French Fry Diary 640: Ponderosa Steakhouse

There was a time when you couldn’t turn a corner in this area without running into a Ponderosa restaurant. They have all gone away. I think I’d have to drive all the way to New York state or Virginia to find one now. I don’t know what we did to offend them, but they’re gone. One particular old girlfriend and I used to go there all the time, we loved it.

Ponderosa was part buffet, part cafeteria style, part self-serve, and part service restaurant. They were not as classy as, say the Rustler Steak House or the Bonanza, the latter of which is owned by the same company, but it’s not like a Burger King either, ya know?

I would always get the same thing, the two grilled chicken breasts and a side of fries, sometimes the chicken would even come with a barbeque sauce. And when I wasn’t in the mood for fries (it does happen), Ponderosa made absolutely awesome baked potatoes. As crazy as this must sound, and as many times as I was there, I don’t think I ever once got a steak. Or if I did, I went right back to the chicken, I liked their chicken that much.

The fries at the time, this would have been waaay back in the 1980s, were simple regular cuts, and as I remember you got a pretty good portion. Looking at their current menu online, the baked potatoes look just as awesome, and the fries are pretty much the same, just natural cuts with the addition of some pepper as well as the salt.

From all indications, Ponderosa seems to be more of a buffet type place now, as opposed to what it once was – more Golden Corral than Rustler. Maybe someday I’ll get up to NY or down to VA, or maybe on the next trip to Orlando because I saw one there too, and find out.

Grilled Steak Potato Kebabs

Today’s recipe comes from Best Recipestry, by way of Just-Potatoes, and you can see the whole thing here.

Grilled Steak Potato Kebabs

Ingredients:

FOR THE CHIMICHURRI, PURÉE: 2 cups fresh mint leaves, 1 cup fresh parsley leaves, 1 /2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 2 Tbsp. each red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice, 1 1/2 tsp. ground sumac or minced lemon zest, 1 shallot, 1 tsp. red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper to taste.

FOR THE KEBABS, TOSS: 6 red or yellow new potatoes, ends removed, cut into 24 (½-inch-thick) slices, 4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided, 11/4 lb. beef tenderloin or top sirloin, cut into 2-inch chunks.

Directions:

Preheat grill for two-zone grilling, heating one side to medium and the other to medium-high. Brush grill grate with oil.

For the chimichurri: purée mint, parsley, 1/2 cup oil, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, sumac, shallot, and pepper flakes in a food processor; season with salt and black pepper.

For the kebabs, toss potatoes with 2 tbsp. oil; thread six potato slices onto each of four skewers so potatoes lay flat. Toss beef with 2 tbsp. oil. Evenly divide and thread beef onto each of four skewers. Season kebabs with salt and black pepper. Grill potatoes over medium heat, covered, until brown and soft, about 7 minutes per side.

Add beef kebabs to grill; cook over medium-high heat, covered, to desired doneness (about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare). Let kebabs rest 5 minutes. While resting, brush kebabs with chimichurri. Serve remaining chimichurri on the side.

Nutrition Information:

Per serving: 576 cal; 47g total fat (8g sat); 75mg chol; 86mg sodium; 15g carb; 3g fiber; 30g protein.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #120

Another night at the Royal Court on board the Disney Fantasy, and here’s another tater pic. These golden brown swirled beauties are whipped Yukon Gold potatoes. They were delicious and the best part of that night’s meal. They had a heavenly texture, lightly crisp on top protecting a soft hot buttery inside of tender potatoes. They came with my almost as good peppercorn encrusted steak.

And remember, French Fry Diary is now on Facebook, come on over and join the fun and the discussion!

French Fry Diary 535: Steak Frites, Royal Court, Disney Fantasy

I was hoping to get another taste of those terrific steak fries that I had gotten at the Royal Court the other day on board the Disney Fantasy, but it didn’t quite work out. The menu changed. The burger (gluten-free) was still there, but so was steak frites, so I opted for the new choice rather than the old reliable.

As always the service is incredible, and if I had any problems or concerns, I am sure they could have been remedied, but let’s just suffice to say I didn’t get my steak fries. They might have been out of them as I didn’t see anyone else with them either. Still what I got was very good.

The steak frites was a wonderfully succulent strip of grilled steak with a garlic butter, served with natural cut French fries. Now these fries were the same I have dissed before when talking about Disney before, not bad, but not spectacular either, but soaked in the juice of the steak and the garlic butter, they were very, very good. A wonderful lunch meal, Disney scores again.

French Fry Diary 534: Enchanted Garden, Disney Fantasy

Today was a good food day on board the Disney Fantasy, between breakfast at Cabanas and lunch at the Royal Court, I wasn’t sure what to expect at the Enchanted Garden for dinner. I need not have worried.

