Hostess Potato Chips

Does anyone else remember this? I'm drawing a blank, and I'm wondering if it's just me…

Random Tater Pic of the Day #100

Today's Somebody Else's Fries come from my buddy Ray and his lovely wife, who recent had dinner at the Valley Forge Casino.

They dined at the steakhouse there, Pacific Prime, and Ray took a pic of these fries. From what I hear, the rest of the dinner was pretty sensational too.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #99

My ATF! Vidcast and Blog partner Allison sent this fry pic along to me via the Facebook.

The Somebody Else's Fries in question are her mother-in-law's from a great restaurant in nearby Medford that I can't wait to try - Top Notch.

Thanks, Allison!

French Fry Diary 486: New York J & P Pizza

We had this for pick up and go dinner one night with the in-laws in Maryland. New York J & P Pizza is just a standard pizza place down by the brother-in-law's, but they're pretty good.

I'm not big for pizza so I ordered the chicken tenders with French fries. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but I just didn't feel like a burger either that night.

The French fries were great regular cuts, standard frozen and deep-fried, but quite tasty and not too greasy at all. The chicken tenders were good and they came with a terrific barbeque sauce that was excellent for dipping the fries as well.

Oh yeah, and I hear the pizza is pretty good too. ;-)

Random Tater Pic of the Day #98

Here's another Somebody Else's Fries from Andrea on FourSquare, a double shot of onion rings and French fries at Friendly's.

French Fry Diary 485: Lay's Sweet Southern Heat Barbecue Potato Chips

I love potato chips almost as much as I love French fries. And my favorite kind of potato chips are BBQ flavor. So when I see a new flavor like Lay's Sweet Southern Heat Barbecue, of course I have to pick them up and try them. And now I'm in tears.

What can I say. Call me a baby, call me a wuss. Call me a Northerner who doesn't know what real barbecue is. Call me whatever you like, but I'm sorry, these m-effers are HOT. My eyes watered after the second chip, and my mouth and tongue are still on fire. These are even hotter than Ruffles Ultimate Sweet & Smokin' BBQ or Wise Sweet Heat BBQ or even the Kaboom Sauce at Cool Dog Cafe.

Other than the heat, these are pretty standard Lay's potato chips - thinner than most, a bit greasy, crispy, and seasoned heavily. Checking the ingredients for where the heat might be coming from, I immediately noticed red pepper among the usual suspects. I'm guessing that's the culprit.

If you like hot, these are fully recommended. These are definitely hot, but I don't think I'll be getting them again.

French Fry Diary 484: The Wawa Hash Brown 2013

Little has changed about the Wawa breakfast hash brown since the last time I reviewed it, one of my first actual reviews for this blog. While Wawa breakfast has expanded quite a bit and their ordering system for both breakfast and the entire deli area has become computerized and cutting edge, their hash brown remains pretty bad.

The Wawa hash brown is probably frozen and heated via toaster oven then heat lamp for the better part of the day. And yeah, it tastes as good as that sounds. They are worse than the similar planks of processed potato I dislike in Disney and on their Cruise, but also nowhere near the quality of McDonald's Hash Browns. Also note in the image that sometimes, it's not even a perfect rectangle.

It's bland for the most part but it has a bit of a kick more than McD's, possibly it's the onion powder. There is still an awful aftertaste from them. I had one in 2009, I guess one every three years is enough for me.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #97

Here's an image from the internet of those legendary tater tots from Tattooed Mom on South Street in Philadelphia.

Man, I gotta get over there soon.

French Fry Diary 483: Authentic Irish Food

Friend and fellow writer Patti O'Brien recently took a trip to Ireland, as chronicled in her terrific travel blog A Broad Abroad.

Despite knowing what I write about here almost every day, she absolutely refused to take any pics of potato products, even though Ireland, as we all know, is all about potatoes and chips.

She talks about the Irish chips, but we don't see them. She does offer up some pictures of the food here, but no chips.

However, if you look very closely at the second image, up in the left hand corner, three fries.  Months in Ireland, dozens of pics of food, many many pubs, and only three fries.  Hmmm...  

All that aside, Patti is a terrific writer, and I urge you to check out her blog here. You can also follow her at Twitter here.

Sarah at 6ix: A Bistro

Today's Somebody Else's Fries come from my friend and fellow writer Sarah Hawkins Miduski.

On a recent trip to Atlantic City she and her husband visited 6ix: A Bistro, a place I was not too fond of when I was there.

They seemed to enjoy their meal, so maybe I was there on a bad night. Perhaps I'll give them another try. Don't forget to check out Sarah's Blog here, she's a terrific writer.

French Fry Diary 482: Big Belly Burger

Some time ago I wrote about some of the fast food chains in the fictional DC Comics universe. More than a few folks inquired about what kind of, and when I would be reviewing, the fries at Big Belly Burger.

Watching "Arrow" recently I paused it, completely coincidentally, on this image of a basket of Big Belly Burger French fries. Yeah, it's like that.

The fries seem to be natural cut regular cuts, and maybe deep fried.  And yes, I'm ashamed that I can tell all that just from a fuzzy paused television image...

They seem to be a favorite of both John Diggle and Oliver Queen, so I'm going to assume these are good fries. Now if only I could get off of Earth-Prime to really give them a try...

Free Tax Day Fries from Arby's

My friend Ray hipped me to this item from Deal News:

For the third straight year, the fast food chain is offering emotionally and financially taxed Americans a delicious freebie on Tax Day. Arby's is serving up patrons a choice of a free value-sized order of Curly Fries or a small order of Potato Cakes via this printable coupon. Not only is it a nice treat, it's also a great way to save some dough on lunch or dinner.

