Everything you wanted to know about French fries, and more - potato chips, recipes, restaurant reviews, onion rings, fast food, and good food - all aspects of the potato and fried food, and especially where the two meet.
Burger King announced yesterday that they were coming out with a new burger next week, called the French Fry Burger, it's a burger, (you ready for this?) with French fries on it.
Perhaps Burger King thinks it's reinvented the wheel here, but really, putting French fries on your burger is as old as burgers and fries themselves. I've been doing it since I was a kid, and know dozens of other folks personally who do it. It's officially called planking (no, not that planking) or sandwiching, and I've talked about here on the blog many times before. What is ironic is that Burger King's new fries are as conducive to sandwiching as their older fries. Too little too late, BK.
Now there may some novelty in having someone else do it for you, but that doesn't work for everyone. A catastrophically picky eater would never be able to order this burger plain at Burger King. The clerk's head would explode. It's hard enough getting just a plain hamburger, I can't imagine trying to get one with fries on it…
And it's not just customers who have been doing the planking, some restaurants are also getting into the act besides BK. Rally's/Checkers have been doing it for a while with their Fry Lover's Burger, and fancier places have been doing onion rings and strings on burgers for decades. There's nothing new under the sun, or ahem, under the bun.
Special thanks to my GAR! Podcast partner Ray for hipping me to the BK news.
When I was a kid, fast food was slow coming to my hometown. In fact, even today, Atco has no fast food restaurants in its city limits. The first to show up in the area was Gino's in Berlin, the next town over, which I've talked about before. We'd had McDonald's up in Lindenwold and down in Hammonton, but that was it as far as choices until the mid-seventies. That's when the McDonald's opened in Berlin, and everything changed.
Where there was McDonald's, there was Burger King, because the burger wars always escalate, and Burger King opened right across the White Horse Pike from the McDonald's. Taco Bell, Wendy's, Arby's, Roy Rogers, etc. all followed in Berlin, but when it comes right down to it, it's always about the big two.
Today, we're talking about Burger King however, the Burger King of my youth, and their original French fries. Burger King recently changed their fries, ending a reign of crappy fries they had had since the early nineties, but before that, they had really good fries, really good fries. When I first encountered BK, I fell in love with their charbroiled burgers, so much better than McDonald's. This is also where I started dipping my burger in my milkshake, BK being best for this practice, and notably best with a plain burger and a black and white shake. This remains the case to this day.
Burger King is also where I started stacking or planking. Those two words might mean something else these days, but to me, and in reference to French fries - stacking and planking, also known as sandwiching is the act of putting fries on your burger, creating a layer of potatoey goodness across your burger. In my years of doing this blog, I have happily found I'm not crazy, and I'm not the only one who does this, or shake dipping for that matter. BK's original fries were perfect for sandwiching.
About those original BK fries, they were shoestrings, similar to McDonald's, only less crispy and slightly more greasy. They were just short of a limp shoestring French fry, but unlike Wendy's new fries, BK's were substantial enough for dipping in shakes without breaking or bending. They were also delicious, and addictive. Whereas the old BK fries, I could barely eat one or two, the originals I would sometimes finish off two orders in a sitting. They were that good. They are still very much missed. I wish they'd bring them back.
Unfortunately, the original Burger King fries, being pre-internet, are extremely hard to get images of, so I have compensated with this blog entry. Find below a vintage BK commercial from the 1970s, plus above a glass featuring the old animated and much-less-creepy Burger King, as well as one of the BK ashtrays that everyone in my high school had snatched from the restaurant and had one in their bedrooms - smokers or not. Enjoy the nostalgia.
Whether you call it sandwiching or planking, putting French fries on your burger has now hit the big time. At Checkers and Rally's they will now do it for you with the Fry Lover's Burger.
"What do you get when you take a perfectly seasoned Checkers & Rally’s burger and top it with our famously seasoned fries? You get flavor awesomeness ... that’s what! Introducing the Fry Lover’s Burger. This bold burger starts with a 100% beef, hand-seasoned hamburger patty, then we top it off with Checkers & Rally’s fries, a slice of American cheese, pickles, ketchup, mayo and mustard. After that we toss it on a toasted sesame seed bun and serve it up to you hot and fresh. Getting hungry? Swing by your favorite Checkers & Rally’s and order one from our money-saving, flavor-craving Cha-Ching menu today!"
According to their advertising, Fatburger is the last great hamburger stand. And they are. This stuff is addictive, and, important to note, all cooked to order. Started in the 1940s by Lovie Yancy. The original restaurant was in her garage, and it's been franchised since the 1980s. They have become well known for their progressively bigger and bigger burgers, but their French fries are just as famous.
