McDonald's Doesn't Love Us Any More

Apparently McDonald's doesn't love us any more. It was announced today that McDonald's is removing their tasty French fries from their Dollar Menu, and also later this month from their Extra Value Menu.

Hopefully that doesn't mean the end of the fry at the Big M, after all that would be corporate suicide. You can still get the Mickey D's fries at the usual prices from the standard menu, just no bargains.

Read the article from The Village Voice here.

French Fry Diary 348: Simply Potatoes Homestyle Slices

I've mentioned it before, one of our Christmas morning traditions is a big breakfast. The potatoey portion of that tradition goes back a long way in my family. One of my father's favorite meals, breakfast or otherwise, was "fried eggs bacon and potatoes", said just like that, as if it was all one word.

This was a breakfast tradition on Sunday mornings. Sometimes there would be pancakes, or sometimes bakery stuff, and later McDonald's, both after church, but for most of the time, it was fried eggs bacon and potatoes. I/m old, and nobody was counting calories or checking cholesterol back then, suffice it to say. I do realize now that my mom would make boiled potatoes for dinner at least once during the week, good for mashing yourself with a fork, but there was an ulterior motive at work. She was making more than enough boiled potatoes in prep for Sunday, when she would slice them up and fry them in the bacon grease. That extra step, boiling the potatoes, was important.

I've never really been able to duplicate my mom's fried potatoes, though I've tried, and I've come close but they're never perfect. Others have also come close. Monticello's on South Street back in the 1980s came very close with their Monti-Fries, but they're not there any more. The next best thing would be the Simply Potatoes Homestyle Slices from Crystal Farms in your grocer's cool section, as opposed to the freezer.

They are already peeled, already sliced, and already cooked. It kinda does almost the same thing as boiling them a couple days earlier and storing them in the fridge. Because they are prepackaged, they will also keep longer, and bonus, they're gluten-free. They are ready to go at a moment's notice into hot bacon grease (or a more healthy substitute if you wish) and become a yummy cholesterol filled memory from childhood. Most of the time that works out pretty well.

French Fry Diary 347: The Waterfront Buffet, Harrah's, Atlantic City

Because of The Bride's understated gambling addiction, we come to Harrah's in Atlantic City a lot. If you're a regular reader of French Fry Diary, you know that one of my biggest complaints about the casinos is their weirdness about the hours their restaurants are open. Some are pretty easy, like the late lamented Deli, almost always open - and others, like The Waterfront Buffet, never seem to be open.

I've been to this Buffet twice, twice in the literal years we've been coming to Harrah's while the Buffet been in business. It seems like they are never open when we're here, and if they are, they're open for like two hours at six in the morning, and then blocked off for three days. It's maddening. It's not like I really want to go to a buffet, it's just that as human beings, we always want what we can not have.

On our latest trip to Harrah's, Columbus Day weekend, surprisingly, we found The Waterfront Buffet open for breakfast. First things first, the place is huge, and the offerings to eat are many and varied. If you wanted, it could take some time to try everything available - longer than the place is ever open if I may be allowed one last jab about their hours.

The breakfast potatoes were of the cubes variety, fried and left under a heat lamp. They were lacking salt and pepper and any other spices. I could add the first two myself of course. The bacon was good, as was the other breakfasty items. I guess in my obsession I was expecting more potato products, but no go. They did have corned beef hash, which does have some potato in it, but I am suspect of it already as it actually has no corn in it.

When it came to seconds, which I thought I should have because of the price, but they were out of potatoes. Horrors. But then again we did arrive just as breakfast was ending. Maybe we can make an appointment for the next time they're open...

French Fry Diary 346: Lay's Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ Flavored Potato Chips

I had just purchased ice cream at the local Wawa and was perusing the snack aisle looking for something to dip with it. Yeah, I know. I do that, get over it. I was wondering why, for like the hundredth time, they don't have BBQ Ruffles in my area, when I saw this bag of Lay's Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ Flavored Potato Chips and decided to go with them. There were a dozen other choices, but I wanted barbeque.

Now usually ridges are best for dipping, but kettle cooking makes a thick hard break easily chip that is also good for dipping. The only problem with this particular chip is, as you can see from the picture, kinda on the small side. Still they work, not as well as I would have liked, but they work.

