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 507: Texas Roadhouse 2013

The last time (and the first time) I went to the Texas Roadhouse, most of our party got sick. I'm usually willing to give a place a second chance though.

The Bride and I were in Maryland babysitting the nephew and we could not decide on where to go for dinner. There were a few things we were each in the mood for, but we couldn't decide, so we tried to be fair. All the restaurants in the unfamiliar (to us at least) area were put in a bowl, and the kid chose. Texas Roadhouse. It wasn't on the top of any of our lists, but it was fair, so off to Texas Roadhouse we went.

It should be noted it was a Saturday night at dinner. I guess I underestimated the incredible drawing power of the Texas Roadhouse. Not only was the parking lot completely filled but so were the two adjacent lots as well. I even watched one guy in a monster truck make his own parking spot on top of a grass island. The place was packed, and we were told we had over an hour wait. The kid wasn't taking it well, cranky, impatient, and we didn't go where he wanted. 'S all right, we love him.

We were committed though, so we waited it out, just a little under an hour. We got our appetizer right away - the Cactus Blossom, their onion appetizer. The covering is more of a hot chicken batter, almost like a tempura. I thought it was very very good this time. After the wait, we were very hungry, and this just about hit the spot. Sadly, we think maybe it made the kid a little sick. Maybe the place is cursed?

Extra points for them having Coke products, and being on top of refills when they were so crowded. We also got these great buttered rolls as we sat down. The same rolls were used for the kid's mini-cheeseburgers, which in hindsight would have been delicious, had I not gotten what I got.

In lieu of the chopped steak I ordered last time, I got the Grilled BBQ Chicken this time, a huge breast of chicken with terrific BBQ sauce, which was also great on the natural cut steak fries too. Best part of the meal was soaking up the sauce with the fries. The chicken was the best I had had in a while. I will definitely be back, to this location at least - well worth the wait. All in all, it was a terrific meal, and the kid recovered pretty quickly from his stomachache.

The Cow & the Curd

Okay, it's not French fries or potato chips, it's not even onion rings, but it is a fried food, and it is a local Philly sensation, so I'm down with this. My buddy Ray hipped me to this great food truck, The Cow & the Curd, that you might see on the streets of Philadelphia. The owner, Rob Mitchell, and his chef, Mark Tropea, make fried cheese curds.

Here's how:



To find The Cow & the Curd, look for them on the Facebook, and on the Twitter.

They're Back

From the Frito-Lay Facebook page, the three final flavors of the contest earlier this year, are now all available for consumption. Get 'em while you can!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #111

Today's pic is from a food cart down the block from The Bride's offices on JFK Boulevard in Center City Philadelphia.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #110

Frozen French fries at the Dollar Tree on what used to be the Ellisburg Circle in Cherry Hill. And yep, they're only a dollar, and no, I didn't buy any...

French Fry Diary 506: DEVO

The band DEVO has had a long history with potatoes, spuds and French fries.

Members of the band, as well as fans of the band, have been referred to as spudboys, and one would assume, spudgirls. It's even got a documentation on Urban Dictionary, ahem, first definition, not second.

And their album cover for the 1982 release, Oh, No! It's DEVO, even features the band members as potatoes.

Furthermore, "That's Good," one of the singles from the album, and a video release, ran into some trouble with MTV censors. Apparently a French fry penetrating a donut, followed by a happy woman, was just too much for them. Here's the video, you judge.



Plug time - for more DEVO, check out today's entry on my pop culture blog, Welcome to Hell, and today's stop on the Robin Renee Blog Tour - The GAR! Podcast, where we interview Robin in this week's episode.

French Fry Diary 505: The Bottom of the Bag o' Chips

I'm finally there, finally at the bottom of the bag o' rare potato chips from Anchor Food Finds that The Bride got me for Christmas. Here are the last three bags.

Dirty Sweet Potato Chips - Yeah, these again, from the folks who just want to have the chips with the absolute longest name. Dirty, like Zapp's, is owned by Utz. I did not like these at all. Taste, smell, all bad, and no, they hasn't even come close to expiring.

