French Fry Diary 636: Lumiere’s Dinner – TCM Cruise Day Five

What is it about people complaining? I told you about the woman at breakfast this morning, well, the man at dinner tonight, who split up our service team, and make a spectacle of himself in front of the entire restaurant was something else altogether. Apparently he was someone special, or thought he was someone special. The rest of his party certainly didn’t agree and looked very embarrassed.

He had insisted on an oval or round table in a restaurant that only had square and rectangle

tables. I’m not sure how that can be rectified. He was also very unhappy that his party was in the corner – a nice private corner that I would have been very happy with. He was obviously not, and told anyone within yelling distance.

Well, he put on quite a show for a few minutes before the dust settles. His new seating being across the room, our service team was split, but it was okay. Dinner was very good, some beef, green beans (haricots verts for the fancy set), and garlic mashed potatoes. I also got a side order of those terrific steak fries. A great dinner, and a show.

French Fry Diary 633: Carioca’s – TCM Cruise Day Three

The dinner on the third day on board the Disney Magic during the TCM Cruise 2014 brought us back to Carioca’s.

For an appetizer I got something called Chicken Bastela. According to the menu, that’s Moroccan Spiced shredded Chicken wrapped in Phyllo-dough and sprinkled with Powdered Sugar and Cinnamon, with a Vegetable Almond Slaw. These I liked quite a bit, yum.

For my entrée I got the Grilled Grain-fed NY Strip steak that came with Cheddar Cheese and Onion Smashed Baked Potato, Roasted Green Asparagus and a Red Wine Jus. Yeah, that’s also from the menu verbatim. The steak was good, very delicious, once I got around the fat. This catastrophically picky eater was not digging the asparagus and tomato flavored mashed potatoes. So far, this has not been a terrific cruise food-wise. I’m digging the breakfasts at least.

Give Thanks, and Take Your Pick

If you’re still wondering what you’ll be making tomorrow for Thanksgiving beyond the turkey and the cranberry sauce, I might have something for you.

Click here for thirty-five amazing mashed potatoes recipes from the nice folks at The Cooking Channel. Enjoy!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #146

These were the mashed potatoes from this year’s DIS Meet Weekend. They were pretty good, but much like last year, I found myself jealous of the kids who got chicken tenders and beautiful golden brown crinkle cut fries…

For more on the NJ DIS Meet Weekend, check out the Make Mine Magic Podcast‘s special episode on the event here.

French Fry Diary 571: Simply Potatoes Mashed Potatoes

Recently, The Bride got sick with a pretty bad stomach virus. After a harrowing night and day in the ER they let us go home. One of the provisos was a bland food diet for a few days. She expressed interest in mashed potatoes, and specifically requested the Simply Potatoes brand. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and review them for you.

We purchased the Diner’s Choice Traditional Mashed Potatoes style, the ones thankfully ‘made from fresh potatoes.’ They are also available in Country Style, Garlic, Sour Cream & Chive, and also Mashed Sweet Potatoes. Simply Potatoes is usually a brand I like.

These gluten free potatoes come in a big plastic bowl for use in the microwave in four quick minutes, or to be transferred to other containers for oven or stovetop for a much longer cook. We went with the nuke for ease and brevity. They didn’t look quite done after four minutes, so gave it a stir and another minute per the instructions. Not bad.

I kept them bland for The Bride, but it’s notable that these mashed potatoes definitely do need some seasoning, especially butter. Once added, for me only, these were excellent. Even unseasoned The Bride, on her way to swift recovery agreed. Still not quite sure why these were a ‘diner’s choice’ though.

French Fry Diary 566: Church’s Chicken

Church’s Chicken is the fourth largest chicken fast food chain after KFC, Chick-fil-A, and former partner Popeyes. They are currently often co-franchised with White Castle, which is what their fries most resemble. Most folks only know two things about Church’s, and neither is very nice. One, that they are mostly located in lower class minority areas – not true, and two, that the Ku Klux Klan owns them and they are slowly poisoning minorities – also not true, Snopes even says so.

The Church’s I visited was quite small, had a tiny eating area, and so I went through the drive-thru. There seemed to be much contention over my order, as if they didn’t hear it, record it, or cook it. With only two customers inside eating, two employees working the store, and no one in the drive-thru but me, I had a good fifteen to twenty minute wait for just fries and a soda.

I ordered the large fry, not realizing how big large actually was. The large fry order is a whole box of them, making the previously thought $2.79 price actually a pretty fair bargain. The French fries themselves, as I said above, are much the same as at White Castle. These are standard crinkle cuts, deep fried, and quite probably had spent some time under a heat lamp for a while. The fries were a bit too crispy/crunchy for my tastes, but that might be because of their time in heat lamp prison. Because of that, reheating them at home later was just not possible either in the oven or microwave.

Also notable is the side menu at Church’s that includes fried okra and mashed potatoes. Maybe next time. As I wrote this review in the car (because I went through the drive-thru), I have to mention that Church’s mobile phone website is nigh impossible to navigate. Many details had to be filled in at home later. Someone needs to call IT.

This was not a great visit, perhaps a second chance is in order, but not for a while.

Evan Hilton Makes Mashed Potatoes on Vine

https://vine.co/v/hFP2e3TAV7d/embed/simple?audio=1
Animator Evan Hilton made these mashed potatoes for the Food Network, and their Thanksgiving Live series.

For more of Evan’s Vines, check him out here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

French Fry Diary 530: Animator’s Palate, Disney Fantasy 2013

We’ve talked about what happens in this Disney Cruise restaurant before, from the changing colors to the interactive characters. They lowlighted it a bit for our first meal there on this week long cruise. There was no big color changing dealie, but Crush the Turtle still made fun of me for being bald (the bastard). I have heard rumors that our return visit will feature some sort of new show. We’ll just have to wait and see.

For tonight’s meal, I had three different kinds of potato treats. As an appetizer, I got the bacon cheddar potato soup, which was thick and hot. It was good, but I didn’t really taste all that much cheddar in it, and the bacon was just some crumble on top. Hot soup is always good however, and for me, not a soup person, that’s really saying a lot.

It should be noted that these are all things I tried on my last cruise. With my ginger teriyaki dusted Angus sirloin, I got wasabi mashed potatoes and a side order of fries. The wasabi mashed potatoes were very hot, burn my mouth hot, make my eyes water hot. This was not the wasabi I love from Oh Yoko!.

The fries, while good, were not the ones I was expecting or wanted. The last few times at Animator’s Palate I got the most delicious and hot steak fries with my meal. What I got tonight was the same old natural cut fries available from the snack counters upstairs and throughout the parks. The same old same old. Where were my steak fries from last time?

Food wise, this cruise was not turning out to be as wonderful as previous ones. I really hope that this is not a trend. Either way, we are still having a fabulous time. 

RIP Stompin’ Tom Connors

Here’s another one from Stompin’ Tom Connors:

Once again, from friend Robin Renee at the French Fry Diary Facebook page.

Tom passed away last night. Hockey fan, potato friend, and one hell of a musician, Rest in Peace, Tom.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #74