It's Pickle Season!

From dear friend and FFD contributor Robin, "I know it's not potatoes, but I am so psyched that one of my favorite snacks is back at Trader Joe's!! (And) Yes. It's delicious."

French Fry Diary 703: Whole Cuts

This potato snack, Whole Cuts, comes from Calbee, the same notorious company that makes shrimp chips, seaweed chips, and yes, the infamous French fries in a can. At once I was wary, but as with many things on this blog - I try it so you won't have to.

"Cut like a fry, crisp like a chip." is what the hype says, and these gluten free snacks claim natural simplicity with no preservatives and no artificial flavors. The ingredients are just potatoes, oil, and salt.

After I got into the nearly unopenable package (so tough to open these could have been sold at Trader Joe's), the Whole Cuts had the look of natural cut shoestrings but felt dry and firm and more solid. These were very crunchy and have a thorough potato flavor with just the right amount of salt.

Not bad and quite the crunchy little snack, these were much better than I at first thought they would be. Granted, Whole Cuts wouldn't be my first choice as a snack, but these were quite good.

French Fry Diary 701: Trader Joe's Ode to the Classic Potato Chip

Okay, I confess. I'm a victim of semi-clever marketing. The new issue of Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer arrived the other day, thankfully a booklet again rather than the ugly and unwieldy folded one-sheet it was for a while. On the front page, a ten ounce bag for only $1.99, was Trader Joe's Ode to the Classic Potato Chip potato chips.

Waxing poetic, like a J. Peterman catalog entry, the chips are described as plain and simple classic chips, made from chipping potatoes, sunflower oil, and salt. The ad
words maintain that if one remembers traditional potato chips from their childhood, these are those chips. Yeah, I fell for it. I couldn't wait to open them and see if I'd been tricked or not. I had my fingers crossed, but sadly it didn't help.

There was nothing really special about these chips other than the ad copy. They were neither spectacular nor nostalgic, and if I'm being honest, they were more than a little greasy. These were just okay potato chips, and I am just a sucker as a consumer. I'll remember not to fall for this trick again.

French Fry Diary 692: Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

Chocolate covered potato chips. As it says on the bag of Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips, "Can you imagine?"

I remember the first time I saw such a thing. I was maybe nine and my big sister Bobbie had taken me to Strawbridge's in the Echelon Mall and among the other exotics inside the glass candy counter like rock candy and fancy cashews and orange jells (the last both still favorites), were rippled potato chips covered in chocolate, both milk and dark. Can you hear the trumpets?

Nowadays you can find them at most indie and chain candy stores, and at Trader Joe's. Of course Joe has them, he even has, wait for it, chocolate covered orange jells. I know, madness. And it's supposed to be a health themed grocery store. Shhhh... don't let the secret out.

Joe's chips are also ripple chips, very crunchy and salty, and drenched in luscious milk chocolate. These are so good. You get about a dozen chips in a bag, which is fair, but my favorite way to eat them makes more (well, maybe). I put 'em in the fridge then smack the bag on the counter - instant bite-size pieces.

These are great, a terrific sweet and salty snack. Recommended.

French Fry Diary 685: Trader Joe's Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips

When the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer arrived at my door for November, I perused it as usual, always looking for something new and interesting, or much more rare, something I usually purchase there that's on sale. What a Thanksgiving surprise when I saw Turkey & Stuffing Kettle Potato Chips right there in the front page - touted as Thanksgiving dinner in a chip. I knew what I was getting next trip to Trader Joe's.

So after getting the Trader Joe's usuals, and being sorely disappointed they were already out of Advent calendars in mid-November, I got these unique chips home. The Flyer promised something out of science fiction, like a meal in a pill, but honestly their description sounded more like Violet's gum in Willy Wonka, right down to the gravy. This description made me a little scared to try it. No one wants to be juiced like a giant cranberry, ya know?

Much like this year's Do Us A Flavor contest entries, the ingredients include a mysterious item called 'turkey & stuffing seasoning,' but at least Trader Joe's tells us what's in that in parentheses after that. Some chemicals and fancy words, but more satisfying than just the word 'seasoning.'

