Happy National Onion Ring Day

Today is National Onion Ring Day, or depending on how many you eat, National Onion Rings Day. So get out there and celebrate by having some of the second favorite fried side, onion rings!

Some of the best I've tried are at Red Robin, Manny's, Sonic, Bahama Breeze, Zaxby's, Red Lobster, Square 1, Long John Silver's, and the much-missed Little Shanty. Where will you be celebrating?

Free Fish and Fries!

If you get on over to participating Long John Silver's this Sunday, from 11 AM to 3 PM, you can get free fish and fries. Looks like lunch is all taken care of this Sunday by America's fish fry!

National Onion Rings Day 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014 is National Onion Rings Day, so how are you going to celebrate?

Maybe you could go out to dinner to your favorite restaurant, or better yet, your favorite restaurant that has your favorite onion rings.

Some of my favorite rings include those at Little Shanty, Raglan Road, Long John Silver's, or those great coconut onion rings at Bahama Breeze.

French Fry Diary 576: Long John Silver's Onion Rings

Never let it be said that advertising doesn't work. For weeks now my television viewing has been bombarded by commercials for Long John Silver's and their family sized chicken meal (I'm pretty sure it's over now). I finally broke down, went to the weird Taco Bell and LJS hybrid in West Berlin and got one.

The family meal, on special for $10.99, contains ten pieces of chicken, eight hush puppies, and two sides (I think the offer is over now). Me, being who I am, got fries and onion rings as sides. I've already talked about LJS' fries, both old and new (I do wonder however why it seems I get different fries every time I go there - this past time they were similar to Wendy's new fries), but man oh man, those onion rings.

I'll just say it. These are probably the best fast food onion rings I've had recently, even better than Sonic. If anything they are most similar to those at Raglan Road, only without that spicy kick. These are tender onions, deep-fried, so they are a bit greasy, but with a delicious crispy and crunchy batter.

The best part, mostly because the portions are so big, all of LJS' food reheats well in the oven and in the microwave. The boxes even have instructions. I love these onion rings, recommended.

And remember, French Fry Diary is now on Facebook, come on over and join the fun and the discussion!

French Fry Diary 388: Long John Silver's 2012

Since seeing the latest television commercials for Long John Silver's, I had suspected that they had changed their fries. The ones in the ads were natural cuts as opposed to the lightly battered crispy shoestrings they used to have. New fries? So I had to try them.

So I went over to the Long John Silver's and Taco Bell combo that's the only place to get LJS in my area. It was lunch time but not really all that crowded, but yet my wait time was about fifteen minutes. It seemed as if the crew was more concerned with drive thru than the customers at the counter. The drive thru was moving at quite a clip while about a half a dozen of us waited inside.

I got my usual - the chicken and chips. The chicken planks, battered white chicken strips, we're as good as ever. There was the usual tasty deep fried crumbs at the bottom of the box, along with the prerequisite hush puppies. This time however the hush puppies were kinda greasy and had a different texture, but that wasn't the only thing that was different.

Long John Silver's did indeed have new fries, and bad ones, a definite step down in quality and uniqueness. They were natural cuts lightly peppered and barely warm. There's nothing wrong with natural cuts, but these were disappointing natural cuts, and a much smaller portion than previously.

This was not a pleasant visit to my local LJS. I'm not writing them off completely though. Thankfully I can still get chicken planks a la carte.

French Fry Diary 375: Mixto

A night out was planned with The Bride and some of her friends (and also my friends, as they were all her friends first in high school before I met her, I call them her friends). Usually we only get together at particular events in which one or most are involved in the event, there's not much downtime to just talk. This was the idea behind this get-together, just relax and chat.

Marc and Judi were there, as well as another friend who had chosen the restaurant in the city - Mixto. Now I had heard of Mixto, but living out in the suburbs I don't get into the city as much as I'd like, I had never been. Mixto is a lovely two-story restaurant in downtown Philly that brings a wonderful Latin, Cuban and Caribbean flavor to its fare. I loved the décor, but the wait, even on a Saturday night was horrendous. Good thing the food, and especially the company, was great.

