Really McDonalds?
McDonalds really did use a good marketing stratedgy to advertise their french fries with this badly made video from the 80s. They hardly featured them at all in the video, but focused on a somewhat-catchy gimmick. They used puppets and a song to make you want to buy their french fries, without mentioning their taste or anything about them at all.
This doesn't really make me want to buy them though, haha.
There are way too many french fry varieties at the store.
Whenever me and my mom go shopping, she will tell me to pick up a bag of french fries to go with hamburgers or hotdogs or whatnot, so I usually gab the store brand shoestring ones. Then she usually asks why I got those, and not something more fancy.
I hate potato puffs/tater tots. Seriously. They're like hashbrowns only less crispy and less delicious.
And then there's that weird one with the crunchy texture on it (I think they're called extra crispy by Ore-Ida or something.)
And McCain makes those weird smiley face mashed potato things with the crispy outside which are not very good.
And I'm not too fond of curly fries either, cause they have a different texture than that classic shoe string I love so much.
I do however will get steak cut or something similar to that when they're on sale, because I like those too.
There really are a bunch of different kind of french fries in the store, which I really never noticed until I analyzed them.
Today I went to Bennigan's in Boston with my friend on our way to see Hairspray.
Anyway, I had ordered chicken fingers (like I do everywhere) and they came with french fries and this delicious honey mustard sauce.
I find myself often dipping my french fries into honey mustard compared to ketchup when I go out to eat. Maybe it's because the honey mustard is delicious and ketchup is so standard and predicatble. But whenever I am at home, it is always ketchup, and no exceptions.
Oh, and the other day at TGIFriday's, I had dipped my french fries in tartar sauce and found that it was actually pretty good, haha.
I usually try random things to dip my french fries into to give them a different taste. Usually they will turn out good, but sometimes it's bleh. Also, dipping your french fries into Frosties are grossssss.
So the other day I went to Wendy's and got french fries, of course. When I took the container they come in out of the bag, the thing was saturated with grease.
I don't know how some french fries have it happen, but sometimes you just get that really really greasy batch and it tastes like it.
I remember when Wendy's used to have those soggy irregularly cut french fries. Those were the best.
So my friends and I went to TGI Fridays the other day, and we were feeling ritzy and ambitious, so we got some appetizers. We ordered the fried mac & cheese (which were little macaroni and cheese balls with a delicious crispy shell), and the fried green beans.
Oh man, those things are good.
They're like french fries, only instead of potatoes, they use green beans, and you kind of feel like they're healthy (even though they're not) because they have green beans in them!!!
And they have this spicy wasabi ranch whatever dressing to dip them in.
The only thing I can complain aboutis I wish the green bean was more crispy and less soggy.
I want more immediately.
So I was checking out a link that our professor sent us, listing food ingredients and nutrition facts, so of course, I looked up french fries. I chose McDonald's, because they are pretty much the standard around here.
INGREDIENTS: French Fries (, Potato(es), Soybean(s) Oil Partially Hydrogenated, Natural Flavor(s), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate To Protect Color, Vegetable Oil Partially Hydrogenated (, Corn Oil Partially Hydrogenated and/or, Canola Oil Partially Hydrogenated and/or, Cottonseed Oil and/or, Sunflower Oil and/or, Corn Oil ), TBHQ To Preserve Freshness, Citric Acid To Preserve Freshness, Dimethylpolysiloxane ),An Anti-foaming Agent, Salt
Anyway, they have some pretty iffy-ingredients in them. My favorite in particular is TBHQ which is "petroleum based; the HACSG recommends to avoid it. May cause nausea, vomiting, delirium. A dose of 5g is considered fatal. Typical products are fats, oils, margarine" (foodfacts.com).
Check out the link, it's pretty interesting what these ingredients can do to your body.
An article I found mentions that in South Carolina schools, there is a bill, that if passed, will place a ban on high-fat foods, including pizza (!), moonpies (!!) and french fries (!!!).
What, why?
There is no need to completely remove one of America's favorite food from the lunch room because they do not know how to make it correctly. French fries could very easily be made a tad healthier. Instead of frying them in fatty oils, maybe they could try a healthier one, like canola or olive oil. They could also try baking them. Or removing some of the salt. There are many things that could be done to help the situation, instead of getting rid of it all together.
I can understand the moonpies, because there is no possible way to make those healthy. Pizza is possible to make a tad healthier, but then it wouldn't be pizza anymore. French fries are a lot easier to health-ify without removing the amazingness.