Vah Reh Vah Fries and Chips

Here's a couple video recipes for French fries and potato chips from the folks at Vah Reh Vah...



Much wisdom regarding type of potato, cooking temperatures and other goodies here. Mmmm... fries... and chips...

French Fry Diary 12: Chickie’s & Pete’s

It’s Philadelphia Wings lacrosse season, and that means one thing… well, several things, but only one thing that is relevant to this blog, and that’s Crab Fries!

Now let’s be clear. I have never ever been to any of Chickie’s & Pete’s five area locations in the Delaware Valley, but they do serve their world famous Crab Fries at the Wachovia Center where the Wings play their home games.

The famous Crab Fries are really simplicity itself despite being an addictive taste sensation. They are just pixie crinkle-cuts smothered in old bay seasoning. But then again, if you’ve ever tried to duplicate this miracle at home, you know it’s just not that simple. Perhaps it’s old bay and crack cocaine – they are that damned addictive.

They are best served hot, and taste-wise very hot, and somehow are much better while watching a sporting event. They come in big honking Big Gulp-sized cup, but still once they’re gone you still want more. While I myself am a French fry purist, one of the winning features of the Crab Fries is the two mini-tubs of white cheese that accompany them. This special cheese is reputedly so good that sometimes it’s hijacked for other park foods like hot dogs and pretzels.

Should you not be able to finish your Crab Fries in the course of a four quarter lacrosse game (or any sporting event really), the good news is they heat up real well at home whether you bake ‘em or nuke ‘em, tasty tasty.

Like I said, the best part of any Wachovia trip and a Philadelphia tradition. When you’re talking Philly sports and French fries, you’re talking Chickie’s & Pete’s.




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The Brick of Cheese

This wonder food made from a huge chunk of the favorite fried food cemented together with cheese is courtesy of This Is Why You’re Fat, a website that promotes itself as “where dreams become heart attacks” and presents pictures of outrageous and allegedly bad-for-you foods and food combinations. Like this, the wonderful brick of cheese.

The Cheese Fries Song

From comedian Jeremy LaCorte, a song parody about his wife's pregnancy cravings. Mmmm... fries...


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Fries with Pheromones?

Apparently there might be more than it seems when it comes to English chips being irresistible. They apparently have a sensory array that makes them even more so to folks. Reuters reports that their aroma is a mixture of, believe it or not, "butterscotch, cocoa, onion, cheese and would you believe ...ironing boards."

Check the article out here

French Fry Diary 11: Five Guys

Five Guys Burgers and Fries, wow.

These guys, these ‘five guys,’ are definitely hardcore. They are serious about burgers and fries. If you check their menu you’ll see that’s all they got and in very precise, concise and simple ways. You get four kinds of burgers, and two kinds of fries, drinks and condiments (and maybe a dog or two for the non-conservatives). Keep it simple and it’ll always be good.

The burgers are good, always well done, and always tasty. The patties are all the same and if you get a large, you actually get two patties which is a nice change of pace. But as usual, what we’re here to talk about is the favorite fried food.

Five Guys fries are natural cuts, cut fresh every day from potatoes delivered weekly from different places in potato country. Most of the time – as with anything this depends on who’s working the fry station – they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the prerequisite of all good fries. You’ll need to get two orders if you’re ordering to go or you won’t have any when you get home. These are definitely eat as you drive fries.

The crowning moment for Five Guys in this French fry aficionado’s opinion comes the second after the Styrofoam cup of fries has been placed in your brown paper order bag. The fry cook will take one more metal scoop of fries and drop it right into the bag. Yeah, you heard me, another heaping scoop of fries on top of what you already ordered. Does it get much better than that really?


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Better Frizzled Onion Rings

Speaking of onion rings as we were last week, here's a recipe for those special skinny little frizzled o-rings from the folks at Better.tv...



Mmmm... onion rings...

And don't worry, we'll be back to the favorite fried food next time!


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Best and Worst?

When I logged into Yahoo! this evening I was pleasantly surprised to see a news story regarding the favorite fried food. And better than that, it was a story about the best and worst French Fries. So cool.

My second thought of course was, "Hey, isn't that my job?

On closer inspection I discovered that the article wasn't really about best and worst fries, but healthiest and unhealthiest fries. Hmmm... I guess as far as they're concerned, taste doesn't even enter into it. Darn Health Nazis.

Check the article out here.

Hip Hop Wendy's

The actual training tape from Wendy’s waaay back in the hip-hop 1980s. Props to The Dark Crystal for hipping me to it.

The Only Thing Better than French Fries?

There was a time when my various medical conditions prevented me from being as intimate with the favorite fried food as I might have wanted to be. For all its glory, and much to the joy of the Health Nazis, the French fry is not necessarily the most healthy food on the planet. When this happened I turned to another fried food, one also made from a much-maligned vegetable, but one I could actually eat at that time - The Onion Ring!

Onion rings aren't really that bad of a second stringer either. And in some cases, like at Friendly's, and especially at Cheeburger Cheeburger, they are much more superior to their French fry counterparts on the menu.

Here's a great recipe for the o-ring from College Candy. Check it out here.


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