French Fry Diary 315: Cool Dog Café's Hanukkah Sliders

The staff shirts at Cool Dog Cafe say "traditional food. fresh ideas. cool." Ira and the folks there have a tradition of amazing specials and this holiday week is no exception.

Presenting the Hanukkah Sliders. I was lucky enough on Christmas Eve today for lunch to partake in the last day of these beauties, but don't worry, they will be back maybe for Passover and definitely next Hanukkah. The Hanukkah Sliders are the regular wonderful sliders they usually have at Cool Dog but with an added holiday twist - a potato latke and apple sauce on top. Mmmm…

Now as someone who just this week tried quite badly to make potato latkes from scratch this week for The Bride, I gotta tell you, not only were these latkes were made right and were delicious. Highly recommended, I'm just sorry I was too late to tell folks about them.

Still come down to Cool Dog Café though, the specials are always changing and always refreshingly different, and don't forget to order some of the best fries in the area.

From Hanukkah to Christmas, French Fry Diary hopes everyone has a Happy Holiday this weekend.

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French Fry Diary 314: Doghouse Burgers & Fries

I heard about Doghouse Burgers & Fries from friends. The Doghouse is located in the Voorhees Town Center, formerly the Echelon Mall. Wow. I used to work at the Echelon Mall as a teenager, and let me tell you, the only things that are the same are the location, the escalators, and the Salvation Army lady incessantly ringing her bell. I do not miss holiday retail.

Doghouse is actually outside of the mall proper, or what used to be the mall proper. It has a variety of burgers and hot dogs as well as French fries. I got a burger combo with an order of the Cajun fries, mostly because an order of regular fries was unavailable. Other types included salt and pepper, garlic and parsley, sweet potato, bacon cheese, chili cheese, and onion straws.

It's an order and sit down and wait place. The wait was long enough for me to get a good long look at the place. Very very orange, with three folks behind the counter, and a large holiday shopping lunch crowd. They were doing good business so I don't blame them for the wait.

The burger was chargrilled and perfect, but the fries while hot and a good portion were only okay. They were regular cut natural cuts, and might have been good had they just been plain. They were tossed with some spices, nothing too hot, but enough to leave an aftertaste. I didn't finish them. I think that says a lot.

The onion straws are nothing of the kind. They are out and out onion rings, big thick crunchy ones with panko bread crumb covering. Easily the best onion rings I've had in a while. These were just luscious.

On this later visit, when we got the onion 'straws', we also got a couple other kinds of fries. the salt and pepper fries, which were pretty much plain fries, with really not that much pepper and far too much salt. The garlic and parsley fries weren't bad, if you like garlic, which I do, but it's a lot of garlic. And we also got the sweet potato fries, which is why the place was recommended to me in the first place. They were rippled potato wedges, and above average, very sweet and tasty. Not better than Cool Dog Café, but still they were very good.

I'll definitely be back for the burgers, and the onion rings, but not so much for the fries. I think this is a life lesson. If you're going to subtitle your restaurant "burgers and fries," they'd better be your two strongest menu items. At Doghouse, it's one out of two, not counting misnomer onion straws.

Potato Latkes for Hanukkah: Two Different Recipes

This recipe is from BarbH at the [just-potatoes] Yahoo! Group:

This was her Great Grandmother's recipe

Potato Latkes (Pancakes)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups grated raw potatoes rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon matzo meal ground
2 eggs beaten
pinch of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 small onion grated

INSTRUCTIONS: Mix well, drop by the tablespoon on hot greased skillet (rendered chicken fat is traditional) . Flatten, when browned turn and brown to golden.

And the above picture is from the wonderful "The Delicious Life" blog and its terrific 2009 entry Basic Potato Latkes Recipe for Hanukkah – My Inner Jew Wants Out, which features another wonderful recipe for this holiday treat.

French Fry Diary 313: Riviera Pizza, Medford NJ

The Bride travels to Medford quite a bit, not for work, but for rehearsals with the Pineland Players. Recently she found a new place to eat, right across from the Zinc Café. Now while I have to question the logic of going anywhere else when you're so close to the Zinc Cafe, when she brought dinner home from Riviera Pizza recently, I was game.

The Bride was first hooked on their buffalo chicken pizza, and on this trip she tried the buffalo chicken cheesesteak. For me, she picked up a plain steak sandwich and, of course, French fries. She even got Whiz on the side so we could share the fries.

While I have never actually been there, Riviera Pizza has quite a selection on their menu, including a wide variety of pasta, seafood and soups. Online reviews seem to echo The Bride's feelings on the buffalo chicken pizza as a favorite, but let's get to the nitty gritty, it's the fries you want to know about.

The food stayed relatively hot after the twenty to thirty minute trip from Medford to Marlton which is pretty good considering that things like Burger King's new fries don't stay hot in the less than three minute trip from Marlton to Marlton. It's also pretty good considering the steaks were in styrofoam and the fries in just cardboard paper.

Now while my steak sandwich was delicious when I got it, and even later reheated - the fries not so much. They were heavily batter fried regular cuts, pretty okay while hot, but nearly inedible cold or reheated. So like many places that have pizza and steak sandwiches, that's a no on the fries at Riviera Pizza.

Can anyone out there recommend a pizza and steak place that does fries well?

Random Tater Pic of the Day #29

Looks like someone Grinched Chick-fil-A! Where did the Waffle Potato Fries go?

This is a close-up shot of the Christmas tree at the Marlton Chick-fil-A.

Traditionally the trees at Chick-fil-A are decorated with the boxes the food comes in, without the food.

Just so you know, somebody (myself included) didn't swipe the fries off the tree.

But they might have...

French Fry Diary 312: Burger King Chicken Fries

Running around holiday shopping, I needed a break, and decided to kill two birds with one stone - I went to Burger King. I was hungry, wanted to give the new fries a second chance and I also wanted to give the Chicken Fries a review. I went through the drive-thru and got a #7, the Chicken Fries meal.

The henhouse (my term) the Chicken fries come in was designed at the same time as the FryPod, and comes with a built-in slot for the dipping sauce - but its bottom is square so it doesn't fit all that well in the cup holder.

Speaking of dipping sauces, Burger King offers buffalo, barbeque, zesty, honey mustard, ranch and sweet and sour varieties. That said, I prefer the dip of my choice for most BK foods - the black and white shake. Your mileage, and flavor, may vary.

The fries themselves resemble mini mozzarella sticks more than they do fries, and while they are tasty, they have more breading than actual white meat chicken. The breading also has a bit of a spicy kick to it, not unlike the breading on the chicken sandwiches I love so much at Burger King.

That brings up another point. I wouldn't normally order these as BK has so many other great offerings. The Chicken Fries are great for a snack, a side, or to share. My assessment of the new Burger King fries however, has not changed. I wish I had gotten onion rings instead.

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.

Rachel Ray's Roasted Thick Potato Chips

For today's Food Network Friday, I have another recipe from Rachel Ray, this one from the episode "30 Minutes to Victory" from her infamous "30 Minute Meals" TV series. The episode focuses on quick meals for during the game, perfect for the holiday football season.

The recipe for her Roasted Thick Potato Chips can be found here, as the rest of the episode's game recipes can be found here. Enjoy!

Free Fries Friday

All day tomorrow, December 16th 2011, Burger King will be giving away their new French fries.

No purchase necessary, one order per person.

Please leave a comment here at French Fry Diary and let me know what y'all think if you get some. You know what I think.

And also drop by Burger King's Facebook page and let them know too.