French Fry Diary 187: The Bride's Breakfast at Roy Rogers

Today's Somebody Else's Fries comes from The Bride who stopped at one of the turnpike locations of Roy Rogers. She stopped in at breakfast time and got some of their potato-ey breakfast fare, what they call "Home Taters."

These are big scalloped chips of natural cut potato. The Bride thought they were better than she expected, but needed seasoning. There was a lot of potato. Sounds like she'll be back. Maybe she'll take me next time.

French Fry Diary 186: Herr's Ripple Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

I really wasn't sure what to think when I saw this on the shelf. Ripple chips are usually thick, and most times when chips are kettle cooked, they use extra thick slices. My mind boggled a bit when I saw that Herr's had a new Kettle chip - Ripple. I had to try them. I wondered how thick they might be. Would they be like Wise's delicious Cottage Fries that sadly aren't available any more? This would be a nice replacement.

When I got home and opened the bag, I was a bit disappointed. Thickness wasn't really a factor. In many ways, these chips were just the same as regular Herr's Ripple Chips. They were a bit greasier however, seemingly thinner, but cooked into the wonderful odd shapes perfect for dipping caused by the kettle process. Nice attempt, but overall, not a good chip. I much prefer the regular Herr's Ripple Potato Chips. Not impressed.

The Barefoot Contessa Makes Onion Rings

On today's Food Network Fridays, we visit with Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, as she makes Crispy Fried Cornmeal Onion Rings.

This recipe comes from the episode "Steaks and Sides" of the Food Network series "Barefoot Contessa."

Ingredients

* 2 large Spanish onions (or 3 yellow onions)
* 2 cups buttermilk
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup (medium) yellow cornmeal
* 1 quart vegetable oil

Directions

Peel the onions, slice them 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick, and separate them into rings. Combine the buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add the onion rings, toss well, and allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes. (The onion rings can sit in the buttermilk for a few hours.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

When you're ready to fry the onion rings, preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a large pot or Dutch oven. (A candy thermometer attached to the side of the pot will help you maintain the proper temperature.) Working in batches, lift some onions out of the buttermilk and dredge them in the flour mixture. Drop into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes, until golden brown, turning them once with tongs. Don't crowd them! Place the finished onion rings on the baking sheet, sprinkle liberally with salt, and keep them warm in the oven while you fry the next batch. Continue frying the onion rings and placing them in the warm oven until all the onions are fried. They will remain crisp in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

See the original recipe here.

French Fry Diary 185: Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que

Black Friday this year was spent chilling with my brother-in-law and my nephew, and before jumping into the crazy world of holiday shopping, the bro treated me to lunch at Famous Dave's. It had been some time since I'd been there and was looking forward to seeing what they had and didn't have.

Famous Dave's is a bit on the darker side of franchise restaurants like T.G.I.Fridays and Applebee's with all the stuff on the walls. It's like hunting lodge from hell décor, with bad country music and southern rock, interspersed with the occasional holiday song. Not the happiest environment, especially with ammo boxes on the wall, but the food is good.

Our waitress 'Famous' Keri happily announced that they had Pepsi products. I had noticed that the various barbeque sauces on the table were in Hank's Root Beer boxes but I was unsure if they offered it - they do. Pepsi worked though, nice and cold to counteract the hotness of the sauces.

Speaking of the sauces, after we ordered we were treated to a 'sauce tour.' A basket of homemade potato chips were served with five empty cups for sampling the five different sauces. They include: Sweet and Zesty, my personal favorite that I even have at home (Famous Dave's also sells these at supermarkets); Texas Pit, kinda hot for me; Devil Spit, this was milder than I thought it be, not bad; Rich and Sassy, was just good bbq sauce and my nephew's favorite; and Georgia Mustard, being mustard, I passed on it.

The sauce tour came with those homemade potato chips, similar to the ones at the British Chip Shop, only not hot, more like traditional potato chips. They were very crispy, but as I said, not very hot, but that's okay, they were for the sauces. I enjoyed them very much.

The burger was very good, just like a burger cooked on the grill at a summer cookout, just the way I like it. The fries that came with them were natural cut potato wedges with ripples on them, thin ones like on Utz Ripple chips as opposed to Utz Wavy chips, ya know? And they go with the fry, not against it like crinkle cuts. These ripples should allow for more crispiness, which I wish they were. Otherwise these were quite good, and the bbq sauces made them even better.

All in all, a great meal with family, and the fries were pretty good too. Thanks for lunch, Matt!

Morgan Spurlock Does Science

This is a clip from Morgan Spurlock's 'documentary,' Super Size Me, his personal attack on the fast food industry. He ate nothing but McDonald's food for one month and then wondered why he wasn't feeling good. He then used his 'experiment' to 'prove' that fast food was not good for you. Heck, anything in excess is probably not good for you.

The clip shows more of Spurlock's brilliant amateur pop science. Because a jar breaks things down exactly like the living human body would...

