In honor of National French Fry Day, Joe and I stopped by a Maine institution, Wasses Hot Dogs, for some fries and a few dogs. I never had chili cheese fries before, so I ordered some up. Larry the Lobster, my car mascot decided he wanted some as well. Joe was leery about the fries at first, but I dug right in, so he did too. The combination of commercial cheese sauce and mild, almost flavorless chili paste glopped onto the fries actually tasted pretty good. Of course this was right after we had done a tour and tastings at some of the local wineries, but still, the buzz from the wine wasn't that strong.

Bob brought to our attention that it's National French Fry Day today so I figured that it would be fun to look at some of the fries available locally here in Mid-Coast Maine. Fellow blogger Joe Distefano just got in town for a week of vacation and of course it has already turned into a food and drink extravaganza. Two nights ago we went to my favorite restaurant in the area, Francine Bistro in Camden, ME. This is a small, 28 seat place run by chef Brian Hill which has a menu that changes daily. There are only four apps, a salad, and four entrees on the menu. each day one entree is based on pork, one fish, one poultry, and the specialty of the house being Steak Frites which is always on the menu. This is a magnificent dish consisting of a marinated steak in gravy and super crispy fries.

Now these aren't just any old fries, they're Belgian styles frites. Brian starts off with olive oil to fry in and adds a twist. He first fries an enormous amount of fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme in the oil at the start of the day to give the olive oil an unbelievably great flavor. Then the frites are cooked twice in the Belgian Frite fashion. The first time at a low temperature to partially cook them, then they are removed from the aromatic oil and allowed to cool. This makes the inside of the fry start to get tender and soft. Then right before being served the semi-cooked frites are fried again at a much higher temperature. This makes them get super crispy on the outside and all fluffy and delicate inside. They become the prefect fry. All crispy, fluffy, aromatic from the herbs and olive oil. A real treat to munch on. Just look at this photo that Joe took. The fries are golden and brown. Speckled with bits of herbs and sea salt, laid on top of a bed of rich gravy with the steak on the side; and with a garnish of deep fried sage, rosemary, and thyme laid on top. We took the garnish of crispy herbs and crumbled it on top of the frites to add even more zip to the bonanza. Ummm...