Toy Story Toons: Small Fry

Random Tater Pic of the Day #146

These were the mashed potatoes from this year's DIS Meet Weekend. They were pretty good, but much like last year, I found myself jealous of the kids who got chicken tenders and beautiful golden brown crinkle cut fries…

For more on the NJ DIS Meet Weekend, check out the Make Mine Magic Podcast's special episode on the event here.

Meet the Small Potatoes

French Fry Diary 521: The New New Burger King French Fries

Yes. Again. Burger King is changing their fries again.

This is actually more of an addition rather than a change though. Burger King's newest addition to their fry family, which also includes their standard new fries from a couple years back, their onion rings, their curly fries (still only available at select outlets), and their sweet potato fries (generally a summer item), are called Satisfries. Yeah, I'm not sure about the name either.

Satisfries are bigger crinkle cut fries, similar to the frozen microwave fries BK sold for a while in grocery stores, and have less fat and fewer calories. While they will be included at no charge in the kids meals, adults will be paying extra if they want them. Hopefully that means they'll be that much better than BK's regular fries, maybe. Time will tell.

Special thanks to Allison for hipping me to this announcement.

French Fry Diary 513: On the Border

Mexican food is just not my thing. So when friends suggested we go to On the Border for a late meal, I was concerned. I didn't think I'd find anything to eat there, but I did, and that's not counting the French fries on the kids menu. I just wasn't in the mood for the reaction of the server if I ordered off the kids menu, so I adjusted.

There were Avocado Fries on the menu. Hmmm… not tonight. We did in fact get chips as a table appetizer, not of the potato variety. These corn (?) chips for salsa dipping were to start the meal off. The chips were warm, I liked that, but I didn't dip. Like I said, I'm not a Mexican food guy. I ended up getting a grilled chicken dish, minus the massive chunks of hot cheese. It came with some sort of potato product at least.

These red garlic potatoes, sliced and spiced, were served under a sizzling grilled chicken breast. It sizzled for a good couple minutes, awesome. The potatoes are quite crisp in places, very hot, in temperature and spiciness. I really wish there were more. If that's the worst complaint I have - that's not really a complaint, is it?

All in all, it was a very good dinner, and a fun night out with friends. Maybe next time I'll get those kids meal fries and see what they're like.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #107

This one comes from a brunch The Bride and her family attended, including the nephew. The Healthy Garden Café, in Voorhees, also with a location in Moorestown, is a terrific small town restaurant with a mind toward health and gourmet.

The pic is the nephew lunch, the kids platter, Chicken Fingers and French Fries, featuring battered regular cut French fries. Mmmm… fries…

French Fry Diary 488: NJ DIS Meet Weekend

This past weekend The Bride and I attended the NJ DIS Meet Weekend. More details on that can be found here, but for the purposes of this blog, we're going to concentrate on the favorite fried food.

On Saturday, the events came with a lunch. The meal consisted of Caesar salad, bread, steamed mixed vegetables, baked ziti, something that might or might not have been chicken francese, and roasted red potatoes. Come on, you knew I'd get there somehow.

The potatoes were pretty good for catered hot plate potatoes. Nowhere near as good as the crunchy sizzling ones I had the night before at Applebee's. but that's beside the point, and I'll get to them in a later entry. I did notice that the kids meals with chicken tenders had crinkle cuts French fries. That's just ageism at its worst.

The conversation quickly turned toward regional differences. It started with a discussion of Tastykake, as the winner of the Krimpet eating contest was at our table. The non-Philly folks had surprisingly never heard of them.

Talk moved on to the wonders of Wawa, another local phenomenon, and then amazingly how some had never heard of Herr's potato chips. I was stunned. Herr's is the number one chip around, most space on the shelves, etc. I had forgotten how truly regional they were. They did know Utz however. Interesting.

French Fry Diary 354: The Sonic Justice League of Tater Tots

I had wanted to write about this ever since I found out about this, but as was mentioned earlier, most of the Sonic Drive-Ins in the South Jersey area have suddenly closed up. Why, I don't know, but there went my opportunity to collect some of my favorite super-heroes in the shape of some of my favorite fried food.