I got the steak option available every night that is for the folks not interested in that night’s particular fare. With that I got a baked potato, which was one of the better such I have had in quite some time. I mashed that sucker up with a fork, smothered it in butter and went to town. And yeah, the steak was very good too.

That’s three for three today, and the third day on board. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully it’s something potato-ey…

French Fry Diary 518: Bullock’s Beef House

The brother-in-law and sister-in-law have been asking us to come down and visit for months, but scheduling conflicts made it impossible. Finally, Labor Day weekend, right after my birthday, opened up, so The Bride and I headed to Maryland.

The plan originally was to go to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday dinner, hopefully to get another terrific piece of barbecued chicken and maybe find the nephew something he likes there. We also invited friends Dom and Cindy and their family who cruised with us on the Disney Dream recently.

The problem came when after we arrived at Texas Roadhouse. They told us they would have to seat our party of nine separately. They wanted to seat our birthday party in two different booths. Great. High points to Texas Roadhouse for customer service. Not. After a quick discussion, we decided to eat elsewhere.

We decided to try a place none of us had tried before that we passed in our way to the unaccommodating Texas Roadhouse – Bullock’s Beef House. This combination butcher shop/farmers market/deli/bakery/family restaurant was infinitely more friendly than Texas Roadhouse. And you gotta love the black bull on top of the roof.

The place is kinda part Pub and part cafeteria. You get in the cafeteria line, place your order, take your seat, and wait for your number to be called. I got the chopped sirloin and, what else, fries. The in-laws and our friends had met a few times but never really talked, and they hit it off terrifically, talking Disney. Dom and Cindy having just returned, and the in-laws planning a near future trip, found easy common ground.

The steak wasn’t all that special but it was chargrilled well, had the proper grill lines, and tasted it. I really enjoyed it. The fries on the other hand were just standard natural cuts. That’s okay though, the company more than made up for it, great birthday dinner. Your loss, Texas Roadhouse.

French Fry Diary 517: Ruffles Max Steak Potato Chips

This is the newest in a disturbing trend of meat-flavored potato chips. Some are quite good like the recent Lay’s Chicken & Waffles chips, and some are just disasters, and I hate to say it, most of those are steak-based. These chips, fully named Ruffles Max Maximum Taste Flame Grilled Steak Flavored potato chips, hopefully will be different.

My first question is – what’s the difference between Ruffles Max, and Ruffles Ultimate? It just seems a bit redundant to me. The bag suggests drinking Pepsi Max with the chips, so maybe that’s what the distinction is – marketing.

Looking at the ingredients, other than the mysterious ‘flame grilled steak flavoring,’ these might be along the lines of a barbecue potato chip. I hope so. With stuff approximating onion, garlic, smoke, brown sugar, etc., it’s a good bet.

But I wouldn’t take that bet, especially after opening the bag and getting a whiff of the aroma that came out. To say it was unpleasant would be insufficient. To quote The Bride after she got the scent, “It smells like feet.” And there you go. Being a good husband, I made her try one first.

Her reaction was scattered. “I suppose it tastes like steak. I don’t think it tastes like feet,” then to me she said, “you’re not going to like them.” She went on to say she wished it tasted like well done steak.

I tried one. Surprisingly The Bride was kinda right. They tasted like well done steak, specifically well done steak cooked on an outdoor grill. That is exactly what these chips tasted like. I liked these a lot, and I was very surprised. Yep, I liked them. It’s a shame these are only available in a Limited Edition. Get them while you can.

French Fry Diary 501: The Melting Pot

Ray and his lovely wife have been trying to get The Bride and me to go to The Melting Pot for almost a decade now. After dragging Ray to Zinburger the night before, we all made impromptu plans to hit The Melting Pot in Philadelphia that night.

For those of you not in the know, The Melting Pot is a fancy chain restaurant that, similar to Benihana, is known more for the experience than anything else. It’s a fondue restaurant where essentially you cook your own dinner, bookended of course by dipping food in cheese first, then later for dessert, chocolate. It’s awesome.

There’s a hot plate on your table and a pot into which your waitress puts various dips. The first course was a variety of bread you could dip in hot cheese. Mmmm. Then came salad. I’m sure some of you must have heard of this – raw green leafy vegetables in a bowl – very exotic, but no dipping. Dessert as I said was chocolate, as in various fruits, marshmallows, and even Rice Krispies treat to dip into it.

