French Fry Diary 594: Zapp's Cheddar & Smoked Bacon Potato Chips

Friend and frequent FFD contributor Marni found these limited edition potato chips for me. I've reviewed Zapp's before and have usually liked their stuff. This time we have, in the tradition of potato chips with long names, Zapp's New Orleans Kettle Style Cheddar & Smoked Bacon Flavored Potato Chips. And as if that's not enough, they're also Limited Edition and Made with Real Cheese.

Not as thick or twisty as some kettle chips, at least these bacon chips have a bacon taste rather than just a smoky taste. Unlike the Kettle Brand Maple Bacon chips I reviewed recently, they are not left tasting just like barbecue chips. There is a slight cheddar aftertaste. It appears that bacon is one flavor that is sometimes difficult to capture in a potato chip.

These are not quite what I expected, or what they were advertised as, but still pretty good. Thanks, Marni!

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.

French Fry Diary 472: Lay's Chicken & Waffles Potato Chips

I still haven't been able to find the Cheesy Garlic Bread Potato Chips. Oh well. Onward and upward. Unlike yesterday's Sriracha chips, the Chicken & Waffles flavored chips at least seem a little more appetizing.

While not something I have ever had, as a catastrophically picky eater, it is worth mentioning I haven't had them together, but I do like both chicken and waffles. And this wouldn't be the first time I've reviewed chicken flavored potato chips either.

Chicken and waffles is a regional and cultural phenomenon that comes in two varieties. The soul food type is fried chicken and waffles drowned in butter and syrup. The Pennsylvania Dutch prefer stewed chicken on a waffle with gravy poured over it. Looking the ingredients, I would say that Lay's chips have more soul. No real chicken though.

When I opened the bag a thick sweet aroma wafted over my nose... molasses? Maple syrup maybe? Color me intrigued. I do like how they smell. It's almost hypnotic, like Cinnabon. Like the Sriracha chips, these were the thin regular chips so typical of Lay's.

The taste. The taste is truly something unreal and unexpected on a potato chip. There is maple syrup, and butter, and waffles, and yes, even chicken. It's all there. Eating the chips I felt like Violet Beauregarde chewing her final piece of gum in the classic Willy Wonka movie. All those flavors are in there. Hopefully I won't be turning into a giant chicken with waffles…

These weren't bad at all, and I definitely ate more of these than I did of the Sriracha chips, but after a while the heavy sweetness got to me. If this flavor wins, it is definitely a once in a blue moon snack. Very heavy.

Now, as soon as I find the Cheesy Garlic Bread potato chips, I'll be back with a review. Until then, does anyone know where to find them in the South Jersey area?

French Fry Diary #387: Pop Shop Pancake Fries

The family and I visited the Pop Shop for breakfast this past weekend and I was surprised to find one new item on the menu in particular - Pancake Fries!

They are described in the menu like this: "Our fresh made Bettys, cut into strips, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served with cinnamon cream cheese for dipping."

The Pancake Fries are wonderfully presented in a paper cone and fry holder, with the aforementioned cream cheese in one side dipping cup holder, and pancake syrup in the other.

Not only did they give the illusion of looking just like the Pop Shop's great Pop Fries, they were delicious. A crunchy pancake delight, just another of the so many reasons to go to the Pop Shop for breakfast!

French Fry Diary 276: Whispering Canyon Café, Breakfast

Circumstances collided and we ended up hitting the Whispering Canyon Café for both breakfast and lunch one day of our vacation. Not a problem though, we like the place. We've been twice before on our two previous trips to Walt Disney World.

For breakfast they had a very tempting, very fattening raisin bread French toast with cinnamon icing, I had to have that. The Bride ordered some potatoes, and promised I could have some. I also ordered a Coke, as I'm not a coffee drinker and orange juice just doesn't wake me up. Check the photo to see what they brought. Even being almost all ice, it was still almost as much as a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola.

The French toast was to die for, even before the syrup, and fantastic when you get a raisin. It's not as good as say French toast made with raisin challah bread, or the Pop Shop's cinnamon roll French toast, or even the French toast my big sister used to make me on Saturday mornings for breakfast while watching cartoons, but it's damn good. The potatoes were roasted red potatoes, cut into wedges, and were gigantic -

Sorry, I had to stop writing on my iPhone notepad, someone other than The Bride needed the ketchup. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, ask for ketchup while you're here at Whispering Canyon.

As I was saying, before I got interrupted, the potato wedges are so gigantic that you have to cut them up to eat them. They are soft and hot on the inside like baked potatoes and have a nice seared outside. The maple syrup also adds a nice flavor as well. Aces on the potatoes. I can't wait for lunch.

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 :|

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 109: Poll Results Spring 2010

The poll question of the moment on French Fry Diary for the last few months has been Best thing to put -on- fries, or dip fries -into-... Your answers are below:

Ketchup got 45% of the vote and cheese got 39%. These are the standards. Everybody likes ketchup (apparently, even though I don’t) and cheese fries are pretty darned popular. Next up is malt vinegar with 27% of the vote. These folks are either from the UK, have visited there or just stumbled upon this one. Similarly also from Europe, we get the mayo vote with 15%.

A notable 11% also like dipping their fries into their milkshakes just like I do. And we’ve talked about this before, I might be an oddball, but I’m not alone. One of my other favorites, barbeque sauce got a respectable 17%.

The pride of Canada, gravy, and disco chili fries each got 13%. Chocolate and maple syrup each pulled in 3%, while mustard, ew, got 11% of the vote. A recent favorite of mine, honey, which I’ve been putting on baked Nathan’s fries while they cook for an extra tasty sweet treat, got 7%.

Now ten percent of the vote went to ‘other.’ Now if you voted for ‘other,’ please do drop me a note and let me know what exactly you had in mind for your fries – I would love to know!