Luckily my friend Marni managed to pick me up a Wonder Woman Tater Tot. Sonic has been including in the kids meals, officially called Wacky Pack kids meals, plush tater tots dressed like DC Comics characters. What is most interesting about these 'super-tots' is the selection of characters included. Here's the rundown: Clark Kent (!), Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter (!), The Flash, Hawkgirl, Aquaman, Supergirl, Bizarro (!), Plastic Man (!), and Superman.

Of course this doesn't make Sonic Tater Tots taste any better, or reopen closed Sonics in the area, but it sure is pretty cool. More kids meal toys need to be this cool.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #21

These are toys, including plastic French fries, offered by Disney in their parks and elsewhere. Remember, kids, don't eat these fries.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #20

This one was taken by friends Dom and Cindy while on vacation with us in Walt Disney World. It's from the Norway pavilion in Epcot, where they took their little girl to the 'Princess Storybook Dining' at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. The little princess got meatballs and green beans and gravy on a nest of mashed potatoes, with lingonberries - shades of Ikea!

Random Tater Pics of the Day #17 and 18

As we finish our vacation time on board the Disney Dream, here's a closer look at Mia's ketchup Mickey Mouse, and below that, the one night that our server Charlie misfired with the ketchup bottle, and made a Piglet instead.

Next stop, Walt Disney World! See you then!

Random Tater Pics of the Day #15 and 16

Almost every night of our cruise on the Disney Dream, Mia, the daughter of our friends, Dom and Cindy, ordered mac and cheese, with fries, for her entrée. This kids menu delight usually had either steak fries or natural cuts, which can read about in other entries from the cruise, but they came with a special condiment.

Here's a pic of that special condiment, ketchup, expertly poured by our assistant server Charlie into the shape of a hidden Mickey. Yep, a ketchup Mickey Mouse for the fries, rock on. And special thanks to Cindy for the pics.

French Fry Diary 267: Animator's Palate, Disney Dream

Day three dinner on board the Disney Dream brought us to Animator's Palate. There are Animator's Palate restaurants on the other Disney Cruise Line ships but this one us supposed to be a little different. It us smaller and a bit more intimate. In the others, a black and white atmosphere surrounded by animated images turns fully color and animated as the evening goes on.

It is a similar experience on this version although as I said, it's more intimate. The setting is more like that of a real animator's studio and desk and shelves. The decor is reminiscent of when Disney used to have tours of their animation studios.

The floorshow is much the same but the animation is much more amazing. You get three dimensional entertainment featuring Crush the turtle and other Finding Nemo characters. Crush is interactive like Turtle Talk at Epcot.

I got brave again and this time ordered as an appetizer the bacon and cheddar baked potato soup. It's the same dish you could order at Le Cellier in Canada at the World Showcase in Epcot, according to my friend Dom. As you would guess being a catastrophically picky eater, soup is not in my wheelhouse. This was pretty good, sort of a very thin mashed potatoes with the bacon adding an extra tasty kick. Nice.

Dom and Cyndi's daughter ordered fries from the kids menu and she got fairly tasty looking natural cuts. But since they were hers I had to get my own. And she got the Mickey Mouse full of ketchup again.

For my potato selection, to go along with my angus beef tenderloins, was wasabi mashed potatoes. These were very good mashed potatoes. The wasabi had a bit of a slow burn to it but it was a good burn, quite good.

French Fry Diary 264: Royal Palace, Disney Dream

Day two dinner of our cruise brought us to the Royal Palace. The ritziest of the three free restaurants on board the Disney Dream, the Royal Palace is Disney princess themed, mostly Cinderella but they are all included. It's also a French restaurant, as beaten into me by my friend Dom (who spent much of dinner doing French quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), so I ordered - of course - French fries.

The catastrophically picky eater in me also got daring at this meal. I ordered an avocado citrus salad and wild boar tenderloins. Yeah, I went waaay out of my comfort zone. And the coolest part of the meal so far - our traveling companions Dom and Cindy's little girl got a kids meal with French fries, and a Mickey Mouse made of ketchup. Awesome.

The wild boar was very tender and delicious, much to my surprise. The favorite fried food was the same as last night - the baked steak fries. Wonderful. Again, as always, good company and good food, was topped off tonight by creme brûlée, Dom's favorite dessert.

Now I've mentioned how much I love the waitstaff on the Disney boat, and how they take care of you so well. Dom had mentioned loving the crème brulee on the last trip, and they remembered. He got it every night this time, and when I said I liked it as well, guess who got it every night thereafter on this trip? Yep, now that's cool.