I ordered the Whisky Rib Eye, which was delicious by the way, but then I asked The Question, because I did not see the favorite fried food on the menu. You know what The Question is, right? "Do you have French Fries?" They did, and they brought them with my steak.

The Mixto fries were regular cuts, likely frozen but it didn't matter because they were done well. They had a different kind of batter covering. It was apparently designed to come off, to flake off during deep-frying. This created those tasty cracklings like you find leftover in the box at Long John Silver's, but in this case, they were attached to the fries. This was surprisingly good.

We had a wonderful night out with friends, were joined by others later on, and we had dessert at More Than Ice Cream. I didn't get to try the fries there as it was dessert, remember? Next time. A terrific night all around, I can't wait to do it again. And the next time we go to Mixto, I want to try the mofongo.

Twitter Fries

We did this a few times last year, collecting French fry-related Twitter posts together, so let's try this again...

HowStuffWorks: Did you know? Thomas Jefferson introduced America to French fries when he first served them at the White House. http://is.gd/aIzoz

SiousxieBrew Oola is now open for brunch. The parmesan & truffle fries are AWESOME! www.oola-sf.com 860 Folsom Street

clex_monkie89 http://twitpic.com/18sdxo - Denny's calls this cheese fries

SOCHILITETIMES Since when did Long John Silver's start skimping on their fries??? Kinda disappointed right now

awesome92 If jesus ate..i think he would eat carne asada fries.

BradleyTemple The fries in our bag that didn't make it into our fry containers http://twitpic.com/1xnmj9

lindquistryan Nothing like dipping your French fries in an ice cold Frosty, hell yes! http://twitpic.com/1xnmmy

HeyThatsSoTrue Yes, I dip my french fries in my milkshake/frosty, and no its not gross.

OMGwhatateen I eat someone elses french fries on the way home when i'm holding the bag.

NEWS25lancewilk I wish cheeseburgers and french fries and pizza. were good for you

Anthromn What I had at #Towne tonight: bacon wrapped dates, extreme French fries, three types of bread with three types (cont) http://tl.gd/2q4uff

eternalcharm Prime burger with home made fries and pancakes with maple syrup are a MUST :|

French Fry Diary 94: Long John Silver’s

Fish and chips is a longtime combination in the fry game and cashing in on that concept is Long John Silver’s. They are similar to what I remember Arthur Treacher’s and Gulliver’s to have been back in the day, pretty much except for the fries.

The Long John Silver’s I visited shares space with a Taco Bell, as they are both part of the Yum super-corporation that also includes KFC, Wing Street, A&W and Pizza Hut among others. Yep, the Pepsi super-conglomerate, honestly Coke would take these places a step up for me.

The place is mostly Taco Bell as they were there first however, and the dual logos of the LJS fish and the TB bell next to one another is a bit unsettling as neither quite look like what they’re supposed to look like. To me at least, the bell kinda looks like a dragon or a crocodile eying up that fish for dinner. Yeah, it's more disturbing than it is unsettling.

I ordered the chicken and chips, my usually order there which includes two chicken planks (always very good unless someone screws up and I get fish), a generous helping of shoestring French fries, two ‘hush puppies’ (basically tasty deep fried breaded balls of mystery stuff), and an assortment of crumbs. No, I have no idea what the crumbs thing is about.

The fries are traditional shoestrings and always crispy. You gotta eat ‘em while they’re hot because they don’t stay hot for long, and sadly they don’t really nuke that well. You can reheat them in the oven when you get home but it’s dicey getting them just right without burning them or making them too crisp. Unless you live close, there’s not much of a take out option because of this.

The fries seem to have an Invisicoat texture but they don’t. If anything they are very lightly battered with something similar to the mystery crumbs. Sometimes the quality varies, but most of the time these are very good and quite addictive. If hot, highly recommended.