Upon opening the bag (after cutting off the top, it was from Trader Joe's after all), a pleasant aroma hit me, potato chips, maybe some garlic, good stuff. As with the aforementioned contest entrants, I had The Bride try one first. She thought they were okay, getting the turkey flavor right away, with the stuffing coming cumulatively after a few more chips. No gravy running down her throat though.

I experienced much the same in this thick and crunchy kettle cooked chip. Not bad at all, these chips definitely fall into the category of other meat chips I've tried and reviewed. They're pretty good, but with that weird Jelly Belly vibe of this-shouldn't-taste-like-this. I also think, and this may be a weird reverse engineering idea, but I think they might be really good crushed up and used in stuffing. They are definitely worth a try once a year for Thanksgiving, and no Oompa Loompas in sight. Yet.

French Fry Diary 662: Nathan's Kettle Cooked Crinkle Cut Potato Chips

Now I've reviewed them before and I'm quite fond of Nathan's Potato Chips, the thick crinkle cut style. On a recent stop at the fryless Nathan's at the Thomas Edison rest stop on the NJ Turnpike, I saw these chips - kettle cooked crinkle cuts. I figured I'd give them a try.

First things first. The bag was so hard to open (I eventually gave up and just used a scissors) I thought perhaps I was mistaken and had actually bought it at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

These are almost identical to the other chips in every way except for the kettle cooking. The chips are too crunchy and too greasy. It's almost as they were trying to ruin them. But I can't really say that. I don't like these, perhaps someone does.

French Fry Diary 641: Trader Joe's South African Style Potato Chips

A recent trip to Trader Joe's I discovered something new in the snack section, a mysterious black bag of potato chips I had never seen before. Officially titled Trader Joe's Potato Chips with South African Style Seasoning, the package promised 'classic potato chips with an exotic smoked flavor.' Well, I'm down with that, into the cart and home they went.

A glance at the ingredients and the back of the bag hype revealed they weren't all that far off from standard barbecue chips. They had paprika, chili powder, garlic, sea salt for a little extra something different, and then things got interesting as they also had seasonings like basil and parsley. This seasoning mix is usually used in fish or poultry when grilled, called in Afikaans, the braai, as barbecues are a social custom in South Africa, much like it is here. How exotic it actually is, I guess we'll find out in the tasting.


Upon opening the bag a not unpleasant aroma rushed out, not unlike barbecue flavor potato chips with maybe some (surprise) basil and parsley thrown in. The actual taste is quite different. I expected a barbecue chip but that doesn't quite come across. It's a big thin crisp chip but the flavor is overpowered by the basil, parsley, and paprika, with just a slight after burn. These are excellent dipping chips for cold dips like ice cream.

These are good chips with a big unique taste, and certainly more palatable than many of the Do Us A Flavor contestants the last two years. Interesting, tasty, and even a bit addictive, these South African potato chips are definitely worth trying.

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.

French Fry Diary 586: Archer Farms Potato Chips

Just to be clear, Archer Farms is really neither a potato chip maker nor distributor as we usually think of them. Archer Farms is Target, and you'll only be able to get these chips at Target - it's their store brand. The last time I was in Target, looking for Kettle Brand Sweet & Salty chips, because the website said mistakenly they were there, I ended up walking out with these.

I was attracted to the lattice cut first and then had to double down when I saw they had Sweet & Spicy Barbecue flavor lattice cut. Sold. I've been waiting for Herr's or Cape Cod to do barbecue for a while, but it seems Target did it first. It just seems like a natural next step to me, but then I love the barbecue flavor and the lattice cut.

As excited as I was to try them, I mucked up opening the bag. I ended up just cutting it open with a scissors. Of course had I taken a moment, I would have figured out how to properly pull the tab on the front to open the ziplock reclosable bag. It's easy once you know about it, but if you don't examine the bag closely before attempting to open, well, they might as well have come from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

The potato chips are thick and twisty as a kettle chip should be, and that along with the lattice cut make them just perfect for dipping. The barbecue flavor has all the traditional ingredients but with a bit more kick than usual. The molasses in there gives it just a tinge of sweetness. I dig these a lot, thumbs up.