Happy Tax/Free Fries Day!

South Jersey Writers and Philly Fries

From Nodding Head in Philadelphia, today's Somebody Else's Fries are from fellow writer and friend Krista Magrowski who went there for lunch recently with the equally talented James Knipp.

Behold - rasta man chicken and Spanish frites. Thanks, Krista!

And don't forget to buy "Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey" featuring both of these terrific local writers as well as many more.

French Fry Diary 481: Burger King Loaded Tater Tots

My good friend and she-who-watches-for-fry-and-chip-stuff, Marni, hipped me to these just yesterday. Burger King's Loaded Tater Tots - after they changed their fries, I haven't really been back to BK all that much. But, knowing how much The Bride likes cheese, bacon, and tater tots, I figured dinner at Burger King might be both a nice change of pace, and a FFD field trip.

They were stuffed with bacon and cheese, and from all indications and advertisement images, some other stuff. They don't look like tater tots really. They're a little bigger and with a outside texture that is more similar to chicken tenders than anything else. They look

and taste very deep fried. The taste... well, they don't taste bad but I'm really not sure what they taste like. If you close your eyes and concentrate, you might taste cheese, bacon, and potato. It's anyone's guess what the green bits are.

The Bride definitely thought they were better than BK's old tots, which, I know, for shame, I never tried. That they were better than the old ones, which I haven't heard anything good - that's not saying a lot. Thanks, Marni!

French Fry Diary 480: Zapp's Voodoo Chips

Former oil man Ron Zappe started his potato chip company in the 1980s when his old business was going bad. Headquartered in Louisiana, Zapp's specializes in local flavor style chips like Spicy Creole Crawtator, Cajun Dill Gator-tator, and of course, the dreaded Voodoo chips.

I had tried the regular Zapp's New Orleans Kettle Style potato chips before, but had wanted to try the Voodoo chips at some point. I guess my hunger was answered, twice. The bag o' rare chips had a bag, and my friend Marni also snagged one for me. Double the supply, these better be good.

The black bag, decorated with multi-pinned voodoo dolls, didn't help. When I opened the bag, the aroma was not good. The taste however was not bad, and definitely had a kick. Seeing how the chips had a definitely seasoned color, and almost barbecue potato chip look, I took a peek at the ingredients.

Other than the usual potato chip stuff in potato chips, there was a little bit of paprika, onion, garlic, and smoke among others. Basically these are glorified BBQ chips, not that there's anything wrong with that, 'cause these aren't bad. Their kettle cooking make for an excellent crunch and dipping shape.

Zapp's Voodoo chips are quite good. I'm glad I have double the chips. Thanks to The Bride, and to Marni!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #96

This great looking example of the favorite fried food comes to us courtesy of Andrea on FourSquare, the fries from the One Lounge Kitchen and Cocktail Bar in Washington DC.

Virtua Fries

Recently, my brother-in-law (big sister Bobbie's husband) had a brief encounter with the Emergency Room at the new Virtua Hospital in Voorhees. He's all good now, but he spent a few days relaxing in a hospital room that, let's be honest, kinda shamed some of the rooms I've stayed in at Harrah's. It was niiice.

While he was there, Bobbie had a chance to eat at the Café there, so today's Somebody Else's Fries are hers. This is a pic of her lunch one day during hubby's stay. Bobbie said, "…the fries were natural cut, crisp, hot and made to order. And only cost $1.99! Everything in the cafeteria is fresh, made to order and delicious, who knew? Who knew that hospital food would taste so good?" Her words, not mine.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #95

Here are some French fries I made using the Perfect Fries gadget that The Bride got me for Valentine's Day. Not bad at all!

DragonBall Z Fries

My friend Ray hipped me to these - "DragonBall Z" French fries from Japan's Ministop.

The full story is here.

Mmmm... DragonBall Z fries...

French Fry Diary 479: Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread Potato Chips

Finally! The other night after a month long search, with friends and family, as well as you fine folks, looking, The Bride finally found a bag of Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread Potato Chips at an out of the way Wawa. A small bag, mind you, waaay on the bottom shelf, behind a bag of Sriracha chips, almost as if someone had hidden it to save for themselves later. Now, it's mine, all mine... bwahahaha!

I opened the bag with much anticipation, it did not have much of an aroma. The chips were standard thin Lay's and the almost three ounce bag held a sizable portion. Like the Chicken & Waffles chips these have a slow build toward their full taste. Cheesy Garlic Bread is solidly and accurately what they taste like, really good, and strong, cheesy garlic bread.

I was reminded of Texas Toast Four Cheese Garlic Bread, and sure enough, taking a peek at the ingredients, there are several different types of cheese at work here - cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss, Monterey Jack, and Gouda. The Bride thought there was too much of a 'fake' cheese taste to them, like other cheese potato chips. She also wanted more garlic.

These were very good, maybe not as good as I might have anticipated. Granted, there's been a big build up, and not being able to find them, made them even more of a Holy Grail of potato chips. I would definitely get them again.

I'm a bit conflicted as to which flavor I should vote for. The Sriracha is out of the running. The other two are very close... I think the Chicken & Waffles are a bit flavor heavy and sweet, perhaps too much so for repeat eatings. I'm voting for Cheesy Garlic Bread. Which one are you voting for?

Vote here.