aids and Wawas recently. Besides potato chips they also sell healthy cereals, sauces, granola, broths, and juices. They say their mission is "to replace food that has become highly processed, loaded with sodium and fat, and made with ingredients you can't pronounce." Let's see how their potato chips are.

As usual I opted for the Barbecue Flavored variety of Wholesome Goodness Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips. They have no transfats, no MSG, no cholesterol, and even though they are cooked in vegetable oil (containing one or more of the following: canola, corn, or sunflower). They are also kosher, all natural, and have no preservatives.

True to their word however the hardest ingredients to pronounce are paprika and torula yeast. They seem to have a problem with many ingredients, and are quite proud to go so far as to ban one hundred and twenty-six ingredients used by other companies.

Upon opening the bag I was struck by a wonderful smokey barbecue aroma. The taste of the chips themselves did not disappoint either. The barbecue flavor is subtle and understated, it's nice with no burn. They have the twisted shapes promised by kettle cooking that is so perfect for dipping. These chips were really good.

The Power of Potatoes

Folks are always telling me how bad French fries are for me, and that potatoes are starches not vegetables. Well, ha, it turns out that they're not as bad for me (or you) as we all thought.

This article indicates that potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, are pretty fierce disease fighters. Check it out here.

Thanks to friend Lisa on the Facebook for hipping me to this.

French Fry Diary 615: Tommy's! Roasted Cajun Potatoes

I saw this at the Shop-Rite and had to grab it for later inspection. This bag of steam able potatoes (usually not a good sign) just emanated fun with its packaging. Tommy's! (complete with exclamation mark) Roasted Cajun Potatoes just looked like it would be worth the price of admission, good or bad. I was sold.

Now Tommy's! is not the southern California burger chain nor the famous Los Angeles burger joint, it's apparently its own thing, connected to the healthy freezer food retailer Tommy's Superfoods. This packaging depicting the cowboy with the gator is slightly different than what I could find online. Keeping with the Superfoods line these are vegan, non-GMO, BPA free, POFA free, with no transfats.

They are however microwave steamable, and for French fries, even healthy ones, that's often not good. They can be nuked in the bag, in a microwave safe plate, or even just fried on the stovetop in a skillet. That last one is probably how I should have done these, maybe next time. In the nuke, the blew inflated like microwave popcorn and it filled the space with damp steam.

These potato wedges besides being 'blended' with roasted corn, and onions, are also seasoned with Tommy's! Cajun Style Baby spices. Okay, truth, once these potatoes are on the plate, they smell good, but they are not pretty. The mess reminded me a bit of ill-prepared breakfast potatoes at an abandoned buffet. It's a good thing they taste so good.

The potato wedges don't have crisp or crunch because of the cooking method, but they're also not wet it soggy. This is a solid cook, and they have a baked potato quality, soft and hot. The corn and onions are a surprising addition and the spices pack quite a hot kick.

I liked these quite a bit. I'm looking forward to the next time so I can try the stovetop method, or maybe reheating them in the oven to get a bit of a crisp. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 611: b. good

The South Jersey area has been invaded in the last few years by upscale gourmet burger restaurants like Elevation Burger, Smashburger, Zinburger, and coming soon, Burger Fi. The trend continues with b. good, just opened in the Promenade in Marlton. At first glance it looks like a quick service burger place, but it's much more than that, and costlier.

You order, get your drink and have a seat. The pricing is a bit misleading if you're used to menus and meal deals at fast food restaurants. There are signs that say you can add drink and fries for $5.99, but the deal isn't $5.99, for an additional $5.99 you can get a drink and fries. Add that to the pricy burger and it adds up - this is not a typical quick service burger place though, the service is quick, and the burgers are really good.

The drinks are intriguing. No Coke or Pepsi here. They have cane cola, skinny cane cola, Italian lemon, and Pennsylvania red birch beer (yum), to name just a few. I know I'm a Coca-Cola guy, but I enjoyed trying the different soda flavors, much more than the Lay's potato chip flavors I've had to try of late at least. The cane cola is awesome.

The burger was very good. The meat was local, as is everything at b. good, dry-aged, and house-ground, and it's a loose ground, which makes for a juicy chewy burger. On a softer bun, this would've been an amazing burger, but as is, it was only great. And by great, I mean better than the burgers at most other places.

The natural cut fries, also local, were very good. They were excellent hot, a little soft but still managed to have the right amount of crisp too. There's a subtle seasoning that give them a little kick, nice. I think I got the tail end of a batch as they were many small pieces and stubs. It happens. I saw some awesome sized regular cut fries on the plates of others. I also got a few sweet potato fries with mine, which was a nice surprise. All in all the fries were very good. On a later visit the fires were even better. I guess they just needed to get their groove.

The French fries bags have a lot to say. "These fries are special. They're hand-cut and oven-finished." I like that. Additionally they have the calorie and fat counts of McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King as compared to b. good's. There's also another slogan, "Food made by people not factories." Nice. I really liked b. good a lot, and can't wait to go back, and bring friends and family. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 607: No More Satisfries

This has not been a good week for the favorite fried food. First I'm losing one of my favorite restaurants, Little Shanty, and now Burger King has announced they are discontinuing their Satisfries.