French Fry Diary 184: Burger King Onion Rings Flavored Snacks

I saw these at Five Below and couldn't resist. Burger King makes semi-decent onion rings so I figured I'd give them a try. At first glance, these are Burger King onion rings, but not quite. Let's be specific. These are onion rings flavored snacks, made from corn meal and formed to look sort of like Burger King onion rings.

The taste is, well, interesting. Everyone who tried them had the same sort of reaction. A few bites and then a look came over their face, and then they didn't have or want any more. It was similar to when someone eats one of the less appetizing flavors of Jelly Belly. Yum, um, ew.

Well, at least they are zero percent transfat, but then again, so are rocks. They have a blandish flavor with an extra mild kick to them, but they are nothing like real Burger King onion rings. Five Below also had snack varieties of BK's French Fries and Ketchup, and also their French Toast Sticks, but I don't think I'll be running to the store to get them any time soon.

French Fry Diary 183: Elevation Burger Is Coming

I was hanging out with my father-in-law yesterday and we decided to see a movie, Unstoppable with Denzel Washington. The only place it was playing was at the mall, so we headed to the Moorestown Mall. Now I don't go to the mall often, after all, it's not the eighties any more, ya know, and the last time I was at this mall was probably last Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw when I entered the food court - a sign indicating Elevation Burger was coming soon to that location!

Now, I've never been to Elevation Burger, but you need to know, I get recommendations all the time for where to go for the best fries and what places to review. There are four places that rank very high up in the category of recommendations, among them - In-N-Out Burger, Whataburger, Smashburger ... and Elevation Burger. The first two are far far from my happy home unfortunately, but the latter have locations just upstate. I was tentatively planning a roadtrip sooner or later for Smashburger and Elevation Burger. How nice of Elevation Burger to come to me!

So now I'm looking forward to 'Fall 2010' (hurry up, not much time left) so I can try their organic burgers, their milkshakes and especially their fresh fries cooked in 100% olive oil. Mmmm... fries...

French Fry Diary 182: "America's Best"

"America's Best" is a recent mini-series on the Food Network. In the "Comfort Food" episode, Alton Brown and the Food Network database came up with a countdown of the best destinations for comfort foods, and one of those comfort foods is, of course, French fries.

Before we hit the favorite fried food though, they also talked about the best mashed potatoes. They went to L'Atelier inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. These high class mashers include French butter, lots and lots of it, perhaps as much butter as there is potato. And the potato used is fingerling, by the way. These are also perhaps the smoothest mashed potatoes as the fingerlings are smashed through a mesh net strainer, so zero lumps get through. Wow.

For the best French fries location, they chose the Boise Fry Co. in, where else, Boise Idaho. This is both a cop out and a bonanza, because rather than choose one fry they chose a place that serves dozens of kinds of fries. Dozens of different potatoes in dozens of different styles, with various seasonings and sauces.

They did spotlight their fries cooked in duck fat as having an out of this world taste. I have yet to try duck fat fries, let alone these, but I look forward to it. Apparently in the foodie world, duck fat fries are the gold standard for fries. The chef's specialty at the Boise Fry Company is the Bourgeois - the basket of fries cooked in duck fat, sprinkled with black truffle salt.

20 Potatoes a Day

Chris Voight, the Executive Director of the Washington Potato Commission is a man with a mission. Sixty days ago he sought to prove that potatoes are not the evil food everyone thinks they are, and yesterday he succeeded. Pay attention, Health Nazis.

Voight's intent was to eat twenty potatoes a day for sixty days, just potatoes, nothing else, other than a few spices and seasonings. He didn't gain weight. He didn't become a diabetic. His blood sugar didn't go through the roof. And he didn't die. It turns out, believe it or not, potatoes actually are good for you.

You can read about and follow his journey at his website here. There's a blog, videos and facts about the diet. Fun for the whole family, families who enjoy potatoes, that is.

Rock on, Chris!

French Fry Diary 181: Molly Pitcher Plaza on the NJ Turnpike

On the way home from the Funplex in East Hanover NJ we had to stop to rest as it's a long drive, so we took a break at the Molly Pitcher Travel Plaza on the NJ Turnpike. It was named for the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. Legend has it she fetched water for the American soldiers during that decisive battle in the American Revolution. For her trouble, she got a rest stop, but as you'll see, not just any rest stop.

We arrived just after midnight on a Saturday night, which is why it seemed strange half the place was closed up. I was especially crushed as three of the restaurants at the place were of considerable French fry interest. Nathan's and Roy Rogers have some of the best fast food fries around, and Arthur Treacher's used to as well, but I had not been to the latter since I began this blogging journey. There was also something extremely enticing called Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill.

Had they all been open, and our stomachs empty, I imagine I could have eaten lots of the favorite fried food, taken copious notes, and pulled at least three, maybe more, entries for the FFD out of this experience. As it turned out, we had Roy Rogers and Cinnabon. That's not a complaint, by the way. It was a good snack and a good break, but it could have been much better.

Mrs. Pitcher, we'll be back. Please be open!