@RiotDemon +1 for crinkle cut

@compunaut @RiotDemon Del Taco does crinkle fries. Or at least they did before the Coronapocalypse. I haven’t eaten anywhere since this whole mess started so I dunno if they still do them.

@compunaut @ruouttaurmind I’ve never eaten at a Del Taco. Apparently the only two in Florida are both in Orlando. Maybe I’ll check it out next time I’m there.

PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!

@duodec The lard ones were better. Way better. Maybe that’s why I still get my fries from McDonalds, because of the good old days. Or I’m just cheap.

@duodec @sammydog01
yeah, lard or even better (if you can find it) goose fat! OMG that is some great shit!

@chienfou @duodec @sammydog01

It can be had for a price…
https://fatworks.com/products/pasture-raised-goose-fat-8-oz

@duodec @Kyeh @sammydog01
Ya gotta love a product listed as
“kettle rendered goose schmaltz”

@chienfou @duodec @sammydog01 It doesn’t sound that appealing…

@duodec @Kyeh @sammydog01
you can actually buy this at the local Walmart…

@duodec @Kyeh @sammydog01

“kettle rendered goose schmaltz”

which of course, made me flash to

@duodec You’d probably like the fries they make in Belgium then. I was watching a special on it and they just have a big vat of oil drop a brick of beef tallow or something like that in there fry away. Had me looking for tickets just to go and buy french fries.

@duodec @Targaryen
Belgian fries.

@duodec @Kyeh @Targaryen
Definitely Belgian fries. And they’re twice cooked. The second time is in beef tallow. And they’re gobsmacking fricking delicious.

Freedom fries, as we know them in America, are cheap poseurs to the claim of “French fries”.

@duodec @Kyeh @mike808 @Targaryen Can vouch personally after many town parties, dances and other outings over there. Pommes frites are to American fries what Belgian chocolate is to Hersheys. Don’t even start me on the beer (though the US has made impressive strides in the decades I’ve been keeping track).

@narfcake
I LOVE 🥰 that!
Thanks for posting it!

@speediedelivery

The fresh cut fries cooked to perfection

You obviously meant to say chips!

@chienfou Chips are in a league of their own way above fries. Now I want to clean the fryer and make some.

Do air fryers do justice to fries or chips? No. Do not answer that. I don’t need another gadget in the kitchen. Nor the weight I would add testing the machine. Just no.

@Targaryen are the fry containers at Five Guys near you merely suggestions as to a minimum fry volume? The first time I went to Five Guys I got a regular cheeseburger and a large fries. It was like $14 or something, but then I understood when I was presented with a huge double cheeseburger and a bag stuffed with like a pound and a half of fries. When I took my sister and nephews I had to warn them “no, you want the little burger and the small fries, trust me on this”.

@djslack @Targaryen five guys purposely give you more fries so you feel like you are getting better value.

You always get double whatever container you order.

I’m not a fan of their fries. Cooked too dark.

@RiotDemon @Targaryen five guys makes me think of the dad on Friday

TIL I think I might just be a fry snob.

@Kyeh I can get on that bus. Even though many places that offer onion rings are stingy with them compared to fries, they are much better.

Burger King’s are not wonderful and somehow seem to be made of just the cores of onions, but that sauce they have is pretty magical.

@djslack I haven’t had them there. I guess I’ll avoid them, thanks for the warning. The sauce, though - is it what I posted below?

@Kyeh they’re not bad if they’re fresh, just… different. They are usually no bigger than an inch or so and have a very crunchy breading like mozzarella sticks. Not at all like handmade ones. My wife loves burger king so I usually wind up having them on road trips.

/image burger king onion rings

Edit: I have never seen onion rings that large from a burger king.

@djslack Does BK still use minced onion for their rings? I haven’t had them in many years, but back in the day they weren’t real rings of onions, they were minced onion bits formed into rings.

Real rings are beer battered, def not breaded.

@ruouttaurmind you know, that may be it. I thought they had cleverly saved the bigger rings for the burgers and were using the smaller parts for the rings, but it would make sense if they were just molded rings pooped out of some machine. I think the stout breading could cover the texture up.

I don’t know, it’s been at least a year since we’ve been on a road trip and therefore since I’ve had them. I’ll have to pay attention next time.

And you’re completely right, beer batter is the only way. I might let a lighter flaky blooming onion style batter slide too, though.

@Kyeh sounds about right. It’s definitely a zesty horseradish sauce.

@Kyeh That sounds great. I was just talking with my mom about digging out our stack of Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipe Files books from the '80’s to see if she has an Arby’s Horsey Sauce dupe (I don’t know why I prefer a 35-40-year-old recipe, but I do).

@mossygreen I saw a version of that online - it looks pretty simple!

@AuntMean67
10?

