French Fry Diary 285: Maternity Fries

This weekend the family is celebrating the birth of my new niece. We made the pilgrimage up to the hospital to see her in all her eight pound new born glory. Just for the record, she's absolutely adorable.

Now that's all good and everything, but you're probably wondering why I'm talking about this here. There is a point, and it starts with me happy to see the new addition to the family and continues with me thinking I was crazy.

I was enjoying the whole family groove thing, the awww factor, and everyone taking turns holding the baby - when it happened. I smelled French fries. At first I thought I was losing it, that this near decade of writing about French fries had finally addled my brain - now I'm daydreaming fries.

Thankfully I'm sane. Lunch had come, and hidden underneath a cloche were some hospital-made natural cut regular cuts. Dad finished them off with some ketchup. Mom and baby are doing great - and I'm not nuts.

Rachel Ray's Baked Chili Fries

This week's Food Network Friday is from "30 Minute Meals" starring Rachel Ray. The episode called "Put Me In Coach" features her recipe for baked fresh chili fries. Check it out!

French Fry Diary 284: Dublin Square, Cherry Hill NJ

After my visit to Kelsey's Irish Pub in Maryland, I was wary of trying another so-called Irish Pub, but so many friends had hipped me to this new local place, and happily recommended them, I just had to try Dublin Square in Cherry Hill.

I stopped by alone in the late afternoon. The bar was full but the restaurant not so much. The waitress was very friendly, had quite a lot to tell me about the multitude of specials on deck. While she was wonderful and did a great job, I had to wonder if I would have gotten the same treatment if the restaurant had been packed.

On the table were Colman's Mustard, HP Sauce and Sarson's Malt Vinegar, all imported from England. So it seems like their heart is in the right place when it comes to authenticity. It was decorated in wood and green, and football (that's soccer to you and me) on the big screen TVs around the restaurant. And the Irish and/or seeming Irish music playing overhead was incessant.

The fries, I was told, were deep-fried and tossed in curry powder. Interesting. So I guess I should be expecting some heat. As I waited for them I looked at the specials listed at the table. I did notice that the fries are $4 in the afternoon but $3 at night. I wondered if there was a difference in portion size, or if I was a schmuck for going in the afternoon.

The fries arrived, and I could smell the heat even before I tasted them. They were natural cut steak fries, nothing special or even Irish about them at first glance. The curry powder was interesting but seemed to have more bark than bite, as they weren't necessarily all that hot. The fries themselves were only just warm - as in heat lamp warm, and in the middle of an empty afternoon, not a good sign.

These fries were really a bit of a disappointment. Well, at least they called them fries, steak cut fries, and not chips - that would just be an insult. Now I realize that I am a bit of a French fries nut, but if you are going to go to all the trouble to make an Irish pub franchise, why would you skimp on the fries? I mean, chips/fries are a primary Irish pub staple. Just my opinion.

French Fry Diary 283: Kim's Magic Pop

I'm not really sure exactly what you would call these other than big flat rice cake things, but Kim's Magic Pop snack cake things are interesting.

Here's the good news: they are all natural, fat free, low calorie, and low sodium. These snack cakes come from South Korea and this "natural potato flavor" is made from whole wheat, potato and rice.

The serving and eating suggestions say they can go with soups, salads, with cheese or right out of the bag as a fun snack. I tried one with ice cream, which was messy but good, and one with peanut butter that brought out a Ritz cracker vibe.

Kim's Magic Pop comes in twelve unique flavors, and is an interesting, tasty and healthy snack - check it out.

French Fry Diary 282: Lay's Light

The Bride picked these up just before hurricane Irene hit, as a snack that needed to neither be cooked nor refrigerated.

I was a bit hesitant about Lay's Light Potato Chips Original Flavor, and not because of their healthiness. Sure, they are fat free and have "1/2 the calories of regular potato chips," but they were also cooked with olestra, a fat substitute that has had a variety of not so nice side effects, not the least of which would be diarrhea and abdominal cramping. I know it never sits well with me. I'm actually surprised the Frito-Lay company is still using it.

