Potato Latkes for Hanukkah: Two Different Recipes

This recipe is from BarbH at the [just-potatoes] Yahoo! Group:

This was her Great Grandmother's recipe

Potato Latkes (Pancakes)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups grated raw potatoes rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon matzo meal ground
2 eggs beaten
pinch of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 small onion grated

INSTRUCTIONS: Mix well, drop by the tablespoon on hot greased skillet (rendered chicken fat is traditional) . Flatten, when browned turn and brown to golden.

And the above picture is from the wonderful "The Delicious Life" blog and its terrific 2009 entry Basic Potato Latkes Recipe for Hanukkah – My Inner Jew Wants Out, which features another wonderful recipe for this holiday treat.

French Fry Diary 313: Riviera Pizza, Medford NJ

The Bride travels to Medford quite a bit, not for work, but for rehearsals with the Pineland Players. Recently she found a new place to eat, right across from the Zinc Café. Now while I have to question the logic of going anywhere else when you're so close to the Zinc Cafe, when she brought dinner home from Riviera Pizza recently, I was game.

The Bride was first hooked on their buffalo chicken pizza, and on this trip she tried the buffalo chicken cheesesteak. For me, she picked up a plain steak sandwich and, of course, French fries. She even got Whiz on the side so we could share the fries.

While I have never actually been there, Riviera Pizza has quite a selection on their menu, including a wide variety of pasta, seafood and soups. Online reviews seem to echo The Bride's feelings on the buffalo chicken pizza as a favorite, but let's get to the nitty gritty, it's the fries you want to know about.

The food stayed relatively hot after the twenty to thirty minute trip from Medford to Marlton which is pretty good considering that things like Burger King's new fries don't stay hot in the less than three minute trip from Marlton to Marlton. It's also pretty good considering the steaks were in styrofoam and the fries in just cardboard paper.

Now while my steak sandwich was delicious when I got it, and even later reheated - the fries not so much. They were heavily batter fried regular cuts, pretty okay while hot, but nearly inedible cold or reheated. So like many places that have pizza and steak sandwiches, that's a no on the fries at Riviera Pizza.

Can anyone out there recommend a pizza and steak place that does fries well?

Random Tater Pic of the Day #29

Looks like someone Grinched Chick-fil-A! Where did the Waffle Potato Fries go?

This is a close-up shot of the Christmas tree at the Marlton Chick-fil-A.

Traditionally the trees at Chick-fil-A are decorated with the boxes the food comes in, without the food.

Just so you know, somebody (myself included) didn't swipe the fries off the tree.

But they might have...

French Fry Diary 312: Burger King Chicken Fries

Running around holiday shopping, I needed a break, and decided to kill two birds with one stone - I went to Burger King. I was hungry, wanted to give the new fries a second chance and I also wanted to give the Chicken Fries a review. I went through the drive-thru and got a #7, the Chicken Fries meal.

The henhouse (my term) the Chicken fries come in was designed at the same time as the FryPod, and comes with a built-in slot for the dipping sauce - but its bottom is square so it doesn't fit all that well in the cup holder.

Speaking of dipping sauces, Burger King offers buffalo, barbeque, zesty, honey mustard, ranch and sweet and sour varieties. That said, I prefer the dip of my choice for most BK foods - the black and white shake. Your mileage, and flavor, may vary.

The fries themselves resemble mini mozzarella sticks more than they do fries, and while they are tasty, they have more breading than actual white meat chicken. The breading also has a bit of a spicy kick to it, not unlike the breading on the chicken sandwiches I love so much at Burger King.

That brings up another point. I wouldn't normally order these as BK has so many other great offerings. The Chicken Fries are great for a snack, a side, or to share. My assessment of the new Burger King fries however, has not changed. I wish I had gotten onion rings instead.

French Fry Diary 311: Trader Joe's Baked Onion Rings

I have tried onion ring snacks before, usually with disastrous results. About the only ones I have ever really liked were from 7-Eleven, and those were so good they were almost addictive. When I saw these in Trader Joe's, it was the ones from 7-Eleven I thought of, because on the bag it says, "sweet onion flavor." I snapped them right up and brought Trader Joe's Baked Onion Rings home.

When I got around to opening the bag - surprisingly easy to open for a snack from Trader Joe's I might add - I was less than enthused. These typically corn snacks were smaller than I imagined from the packaging and they smelled like onions. I know, I shouldn't complain that an onion snack smells like onions - but they didn't smell like an onion snack, you know? Especially not a 'sweet' onion snack.