For those looking for the health info, there's good news. These chips are free of MSG, transfats, or bizarrely enough, anything related to pigs. They are also a good source of Vitamin C, yeah, right, but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise based on their orange color.

The flavor is a good sweet barbeque flavor, but without a burn or an aftertaste. That's a win-win situation in my book. Not the best BBQ chips I have ever had but pretty darn good ones. And they were terrific dipped in the ice cream.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #36

These Somebody Else's Fries come from The Bride, taken while seeing OutLoud at Laurel Lanes and Brewster's Pub in Maple Shade. She described them as "Thinner than standard ones, real Cheez Whiz, I think, but they have invisicoat." That's my honey.

French Fry Diary 345: Bobby's Burger Palace

Bobby Flay knows French fries, other people's French fries. His own, not so much. Remember those great fries from Balthazar that he talked about on "Best Thing I Ever Ate: Totally Fried"? Well, apparently he knows where to go for good fries, but not how to make them himself.

Bobby's Burger Palace opened up at the classy new Cherry Hill Mall a few months back. It is settled in between Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52, so it's dead center in the valet parking zone. In other words, if you're going to BBP, be prepared for a serious walk cuz you can't park anywhere near it.

This was a night out for The Bride and me, and we invited my buddy Ray to come along. Ray had been to the BBP in Eatontown before and was not impressed. In the words of my friend Ray, "It's not a burger worth waiting in line a half hour for." Well see. He also said the place looked like a 1970s Burger King threw up, and I gotta say, he's absolutely right.

So, stand in line, big menu on the wall, order, sit and wait some more. We sat at the counter, not much choice there. Notably Bobby's Burger Palace has Fresca. They get extra points from The Bride for that. But they also get minus points for the anti-bigger people seating. No chairs in the place are movable, in other words, no chair can be pulled out. I think for a place that sells fast food, gourmet or otherwise, that's a serious faux pas. Condiments included yellow mustard, ketchup, chipotle, jalapeño, and the mysterious burger sauce. Oddly the shakes came first. Isn't that dessert? Weird. The food came quicker than I thought though, but not all at once.

I got just a plain burger as usual, but I got it 'crunchified,' in other words with potato chips on top. Now I applaud the attempt, but I've been putting potato chips on my burgers since I was a little kid. Just piling them on doesn't work. You have to lay them on, cover the whole burger, not just the middle. Also Bobby just uses regular sub-standard store brand potato chips. You need to use flavored chips like barbeque and a quality brand as well. The chips on the burgers done Bobby's way was not a treat and will not bring new folks into the chips-on-burger family. I dumped my chips off after a few bites.

The burger was very good though. Well, mine was at least. Ray had complaints. He got the Bobby Blue Burger, which purports to have blue cheese on it. One would expect, as Ray would, it to have crumbled bleu cheese on the burger, but not the case. It's a bleu cheese sauce, not quite the same thing.

The fries on the other hand, were not good. The Bride suspected they were the last of a batch, very hard and stuck together. They were pretty terrible actually, like at the end of the night at Five Guys. Way too crunchy, overdone, and just bits and pieces. Looking at the fries of others, this seems to be the standard. Now when I asked our waiter if this was the way the fries usually are, he told me yes. Still, the website showed quite tasty looking fries, that bore no resemblance whatsoever to anything I saw in the restaurant the night we went.

The special BBP fry sauce was just some type of salad dressing. Ray had the sweet potato fries and described them as bland. Not good for Bobby so far. We did like what we saw when an order of onion rings went by - gigantic. They looked awesome. Maybe next time, cuz I will be back for the burger, but definitely not the fries.

I remain puzzled. If Bobby Flay thinks the best most perfect fries in the world are from Baltthazar in New York City, why not produce something similar at his own restaurant? Those at Bobby's Burger Palace are not recommended.

French Fry Diary 344: Muscle Maker Grill

This is not the usual place you would expect to find here on French Fry Diary. When you think French fries, you think fast food, and when you think fast food, you usually think unhealthy. Well, the tag line at Muscle Maker Grill is "Great Food with Your Health in Mind."

