French Fry Diary 256: Skewers 2011

I am always willing to give a place a second chance. I had gone to Skewers quite some time ago and was unimpressed. The mom-in-law had been recently and highly recommended Skewers so I went back - and surprisingly, just by accident, ran into the mom-in-law there. She must really like the fries there! Seriously though she treated me to a nice lunch, and I got to try the fries again.

As opposed to last time where there was much confusion as to what kind of fries Skewers had from one day until the next, things seem to be pretty consistent these days. With a bright new website, a new menu, and a new attitude, Skewers is the place to go. As far as the favorite fried food goes, they have Salt and Pepper Fries and Chickpea Fries. I got the former, catastrophically picky eater that I am.

The fries were natural cuts with sea salt and pepper, and lightly deep-fried. They were definitely different from the crinkle cuts I had last time, which were notably not the ones that had originally been recommended to me. These were good however, and the pepper gave them an extra kick. They were not greasy at all, and almost had a baked texture.

Skewers also offered chickpea fries, also known as panisse. From the devious interwebs, panisse is "a culinary specialty from a region in northern Italy, but it is equally known and appreciated in south-eastern France. It is made from a base of chickpeas, which are fried or baked. It is usually formed into logs, cut, fried in oil, and consumed hot."

I was tentative, but I wanted to give them a try, and tried to on a later visit. I was shocked to find that they were no longer on the menu! Apparently they are a seasonal item. At least being a seasonal item, it means that they might be back. Oh well, I'll try again at some point.

I am so glad I came back after that first time, thanks, Mom. Aces for the fries, good stuff. Check out Skewers in Marlton - for seasonally inspired Mediterranean cuisine.

French Fry Diary 23: Skewers, Marlton NJ

Skewers is a Middle Eastern restaurant near Borders in Marlton NJ that serves Israeli home cooking, not the place you would expect the favorite fried food, but life is just full of surprises, isn’t it? They have no web presence or I would give them a plug, but apparently they have yet to enter this century. Their menu pushes the falafel, shawarma and hummus and entices you to “come and experience the great taste of the Mediterranean” with inappropriate capitalization.

The Bride, a much braver food explorer than I, discovered this place and then insisted I had to try their fries. A week later she finally brought some of the notorious Skewers fries home as take-out. It was then we learned that consistency was not high on their priority list.

Whereas The Bride marveled me with tales of crispy on the outside and soft and hot on the inside regular cuts, I was greeted by a whole ‘nother animal in the plain brown paper take-out bag. These were not the same fries as she had tried on her first trip to Skewers. It appears they use whatever fries are handy.

These were store-bought frozen crinkle cuts., deep fried with some mystery spice heavily sprinkled on them. They were soggy and only vaguely warm after the five-minute trip home, with no crispness whatsoever. The spice was orange with pepper flakes, and other than the color it was pretty inoffensive – until the aftertaste and heartburn hit about an hour later. They did look good, but trust me, they weren’t.


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