The Satisfries were a lower calorie alternative to the normally crappy and constantly changing regular fries at Burger King. These crinkle cuts were awesome when hot and even reheated, and quite frankly, a reason to actually go to Burger King rather than someplace else. After less than a year on the menu, BK has decided to pull the plug on these great fries because sales were apparently less than 'satisfrying.'

This coincides with Burger King's reintroduction of their Chicken Fries. BK claims they are back by popular demand and further says, "Get yours before they're gone!" perhaps implying that nothing on the BK menu is safe or permanent.

Chicken fries, meh, I'd rather have Satisfries. At least Burger King is consistent in their bad calls.

French Fry Diary 590: Eatrageous

Promoted as 'the new spin on chips,' Eatrageous potato snacks are indeed something different. They're not fried, they're not baked, as a matter of fact, they're not even technically potatoes. Made from potato flour, yellow pea flour, rice, sunflower oil, and sea salt... Eatrageous is at best a potato-ish snack.

Created through 'clean cooking technology' (a 'thermal flash process') and shaped as tubes, they certainly are different. They are all natural, vegan, kosher, with no cholesterol, no saturated fats, no transfats, no GMO, gluten free, and less than 100 calories per serving - so one would think they're relatively healthy for a snack.

The space age silver bag opened easily, which was something quite unexpected. The percentage of healthier snacks that are easy to open (especially those from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's) is extremely low. Now these snacks are much smaller than one might think from the image on the bag, and the aroma from the Original Sea Salt flavor at least was similar to that you get from a bag of Bugles.

The 'chip' itself is a solid piece with points at the end supposedly to optimize dipping, but personally I think they're just a bit too small for that. Maybe if they were 25% bigger it might be a different story. They have a shiny shellac like surface that gives a hearty snap of a crunch, but quite honestly, very little flavor.

This is of course could be alleviated by the aforementioned dipping into something flavorful, or you could try one of the other available (and unique) Eatrageous styles like Wasabi Ranch, Crunchy Mac 'N Cheese, or the one I should have looked for and gotten, Sweet & Smokey BBQ. I'll withhold a full opinion until I try that last one, but until then, Eatrageous are definitely worth trying. Make your own decision on this 'new spin.'

French Fry Diary 588: Kettle Brand Real Sliced Potatoes

Last time I reviewed a Kettle Brand product (the Sweet & Salty Potato Chips which absolutely rocked) I got into trouble on the Twitter with someone arguing the actual healthiness of the potato chips and/or the oil they were cooked in.

Let me be clear. This is a foodie blog about French fries, potato chips, onion rings, and junk or fast food. We're having fun and not being all that serious. It's not rocket science. If a potato chip has no transfats, no preservatives, no GMO, is gluten free, and made from natural ingredients - that's about as healthy as potato chips get. To be healthier, you would need to NOT eat the chip. Got it? A health food blog this is not, and if you're looking for nutritional advice here, you have much bigger problems.

That said, I was excited by a new Kettle Brand chip I saw at Whole Foods called Real Sliced Potatoes so I decided to try them. For the record, they are gluten free and all that stuff I said above. Add to that low sodium and no cholesterol. And they are not all that new. These are Kettle Brand's baked chips with a cool new rebranding. It does however beg the question of if these are real, are the others fake sliced potatoes, but we'll just let that slide. The rebranding worked, and caught my attention.

Real Sliced Potatoes come in different flavors like Sea Salt, Sea Salt & Vinegar, Hickory Honey Barbeque, the intriguing Cheddar & Roasted Tomato, and the new Olive Oil. Guess which one I tried? If you know me at all you know it was the BBQ flavor.

These chips are awesome, crispy, sweet and spicy, and have a good thickness, great for dipping. They are very similar to Trader Joe's Baked Hickory Barbeque Potato Chips, which I also love, but these are better, sweeter, just awesome - I think I've found a new favorite potato chip. Recommended.

Kale Chips

Here's a recipe for Kale Chips from Christine Gallary at Chow.com.

Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: About 45 mins | Makes: 2 servings

Kale has a certain vegetal flavor that you either love or hate. No matter which camp you’re in, it’s hard to resist the deliciousness of these crispy chips, which are subtly spicy from togarashi powder. Warning: Once you start snacking, it’ll be hard to stop.

It’s best to use dinosaur kale (also known as black kale, Lacinato, or cavolo nero) rather than curly kale because its broad, flat leaves crisp up more evenly.

Special equipment: You will need a pastry brush to make these chips.

Ingredients: 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon togarashi powder, 1 pound dinosaur kale, 3 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for coating the baking sheet.

Instructions: Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Using a pastry brush, coat a baking sheet with a thin layer of olive oil; set aside. Combine the salt, sugar, and togarashi in a small bowl; set aside. Remove and discard the center ribs and stalks of the kale. Tear the leaves into rough 3-inch pieces. Wash the leaves and dry them thoroughly.

