French Fry Diary 441: Heinz Deep Fries

I have another fries flashback for you here. Back in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Heinz, who besides making obviously their ketchup products among others, also owns Ore-Ida, made a product called Deep Fries. Mostly you could only find them crinkle cut style, but a few times I did find a regular cut straight fries style available.

The big deal with Deep Fries is they had a coating of vegetable oil that was 'activated' as they baked, making them extra crispy and tasting just like deep fried French fries. They were also a bit more expensive, if memory serves. And if you decided to live dangerously and deep fry them they became super crispy (and maybe a tad greasy, but not to their detriment).

I remember the bags were white with a black (cuz its dark inside the oven) pic of the fries sizzling on an oven pan. Like most frozen fries they were par-cooked, but of you ate one before baking they tasted awful. I assume it was the oil. Other frozen fries are a great quick snack, especially in the summer, straight from the freezer. That said, fully cooked is always much better.


I couldn't find many images, but just check out the commercial at 1:30 on the YouTube clip above. As you can see these 'self sizzling' fries were sprayed with vegetable oil to cook them just a bit more. Deep Fries disappeared some time in the 1980s sadly. I liked them a lot.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #70

This is another one from my friend Ray, "How to turn potatoes into cash."

Denny's Hobbit Menu

In anticipation of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Denny's has introduced an entire Hobbit/Middle Earth menu. Pictured above, Gandalf's Gobble Melt, full of magical turkey, stuffing, and cheese among other culinary wizardry. Don’t forget the Hobbit fries (not made from real Hobbit, I swear).

French Fry Diary 440: Houlihan's

The original plan was for my buddy Ray and I to go to the new pub attached to Aloft up in Mount Laurel, called Miller's N.J. Ale House. Once we arrived and saw the ridiculous amount of people outside the restaurant carrying those fancy table-waiting beepers, we decided to look elsewhere. I drove around and around, almost driving Ray to madness (no restaurants there, unfortunately), until finally we settled on Houlihan's in Cherry Hill, in the Wegman's shopping center where the Garden State Racetrack used to be.

I really didn't know what to expect. The first and last time I had ever been to Houlihan's, was when it was at the Cherry Hill Mall, on a very bad double date from well over two decades previous. I'm going to guess that things had changed. If nothing else, Ray was a better dining companion.

This new Houlihan's was a bit of a maze once inside, and it was very dark. Restaurants that are dark always make me nervous. Is there something they don't want me to see, or worse than that, see clearly? I shouldn't have worried. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the menu however. It was as big as a Sears catalog. Seriously, sixteen pages. It not only could stop a frigging bullet, but it also would've made Chef Gordon Ramsey crazy, as he is always an advocate of a short, concise one page menu.

However on one of those sixteen pages was a wonder in itself - a frites bar - six different types of fries. Oh boy, says the fry guy. They had Disco Fries, more or less a Jersey specialty, but these sounded more like Canadian poutine. Also Parmesan Frites, Truckstop Fries, Pickle Fries (made from pickles, ick), American Fries, and Sweet Potato Fries, topped with cinnamon sugar. Hmmm… cinnamon sugar. I'll have to try that next time I make sweet potato fries at home.

The waitress was very nice, and said everything was made from scratch. So after I ordered my usual, the burger and fries, I asked for onion rings, not on the menu. I know, I was being a pain in the butt by doing that, but I was in the mood for onion rings. She said they didn't do onion rings, but offered up onion straws. That was cool, but… Is it just me, but if you make everything from scratch, why would onion rings be a problem?

After a relatively short wait (although it was kinda long considering how few people were in the restaurant, but they do make everything from scratch, so…), our food arrived. The burger was fairly good, and served on an egg washed challah soft roll, which made for an interesting contrast to your average burger.

The French fries were natural cut shoestrings, deep fried but not too greasy. The problem with them was the same thing I contended with at The TapRoom & Grill - pickle juice fries. There were two big pickles on the plate next to the fries. Just not my thing. The onion strings were really just very thin deep fried onion rings and strings for the most part. Tasty.

After a two decade hiatus, I would definitely come back to Houlihan's, if only to try the rest of their frites bar, but seriously, all kidding aside, it was a good dining experience.

"Best French Fries in the U.S."

Some folks may think differently, but I've never been that good at this shameless self-promotion thing. But here's something I think you folks might enjoy.

Way back in March when I visited Walt Disney World with the family, I gave a phone interview to writer Laura Kiniry. She's a great lady and a terrific writer, and we talked at length about French fries for about a half-hour - Laura in comfortable San Francisco, and myself in the only quiet spot I could scope out in the middle of Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom. Oh, the wonders of technology!

Last week, the article appeared at Travel + Leisure online, co-written by Laura, and Brendan Spiegel. Not only does it quote yours truly, but it also features several places in the United States where the best fries are to be found, a few of them we've even talked about here at French Fry Diary.

Check out the article here. Mmmm... fries...

White Castle Thanksgiving?

Catching up here, I haven't said anything so far about White Castle's fairly new Sweet Potato Waffle Fries. Here's a pic, and I'll have a review up as soon as I try them.

Speaking of White Castle, I have to pick your brains out there. Does anyone have the recipe for White Castle cheeseburger stuffing? I have heard rumors there are also WC fries in there as well. Anyone got it?

