Random Tater Pic of the Day #63

Another food truck from this weekend's Collingswood Book Festival. I think it may have been the same one from a couple years ago. There just aren't many food trucks in the South Jersey area.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #62

This one is from this past weekend's Collingswood Book Festival, from one of the various food trucks and carts that were there, this one very proud of their favorite fried food.

French Fry Diary 420: The Supersizers Go... Victorian

I caught this one on The Cooking Channel. "The Supersizers Go..." is a BBC show unfortunately inspired by Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me. The hosts, food critic Giles Coren and radio personality Sue Perkins, pretend to visit a specific time period each episode and basically bitch about the grossness and nutritional non-value of that era.

I discovered the Victorian episode while flipping through the channels and discovered them talking fish and chips. I was hooked, pun unintended. I set the DVR for record when it was repeated later in the evening so I could write about it for you fine folks.

I liked Sue right away as she was also a fussy eater, maybe not a catastrophically picky one, but still a non-adventurous pain in the butt after my own heart. The first mention of the favorite fried food was regarding breakfast. The Victorians ate fried potatoes for breakfast, among other fattening items, fun stuff like mutton cutlets and smoked mackerel with anchovies, all of which they noted the calorie counts.

Among the oddities and goodies I learned in the show include that despite her horrible diet, Queen Victoria lived to the grand old age of eighty-one. I guess fried potatoes every day are a bad idea. I also learned, and this one's for the "Doctor Who" fans, that jelly babies, at least according to this show, date back to Victoria's era. Maybe The Doctor introduced them early.

Something else I've gotten from the episode is that in Victorian England, despite the fried potatoes and jelly babies, they ate a lot of disgusting crap. I'm talking cow's brains, heads, and ears, and that's just for starters. Luckily though, after dinner, Giles and Sue went out to a chippie for fish and chips, a street dish that originated at this time.

Fish and chips, again, according to the show, comes from Jewish immigration to the UK from Poland and Russia. Jewish families could not light a flame after sundown on Fridays so they battered and fried their fresh fish to make them last longer for the weekend. Again, Sue steals my heart by saying fish and chips is one of the greatest inventions of all ages, even over and above the electric lightbulb.

Probably one of the few dishes they actually enjoy throughout the episode, they sit and happily eat their fish and chips, from newspaper cones, with their hands. Yeah, baby. Potato croquettes pop up later, as do many courses of garbage dinners, a trip to a pub, and a Christmas meal. Trust me, the fish and chips were the highlight of this fairly educational romp.

Pizza Tot Cassarole

Pizza Tot Casserole Recipe

Prep: 10 min. Bake: 30 min., Yield: 6-8 Servings

Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef, 1 medium green pepper, chopped, 1 medium onion, chopped, 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup, undiluted, 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, 1 package (32 ounces) frozen Tater Tots

Directions: In a large skillet, cook the beef, pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the soup, mushrooms and Italian seasoning. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Top with cheese and potatoes. Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 6-8 servings.

This recipe and photo courtesy of Taste of Home.

French Fry Diary 419: Boulder Canyon Potato Chips

On a recent road trip I saw some potato chips I had never heard of before so I picked up some snack bags. One of them was Boulder Canyon Totally Natural Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. Yes, they are very healthy, because as we have learned in the past, the longer the name of the potato chip, the healthier they are.

Joking aside, if you've been to the Boulder Canyon website, you know what a terrifically health and environment conscious company they are. Some of their packaging is even combustible. The bag talks of their corporate support of Green Energy and American Rivers. They are very green. Also, regarding the bag, it was crazy hard to open, another sign of healthy chips, as we know from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's products.

The chips follow suit by being gluten free, cholesterol free, trans fat free, all natural, the ingredients including only potatoes, oil, and salt. That's probably also because the Totally Natural style are the regular chip, no extra seasonings or flavorings. That's a problem. While they were nicely thick, lots of crunch, good kettle shape for dipping, and not greasy at all - they were also not salted well at all. Seriously needs salt, despite what the ingredients say.

Good chip for dipping as it would take on flavor that way. I would definitely be interested in trying some of the other styles, especially the Hickory Barbeque, but these were just okay.

French Fry Diary 418: The Justice for Potatoes League

Other than being a self-confessed (and obsessed) French fry freak, I am also a big comic book geek, so when I saw a recent Ore-Ida commercial featuring the Justice for Potatoes League, an obvious play on DC Comics' Justice League, they had me immediately.

Not superheroes in the traditional sense, the League is composed of one determined little blonde girl with a microphone and her younger sidekick Jackson with his camera who confront folks in the supermarket about how Ore-Ida French fries products don't have as many calories as they think they do. Because, trademark notice, "Ore-Ida may surprise you."

I like this new advertising campaign because all too often, the favorite fried food gets a bad rap. Nice to see fries getting some good publicity.

The Justice for Potatoes League has its own website on the Ore-Ida site, and even their own Facebook page. Don't forget to 'Like' them!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #61

This one comes from my good friend Andrea via FourSquare, hash browns from Waffle House, that she described as "Diced and covered and awesomely tasty."

French Fry Diary 417: Gedilla Fries

I picked these up shortly after I got the Sensible Portions snacks. I was kinda expecting them to be similar but such was not the case.

First off, these "Fries" manufactured by Gedilla are made from actual potatoes, not corn or dehydrated potatoes. That's kinda a first for me when it comes to potato snacks that are not chips. They're also kosher year round.

Unlike the aforementioned Sensible Portions product, these are not straws or even fry shaped. These are flat, two-dimensional versions if anything. They could be used for dipping, but for the most part, they are too short for that.

I'm glad I got the barbeque flavor so they had some taste to them. Without it they would be bland as cardboard. The barbeque flavoring is barely hot but does leave a not pleasant aftertaste. I won't be getting these again.

Hot Potato

My buddy Ray hipped me to this one. Blame him.

This is "Hot Potato" by Freestyle Fellowship.



Perhaps not work or family safe.

Love and Poutine

There's a new phenomenon going on at French Fry shops up in Canada - dating - especially at Poutini's House of Poutine. Read the full story here.