@Kyeh oops! 7! I love those thin little fries!

@mike808 Yeah that’s what I’m talking about. The paper cone and huge dollop of mayo-like-substance does the trick.

@macromeh Tony’s or Slap Ya Mama?
And gotta dip in mayo, of course.

@mike808 Gotta be Tony’s. No self respectin’ southerner should be supportin’ the slappin’ of Mamas.

@Cerridwyn Our local Del Taco shut down in 2019; now the nearest one is 200mi

@compunaut
/image sad

@Cerridwyn same here … they over expanded and collapsed.

@Cerridwyn did you make this or find it online? Surprised that checkers/rallys is so low.

@RiotDemon

off the interwebs
i was looking for a different chart because i didn’t know several of the ones originally posted and there were others I did know.

Best fries is anyway, a matter of opinion

@Cerridwyn Steak n’ Shake fries are only good if their fresh, which is a rarity. They’re awful cold.

@UltraThicc
Don’t have that around here, but same is true for Del Taco

@mike808 Kewpie. Or aioli.

@mike808 fresh-made hollandaise sauce (or béarnaise)

@ybmuG It’s a mayonnaise poll. Those are not mayonnaise. And you left out Béchamel.

My choice, being from New Orleans, is Blue Plate. Although that Kewpie looks pretty good to try.
There’s also been recommendations for a Sir Kensington’s.
Also, if you’re going to propose mayonnaise-based condiments/sauces, specify which mayonnaise you use in said condiments/sauces. I’m talking to the people trying to say “aioli” or “remoulade” is their favorite brand of mayonnaise.

@mike808 Sir Kensington’s IS good. I’ve never made my own aioli, but I guess I could say homemade mayonnaise, because I have made that, and it’s very good - just more trouble than I usually want to take.

@mike808

It’s a mayonnaise poll.

Well, I took “French Fry Condiments” to mean just that. The fact that you only listed mayonnaise options only shows your limited view.

@ybmuG There is only one condiment appropriate for Pomme Frites. Or, in your limited view, “French Fries”. Someone has to teach the bourgeoisie some civility and manners.

Otherwise, “you people” will be proposing the disgusting habit of slathering a red food colored salted corn syrup concoction claiming to be “Catsup”, “Ketchup”, or some other random spelling of that vile substance. And before “you people” start complaining, here is your sign:

@mike808 I just love it when someone refers to me as “you people”.

@mike808 @ybmuG Actually - you’ll probably be appalled, mike808, but I like Thousands Islands dressing for dipping fries - and it’s a mixture of mayo, catsup and relish.
I don’t like it on salad though. But it’s good on Reuben sammiches.

@mike808 When I lived in Holland I was shocked that fries came with mayo on them as the norm. Ketchup not so much so. On the other hand I like nothing on my fries other than salt.

@mike808 Smashburger’s Smashfries are topped with rosemary aioli (garlic, salt, & olive oil - no eggs or mayo). Yum!

@ybmuG said:

I just love it when someone refers to me as “you people”.

Happy to help you people feel good about yourselves. I can switch it up and refer to you people as “all y’all”.

@f00l Corned beef sandwich & fries with house-made root beer at Schilo’s in San Antonio is still a fantastic/nostalgic place to go, last I was there.

How long did Carlson’s last? Places like that usually just find cheaper digs when they sell out for real estate reasons…

@f00l The thought of corned beef reminds me: I need to plan a visit over to Carshon’s Deli…

@compunaut

I’m trying to remember when Carlsons went away.

It was on University on the west side, just n of the river, near TCU. Kinda about where the Panera is now.

I think it was next door to a roller skating rink that was actually on the river. I went to kids bday parties there.

Behind the rink was a drive-in where I first saw night of the living dead among other films.

Behind that, across Rogers Rd to the west, was a stables where I learned to ride and kept a horse.
The stables land got sold early 1960’s I think, and became a BBQ place that was LBJ’s favorite. He used to get them to cater at the WH during his presidency.

The huge railyard wasn’t there then. Just a few rail tracks up against Vickery Blvd to the north.

Next to the stables, across the river to the south, was the Colonial Country Club golf course, still there of course.

Behind the stables, to the west, were undeveloped, cattle grazing portions of the Edwards Ranch. The ranch went all the way to Bryant Irvin. West of Bryant Irvin was the General Dynamics Fort Worth Recreation Area, which was enormous and had a stables also, for employees. My friends kept some horses there. The Recreation area was a busy place: all the way from the river and rail tracks south almost all the way to 183.

(South Hulen Street s of Vickery didn’t exist then. After a while, the road bed was plowed, but the road not yet built. The Edwards still owned all the land. We used to race horses on the roadbed. other kids snuck in and raced dirt bikes.)