Your entree, and this is where it connects to FFD, potato people, is a variety of raw meats that you choose from the menu. You basically fork the meat (I got steaks) and place it in the hot pot for a while where it marinates/boils/deep fries. The stuff comes in various flavored and if you like well done, it could take a while. Next time I think I’ll get the chicken FYI.

Anyway, dinner also comes with an assortment of vegetables. There’re carrots, celery, and what’s that under the broccoli? Yep, raw red potato wedges! Ray had kidded me beforehand that there were no French fries, but there were, kinda. The potato, like the steak, took a while to cook, but well worth it when done.

All kidding aside, I loved my experience at The Melting Pot and highly recommend it to all. It was a terrific fun night out with friends and a unique dining experience. And they even had potato product!

French Fry Diary 464: Olive Garden

Olive Garden is the quintessential Italian restaurant chain in the United States. There’s very little on the menu that doesn’t come with some form of pasta. So as you might imagine, being a catastrophically picky eater who’s not really into pasta, there’s not much for me to get there. Surprisingly though, they do have one or two items I really like, so yeah, I do dig Olive Garden quite a bit.

We actually used to go frequently, it was our default anniversary dinner out for quite a few years. We recently made plans for dinner with a couple of friends we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and decided on Olive Garden, as we had not been in a while, and it fit one of the couple’s vegetarian needs. So I figured, what better time to review their potato product?

First though, like Red Lobster, one of Olive Garden’s best features is their bread, in this case, the Breadsticks. About eight inches long and an inch wide each, baked and buttered garlic bread sticks, these are a terrific start to ant visit to the restaurant.

Besides the Breadsticks, I normally get the mixed grill, steak and chicken grilled on a kabob with vegetables, including onions and peppers, all marinated in a rosemary glaze. Since Olive Garden doesn’t have French fries (not even on the kids menu!) the mixed grill comes with Tuscan potatoes.

The Tuscan potatoes are lightly seasoned, sometimes peeled, and chunked potatoes which seem to be deep-fried crispy but not greasy. Perhaps they are baked, but baked to the point where one might think they were deep-fried. If they are, it certainly begs the question, why couldn’t Olive Garden have French fries?

Either way, these potato chunks are very good, and worth the trip to Olive Garden for fans of the favorite fried food. A great night with good friends and good food. And don’t forget the Breadsticks!

French Fry Diary 429: Nadia G.’s Duck Fat Fries

You folks know how how much I love Nadia G. and her “Bitchin’ Kitchen.” I watch religiously, or so I thought. Recently my buddy Ray told me about an episode I had apparently missed. It’s called “Getting the Romance Back,” and featured recipes for rib-eye steak, oysters with creamy spinach alfredo, strawberry shortcake, among others, and, yeah baby, duck fat fries. Yeah, I know, how could I have missed this one? So after a long search through the Xfinity schedule grids for weeks, I finally found it.

The episode presents a dinner designed to get couples who have been together a looong time some romance into their lives. And you know Nadia, she does it with style. And here’s the recipe for both the ribeye and the fries from Nadia’s website:

Ingredients:

Fries: 2 cups warm water, 1/2 cup raw sugar, 2 russets, cut into 1/4 inch fries, 3 cups duck fat, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, Freshly cracked pepper, Sea salt

Beurre blanc: 1/4 cup good dry white wine, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 2 shallots, minced 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, roughly chopped, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, Freshly cracked pepper

Steak: 2 1 inch thick rib-eye steaks, at room temperature, 2 tablespoons canola oil, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, Freshly cracked pepper, 2 tablespoons butter

Recipe tools: Medium saucepan, Large pan, Salad spinner

Directions Making the fries: To warm water, add raw sugar and whisk.  Soak fries in sugar water for 1hour or overnight. Strain and dry off in salad spinner. In a pot heat duck fat to 325˚F. Blanch 1 cup of fries at a time for 5 minutes, until cooked but not crispy. Remove and raise temperature of oil to 375˚F. Fry for 3-4 minutes until golden and crispy. Season with cayenne, pepper, and salt.

Making the beurre blanc: Heat saucepan on medium high. Add white wine, vinegar, and shallots. Let boil and reduce down to 2 tablespoons of liquid. Take off heat and let cool for about 1 minute. Put saucepan back on burner without turning on the heat. Throw in a few butter cubes at a time; whisk until butter is melted. Continue until all butter is melted. Add tarragon, salt, and pepper. Mix. Cover, turn heat to very low and let sit.

Making the steak: Heat canola oil in a pan on medium high. Season steak with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 ½ minutes per side, for medium-rare. For last minute of cooking, add butter and melt. Remove steak from heat, tent and let rest for 5 minutes.

Place steak and fries on a plate and top steak with sauce.

See the whole recipe here.