French Fry Diary 196: Red Lobster Flashback

The following are my thoughts on the fries, among other things, at Red Lobster from around the year 2001. It's interesting how some things have changed, and some have stayed the same at Red Lobster as compared to my recent review.

Bread things... oh yeah, baby, the bread things.

That's the reason to go to Red Lobster. It is hands down the best thing to get at Red Lobster. The cheddar biscuits are amazing, and the best thing about these bread thing appetizers is that they are free. If you go into Red Lobster and order something to drink, get a few baskets of bread things, and then decide you really don't want to have dinner at RL, you don't have to pay for them, just the drinks. Cool or what? And if you show up for a late dinner, and are there when they are starting to close, you can get the waitress to give you the extra bread things to take home with you.

Ahem, anyway, this blog is about the favorite fried food, and not cheddar biscuits, no matter how good they are. Still, it must be stressed what the real draw at Red Lobster really is.

The fries at Red Lobster are long natural cuts with a light batter covering, crispy, but not spicy despite their orange coloring. I always get them as a side with my chicken. Yeah, I know, like bringing a knife to a gunfight, I always get chicken at seafood restaurants. The chicken is quite good, it should be noted, but the real treat is the sweet and sour barbeque sauce for dipping. This is so good, some of the best I have ever tasted, and if you ask nicely, your waitress will even give you some to take home so you can use it for your fries at home.

Including the extras - the bread things and the sweet and sour barbeque sauce - Red Lobster fries are highly recommended. Remember, come for the fries, but stay from the sauce and especially the bread things!

And that's the way it was. Check out yesterday's entry for how it is now at Red Lobster...

French Fry Diary 195: Red Lobster 2010

Everyone knows the real reason to go to Red Lobster. It's the bread things, the appetizer cheddar biscuits. At least now the folks at RL acknowledge this and are always on top of bringing more when your basket is empty. Unless you say otherwise, your basket will always be filled, and they even are cool about giving you a generous bag of them to take home afterward.

Now if only they would sell them in stores or to go. They could be rich. Bisquick has a biscuit mix that is similar (the Bisquick Complete Cheese Garlic Biscuits) and there are lots of copycats online, but nothing beats the originals. When you go to Red Lobster, don't forget the bread things.

My most recent trip to Red Lobster was for my dear friend Marni's birthday. Her birthday meal at Red Lobster has been a tradition for well over a decade, dating back to when the menu was completely different, except for the bread things. No matter, Marni and I are big fans of the bread things. She even brought me some when I was in the hospital after my kidney transplant - now that's a true friend.

Anyway, after emptying a couple baskets of bread things, like bringing a knife to a gunfight, I ordered a steak at a seafood restaurant. I ordered the steak mostly because of previous experience here (especially since they changed the menu). The RL folks find it impossible to deliver the maple chicken without the rice pilaf. It's like ordering a plain hamburger at Checkers - good luck.

Marni had told me about two items here she thought I would really like - the onion straws and the peach bourbon barbeque sauce. I got some onion straws on my steak. They were thin, lightly battered, and very good, just might have been better a bit crispier. It's too bad they are not officially on the menu as they are very good.

The current French fries at Red Lobster are natural cut shoestrings, a rarity but also very good when you can find them. I got a double order as I didn't want broccoli. I think it was a good choice. These were very good fries. I wish I could say the same about my raw steak, sooo not medium well. You can say I could have sent it back, but I'm paranoid and think it might have returned medium well, but also with an extra special seasoning as well.

The steak was saved however by the aforementioned peach bourbon barbeque sauce that came with Marni's scallops. This sauce had a very interesting taste, sweet and heavy on the peach, and managed to make the steak edible. Excellent for dipping with the fries as well. It should be noted it's also not on the menu. Maybe Red Lobster is working on its own secret menu a la In-N-Out Burger.

I was really kinda having a good time until the waitress spilled hot butter on my legs. I've been accused of being many things, but never a dead lobster. Hey, at least she didn't stand by while I choked like Winnie the Pooh did. Happy Birthday, Marni!

French Fry Diary 194: Tonic

Today's Somebody Else's Fries is another one from The Bride. She travels quite a bit for her work, so she gets to try a lot of new and different restaurants all along the east coast. On this day, she stopped by Tonic, a restaurant/bar in Pittsburgh, where she got something called 'Cowgirl Fries.'

These Cowgirl Fries were big natural cuts that had bacon, scallions, and a homemade cheese sauce on them. The Bride said, "they were good, but they weren't super-terrific." The panini of the day was much better. Hmmm... I'm not sure if that's an endorsement or not. I guess if I ever get out to Pittsburgh, they might be worth a try.

