French Fry Diary 236: Trader Joe's Kettle Cooked Olive Oil Potato Chips

I love Trader Joe's. They have great meats, spices, breads, veggies and fruits, the healthy stuff, and of course those chocolate covered orange jells that you must get every time you go. They are no Whole Foods, but they're good.

Last time I was in there I had a bit of the munchies and grabbed some chips. Being an upscale grocer, they don't have the usual selection of Herr's, Utz or Wise, so you have to get adventurous. I grabbed a bag of Trader Joe's Kettle Cooked Olive Oil Potato Chips.

Besides having the prerequisite gourmet long name, these were also a bit on the inexpensive side for the size bag - $1.99 for seven ounces is not bad. Unfortunately, like most gourmet long name chips, they were also almost impossible to open without a scissors. Can somebody tell me what's up with that? Seems to me being able to easily open the bag would be a plus, maybe even a selling point.

Now I'm a big fan of Spanish fries, French fries cooking in olive oil, so I was expecting a similar taste here. It doesn't come through well, which was odd as the ingredients were listed as only potatoes, olive oil and salt. They are still pretty good, if a bit greasy. They are still crispier than usual chips but the ones I got were a bit small for dipping - which they would have been good for.

All in all a good diversion and a nice snack. They are not what I would reach for first, but I wouldn't turn them away.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #6

It's that time of year again when Herr's Potato Chips become His Potato Chips. Happy Father's Day!

French Fry Diary 235: Klondike Kate's

We came down here to Klondike Kate's in Delaware with the family for Mother's Day brunch. It was chosen because of its equidistance between family members' homes, and was worth the trip. It's a pretty nice place, a TGI Fridays vibe in decor and regular menu. However, most of us were eating from the special brunch menu, a little removed from their regular fare.

Looking at the regular menu, I noticed that they have quite a selection of the favorite fried food - fries in regular and waffle and sweet potato, as well as tater tots and onion rings. I will definitely have to come back. My bro-in-law and my nephew wandered off the brunch menu and got beer-battered onion rings and natural cut fries. The rings were better than average according to the bro. Good for him as I'm not fond of the beer-battered type most of the time.

In the meantime, while we waited for our entrees, we got fantastic sticky buns as appetizers. I wish they had given us more but they were a bit stingy with them. This was a theme that would return throughout the meal.

I got the Texas Toast French Toast, which sounds much better than it actually was. It was terrific, but I was expecting huge Texas sized Texas toast - nope, much smaller than expected. It came with a side of home fries, also a very small helping. These were quartered natural cut potatoes fried in a sauce, similar to the kind sometimes found on the Disney Cruise. They were very succulent, but again, a skimpy serving.

This isn't a bad review, mind you, especially when my chief complaint is that I wanted more. All in all, a great brunch with great company, and as it was Mother's Day, all that really counts is that Mom had a great time.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #5

This is a ring of French fries created in "Battle Lamb" by Chef David Burke on "Iron Chef America." This ring was used as a cup for other vegetables. Unfortunately this innovation just wasn't enough to beat Iron Chef Bobby Flay.

French Fry Diary 234: Mon Ami Gabi, Las Vegas

Today's Somebody Else's Fries comes from the Bro-in-Law who recently went to Las Vegas on business.

He took this picture of his steak frites at the impressive Mon Ami Gabi restaurant at the Paris Hotel. He pronounced these fries as "Amazing!"

French Fry Diary 233: Philly Steak & Gyro Co.

This one is sort of a Somebody Else's Fries entry. The family was on the northeast extension, the Allentown Service Plaza, coming back from the Poconos. This isn't the greatest rest stop in the world, a food court surrounded by a handful of tiny counter restaurants. Among them were Roy Rogers, Cinnabon, Starbucks, Auntie Anne's, Basset's Original Turkey, Hershey's Ice Cream, Famous Famiglia Pizza, and the Philly Steak & Gyro Co.

The Philly Steak & Gyro Co. has over a dozen locations including this one, but surprisingly no website, so I can't give you one. Perhaps that's a good thing. Cheese fries were ordered and shared by The Bride and the mom-in-law. Just based on the amount of time they (and all the food for that matter) took to prepare, they should have been perfect. Such was not the case.

The cheese was very watery. I didn't try them, because they really didn't look so good. As you can see from the picture, they were regular cuts, deep-fried and dropped into a Styrofoam pool of that cheese water. They were hot, and had "genuine" cheese on them, but the mom-in-law said she didn't taste much cheese. I'm glad I had Roy Rogers myself. After seeing these, I think I'll stick to Roy's.

French Fry Diary 232: Foodies, Parx Casino

At most casinos they don't want you to eat, much less know what time it is. Their concern is getting you to gamble, nothing else. That's the reason for the quirky restaurant hours in these 24/7 casinos. They don't want you there eating, just shoveling your money into their pockets. Heck, I have spent huge chunks of my life at Harrahs in Atlantic City and still haven't been to every food place there.