These rings are kinda bland in taste actually. I think my disappointment comes from expecting the sugary sweetness of those 7-Eleven rings. These aren't bad, but they also aren't great either. They are great to snack on mindlessly in front of the tube if you have nothing else.

Rachel Ray's Roasted Thick Potato Chips

For today's Food Network Friday, I have another recipe from Rachel Ray, this one from the episode "30 Minutes to Victory" from her infamous "30 Minute Meals" TV series. The episode focuses on quick meals for during the game, perfect for the holiday football season.

The recipe for her Roasted Thick Potato Chips can be found here, as the rest of the episode's game recipes can be found here. Enjoy!

Free Fries Friday

All day tomorrow, December 16th 2011, Burger King will be giving away their new French fries.

No purchase necessary, one order per person.

Please leave a comment here at French Fry Diary and let me know what y'all think if you get some. You know what I think.

And also drop by Burger King's Facebook page and let them know too.

When the Burger King Wasn't Quite So Creepy

French Fry Diary 310: Boardwalk Grill & Pizzeria, Cherry Hill NJ

Boardwalk Grill & Pizzeria is a place that opened earlier this summer locally in Cherry Hill. A recent lazy Sunday evening led The Bride and I to look for a nearby place that delivered, we chose Boardwalk, mostly because their menu made a pretty big deal of the favorite fried food.

First off, any place that calls itself 'Boardwalk' and has French fries, had better have good ones. It's just the facts, ya know? The menu calls them "Fryz" just to be different, I guess. They claim that "all Boardwalk Fryz are Hand Cut from Russett Potatoes Daily," madcap capitalization theirs. They offer malt vinegar for dipping, but for a charge. They come in regular, Old Bay, Cheese, Pizza, and Loaded.

Deciding on a pizza roll and some BBQ honey boneless chicken wings, along with fries, sorry, Fryz, both Boardwalk and Loaded, we called in our order. Surprisingly for a new place the delivery was rather quick. Score one for customer service. The chicken was pretty good, and the BBQ honey sauce more barbeque than honey, but excellent on the fries and for dipping.

The Loaded Fryz came in quite a generous portion, and was too much for my wife. Besides being very filling, these natural cuts were under an avalanche of Cheez Wiz, mozzarella, bacon and scallions. This came in a big tin foil pie plate, I mention this because it was a huge portion. These guys give you a lotta fries for your buck.

The large order of the regular Boardwalk Fryz were the same natural cut Boardwalk style fries you can find at Pat's or the more traditional Boardwalk Fries and Seaside Spuds. Again, bonuses for portion size, because the large fry-decorated cup they came in had about the same amount as The Bride's serving.

Sadly, I don't think they were cooked to order. While the hot ones were very good, I had a lot of stubs and ends - no big long fries at all, and some were very crunchy as if they'd been cooked more than once and not in a good way. Maybe it was the end of a batch. They did however reheat well when baked in the oven.

I would be more than willing to give them a second chance, as these could be really good fries, maybe just not this time. I would love to try them at the actual restaurant next time rather than their excellent delivery service.

French Fry Diary 309: Looney Tunes French Fries

I am a huge fan of the Warner Bros. cartoons, in fact the six volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (now sadly out of print) are among my favorite DVDs. That said, I have to say I haven't been that much of a fan of Cartoon Network's "The Looney Tunes Show."

It may just be a matter of my not liking the new character designs or how the pacing is slower and less effective in my opinion, but the sitcom setup of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck being mismatched roommates just hasn't charmed me. Notably however, I do like the new CGI Road Runner shorts and the Merry Melodies music videos that appear semi-regularly.

At this point you're probably wondering what this has to do with the favorite fried food - well, I'm getting to that. A recent episode was titled, wait for it, "French Fries," and dealt with a feud between Daffy and Porky Pig over French fries.

Bugs, Porky and Daffy are at lunch. Everyone gets an entree, and Daffy gets a side of fries with his sandwich. We've all been there. You all know what's coming. Sometimes fries are community fries and sometimes they are MY fries. When Porky has some Daffy's, guess what kind of fries they are? Yep, you got it, and Daffy defriends poor Porky.

My personal favorite part of the episode is when Porky calls, Bugs says, "It's Porky," and Daffy says, "Hide your fries!" Great tunes, great fries, I might give this show another shot.