Place half of the leaves in a large bowl, drizzle with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the oil, and toss with your hands until the leaves are thoroughly coated. Sprinkle with half of the togarashi mixture (about 3/4 teaspoon) and toss again with your hands until the leaves are thoroughly coated. Place the leaves in a single, even layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake until the kale chips are crisp, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, place the baking sheet on a wire rack, and let the chips cool for about 3 minutes. Using your hands, carefully transfer the chips to a serving dish. Repeat with the remaining kale, oil, and togarashi mixture. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

French Fry Diary 584: Kettle Brand Sweet & Salty Potato Chips

I am easily tempted by new flavors of potato chips, firstly for the opportunity to write about it here, and secondly because I like potato chips. It's nicer though when said new flavor also sounds like something I might like. Such is the case with Kettle Brand Sweet & Salty Potato Chips.

Being Kettle Brand they are appropriately healthy with no preservatives, no MSG, no transfats, and no GMOs. They also all natural, gluten free, and were cooked in safflower and/or sunflower and/or canola oil. That last part had me a bit worried… don't they know what kind of oil it is? …but I'll let it slide.

These kettle cooked chips have as flavoring the fairly obvious sea salt plus sugar and dried cane syrup. Hmmm, that should make for an interesting taste. They are salty but the sugar overwhelms the salt, but not unpleasantly. These are very tasty and addictive potato chips. I would say they would be good for dipping but I wouldn't want to take away from the actual taste of just the chip. The are very good, recommended.

French Fry Diary 572: Simply Ruffles

I have had varying degrees of success and failure with potato products that start with the word 'simply.' That would be the only reason I was hesitant to try these new Simply Ruffles from Frito Lay.

I like Ruffles a lot, they are the go-to ripple chip for dipping, rippled and relatively thick, they rock. The trouble would be they get tend to get a little greasy if you're eating a lot at once. A healthier style would be great, and that's what Simply Ruffles is, the better alternative.

Simply Ruffles are just potatoes, expeller-pressed sunflower oil, and sea salt. 'Expeller-pressed'? That means the oil is extracted mechanically using high pressure. How that is better or worse, I don't know. These chips are also gluten free, with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Good chips, healthy chips, recommended.

French Fry Diary 570: Herr's Baked Ripple Cut Potato Crisps

I like Herr's products a lot, but I don't think I've actually tried any of their baked chips. Oh, excuse me, crisps. It's notable that the words are very precise. Made from dried potatoes, vaguely hexagonal in shape, and baked, these are potato crisps, much like Pringles or Munchos.

And they have that same taste as well. Not to say that these crisps couldn't be better with some seasoning, barbecue maybe, but that's not really the selling points on these. Dipping, baby. The ripple cut makes these crisps perfect for dipping.

Of course that perfection only lasts as long as you have big full chips. The small pieces at the bottom of the bag are useless. This is a good dipping chip, not snacking chip. For the health folks, this is a good choice - no saturated fat, no transfats, no cholesterol, and gluten-free. Good stuff for the dippers and the health folks, and a good chip.

French Fry Diary 564: 365 Organic Sea Salt Potato Chips

Another last minute impulse buy from Whole Foods, 365 is their store brand snack size potato chips, and comes in a number of varieties, in this case Organic Sea Salt.

The ingredients indicate organic potatoes, sea salt, and a few possibilities of what oil used. According to the bag, these chips are vegan, USDA organic, transfat free, sugar free, but not a low calorie food. Just saying.

These are good solid flat chips, not greasy at all, just could use a little bit more seasoning is all. Maybe I'll try the Sea Salt and Black Pepper flavor next time. Despite it being "not a low calorie food," I think this would be a reasonable choice for looking for a healthier chip, good stuff.

French Fry Diary 561: Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Potato Chips

Kettle Brand has a handful of unique flavors, and even some wacky ones (Nut Butters, anyone?), but when I saw these on the shelf at Whole Foods, I just had to try them. Maple Bacon? Sign me up.

And despite the decadent flavor of these chips, as always Kettle Brand potato chips have no MSG, no preservatives, no transfats, no GMO, are all natural and gluten free. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the bacony goodness.

When I first opened the bag (with a scissors, they are from Whole Foods after all), the aroma that I got was close to Kettle Brand's own Backyard Barbeque flavor. I was kinda expecting something similar to Lay's Chicken and Waffles from last year's Do Us a Flavor contest, but it wasn't there.

Like all Kettle Brand chips these kettle cooked potato chips are twisty and perfect for dipping. The taste is decidedly very smoky, but not much bacon or maple flavor to it. If anything, it's more of a weak barbecue flavor if anything. The Bride agreed when she snagged one expecting bacon.

Don't get me wrong. These are really good potato chips. The you-can't-just-eat-one chip psychosis was in full effect as I ate more than a few. These are darned good, not really Maple Bacon, but darned good. Recommended.