French Fry Diary 439: Popeyes, Delaware House

It's been quite a while since I've been to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (or as they are colloquially known, Popeyes Chicken), not since they started to replace local area KFCs at least, and I've never been to the Delaware House rest stop on I-95 despite passing it perhaps hundreds of times, so why not kill two birds (or chickens) with one stone?

Delaware House, recently renovated a few years back, is a more likely stop on I-95 now that personal favorite Maryland House is now itself being renovated. Oddly enough, the first time I had ever been to a Popeyes was also at a rest stop, this one somewhere between Chicago and Milwaukee back in 1992. I remember two things about the visit - the biscuits were good, and there was a 'gentleman' giving out business cards at the rest stop declaring himself a 'procurer of companionship.' Uh huh.

That didn't happen this time. Delaware House is actually rather nice, and has a loungey food court vibe. Originally The Bride was going to get pizza at Famous Farmiglia, but once she smelled what Popeyes was cooking, to paraphrase The Rock, she joined me in line there. Despite what seemed a long line on a busy Friday night, we were quickly taken care of with a friendly smile. A-plusses for customer service and appreciation.

The Bride and I shared some spicy chicken tenders, and I got a biscuit and some fries of course. The biscuits are still just as good as I remembered. The Cajun Fries were crispy and battered natural cut shoestrings, as opposed to the regular cuts I had gotten the last few times I'd been to Popeyes. I wonder if that's a franchise-wide change or unique to this location.

The fries came in an old style fast food paper pocket, but overflowed into their own mini-box, which was a nice touch. Some of the fries were stuck together in batches due to the batter in the deep frying - nothing wrong with that, just interesting. The Cajun spices and cracked black pepper gives the fries a good zing, not unlike those at Checkers. Good stuff.

Good relaxing stop and dinner break, and best of all, no pimps. ;-)

French Fry Diary 438: Sandwich King Onion Rings

We've talked about Jeff Mauro the Sandwich King before. The Bride and I are fans. On his show, called surprisingly enough, "Sandwich King," sometimes he makes a side or two that may be of interest to folks here at French Fry Diary. In the season two episode "Classics with a Twist," he makes baked onion rings.

Here's Jeff's recipe for Oven Baked Onion Rings:

Prep Time: 10 min, Cook Time: 20 min, Level: Easy, Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 4 teaspoons kosher salt, 2 cups buttermilk, 4 eggs, 3 cups panko breadcrumbs, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 large yellow sweet onions, such as Maui, sliced 1/4-to-1/2-inch thick

Directions: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place parchment paper onto 2 baking sheets and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the flour, paprika and 2 teaspoons salt. In another bowl or shallow dish, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Add half of the flour mixture to the buttermilk and beat until smooth and thickened.

In a separate bowl, combine the panko, olive oil and remaining 2 teaspoons salt. Lightly dredge the onion rings in the flour mixture and then drop into the buttermilk. Drain the excess batter and then dredge in the panko mixture.

Arrange on the prepared baking sheets in a single layer. You can place smaller rings inside bigger rings if necessary, just make sure there is space between them. Then place in the oven. Cook until golden brown, 14 to 20 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, flip over each onion ring to ensure even crisping and browning.

Check out the complete recipe here.

French Fry Diary 437: Flavor Town Under Siege

The big news in food the last few days has been the scathing review of Guy Fieri's restaurant in New York City, you know, where food critic Pete Wells of the New York Times tore the chef a new one for his Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square.

For those of you who missed it, read it here.

Wow. Huh, how about that? I have commented on the Facebook, and to friends that I wish someday I could write something like that. That is a solid piece of writing, so incisive, so destructive, so hateful - and so to the point. Pete Wells hated his experience at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar obviously.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Also check out the article that accompanied the above video here.

But as noted above in Guy's rebuttal on "The Today Show" this morning, this Wells guy must have had some other agenda. You can't possibly hate everything about a place, especially when, as Wells admitted, you've gone there four times.

I've had crappy service and food at some of my favorite restaurants, and really good service food at some of my least favorite. Things change with the day. Even at McDonald's and Burger King, whose skills lie mostly in consistency, you can get different food from day to day.

And as much as I envy Pete Wells' mad writin' skillz, I like Guy Fieri quite a bit. He's the man. Anything that may be wrong will be fixed, and anything else is a fluke, I'm sure. At least until I get to review Guy's American Kitchen & Bar myself someday. Hmmm... I wonder how the fries are…

Diablo Potato Chips

Ingredients: 2 large russet potatoes, 6 cups vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon Cajun-style seasoned salt, divided

Thinly slice potatoes; place in a large bowl of ice water. *

When ready to cook: Heat oil in a deep fryer to 360 degrees F, or until a bread cube browns in 1 minute.

Drain potatoes on paper towels. Sprinkle with some seasoned salt. Lower potatoes into deep fryer with a slotted spoon. Fry in batches until chips are golden, about 3 minutes.

Remove chips from deep fryer with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle with remaining seasoned salt. Place chips in a serving bowl.

* The potatoes can be sliced and kept in water in an airtight container for up to 2 hours before frying.

Servings: 4

Recipe courtesy of the Just-Potatoes Yahoo! Group.