I was enticed to go not by the ad line, or even by the potato products available, but by the teriyaki chicken nuggets. They sounded really good when I'd first heard about them, so the potato side, and the health, they were just happy bonuses.

I was kinda surprised but happy to find Coca-Cola in such a healthy place (again), but oddly, all in all, the menu seemed very fast food junkie friendly. Not on the menu but as a special was a real burger, but alas, I came for the nuggets. Maybe next time. I ordered and sat down in the crazy red neon lit dining area to wait for my food. If it wasn't for the big screen TV with ESPN on it, I might have gone blind from the red.

Nuggets came with crisp celery and sesame seeds on them, nice touch. They also came with a fork and knife, weird, but plenty helpful with the nuggets, and the potatoes. They were really big (you won't leave hungry) and tender but only slightly teriyaki-ed. Not as good as I would have hoped but still good. I guess I could have asked for more teriyaki, but didn't.

The Western Potatoes also came in a bowl the same size as the nuggets. They were chunks of potato, most the size of the nuggets, soft and spicy, and baked. I couldn't quite identify what the spice was though. I do know that I was as fond of the green leaves in the potatoes as I was of ESPN and the red neon. Otherwise the potatoes were quite good. Both chicken nuggets and potato chunks came apart easily with a fork.

At dinner time on a Thursday night there were not many folks in the restaurant, but it is notable that there was a brisk business coming in and out with take out. Also notably they deliver. I would definitely come back, but with a bigger appetite. It may not look like much, but this meal was very filling.

Paul's Fresh Cut Idaho Fries

We saw this place on South Street in Philly right after we'd had a full meal at Burger.Org. Curses. Too full. Couldn't eat another bite. I will be back however. I must try the Flutter Fries...

French Fry Diary 343: Burger.Org

For various reasons, four games in, and The Bride has yet to make it to a Philadelphia Wings home game. She also hasn't gotten to see our friends Judy and Marc who are also season ticket holders. Actually Judy is an old friend, went to high school with The Bride, and some college with me. Her husband Marc and I have become quick new friends. Although I think he was puzzled the first time he saw me taking photos of fries.

The Bride's first attend-able game was a day game so Judy and Marc planned a lunch get together beforehand. Knowing of my peculiar food fetish and catastrophic pickiness, they chose a burger place in Philly that also had, you guessed it, the favorite fried food. And that's how we got to Burger.Org.

Burger.Org has a healthy edge, serving all organic meats and offering a heavily vegan and gluten free menu. The meat had no artificial ingredients, antibiotics, or preservatives. 100% organic they claim, and that even includes stuff like the shakes and the fries. So basically everything you, ahem, I could possibly want, only healthier.

So what do you think I ordered? I got the burger, a Coke (yeah, I know, I was surprised too) and fries what else? The Bride was a bit disappointed that she couldn't get a cheeseburger, and we both were as they didn't offer shakes until summer. Notably the fries are considered Basary, which basically means meat. In other words, it's like the McDonald's beef tallow oil secret - fries cooked in the same oil as the meat.

I got the plain fries but they also had spicy, which I wish I'd gotten, and sweet potato. Marc got the sweet, and let me try one or two. Well, one, he didn't actually see me take the others. They were spiced with cinnamon, which was to die for. We have a new sweet potato fry champion.

The regular fries are fresh cut natural cuts and quite tasty but needed a little something something - a dipping sauce, some spices. And get them while they're hot, do much tastier hot, and excellent with malt vinegar.

The burger was awesome, one of the best I've had in a while. And the bun was homemade and terrific. The Bride enjoyed her sausages, and Judy and Marc enjoyed their wings. Really, there's not much that wasn't recommended, and the portions were huge. Cheese and shakes aside, this place rocked.

And the Wings? Yeah, they finally won. I guess The Bride is a good luck charm, and she'd better stop missing games...

Oil Change

Nothing as drastic as the shenanigans at Wendy's or Burger King, Chick-fil-A has made a change in the favorite fried food at their restaurants recently. They made an oil change. Chick-fil-A now cooks their Waffle Potato Fries in 100% canola oil, as opposed to the peanut oil previously used.