French Fry Diary 193: Oceano's Family Restaurant

This Berlin NJ restaurant was not my idea. From the outside it looks like a fancy place but once you're inside, you realize it's just a diner. I was here, twice now, for a family get-together. Nice to see folks I haven't seen in a while, but just wish it was at a different venue.

The service was pretty miserable. I wonder if they cared that thanks to our party they had about forty people in their otherwise deserted restaurant. For my meal I got a chopped steak, onions and fries. The steak was very good but the fries, freezer burned regular cuts were not. Some were overdone, some were underdone, hardly any were edible.

The highpoint of the Oceano's visit was the placemat, one of those typical diner thingies with ads from local businesses. One such ad promised a "free chair message". Truly the highlight.

More Twitter Fries

LucindaLunacy We have the back door open because it's so nice out. There's a distinct smell of french fry now wafting in from Genos/Pats. Pffft

Jentipede At New York New York... At the bar. The lights look like french fries. I'm hungry. http://twitpic.com/2ile20

JoanneJupiterx Can't sleep, kinda hungry, making french fries, and watching spongebob ^^

keananagtalon It’s much easier not to know things sometimes. And to have french fries with your mom be enough.

miirachaan french fries always taste best when stolen from the person next to you. :)))

marisanunbhakdi Craving for french fries with aioli dip, with a glass of red wine..uhmmmm ;)

niccolus Philly Cheesesteak French Fries? I just stepped into heaven.

likelylikely Because of masterchef, I just learned why I could never deep fry really good french fries. You have to boil them before deep frying...

lelandjs Today I learned that Tater Tots can be turned into mediocre IHOP-style "home fries".

Nekkobus My attempt at making a breakfast hash has basically ended up as bacon fries topped with a fried egg. Fine by me! http://yfrog.com/5mc2zqj

French Fry Diary 192: Freaky Eaters on TLC

There's a show airing on The Learning Channel called "Freaky Eaters." In this American version of the original BBC series, the emphasis is on the freak. No one should as picky as these picky eaters are seems to be the point of this series. It's bad for you, and the Health Nazis are coming for you if you're like this.

Case in point - Amber the so-called French fry addict in the episode called, appropriately enough, "Addicted to Fries." It is mentioned early on, but never again, that Amber's lifelong eating of French fries, and only French fries, has not affected her heath at all. She just wants to know if there is anything wrong with her that that is all she wants to eat, and if there is anything wrong with her daughter who seems to be following in her footsteps.

The show hosts, Doctors Dow and Virgin, who try to help Amber are like a cross between rabid dogs and those shrinks on "Hoarders." They think there's something wrong with her, and that they have to fix her. Even though the fries have never impacted her health, they have to go.

Just for the record, and for those folks who do like the favorite fried food, Amber's weapon of choice is Ore-Ida crinkle cuts, deep fried in a pot of oil. Hmmm. Not the best way to do it. Unless of course you like greasy fries.

It does turn out that Amber does have something wrong with her, genetically. Her system can only tolerate French fries and a few other foods; anything else will make her sick. So it's genetic, and extremely rare, so she can't help it. Her daughter on the other hand has no such anomaly. So I'm watching this show, waiting for the two genius doctors to help the daughter expand her range of foods.

Nope. These Health Nazis won't let Amber be and insist she try new foods anyway, even if they make her sick. They basically ignore the daughter, who does need help. The doctors start by making Amber try French fries in different colors, which is absurd. Picky eaters have trouble with other colors and textures of foods, but they already determined she doesn't fit into that category, and yet this 'therapy' is forced upon her. What about her daughter?

On a side note, the rainbow fries do remind me however of those Funky Fries that Ore-Ida made for a while.

I love this. It's just like those darn Health Nazis when they complain about McDonald's and other fast food places. They would be happy if all the restaurants shut down and French fries were made illegal. Mind you, I have no doubt that cigarettes and alcohol would still be legal in their world. Wake up, people, blame the behavior, not the food.

The doctors finally do incorporate the daughter into the treatment and they got both mother and daughter to try a cucumber. The epilogue mentions that Amber has added fifteen new foods into her diet. There's no mention of her daughter.

French Fry Diary 191: 7-Select Onion Rings

This is a review of 7-Eleven's Onion Rings, honest, it's just going to take a long time to get there. Due to traffic. Bear with me.

Okay, it was Free Slurpee Day 2010, or 7-Eleven's birthday, your choice, and I want to get my free Slurpee, specifically the Coke Slurpee, the granddaddy of Slurpees in my opinion. As opposed to recent years where Free Slurpee Day was all day, the folks at 7-Eleven restricted the celebration to certain hours so my friends and I were on a timetable to get there.