French Fry Diary 567: North Fork Potato Chips

These chips came once again from Marni's significant other, Bob. From Martin Sidor Farms in Long Island Farms, come these kettle cooked potato chips. The bag brags that they're made from Long Island potatoes. Now I'm far from an expert, but I have never heard Long Island being a big potato chip, or even potato, place. There is also a big deal made of them being cooked with NuSun sunflower oil. Live and learn, I suppose.

Speaking of the bag, it was near impossible to open. I eventually resorted to a pair of scissors. This made chip bags at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's seem like child's play. Once I had it open, I was not thrilled with what I saw.

Not only wasn't the aroma all that great, but the chips looked overdone and slightly burnt for the most part. They were kinda thin for kettle cooked chips, and didn't taste very good either. I was reminded of the stale chips at the bottom of a week old bag of Wise regular. Not very good at all.

Thank you, Bob, keep 'em coming, but these were duds. I'm starting to distrust foil bags that aren't Herr's, and I'm really going to be wary of Long Island potatoes now.

French Fry Diary 491: T.G.I. Fridays Onion Rings Snacks

I am always leery of onion flavored snacks. They are usually pretty bad and unflavorful. The good ones, like the ones from 7-Eleven, are few and far beyond.

These T.G.I. Fridays Onion Rings Snacks are pretty average, and had a few things going against them from the start. I found them at Dollar Tree. No offense to Dollar Tree, but let's face it, food from dollar stores is, by reputation, shady and suspect. Yes, I checked the expiration date. They were very hard to open, as if they were from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's - maybe that's why they were at Dollar Tree, faulty packaging.

The snacks themselves thick half-dollar sized crunchy facsimiles of onion rings. If you squint your eyes you can imagine they're little donuts. They don't taste like them though. They are pretty good with just a hint of onion flavoring. Compared to most onion snacks, these actually do have onion in them.

And surprisingly, as a Fridays product, these actually aren't too bad for you. The serving size to calories ratio is pretty good, and there's no sugar, cholesterol, or transfats. I liked these, not bad for a dollar store find.

French Fry Diary 463: Ole Salty's Regular Salt

Next up from the Bag o' Chips, that The Bride got me for Christmas this year, a selection of rare potato chips from Anchor's Food Finds, we have the scariest bag of the bunch - Ole Salty's Regular Salt.

This is a silver bag of chips with just a label, almost as if it was astronaut food. Not even an expiration date. Folks, it does not even say 'potato chips' on the bag. The ingredients however assure me whatever it is, it's made of potatoes, soybean oil, and salt.

Ole Salty's of Rockford Illinois is a mail order only company, and this scary plain silver bag had no expiration date. Ole Salty also sells popcorn, dips, among other things, and also chips of lesser and more salt added. The packaging appears the same for that stuff. I guess it's a thing. Foil does keep sunlight out, which is not so good for chips in long exposures.

Only one thing to do. Open the bag. Not the easiest job in the world. So difficult, they could sell these things at Trader Joe's. Once open, this extra large snack-size bag yielded, as noted, a 1.25 ounce serving of chips, filling roughly the bottom third of the bag.

These chips are rather small but very crunchy, perhaps kettle cooked. Their taste is a bit of a cross between Munchos and Lays regular chips, a little greasy. Perhaps the Extra Salt might be better, because these are a little bland. For something called Ole Salty's, these chips needed salt.

French Fry Diary 419: Boulder Canyon Potato Chips

On a recent road trip I saw some potato chips I had never heard of before so I picked up some snack bags. One of them was Boulder Canyon Totally Natural Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. Yes, they are very healthy, because as we have learned in the past, the longer the name of the potato chip, the healthier they are.

