French Fry Diary 737: Robin Goes to Five Guys

Many folks here know my longtime friend and fellow creative Robin Renee, besides being a hell of a writer, and a terrific performer, she's also been a contributor here at French Fry Diary from time to time. She's also a vegetarian, and our collaboration on her current project Blog March 2017 indirectly to her trying Five Guys because of something I posted about President Obama digging the burger chain.

We texted back and forth after she had tried the Eagle Plaza location in Voorhees. She took lots of pictures, found the veggie sandwich just okay, but her fries were "…insanely salty."

I offered her some good advice for ordering fries at other places. Usually Five Guys doesn't count in this as they always cook them to order, but it might have helped in this situation. If you are worried about salt content, always order your French fries at fast food and other chains with no salt. First this will force them to cook a new batch, so they will be fresh and hot, and it also allows you the choice of controlling your salt intake but how much you put on yourself. It's a good tip and useful in these situations.

I of course felt bad and apologized to Robin again for making her go to yet another meat restaurant. I do this all the time without realizing it. The last time, I invited her to a steakhouse (The Pub), which luckily had a fantastic salad bar plus veggie selections. Sorry, Robin, I'm an idiot.

In her own words, "The good thing these days is that there's something veggie just about anywhere now," which is a good thing, because as I mentioned, I'm an idiot.

Please check out the Blog March, it's important. And if you feel so inclined, please join and/or donate to ACLU, vote, or register to vote if you haven't already, support People for the American Way, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, Lambda Legal, and Public Television.

French Fry Diary 661: Holy Land Pizza

Friends Judy and Marc insisted I try the fries at Holy Land Pizza in the Rhawnhurst area of Philadelphia. One of their favorite restaurants. And I trust them. They turned me on to Burger.Org and also New Harmony, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant, that believe or not, I actually enjoyed.

They have a rather large and varied ethnic menu online, but once there, we got a one sheet. That had this catastrophically picky eater worried, but it was cool, I just got the fries.

They were frozen fries, maybe freezer burned, deep fried. Not bad, but not great. The portion size is gigantic. Their small is considerably bigger than most pizza places' large orders. I gotta say though, I was not impressed. Sorry, Judy and Marc, I guess you can't win them all. The company was as always good however. You guys rock.

French Fry Diary 508: The Crossroads at Garwood

While The Bride and I were attending The DIS Weekend Meet up in North Jersey, where we rarely go, we thought it might be cool to get together with good friends we don't see all that often. We had to pick a restaurant carefully, and not just because of my catastrophic picky eating this time, but also as one of our friends is vegetarian. We decided on the Crossroads at Garwood.

At first glance, this place is part New Orleans and part rock/jazz club. I loved it. While it was loud at points, I enjoyed the company, and the music. The one act taking the stage, that I absolutely loved, was the Garden State Saxophone Quartet. They did a killer "Sweet Child of Mine."

Now here's the crazy part, especially regarding me being a catastrophically picky eater. One of our party got, as an appetizer, grilled alligator tail, and believe it or not, I tried it. It tasted a little like slightly chewy chicken, and had a little bit of a zing in the aftertaste. It could have used a little barbeque sauce actually, but not bad.

All in all, the alligator was better than the fries. The burger I got was pretty good, but the fries that came on the side were disappointing. These were deep fried frozen regular cuts, and that's it, and not very good ones at that. For a rock club/restaurant that goes so far to have grilled alligator tail on the menu, they couldn't get just a little fancier with the fries? Loved the company, the music, and the night out, but the fries were disappointing.

French Fry Diary 455: Smashburger 2013

Here it is, the report from the annual trip to Smashburger on New Year's Day. I had anticipated this year getting together a whole expedition to go from folks at the NYE party the night before, but it didn't work out. Hangovers do that. And the couple we had wanted to come with us passed because of vegan issues.

I countered with the argument that Smashburger had a wide variety of vegan and/or vegetarian offerings, including a veggie burger and several flash-fried veggies as sides. I was told that just going to Smashburger, and giving them their business, would be like saying what they do is okay, and for them - it's not.

I understand completely. No harm, no foul. We're cool. But it did get me thinking. I suppose there are a lot of folks who feel that way, and it made me wonder. Are the fast food burger outlets just wasting their time by making vegan/vegetarian offerings available, when those folks won't be coming in any way? I would love to hear the thoughts of folks out there in the foodie blogosphere.

Now, on to the regularly scheduled annual Smashburger visit. Unlike the last two years we had been here to the Riverside Square Mall location, the place was packed, and hopping for New Year's Day lunch. After placing our order and sitting down, The Bride and I busied ourselves on our iPhones playing the BurgerSmasher game. You can test your skills here making burgers the Smashburger way.

Our shakes came to the table first. I got a big thick chocolate shake, as thick as McDonald's used to have, and Sonic still does. The Bride thought her Oreo shake was very good. They come in a glass, with more in the mixing cup so you know they did it right. In hindsight, this was the best part of the meal right there.

After the last two trips here, I elected to skip the Smashfries this time, in favor of the delicious Haystack Onions. These thinly sliced and deep-fried onions are a bit greasy, but very good. I ordered my Smashburger plain, as usual, but piled some of those onions on top of the patty. Both the burger and the onions were awesome. The burgers are always good.

Of course, the burger and onions only brought to mind the lunch of the previous day, and I have to say, Smashburger paled in comparison to Little Shanty in nearby Warren NJ. Now I hope to get there sooner, but I think next year we'll have a new tradition, lunch at Little Shanty both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Sorry, Smashburger.

World Vegetarian Day 2009

Today, October 1st, is World Vegetarian Day.

What better time to remind everyone that potatoes, the magical food from which French fries are made, is, in fact, a vegetable.

Mmmm... fries...

Paul McCartney Makes Mashed Potatoes

No, seriously, Paul McCartney makes mashed potatoes on the internet…

Masala French Fries

Manjula of Manjulaskitchen shows us how to make French fries Masala style. Mmmm... spicy...


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French Fry Diary 05: Maoz

Yep, I went to a vegetarian restaurant.

The big thing was that my friends Crystal and Anthony just couldn't wait to tell my wife that they had taken me to, and that I had eaten at, a vegetarian restaurant. Me, who never ate right and especially never ate my vegetables, and here I was at Maoz, a quirky cool tiny little vegetarian restaurant take out place on Philadelphia's eclectic South Street.

Maoz, just for the record, is an international franchise with locations all over the world, but only a handful here in the States, and we're lucky enough to have two in Philly.

Back at the vegetarian restaurant. The fix was that Glenn was there for the fries. Heck, you could lure me through the gates of Hell with the temptation of French fries. Now the fries at Maoz had an additional allure - they were Belgian fries (at least on the menu), and Belgian fries are the gold standard of French fries.

Other than the tasty selection of Coke products, these classic pomme frites called "Belgian chips" here at Maoz were the only dangerous item on the menu. Everything else was the usual healthy fare that every good vegetarian restaurant should have.

While I was at first excited by the prospect of Belgian fries, and I did enjoy them, I was a bit disappointed on closer inspection. They were really steak fries - par-fried, frozen and store bought. While they were in fact cooked and served in the traditional manner - they were still steak fries. They tasted quite similar in taste to the steak fries (called Fat Fries there) at Fatburger.

Now like I said, this doesn't mean they weren't good - they just weren't Belgian fries is all. I'd still go back, and now I can say I've been to a vegetarian restaurant. Believe it or not, it's true.


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