Yes, there's a 7-Eleven right in town, but it's not as easy to get there as one might think. You see, I live in Marlton, and the state of new Jersey has decided that circles, a traffic phenomenon, which has been simplicity for NJ drivers for almost a century, are now too hard to navigate. Why we have to bow to the idiot minds of out of state drivers too dumb to drive in a circle is beyond me, but now, no more circles. So they are eradicating the Marlton Circle for an overpass.

This construction has been going on for years, and quite honestly I see no end in sight. It has effectively divided my town into two towns. I am now, thanks to the construction, which seems busiest and loudest at three in the morning by the way when folks are trying to sleep, cut off from the Main Street of my town - where the 7-Eleven is.

I could walk there, if I wanted to jump multiple barriers and brave crazed and enraged traffic patterns, but that's just nuts. Walking has become a preferred travel option of late with the construction. For instance, it takes me two minutes to walk to the local Shop-Rite, however, if I wanted to go by car, it would take almost twenty-two minutes. Please, tell me how this is easier. The circle was terrific, and easy. And it got me to 7-Eleven quickly. Thank you, state of New Jersey, for ruining yet another good thing.

So after a couple hours, we finally got to 7-Eleven. Lo and behold we were greeted by a sign on the door that said "out of cups, no more free Slurpees." Actually the grammar and spelling were much worse, but that's beside the point. We highly suspected that the clerk was tired of giving out free Slurpees honestly.

Determined to get my Coke Slurpee fix, I bought one, because, really, with the construction, who knew when I would be able to get to 7-Eleven again? Something else caught my eye though, the 7-Select Onion Rings, regular flavor. See? I told you this was a relatively on-topic review.

At first I thought, at seventy-nine cents, that these were simply a cheap store brand of Funyuns. I mean, come on, how can you beat seventy-nine cents, right? These are onion-flavored rings of course, no real onion involved, but that's okay because the portion size is excellent (especially for the price, and there is 0 transfat.

The flavor comes from onion powder but really gives them their kick, and their addictive charm, is the sugar, and the brown sugar. The brown sugar just jumps right out at you in every bite. These are really good, I love 'em. I just wish there was a 7-Eleven closer than the other side of the construction so I could get them more often. Word is they also come in Louisiana Hot flavor as well.

Next time, more favorite fried food, and less bitching about traffic and construction. I promise.

Merry Christmas!

Seasons Greetings from McDonald's French fries. Have a great holiday!

French Fry Diary 190: Roy Rogers on the NJ Turnpike: Breakfast

I was surprised on a recent visit to the Cherry Hill Roy Rogers, the one on the NJ Turnpike. I arrived at quarter after ten in the morning to find that they were still serving breakfast. I wanted lunch but had to settle for breakfast as I was hungry and didn't want to wait. Actually I didn't mind it being breakfast as there is also a Cinnabon there. Regretfully though, the Nathan's and the Carvel were both closed at that time of the morning.

The visit did give me a chance to sample the breakfast potatoes that Roy's serves, called 'Home Taters.' They are natural cut scalloped potatoes, deep-fried and packed into Roy's cool little fry-holding holsters. To say these were not satisfying is not just a reflection on the fact that I was expecting lunch and specifically fries.

These potatoes were dry and tasteless, and really not pleasant at all. They were soft, inside and out, in a bad way, and definitely a reason to avoid Roy Rogers for breakfast. Thank heaven for Cinnabon.

French Fry Diary 189: Roy Rogers on the NJ Turnpike

I used to enjoy Roy Rogers and Roy Rogers fries quite a bit but over the last two decades, the fast food chain has seemingly disappeared from the South Jersey area. The only way to get that tasty Roy's food has been to get on the NJ Turnpike or take a field trip to Baltimore hitting the rest stops on the way. To me it was always infuriating when I would look at the Roy Rogers website and they would list a location for Cherry Hill – but you really couldn't get there without paying the Turnpike toll – or so I thought.

Recently through Facebook I learned that there actually was a way to get to the infamous Cherry Hill Roy Rogers without getting on the NJ Turnpike. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find out there was a back way, used by employees, and of course, an enlightened few consumers who knew about this 'secret' entrance. I was so glad to have the Roy Rogers option once again. On the afternoon I found out on Facebook, I actually rushed over (just five minutes away) to get my fry fix.

Yep, sure enough, here was the mythical Cherry Hill Roy Rogers, and I didn't even have to get on and pay for the turnpike, or have to take the long ride all the way to the next exit – five minute ride and boom – Roy Rogers. There was of course the elevated extortion pricing of a rest stop, but for me, at this moment, it was worth it.