Fatburger has steak fries (Fat Fries) and shoestrings (Skinny Fries), perfectly deep fried 'til crispy on the outside and soft and hot on the inside. And as I said, cooked to order - no heat lamp fries - they don't drop 'em until your burger's done and ready to go with 'em. The same goes with the Homemade Onion Rings. These thin crispy beauties are probably the best of the fast food onion rings, big and thin and crispy - yum!
The Skinny Fries are similar in look to McDonald's French fries, but that's where the similarity ends. These are significantly crispier, excellent dipping into one of Fatburger's awesome thick shakes. The Fat Fries however are the best, vastly superior to many of the standard steak fries out there, very recommended.
The burgers are good, made to order with a variety of ways and patties and toppings, including fried eggs. Always hand formed and cooked medium well at their open grill as you watch. Great burgers with only one complaint from this camp - a bit too much pepper, but you can always ask them to go light on it.
Either of the two kinds of fries, or the onion rings, are good for planking on the burger. And as I said, all of the above are good for dipping in the wonderfully thick shakes that Fatburger makes - also to order. A bonus order when I was there last was a fries and rings combo for half the price of a large order of either. And rumor has it they also have hash browns for morning breakfasts and brunches.
This all goes to show why Fatburger is so big and loved in some parts of the country. Despite there only being a few in this area (the one I frequent is in the Borgata Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, and is always the highlight of any trip to the place), it is still widely unknown around here. It's a secret well worth keeping, after we don't want everyone to know where the good stuff is, right?
The customer service is top notch at the Borgata Fatburger. Tenacity and friendliness of the counterstaff is a great shield against what one might suspect in a late night casino food court filled with possibly loud drunks. And then there's also those pesky rewards cards and discounts that casinos have. They handle it well, and with a smile.
Thumbs up all around for Fatburger, highly recommended.
Wendy's is very proud of their new (are they still new at this point?) sea salt natural cut fries. They are/were so proud that they reached out to the online food blogger community several times to have us try them, compare them, and write about them. On occasion they even sent gift cards so we wouldn't have to pay for the fries and got a free meal of it. For the record, I am not always so swayed by the promise of a free meal and stay honest in my reviews. If you recall, I am not so fond of Wendy's new fries.
Quite some time ago, Wendy's ran a promotion and again reached out, this time to have folks compare their fries to those at McDonald's. They also asked that we take several folks along for the ride and compare them too. Now I ran into a problem. Most of my friends are fairly health-conscious. Me, I do it for love and so you don't have to. So it was very hard to find enough people to not only have one order of the favorite fried food, let along two. The gift cards, and the pending blog entry sat undone for some time.
Recently I decided, in the spirit of "I do it, so you won't have to," I decided to do something about it and do the comparison. I used the cards and quickly found out they had expired - not a problem, I completely understand. Wendy's probably thought I was a deadbeat for not doing the review - it's cool, I would have done that to me too. But anyway, I got my butt in gear and did the comparison. As I thought, Wendy's did not do all that well.
Here are the results...
Staying hot - The Wendy's fries get cold when they get old, and by old I mean about ten to fifteen minutes. McDonald's fries stay hot for some time, and even taste good warm, or cold. Win McDonald's.
Crispiness - While a few limp fries sneak in to both, for the most part they are both crispy. Wendy's do have a more potatoey taste, probably just because they are wider in shape. It's a tie on this one.
Dipping - This where the new Wendy's fries fail miserably, and their old fries would have beaten McDonald's easily. The new fries break and bend when you try to dip them in a shake or Frosty. Mickey D's don't do either, even in the extra thick Frosty, but of course, Wendy's older fries, being bigger than either contender here, could hold more shake. McDonald's for the win.
Sandwiching - McDonald's fries are always good for this type of sandwich planking, but Wendy's fries being flat and steak fry-like are perfect for sandwiching. Win Wendy's.
Reheating - McDonald's fries will reheat once in the microwave, and also bake pretty well in the oven once you've gotten home, and they have gotten cold. As I've noted before the new Wendy's fries, unlike their old ones, and their competitor here, do neither. Win for McDonald's.
That's an overwhelming win for McDonald's French fries over Wendy's new sea salt natural cut fries. Sorry, folks. It would be a whole different story if you had not changed your fries...
I'm a professional writer and a reviewer of popular culture in all its forms. I've done stints in radio, journalism and video retail. Ask me anything about movies, television, music, comics or especially French fries and you’ll be hard pressed to shut me up.
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