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.
One thing that has always interested/bothered me is the different name for french fries that Brittish-land has. They call french fries, chips, and chips, crisps. Chips are flat and come from factories in colorful bags, not something you eat with fish. (Also, fish is a fancy meal, why would you de-fancify it with french fries? Is that why they call them chips instead?)
According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, there is an explanation of the different name.
The British usually serve thicker slabs of potato than the "french fries" popularised by major multinational U.S. hamburger-chains. In their homes or in non-chain restaurants, people in or from the U.S.A. may eat a thicker type of chip, called "home fries" or "steak fries".It might just be a regional thing, but if its long and made out of a potato, I call it a french fry.
So I googled French Fries again in the news, since I forgot about this blog, and have been incredibly icky feeling/busy, and found an article (here) about a woman observing the use of ketchup in fast food restaurants.
People often will grab so many ketchup packets (more than they'll use) and just throw the rest away.
That really is a waste of food if you think about it. I know at my house, we have a drawer in the fridge filled with packets from McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell, and we use them when we run out of the bottle stuff, but there are many people who just discard the unused food. French Fries are one of the main things you use ketchup for, besides other things like burgers or hot dogs.
Sometimes (kind of related) when I go to Dunkin' Donuts, I want a single ketchup packet for my bagel sandwich. I tell this to the teller, and I usually get two. And then I just wonder what I'm going to do with the other one. So I let it sit in this little change-dish type thing in my car until I get another sandwich, this time, not asking for the packet.
But yeah. We waste ketchup a lot. Does anyone else try to conserve?
But in reality, what doesn't?
Googling "french fries" in the news section, there were quite a few articles explaining that soaking potatoes before making them into french fries can remove an acrylamide risk, whatever that is. Block quote time:
Acrylamide is a carcinogen that is created when starchy foods are baked, roasted, fried or toasted. In 2002, when scientists at the Swedish Food Administration first reported unexpectedly high levels of acrylamide, found to cause cancer in laboratory rats, in carbohydrate-rich foods. [Food Navigator]Basically what it is saying, is that you should wash your potatoes (with moving water to remove 28% of the acrylawhatever, or soak them for a half-hour to remove 38%[LA Times]) before you french-fry them.
Which I am pretty sure people do normally, since 9 times out of 10 you are supposed to wash your vegetables before you use them anyway.
Okay, so I remember hearing this song a while back, but we're talking about fast food in class, so I thought of it again.
And it is still hilarious.
This song is called the "Fast Food Song" by the Fast Food Rockers. Some weird dance-pop group from Europe. It's catchy and hilarious.
I find it interesting how much these American fast food joints have made their way into other countries (french fries included!), and even inspired this completely random song.
And oh look, there's a version dedicated to Christmas