Normally, I prefer eating my French fries with nothing more than a generous sprinkle of salt. However, I do realize that oftentimes, French fries are eaten less for the purity of the potato and used more as a vehicle for some accompaniment. There are lots of common other ways to dress up French fries, whether it's something dumped on top, or something in which to dip. As well as some lesser-known, slightly more peculiar ways:
- I have to start with the obvious favorite, ketchup. However, if ketchup is the only thing available as a condiment, I like to add Tabasco sauce and black pepper.
- The first time I ever had garlic fries, they were at Dodger stadium from Gordon Biersch Brewery. I was hooked. Now, if ever I make garlic fries at home, I sprinkle hot French fries with chopped fresh garlic, parsley, and crushed red pepper (as pictured above). Marinara sauce, optional. Breath mints, required.
- Dipped in Ranch dressing
- Drowning in meaty, greasy beefy chili, melted cheese, and chopped fresh onions.
- Malt vinegar
- I don't know who or why, but mayonnaise seems to be a popular favorite. As long as it's not Miracle Whip, I think I'm okay with this.
- I have yet to try it, but someone mentioned poutine in the comments of an earlier slashfood post about cheese curds. Poutine is a dish of French fries topped with cheese curds, and covered with gravy. I saw Tony Bourdain eat this on a recent episode of No Reservations. Next trip to Canada, must try poutine.
- This one's for you. Please add your own peculiar way of eating French fries.
5-21-2006 @9:45PM Marvo said... Whenever I eat Chicken McNuggets, I prefer to dunk my fries in the hot mustard sauce I get with my nuggets.
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5-21-2006 @9:52PM red said... With blue cheese and buffalo sauce.
mmmmmm!
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5-21-2006 @10:07PM Jack said... I like to dip my french fries in Wendy's frosties :)
They're so good!
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5-21-2006 @10:12PM evilsciencechick said... when I'm at a Wendy's, I dip my fries into their chocolate frosty. mmmmmm...
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5-21-2006 @10:40PM dragonet2 said... I like mayo or blue cheese dressing for fries. I tried Poutine while we were on Toronto for a vacation, I was okay at the start of it, but I'm not a big eater to start with and I quickly got disgusted with the volume of food. It didn't taste bad, it tasted really good. but too much.
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5-21-2006 @10:45PM Hawk said... #3, I've never done it but I know someone who does.
Their fries could do with being crunchier...
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5-21-2006 @10:51PM Christy said... McDonald's fries, skimming the edge off of my twist cone. Mmm...
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5-21-2006 @11:02PM Morgan said... Yeah, McDonald's is the place for fries with your ice cream or shake. They need to be crunchy and salty, it's like buttery toast and hot chocolate. Yes I am a pig.
A couple more missing-- "fry sauce"-- mayo and ketchup together, or tartar sauce.
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5-21-2006 @11:11PM McAuliflower said... gorgeous fry photo there!
I love spicy sweet cocktail sauce with mine.
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5-21-2006 @11:24PM Ed said... I agree wholeheartedly with 1,2,3, and 5. Although may I suggest that you mix some red wine vinegar in with the garlic and parsley when you make the garlic fries. It's an astounding combination. 2+5 at the same time, basically.
My wife doesn't understand #3, but she likes fries+gravy (she's canadian, but usually omits the cheese curds), so I don't trust her judgment.
The best, though, is a very garlickly aioli. Fantastic.
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5-21-2006 @11:49PM Chris said... Arby's Curley Fries with their Horsey Sauce is really great. Haven't tried regular fries with horseraddish yet though.
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5-21-2006 @11:54PM Homer Simpson said... My friend who is vegan (I'm not) turned me onto slathering them with heated Tofurky Giblet Gravy. It's like heaven. I know what you're thinking when you see the word Tofurky, but *trust* me.
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5-22-2006 @12:56AM Gloria said... I love french fries dipped in a good balsamic vinegar. The fries need to be thicker, rather like the ones in your photo, and preferably double-fried. There was this restaurant in Providence that had the best balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and that's where I started doing this.
Also, poutine sounds gross, but it is AMAZING. When I was in Montreal, I went to Au Pied de Cochon, which serves poutine with foie gras on top. It is a heart attack on a plate, but so worth it.
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5-22-2006 @1:16AM Meghan said... I'm fond of malt vinegar and blue cheese, or blue cheese crumbles and fried garlic.
That said, I've been known to drive from Ohio to Canada to get poutine. (All right, back in the late 90s when gas was 70c a gallon, but still.)
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5-22-2006 @1:19AM Lem-n-ada said... I drizzle mine with a generous portion of truffle oil and add a couple pieces of freshly sliced parmesan... heaven!
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5-22-2006 @3:23AM Isabel said... French fries (or frites, as we call them in France), with a vinaigrette made with garlic, parsley, salt+pepper, vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil... Yummy! Tasted it for the first time as a "tapa" in a tapas bar in Madrid (Spain). Now, almost everytime we have french fries at home (not as often as we would like), we dress them this "tapas" way.
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5-22-2006 @6:25AM Jim In Holland said... Mayonnaise is very popular in Holland and in particularly in Belgium where - it should be noted that "patat" (BE - "frietjes" in NL) or were first created.
The preferred mayo brands are generally Calvé or Remia, but suffice to say they're a little sweeter and a little eggier-yellow than Hellman's. Still - damn good, but it only forms the foundation for your typical serving of frites:
* Patat met: "met" means "with", synonymous with Mayo
* Patat speciaal: with mayo and diced onions
* Patat met pindasaus: with slightly-salty peanut sauce on the other (think any thick thai peanut sauce)
* Patat Oorlog: fries with mayo on one side and pindasauce on the other (my fav)
* Patat Joppiesaus - a kind of a mayo/pickle "secret-sauce" clone. Feh.
* Patat Stoofvlees - with mayo and a seasoned ground-meat on top. Don't ask what kind of meat it is - no-one knows.
Always fry your potatoes in peanut oil, at a high heat, and do it twice - that's the belgian way. First to the point where the edges begin to take color, then dump them out and let them rest a few minutes, then return them to the hot oil to crisp-up. The belgians can't make roads, manufacture cars or keep airlines running, but they do food brilliantly.
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5-22-2006 @6:28AM Jim In Holland said... Typos, typos - figures. Anyway, there's a really good note in Wikipedia on how to cook fries the Belgian way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrenchFries#Cooking
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5-22-2006 @6:37AM Angelica said... to add to the previous comments...peanut oil is a good idea, because it doesn't cool down as quickly as other oils do and you can use it over and over again unlike other oils that have to be dumped after two or three fryings.
Frites...patat is sort of a slang word.
The mayos that you mentioned are a bit on the sweeter side, the Dutch have the sweetest mayo. D&L mayonaise is good, especially the one with lemon. Try that if you get a chance.
Also, make sure you use a yellow potato, NOT a russet when you are 'TRYING to make authentic Belgian fries'.
OH and also, Belgium doesn't need to know how to manufacture cars, it's been done. Roads are for the weak, and Sabina should have destroyed all of their planes years ago and started from ground zero. But when the gov't spends their entire 2006 budget by October of 2005...not much you can do.
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5-22-2006 @6:39AM Angelica said... AHA...I almost forgot my fry link.
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/belgianfries.html
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