French Fry Diary 514: Burger King's French Fry Burger

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.

French Fry Diary 326: The Aborted Applebee's Attempt

Let's be clear up front. Applebee's neither cares nor has any pride in their French fries. They are not included in their online menu as a side or an appetizer. You have to hunt them down to even see a picture of them on said menu. I guess if you're ordering online, fries just aren't an option.

It's been a long looong time since I've been to Applebee's. This is due to their always consistent customer service, which was bad. The last time I went to Applebee's was for my birthday about six years ago, and even then it had been a while before then we had gone. For my birthday I wanted a certain volcano fudge cake they had so we went, and from the way they seated us, to the food, to the wait time, to the getting orders just outright wrong, they assured us that their customer service was, as I said, consistent.

My memory insists that I have rarely had a good meal at Applebee's. I do remember once getting some really good onion rings, with Panko bread crumbs and shredded cheese mixed in, but I also recall the service that night being Applebee's standard. The fries as I recall are non-impressive salt and pepper natural cuts, nothing to write home about, and as I said before, Applebee's obviously doesn't think so either.

Further and much closer inspection of the online menu revealed that Applebee's also has crispy red potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, crispy onion strings, and fried onions, although I could not find these items alone, much like the fries. Now you're probably asking why wouldn't I just order those items a la carte, right? Well, those of you asking that question have obviously never experienced the fine, fine customer service at Applebee's. Good luck with that.

All that said, my buddy Ray came down for a buddy movie night. We were going to see the Hindu special effects spectacular Ra. One, and the only real restaurant near the theatre is Applebee's. At first I was hesitant, but seeing as Ray had just gotten back on to Weight Watchers, and Applebee's has a special WW menu, we went for it.

When we got there, it was packed, because it was a Friday night, of course. There was a thirty-minute wait. We weighed our options. Go someplace else, or wait a half hour for crappy service? Applebee's aborted this night, maybe another time. We'll try again.

French Fry Diary 158: Chili's

It's been years since I had gone into a Chili's but The Bride and I were lured in recently by their two-entrees-plus-an-appetizer-for-twenty-dollars promotion. The ad was playing, and still is, non-stop on television, and the food just looked too good. Never say that these kinds of promotions don't work, because now Chili's is a regular dinner destination.

For our appetizers, on the recent visits we have gotten both the Texas Cheese Fries with Chili, and the Crispy Onion String & Jalapeno Stack. The former is an order of Chili's standard Homestyle Fries but topped with cheese, chili, jalapenos, onions and best of all, bacon. Not my style, but not bad, and bacon always makes things better. The latter are some terrific onion straws with a small handful of batter-fried jalapenos thrown in. The few jalapenos are easily identifiable for those (like myself) who aren't fans and the onion straws truly rock. Recommended.

For my entrée I have always gotten some form of the Chili's Chicken Crispers. These are larger than usual chicken tenders with just enough crunch and just enough tender (for me anyhow) and served with a killer smooth barbeque sauce. For my sides I usually get the juiciest sweet corn on the cob I've had in a while, and of course, the fries.

Chili's Homestyle Fries are very crispy natural cuts sprinkled with salt and pepper. Crispy on the outside but they are still hot and soft inside. These are fantastic fries in their subtlety. You won't stop eating them, and the barbeque sauce goes even better with the fries than with the chicken crispers. And best of all, because the portions were so big, I took them home, and all reheated well when baked in the oven.

To top off the meal, Chili's has these one dollar wonders called Sweet Shots. These are shot glasses filled with all the goodies to make any of the following flavors - key lime pie, red velvet cake, warm cinnamon bun, and warm double chocolate fudge brownie. Wow, ultimate dessert.