Parx, the newly revamped version in Bucks County has a few places to eat, including one of my faves, Chickie's & Pete's, but since I was bored with nothing else to do (longtime readers know I don't gamble), I wanted to amuse myself by writing a FFD review - so I chose the intriguingly named Foodies. Sadly, the name was the only thing intriguing about this wannabe cafeteria.

Simply midnight snack fare was on my mind - a hot dog, small fries and, as preferred Coke was unavailable, a Pepsi. The all beef hot dog was pretty good, but then again I have been spoiled for hot dogs since the Cool Dog Café opened. The Pepsi was, well, Pepsi. And the fries were... well, let's just say it's a good thing they give you Utz potato chips with every sandwich - so I had some potato with my meal.

These grocery frozen shoestrings are freezer burned and deep-fried, perhaps too much. Most are too crunchy to eat and many are stuck together. There's too much salt and what at first I thought was pepper, on closer inspection, really put me off of these things. I don't think its black pepper - I think it's debris from the deep fryer. Thank heaven for the factory sealed snack bag of Utz.

Next time, I'm going to Chickie's & Pete's. Promise.

Alton Brown's Potato Chips

For today's Food Network Friday, the amazing Alton Brown, from "Good Eats," makes homemade potato chips.

French Fry Diary 231: Texas Roadhouse, Bensalem PA

I had seen this place, the questionably named Texas Roadhouse, next to the Sonic on Street Road for a while but only started to get recommendations for it since one opened closer in Turnersville.

My first impression was the same that I had the first time I walked into a Lone Star Steakhouse - loud country music and peanut shells on the floor. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but both had vanished by the time we were seated. And despite it being dinner rush, and being warned by several folks of a long wait, we were seated quite quickly.

Catastrophically picky eater that I am, I ordered the Road Kill (chopped steak, better known as a hamburger sans roll), and the steak fries. First though we got the Cactus Blossom, their version of Outback's Bloomin' Onion. Much easier to pull apart, but also much less spicy hot than Outback's, the Cactus Blossom is a winner. The Bride, her parents and I decimated it.

Took a bit to get my order right, but it finally came after everyone else had already begun their dinner. I didn't want mushrooms so of course I got mushrooms. The chopped steak was terrific after I unburied it from the mountain of onions.

The fries were natural cut steak fries, not dissimilar from Wendy's new ones actually, only thicker. They had some light spices, and parsley, maybe rosemary thrown on them. Not the best I've had but then again not the worst. The waitress kept pushing folks to get cheddar and bacon on them - perhaps knowing they needed something.

Around the table, the ribs were about the same as the fries, not the best but not the worst. Real whiskey in the barbecue sauce it tasted like. Chili's ribs are better though, according to the Mom-in-Law. The beans were good as were the mashed potatoes. The service was a bit slow, but as always, it's amazing how quick a manager comes to your table when you start taking pictures of the food.

I took some of the fries home. They behaved predictably. In the microwave they became a soggy mushy mess, but baked in the oven, these fries became a bit more formidable. They were golden brown with a crunch on the outside, soft and hot on the inside - more like what they should have been in the restaurant.

For the record, more than one of our party had heartburn or was sick to their stomach afterward. All in all, I don't think we'll be back - if we did go back, maybe it would be for the chopped steak, maybe for the Cactus Blossom, but probably not for the fries.

French Fry Diary 230: Tasti-Fries

There are apparently holes in the internet, holes through which some information falls and is never to be seen again. There are forgotten foods like Quake cereal, Marathon candy bars, Chip-O's potato chips (I will get to these sooner or later), or Fudge Town cookies (*drool*) that have just slipped through the cracks. Case in point - the Tasti-Fries, a product that I remember vividly in the 1970s that seems to have completely disappeared at some point in the 1980s.

Tasti-Fries were sold in the frozen grocer's section. They were processed and shaped potato stuffings with six vertical ridges striping them that cooked up very crisp while the inside was soft and hot. They were quite tasty, pun unintended, and made by American Kitchen, or perhaps Birdseye - I'm not sure, the memory is hazy on that.

My enabling big sister Bobbie remembers them, adding that they were made like cheese doodles, the shape given by the cookie cutter extruder. She also noted, as I remembered, a type of Tasti-Fries that went by the name of Yankee Doodles or Yankee Clippers, or something patriotic like that. Not sure what the reference is but it's a wonder they weren't re-released during the 'Freedom Fries' craze of a few years back.

I have been able to find very little on this potato snack on the internet, except for the box shown and this commercial squeezed in between others from the 1970s. The clever Tasti-Fries TV spot starts at 1:33, check it out.



I wish they would bring these babies back, they were good. Do you remember Tasti-Fries?