Featured Blogger at PhillyGrub

Many of you already know, but I'd thought I'd give a shout out here, after all, I'm not shy. I was recently the Featured Blogger at Philly Grub. You can read the interview here.

This was a real honor and aw shucks moment, and thank Marilyn a lot for the exposure, and please everyone check out her Philly Grub blog and Twitter. Philly Grub rocks.

And while I'm in promotion mode, you all do know that French Fry Diary is also on Pinterest, and has its own Facebook group, right? Also occasionally I'll be talking French fries on my two podcasts - The GAR! Podcast and The Make Mine Magic Podcast - check them out.

Sarah Goes to Rehoboth Beach

This entry is part guest blog, part Somebody Else's Fries, and part Random Tater Pic of the day. Very cool blogger, fellow writer, FFD contributor, and friend Sarah Hawkins-Miduski recently visited Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

Here is her blog entry about her trip and the delights she saw, including a cool fish and chips place, and the Dogfish Head Brewery with their amazing fries and bacon-stuffed onion rings. Enjoy!

French Fry Diary 458: Freaky Eaters II

Yeah, I know, after last time, I should just avoid this TLC show like the plague. This is the show that finds folks who are addicted to one particular food, and then they display them like freaks and try to force Health Nazi therapy on them.

I've hated this program every time I've watched, but they drew me in again with another episode about French fries. In this case it's Eric, and as the highly original episode title states, he's "Addicted to French Fries," and Doctors Dow and Virgin are back to browbeat the poor young man into changing his ways.

Amber, the young woman in the first episode had a genetic condition, and like the Clockwork Orange mad scientists they are, Dow and Virgin tried to change her. What was odd was that Amber's daughter, who did not have the condition, they didn't give a crap about. Her daughter was why Amber was on the show.

540 pounds of fries... 

Here, Eric was already being harangued by a nagging wife and mother. I was sure Dow and Virgin would just add to it. Now here's the kicker, Eric is Eric Willmann, of The Daily Fry, which is linked here on the sidebar to the left. Yeah, it's true, Eric is my brother from another mother, a fellow French fry blogger. I was shocked that Dow and Virgin were after one of us. We are an endangered species after all.

The two Doctors' first plan of attack is to show Eric what's going in his body, first a vat of transfat (not pretty), and then 540 pounds of French fries. I had to wonder what happens after this vulgar display. Do they throw the fries out? What about the people who don't have enough to eat, and these two are throwing out 540 pounds of fries! They called it a 'box of death,' so I guess the homeless starve tonight...

Dow and Virgin

Next they gave poor Eric blood tests, with results indicating high cholesterol and potential heart disease. Not funny, and very serious. That's how determined they were to break this active skateboarder who liked writing about French fries. In the end, they did break him. He ate pizza and they skateboarded, I'm sure for the producers, that was a great end to the show.

Eric Willmann of The Daily Fry

However, anyone that clicks the link for The Daily Fry knows what the real loss is. They killed a fellow blogger. Nothing since August of 2011. Eric is doing well. He's not as picky an eater as he used to be. I would assume he's healthier, but he's not writing about the favorite fried food any more.

At least not yet, but here's Eric himself answering my question about it in the comments section of his blog. I asked: "…why did you stop updating your blog here? Was it because you aren’t eating fries that often any more?"

And here's Eric's reply a few days later: "I have only been eating fries once a week. But I should start updating again here soon. keep posted".

There you go. Time will tell…

French Fry Diary 447: My Big Brother

Me and my big brother circa 1967.  I'm the good looking one.

I apparently have a reader who works with my older brother Warren. He is always asking, and thus prodding my bro to ask, why I never mention Warren in this blog. The truth is that Warren didn't have much to do with my French fry obsession growing up, and that's probably a good thing. A recent harassing phone call from my bro on this topic has prompted me to publically humiliate him on the blog. I guess you don't know what you don't want until you get it, eh?

Warren's a good guy, and the best big brother I could ever hope for. He gave me one of his kidneys, one of the reasons I can still eat French fries, hell, he's one of the reasons I am still walking around breathing. Over and above that, I love the guy, hey, he's my brother. And I do talk about him frequently on my other blogs. Regarding my comic book review work, he's the main reason I still love The Flash and Justice League so much, and over at my pop culture blog, Welcome to Hell, I just recently mentioned his "On the Radio" 8-track in my Donna Summer obit more than a few months ago.

One memory of my brother and French fries comes from the time when he had just started driving and had purchased his own car. I was just a stupid punk kid at the time, no future as a foodie blogger in my mind at all. Heck, the concept of a foodie blogger didn't even exist yet. Anyway, with a car comes freedom, and with freedom comes the ability to go wherever you want whenever you want.

Bottom line, Warren could go to McDonald's any time he wanted. And he rarely forgot his little brother when he would bring home a snack. He would always share his fries with me, or more accurately, give them to me when he was done with them. Hey, I never said he was a saint. I still remember that. Like I said, he's a good guy. Maybe when he's living at the old folks home, in a rocking chair, with an afghan on his lap, I'll let him have the rest of my fries.

Just kidding, Warren, they're my fries. Lol.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #68

This pic of burger and fries (and pickle!) from the Buttonwood Grill in Peddler's Village, in New Hope, PA comes from fellow writer and blogger extraordinaire Liz Henry.

Check her out at The Six Year Itch and Aiming Low. I think she's really cool, and she writes real good too.

French Fry Diary 341: Wendy's Vs. McDonald's

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...

Poll Results

Our latest poll here at French Fry Diary asked a very simple and easy question - "How do you eat your French fries?"

The choices were "With my fingers, it's finger food!" which got 92% of the vote. There was also "With a fork." getting 10% and "With a knife and fork, cutting them into bite sized pieces." getting 5%. Finally "Pour them directly into my mouth." got 17%. A good friend of mine also insisted frequently that he eats his fries with his mouth, not a choice given, but what can you do?

Hmmm... there's an obvious winner with most folks using their fingers, but do you all see what I see here? Google, the fine folks that run Blogger and Blogger polls, seems to have a problem - they are very bad at math. There's no way that 92 + 10 + 5 + 17 = 100. Come on, Google, what up with that?

Carrot Fries

Fellow food blogger Megan, of the terrific food blog What Megan's Making came up with this healthful variation on the favorite fried food - Carrot Fries!

Check out Megan's recipe, thoughts and blog here. Mmmm... fries...

Who Has the Healthiest French Fries?

Yell takes it upon herself to find out.

Check it out here.