The Edwards family used to let us ride on the ranchland on certain days. Pretty frequently.

Behind GDFWRA was the river, curving south. Across the river was more grass pasture, I think some of that was also Edwards Ranch land, and some land belonted to the Bryant family I think.

Then west to Vickery, which had also curved to the S, and across Vickery the neighborhoods started up again.

---

Speaking of S Hulen St not existing yet:
If you went down to Tanglewood, the Elementary school was the furthest thing to the west. After that was just Edwards Ranch.

@compunaut

I found these

There is a Kindle version.

https://hometownbyhandlebar.com/?p=31239

About the cruising culture

More

http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4046

http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2105&page=2

I’ll have to ask around who remembers when it closed.

@f00l @f00l GDRA (then LMRA) was still in full usage during the 90s (besides the buildings with gyms and other hobby spaces, there were a BUNCH of softball fields supporting dozens of teams) and hung around into the 2010s. Sold 80% of their 80 acres to Trademark for the Waterside development in 2013 or so.

@compunaut

Re LMRA sale:

Yeah, at the time LM put up most of it for sale, I drove down Bryant Irvin every day; and one day I drove down Bryant Irvin and there were some huge commercial real estate offering signs on the property

I called somebody who was at home and asked him to Google it on the Internet and he didn’t find anything; so I called the Star-Telegram city desk and business desk and left a msg about the real estate offer signs, and asked them if they could run the story if they found out anything

I think Lockheed was kind of tightlipped to the public about the property sale in the beginning; it took a little while for the Star-Telegram to get a limited story out of it and even then it wasn’t much.

That closure and sale made me nostalgic and sad because in my childhood my neighborhood was full of people who worked for General Dynamics either as engineers or in the factory or somewhere else. So people were always being invited to stuff out there. Pool parties, family events where the family had reserved space, other stuff.

One of my childhood friend’s dad was a big super high up in one of the engineering departments. Hush hush. He died in his 50s of cancer I think, and at his funeral GD arranged for a flyover with the lost man formation

My dad used to play tennis with a group that included a bunch of GD/LM engineers.

I didn’t have any family members working there but so many people did that the recreation area became a normal part of everybody’s recreational life because employees could bring us as guests.

Also in the main RA entrance building, when I was really small, General Dynamics allowed third parties like museums or foundations to reserve space and do classes for children and on other special topics, and GD didn’t require the people who attended the classes to be family members of employees; so when I was like three years old I took a dance class there or something. I think I still remember a little of the building from that experience.

I think a relative might have lifeguarded at the pool?

I was over there on horseback as a guest of my best friend I’d the time, who stables her horse there. After my first stable in Rogers Road near University closed, i stables for a while at a place off Crosslands Dr, s of 183. That was just ranch land. We could ride over to GD or my friends there could ride to our stable. Also when I went over to the GD stable riding in a car, the stable manager, who really liked our group of kids, always had a spare few horses to lend us.

The stable was at the southernmost end of the RA complex. The Ranch House was still there for decades after the stables were closed and torn down, which might have been during the 1970’s? Uncertain. I think the RA used the previous stable area land as a special event casual picnic area for a while. Not certain.

That way of life seems to me now almost as far distant, and lost in myth, as the Mississippi River childhoods of the 1800’s, described in Mark Twain novels.

Being at the RA growing up kinda emphasized the awareness we all had of being a likely prime target during the “duck and cover” years. With GD/LM, Carswell, Bell Helicopter, the Naval AirBase, and various other tech, energy, banking, airline hubs or HQ scattered about, my family and many others considered a bomb shelter. We never bought one tho.

But FW was just a very diff place going from the 1959’s to the 2000’s. In the 50’s, every FW neighborhood I knew of had private horse pastures and horse boarding. People hung out together after work and on weekends and socialized, instead of going home to their little private home-pods to game or to watch cable or to chat.

Sports leagues were a huge deal. Every family seemed to have people who played in a softball or basketball or bowling or tennis or golfing group, or was a member of a riding club, or who played in a bridge or chess club, or who was part of a group of hobbyist fanatics of some sort. And almost everyone was a participating member of some religious congregation.

Cable TV, computer gaming, and the internet killed off a lot of that. Skepticism about general conformity to a suburban norm helped wash those activities downstream. Location instability for families, and less stable families, may have taken care of the rest of it.

I’m guessing that in its last years, the once always crowded and always busy RA had become a bit forlorn and abandoned.

So I wasn’t surprised when the RA came to an end. But, yes, I was sad.

The RA coming to an end of its heyday was to me a symbolic marker of that boring but sometimes comfortable 1950’s Norman Rockwellish suburban predictability’s and complacent optimism’s end.

And now who knows what the hell is coming next. Diff century. Diff world.

/giphy “sunglasses”