Joking aside, if you've been to the Boulder Canyon website, you know what a terrifically health and environment conscious company they are. Some of their packaging is even combustible. The bag talks of their corporate support of Green Energy and American Rivers. They are very green. Also, regarding the bag, it was crazy hard to open, another sign of healthy chips, as we know from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's products.

The chips follow suit by being gluten free, cholesterol free, trans fat free, all natural, the ingredients including only potatoes, oil, and salt. That's probably also because the Totally Natural style are the regular chip, no extra seasonings or flavorings. That's a problem. While they were nicely thick, lots of crunch, good kettle shape for dipping, and not greasy at all - they were also not salted well at all. Seriously needs salt, despite what the ingredients say.

Good chip for dipping as it would take on flavor that way. I would definitely be interested in trying some of the other styles, especially the Hickory Barbeque, but these were just okay.

French Fry Diary 319: Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns Two Ways

The last time I reviewed Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns I theorized that they could also be damned good matchstick fries (pretty much self-explanatory, or if you insist, very very thin shoestrings), if deep fried or baked. Well, on my most recent trip to TJ's, I picked some up, and had the opportunity to give it a try.

For deep frying, it's got to be quick, and you've got to keep your eyes on them. They are so thin, they cook fast. Get the oil hot, drop the taters, and as soon as they all float, get 'em outta there - they're done. Now I was surprised at how they shrank but don't worry.

They're not fries in the traditional sense or even how I imagined they would be, but they are damned good potato sticks, just like French's or Herr's, only without the salt (albeit with more oil). They are tasty, very crispy, and worth giving this cooking method a try.

I also tried to bake Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns. The first attempt was on a greased pan in the oven for ten minutes at 425 degrees - all completely arbitrary guess work. All it did was thaw them. No browning, but they smelled good. I gave them another ten minutes, watching them carefully, because I wasn't really looking to make another batch of potato sticks.

Twenty minutes seemed just enough time. These were mini-fries, what are called in the industry matchstick fries, and more in the line of what I was expecting. Whereas the deep fried version was strictly a finger food, these could be eaten with a fork.

All in all this was a good experiment in cooking potatoes two ways they weren't strictly meant to be. If you try it at home, I hope you enjoy!

French Fry Diary 316: Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns

This year The Bride and I decided to do something different on Christmas Eve. Not just running around last minute shopping and gift wrapping, that is. As our meals for Christmas Day had been all planned out already, and our traditional Christmas morning breakfast had been traded out for IHOP, we decided we'd have the regular Christmas morning breakfast for dinner Christmas Eve night.

So along with the traditional ham, there was also -who would have thought it- breakfast potatoes. Not wanting to do a lot of work, I got frozen, and wanting to make The Bride happy, I got shredded as it's her favorite kind. I myself prefer diced, or especially sliced, but I kinda like her and all, ya know?

In this case I got Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns. I cut the bag open at the side, but should have looked closer. They have a handy zip lock opening for resealing and later use. Great innovation. Now why doesn't Trader Joe's have those for their notoriously unopenable potato chips?

I have to give Trader Joe's props on these potatoes. They were individual shreddings, almost matchstick fries. Usually this kind of breakfast potatoes when come in chunks that have to be broken up, but not these. I'm tempted to try to deep fry them or bake them as matchstick fries next time.

They fried up rather quickly. I recommend frying a few slices of bacon in the pan first to give the potatoes that flavor, but using cooking oil works too. Flipping and patting the potatoes a few times is all that's needed for perfect breakfast potatoes. I did burn the second batch a little but that's okay, The Bride likes them like that. It was a good meal, and a good Christmas Eve.

French Fry Diary 311: Trader Joe's Baked Onion Rings

I have tried onion ring snacks before, usually with disastrous results. About the only ones I have ever really liked were from 7-Eleven, and those were so good they were almost addictive. When I saw these in Trader Joe's, it was the ones from 7-Eleven I thought of, because on the bag it says, "sweet onion flavor." I snapped them right up and brought Trader Joe's Baked Onion Rings home.

