French Fry Diary 639: A Double Shot of Martin's

My friend Marni does a bit of traveling regionally, and when she does she is always on the lookout for new and different potato chips. A recent excursion brought two different kinds of Martin's potato chips to my attention.

Martin's is local to the south central Pennsylvania area, and make a variety of salted snacks, but that's not unusual, this area is hot with chip companies, especially those created after the Second World War. Martin's has a certain distinction as being a Presidential favorite, served on Air Force One several times.

The first bag was Martin's almost redundantly named Kettle-Cook'd Hand Cooked Potato Chips. Their claim to fame is that they're done the 'old fashioned way,' slow cooked one batch at a time. Very crunchy, they have a clean taste, which was refreshing. Great for dipping. Thumbs up.

The second bag was Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips, which were, according to the packaging, 'bursting with flavor.' In this case, waffle is just another word for simple ripple cut chips. They are flavorful though, a nice heat with a bit of an aftertaste bite.

These chips also appeared to be slow cooked to that same crunch mentioned above, making them, with their ridges even better for dipping. These are awesome dipping chips.

This was a good delivery from potato chip Pennsylvania, thanks, Marni!

French Fry Diary 582: One Potato Two Potato Hawaiian BBQ Kettle Potato Chips

This is another odd potato chips snack that comes to me from my friend Bob by way of his partner Marni. Both are always on the lookout for potato-ey (and sometimes not so potato-ey snacks, I will get even with her for those disgusting chicken skin chips though) snacks and it's very appreciated.

This time Bob was out in the wilds of Pennsylvania, prime chip making country, and picked up these chips - One Potato Two Potato Hawaiian BBQ Kettle Potato Chips. They come from a company called One Potato Snacks in Womelsdorf, PA. It seems pretty cool, with intriguing flavors, and tater trivia on their packaging and website.

These chips have a good kettle crunch, good size, and not too much twist. They have a nice barbecue flavor with a spicy but sweet kick. These are all natural, gluten-free, MSG free, and cooked in sunflower oil. Recommended. I would definitely try these again. Thanks, Marni and Bob!

French Fry Diary 445: Coney Island

On a recent road trip with The Bride, we stopped at Coney Island in Pottsville, PA. It was just one of those places that just call to you from the road. You know when you cruise through an unfamiliar small town, that this is the place you must stop and have lunch. Yeah, it's like that.

There was a giant sign both by the road and on the building itself proclaiming Coney Island outside but inside it was just all cozy little hometown diner. Just a few tables, a counter, and a TV up in the corner, and on the other side some more tables - maybe they were expanding. We sat in the cozy side. They also sold lots of local beers, and lottery tickets at another counter just a few feet away from us. Wow, I loved it.

We ordered at the counter and sat down, our food came out almost immediately. I got a great but simple hot dog, good snap and flavor. The Bride also got a dog and some deep-fried cheesy veggie things. The latter was the most expensive thing we got, and I don't think it cost more than two bucks.

You know I also got French fries, right? The fries were big thick natural regular cuts, battered in seasoning, and deep-fried. They were a little greasy, but with a good crunch to them. No complaints, an almost perfect fry - crisp shell, hot and soft and potato-ey inside. We both cleaned our plates like champs. Yeah, that good.

The best part? We got a pretty full meal, good portions, and it was crazy inexpensive. This place was an all ways winner. If you ever get out to Pottsville in the Poconos, definitely stop at The Coney Island. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 444: Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips

I picked these up at the Sheetz we visited the other day. I had never seen this brand before, and I'm a sucker for barbecue potato chips so I tried Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips.

Martin's is actually fairly local to where we were out in the wilds of Pennsylvania. It's a small family business that's been making snacks, mostly chips, since the 1940s.

The chips themselves have smaller ridges than most chips of this type. They have a pleasant sweet and smoky flavor, with just the right amount of burn.

These were very good chips. I wish we had gotten more than just one small bag.

French Fry Diary 443: Sheetz

Sheetz is kinda like a gas station/convenience store type place similar to Wawa. I have seen them around (never in Jersey) on excursions before, but had never stopped. On a recent road trip The Bride and I hit one near Gettysburg PA for a quick breakfast. I, of course, got, what else, a hash brown.