But then again, part of this blog could be about me eating the dangerous stuff, so you don't have to. The chips themselves are very thin, like most Lay's but also kind of bland, also like Pringles. Not great, and I'm sure I'll pay for eating them later. Not recommended.

French Fry Diary 281: Worst. McDonald's. Ever.

On a recent trip to North Jersey we stopped at the Vauxhall Plaza McDonald's in Union NJ on the Garden State Parkway. We were hungry, needed gas, and this was convenient. This was also a big mistake.

First, because I am currently addicted to Foursquare, I had to check in, and I was rather shocked at the comments about the place, especially bad were the ones about the drive-thru - which unfortunately we were already in line. Slow, rude, sassy and belligerent were the kindest of the descriptions for the drive-thru lady. I believe however more in actual experience over word of mouth - sometimes that doesn't work out for me.

After ordering, we slowly moved up to the pay window. There was a statue of Officer Big Mac, a forgotten McDonaldland character behind bars on the passenger side. On the driver side was what could only be the woman described in the Foursquare comments. She was yelling through our car at someone we assumed was her boyfriend a hundred feet away in the parking lot. She had quite a mouth on her, and I'm talking both volume and heat, good things there were no children in the car. Luckily she didn't hit us with any spit.

We paid and got away from her as quick as possible, and soon found that order accuracy was also one of her customer service skills. Although I'm sure the rest of the staff helped in the ineptitude. We got Chicken McNuggets in lieu of a cheeseburger, frozen chocolate milk, and the fries were especially crappy, seeming much smaller than usual as if they had been refried.

To their credit, they fixed the cheeseburger mix-up when The Bride went inside, and even gave us more of those crappy fries. Wow. Still, never again, no matter how hungry we are or how much gas we need. It's no wonder Officer Big Mac is in jail. He's ashamed.

Justin Bieber Fries

Perhaps you have heard of the insidious and hilarious David Thorne and his personal mission to make life hell for a fellow office worker. If not, check out the details here.

One of my favorite of his stunts involved superimposing Justin Bieber's face onto a pic of the favorite fried food. That story can be found here.

Mmmm... Justin Bieber fries...

French Fry Diary 280: The Friar's Nook, Magic Kingdom

The Friar's Nook. This was actually where I wanted to go on the last night of my Disney World vacation, but ended up at Columbia Harbour House instead. I had gotten a very good recommendation for their homemade potato chips. They also have teriyaki chicken nuggets that sound good too, but I was mostly going for the chips.

Sudden downpours and storms shut a lot of the counter service places down in the Magic Kingdom earlier in the evening, and The Friar's Nook was one of them unfortunately. I'll get to it when I return in March. Looking forward to those chips. Keep your fingers crossed against rain.

Tornado Fries Unwrapped

For today's Food Network Friday, we have the story of Tornado Fries from "Unwrapped."

French Fry Diary 279: Columbia Harbour House, Magic Kingdom

Any port in a storm, that's what they say, and it was a stormy night in Disney's Magic Kingdom, so after hitting the Hall of Presidents, we went to the nautical and colonial themed Columbia Harbour House for dinner. I loved the Hall of Presidents this time, by the way. There's nothing new really, short of an animatronic President Obama, but the host in the lobby was very well read, and he and I got into a great conversation about posse comitatus. However, The Bride is not the history nut I am, plus we also wanted to stay out of the rain.

At the Columbia Harbour House, I got fries of course, and as always in the parks, they were the Disney standard natural cuts. Remember what I said a few days ago about it being who's doing the cooking not how they're cooked? Well, these were very limp and greasy, not good fries at all. Ick. The Bride enjoyed her salad quite a bit though.

Now it should be noted that these are not the only kind of fries you can get here. As I noticed on the Disney Food Blog after I got home from vacation, sometimes they will serve meatier, and better looking regular cuts with the Fried Fish Basket. I wonder if I could request them next time I go?