When I got around to opening the bag - surprisingly easy to open for a snack from Trader Joe's I might add - I was less than enthused. These typically corn snacks were smaller than I imagined from the packaging and they smelled like onions. I know, I shouldn't complain that an onion snack smells like onions - but they didn't smell like an onion snack, you know? Especially not a 'sweet' onion snack.

These rings are kinda bland in taste actually. I think my disappointment comes from expecting the sugary sweetness of those 7-Eleven rings. These aren't bad, but they also aren't great either. They are great to snack on mindlessly in front of the tube if you have nothing else.

French Fry Diary 286: 365 Baked Potato Chips

On my latest trip to Whole Foods, I picked up a couple of their brand name, 365, baked style potato chips. I chose the Lightly Salted and Barbecue varieties.

The Lightly Salted Baked Potato Chips were kinda bland, with that same flat cardboard taste that I have always disliked about baked chips. Taste in baked chips is one department where Trader Joe's is the definite winner. It's almost as if these chips have no taste at all, close to, dare I say it, Communion wafers. They do have a cool uniform shape though - it's almost a Green Lantern symbol.

The Barbecue Baked Potato Chips do have some flavor, wholly due to seasoning, and also come in the weird Lantern shape. I wonder if it's a happy coincidence or a movie tie-in. The seasoning is not great barbecue seasoning but at least it is some flavor.

These are not great chips unless you are being health conscious and don't care about flavor. No transfats, and lots less fat than regular chips. Not for me, try at your own peril.

French Fry Diary 258: Homemade Sweet Potato Fries

I was at Trader Joe's (yes, again), and I saw these sweet potato spears in the vegetable section. Now while the packaging said, "Premium Sweet Potatoes Peeled, Cut and Ready to Cook," my devious mind thought, "Wow, I bet I could deep fry those!"

The Bride thinks that's a cry for help, but I think it's culinary creativity. Let's just not think about the fact I think about deep-frying most food. The directions on the back of the bag want you to bake them, but I'm just obsessed.

Of course, if these really were 'homemade,' as I say at the top of this blog entry, you would have to peel and cut the sweet potatoes - so just for our purposes, we'll just pretend we skipped a few steps.

I popped them in the deep fryer thinking I'd just do 'em like I always do my fries - par-fry, shock-fry, drain, then munch. After giving them the first fry, it occurred to me I wouldn't known when the sweet potato fries were golden brown, after all they were already orange at least! I went until they were almost black and looked crispy - but test-tasting determined they were not.

I decided enough was enough and plated them. The Bride thought they were way overdone but pronounced them good. Yeah, I made her try 'em first. They were done and pretty good, but I thought they needed something, but I wasn't sure what would be appropriate. Sugar or salt? Barbecue sauce or something sweeter? Thoughts?

French Fry Diary 244: Trader Joe's Beer Battered Vidalia Sweet Onion Rings

I picked these up at the same time I got the Handsome Cut Potato Fries, also a new product, I was intrigued by the combination. I'm not a fan of beer battered onion rings, but I love rings made with sweet Vidalia onions, so I had to give it a try.

On the bag for the Trader Joe's Beer Battered Vidalia Sweet Onion Rings, a lot is made about how it's all about the sweetness of the Vidalia onions, and the beer batter. Of the latter, the batter (loving the rhyme) is described as light and airy with just the right amount of crispness. Let's just say Trader Joe's is really proud of these babies.

They looked like standard beer batter rings to me when I was preparing them, so I covered my bets and hit them with some Billy Bee Honey BBQ Seasoning - great for onion rings or Nathan's frozen grocery fries or just any fries at all. I hoped they wouldn't need it. And they're very big rings of onion, as is the way of the Vidalia.

I cooked 'em up in the oven and made them a little bit crispy crunchy because that's how I like my onion rings. The sweet Vidalia comes out but I'm glad I used the seasoning as it covers up the beer batter. Not good, I would rather have panko bread crumbs instead.

I enjoyed them but unlike the Trader Joe's Handsome Cut Potato Fries I doubt I'll get these again. However if you like beer batter rings, maybe these are for you.