The hash brown was one of those square jobs, just like Wawa, but the chunks of potato were bigger, just like McDonald's used to have. It was so hot some of it stuck to the inside of the wrapper. Very hot, crispy, and satisfying, a welcome breakfast treat - greasy but good.

Sheetz at the time, just a couple weeks ago, it should noted, two weeks after Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, had its pumps closed, and still had no gas. Not a lot of folks were happy about it while we were there.

French Fry Diary 358: Denny's, Clifton Heights

Welcome to possibly the last Denny's on Earth, it's in Clifton Heights, PA. This was our second Denny's of the night. The first one, over by the Philly airport was closed for renovations. Going to any Denny's was actually a surprise as they seem to have left New Jersey en masse suddenly about six months to a year back.

They used to be everywhere. Then slowly they disappeared, not sure why, but they did. Maybe it was bad publicity from certain racial incidents, or maybe the bad karma from buying out Sam's, formerly Sambo's. I won't go into that, it should for just speak for itself.

The Denny's took forever to find, even with dual GPSes, but my friends Jeff, Marc, Judy, and the Dark Crystal held out and made it through the wilds of Pennsylvania after the Wings game to get here. Once there, I was overwhelmed by the menu, several pages long and full of upscale diner-y goodness. That part of the 24/7 Denny's diner hasn't changed since I'd last visited one.

Guess what I finally settled on. I know, too easy. Burger and fries. I had wanted breakfast, but I don't know when I'll ever see a Denny's again, so I wanted to get fries to review, just in case it's another decade before I see another Denny's again. My buddy Ray had actually recommended them a few months back as well, so I had to try them.

First thing I noticed was that Denny's still had the huge glasses of Coke I remembered. That's a good thing. The burger was huge which made the pitiful portion of fries even more irritating. The vertically crinkle cut fries, to add injury to insult, we're only just warm. The less than twenty fries were quite potatoey and would probably have been pretty good if they were hot. Also, you can see in the picture that they were very liberal with the salt. Others in our party got breakfast potatoes that were shredded and browned well. Burger aside (which was very good), I kinda wish I'd gotten them instead.

I was full and satisfied at the end of the meal, so that's a good thing. Conversation with good friends always makes for a good time. And that includes the conversation at the next table claiming that that Hawkeye brought nothing to the Avengers. But I wish there had been more fries, and hot fries. The Denny's rating for this venture stands at all stars for the company of friends, and most of the food, but not so much for the French fries.

French Fry Diary 330: Good To Go

This place, Good To Go, just opened recently in West Berlin on the site of an old McDonald's. The McDonald's formerly here moved up the road when the powers that be demolished the Berlin Circle. No circle, no traffic, no traffic, no business - and the new pattern made Good To Go fairly difficult to get to. The dead strip mall that surrounds it is evidence that McDonald's was right to move.

Good To Go promises great fast food and healthier choices. I have to admit, I had not heard good things about this place, but decided to give it a go anyway. The McDonald's was pretty much intact inside, and it was clean but fairly empty at lunchtime. The counter service was quick and friendly, and I was asked at least once how my meal was.

As far as the favorite fried food goes, they have pretty standard natural cuts. They were hot and just a little greasy but flavorful. They came in a paper bag a la McDonald's small fries, which is a nice touch. The fries also come in bay and cheese varieties as well as sweet potato fries.

The rest of the menu has burgers, sandwiches, chicken, tacos, salads, and the like. They also had Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer on tap, a big plus in my book. Not at all as bad as I'd heard or expected, but pretty good. I would definitely come back again. I hope the location doesn't kill them.

French Fry Diary 290: Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe

The Bride's work takes her all over the east coast, and sometimes to some pretty outrageous places - like Mars. No, not the planet Mars, but Mars, Pennsylvania, and that's where today's edition of Somebody Else's Fries comes from - the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe.

The Bride says, "Dog was pretty good, the kraut was grilled. Fries were hot and fresh, good size but lacked seasoning." There you go. Thanks, Jenn!