Utz "The Crab Chip" - Speaking of Utz, other than the Herr's silver foil (however now with new packaging more reflective of Old Bay marketing), these are usually the only Maryland Old Bay seasoning chips we see up here in the Philadelphia area.

As opposed to the above mentioned Herr's, "The Crab Chip" has Chesapeake Bay Crab Seasoning instead of Old Bay. It doesn't have as much of a bite, so it's not as hot, but it does have a bit of an aftertaste. Not bad, I would get these again.

Blair's Death Rain Buffalo Wing Chips -These are truly in the rare category. Not only are they buffalo wing flavored, but they're made by a company that specializes in hot sauce, owned by another company called Extreme Food. That's why these are last. I'm afraid of these potato chips. But then again, who wouldn't be afraid of something called Death Rain chips?

All that said, they are not bad, but there is quite a bit of heat. It should be noted that these were the 'Medium' heat chips, so it could get quite a bit hotter. I'm not a big buffalo sauce guy, preferring barbeque instead so maybe that also put me off, but I have to say these kettle chips aren't bad. I could be talked into trying other Death Rain chips.

And that's it, the end of the bag o' chips. Not a bad holiday gift from The Bride. I wouldn't mind getting it again next year. Hint hint.

National Hot Dog Month

July, besides having National French Fries Day on the 13th, is also National Hot Dog Month. So it's National Hot Dog Month, and really, other than grilling some frankfurters up yourself, the best way to celebrate the occasion (in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area at least) is a visit to the Cool Dog Café in Cherry Hill. And that's just what The Bride and I did this weekend.

A couple dogs and an order of onion rings were the weapons of choice. I was admittedly so hungry, I started on my dog before I remembered I wanted to take a picture. Mmmm... one quick and easy dinner at the Cool Dog right away.

Don't forget to get on over to the Cool Dog Café to celebrate National Hot Dog Month. And while you're there, get some of their terrific French fries too.

French Fry Diary 504: Kobe Grill & Buffet

The sign went up over a month before they opened. Kobe Grill Sushi & Seafood Buffet in big red neon letters. Everyone was talking about the new place opening up in what was currently a dead strip mall, even the K-Mart and SuperFresh had vacated. There was nothing here, nothing but the big red neon sign, and folks working tirelessly inside to renovate and construct. Now, after less than a month open, the sign reads Kobe Grill Sushi & Seafood uffet. That's not a good omen.

When you walk in there is a quite beautiful lobby entrance, fountain, sculpture, and water wall between the lobby and actual restaurant. I should say up front, this place was way fancier than the buffets I have been to, even at the casinos. This place was huge, and despite what it says on Foursquare, it wasn't all that crowded. Maybe the novelty and newness has worn off after a month? I know that the sign maintenance has.

As soon as we were seated, and had our drink order taken, they brought us lobster, two halves of lobster, one for each of us. I guess it was free half-lobster night. I'm not a eating-the-inside-of-a-fish-thing's-scary-armor-skin-type guy, so I passed. They took mine away, and I couldn't help but wonder what they did with it. I hope it didn't end up on someone else's plate. The Bride wasn't too thrilled with hers, and didn't eat much.

The buffet was not large. It was spread out over a large area, but really, not all that much offered, and for catastrophically picky eater me, not all that much either. On my first foray into the buffet (or uffet), I got buttered potatoes and sweet fried plantains. Both were very good, and the potatoes were very soft and well cooked buttered wedges of potato, succulent. These were very good, two thumbs up. I got seconds on those babies. However the French fries were regular cut frozen fries, which seemed to have lived beneath the heat lamps for much longer than I would to think about. Not good.

There was grilled steak available but it didn't seem like anyone was ready cook any new for you. No, scratch that, they seemed unwilling to. We also seemed to have multiple people waiting on us due to the lack of crowd. We couldn't find butter or knives. Is this the TSA? Some of the food was very good, and some really not, and the customer service was also not, despite being plentiful. And when I say really not, I mean really really not good. This was really not a good experience.