CHIPS vs FRIES

chip butty looks pretty unsatisfying next to a

http://fattyfriday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/primanti_42.jpg

― i think drake distracts (dayo), Wednesday, 13 April 2011 14:12 (5 minutes ago)

Dude it's just taken close-up. Looks kinda revolting if you ask me.

"Steak fries" make me think of the ones which are 2cm wide and only 2mm tall, which are a sad travesty of a chip, because to get the outside to look delicious and chip-like inevitably turns the inside into horrible overcooked powder

(and therefore all the steak fries you ever eat are horrible overcooked powder, because who wants to eat a sad white soggy-looking chip? so I don't even know if it is possible to cook a steak fry right)

i love really good fries, like the sort of bendy french styled ones. possibly even more than chips if the fries are REALLY REALLY GOOD. but i dunno, chips are v different, a good bag of chips if heartier and more wintry.

x-post make me think of the ones which are 2cm wide and only 2mm tall, which are a sad travesty of a chip, because to get the outside to look delicious and chip-like inevitably turns the inside into horrible overcooked powder

OVEN CHIPS

the continuum as i see it:

chips <<<<<<<<<<<<< fries << oven fries <<<<<<<<<<<<<< oven chips

of course i mean

chips >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fries >> oven fries >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> oven chips

Oven wedges are the worst of all possible potato configurations imo.

half a squashed chip stuck to your shoe is worse than any oven wedge.

when I order fries and get anything chip-esque I am seriously disappointed. I mean this is basically just a math problem: more overall surface area to be fried and salted = more deliciousness.

Fries

xp Nah it can't be all crispy surface, you might as well just eat crisps. Chips have a decent hearty feelgood fluffy potato centre.

I'm not a big fan of the enormous thick-cut chips some of yer poncier pubs are doing these days, the ones that are so big they're served in a Jenga tower.

my favorite fry is the one that's crisp on both ends but has the slightly soggy middle. you don't get that with chips, do you

oh no they really make me sad. if i'm getting fries i at least want them crispy.

10mm^2 is ideal cross sectional dimension of chip.

i actually like fries better cuz the best thing about chips/fries is the fried crunchiness - if i want potatoey softness i'll just have actual roast potatoes thanks

the burnt fries at the bottom of the pan <3

i actually kinda think the best examples of both are too different to be compared...

Yes it's apples and oranges. Or rather, potatoes and potatoes.

I really REALLY want to go to the chip shop at the end of the street and eat a big bag of chips. Proper chip shop chips are one of the best things in the world.

Fries. I hate chip shop chips, all soggy and mushy and greasy.

I think the divide here is between who want the 'hearty feelgood fluffy potato centre' and those who want it primarily crunchy - a proper double fried French 'frite'.

As an American francophile, it's not surprising that for me the normative version is the one we mostly have here and the first time I ate chips in England, I burned my palate on the fluffy potato center.

best chips imo:

fresh chips straight out of the fryer into the fish & chips wrapper, SO hot that you can hardly hold onto them and you tear a little hole in the top of the wrapped up parcel and eat them on a cold day <3

or

chips at the bottom of the bag of chips & gravy, soggy and full of gravy love <3

oh chips how I miss you

eating a chip is like cramming 5 fries into your mouth at the same time
fries
(but tbf i have never had chips that were anything but soggy and overwhelmingly greasy/heartburn inducing)

I don't find fries as comforting as chips

I really REALLY want to go to the chip shop at the end of the street and eat a big bag of chips. Proper chip shop chips are one of the best things in the world.

― ailsa, Wednesday, 13 April 2011 16:32 (1 hour ago)

just had fish and chips, thanks to this very thread, though i might well have got some anyway i guess

chips and fries can both be pretty great, given the choice will always order the former cuz fries can be those shitty reconstituted potato things

chips from crap chip shops can be pretty bad too

bad chips are definitely the worst...(shudder)

Potato product sandwich idea so disgusting. Put some rice on there while you're at it.

then wrap it in a tortilla to hold it together

Yeah.

Good chips >>> fries >>>>>>>>>>>>>> bad chips.

Chip butty is tremendous! Rice butty just wouldn't work rilly.

tremendously gross, maybe

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wb7gmBhM3z4/TK7o-sn7YvI/AAAAAAAADWc/blmi0YMT6zw/s1600/chips.jpg

I was going to experiment with a ravioli butty but I'm glad I didn't.

I think I've only actually ever had one chip butty (maybe 2) but iirc it was AMAZING. Then again in my mind all that carb on carb action could only yield positive results. SO DELICIOUS.

eating a chip is like cramming 5 fries into your mouth at the same time

^^^ this is one reason why chips are so awesome.

Proper chip butty you need either thick bread or a breadcake (roll, bap, stottie, whatever), proper butter on the bread, shitloads of salt and vinegar, ketchup.

Different cuts/textures required depending on what they're going with. Frites with moules, crinkle cuts with a burger, chips with fish; not going to say one is best. I think crinkle cuts (or that approximate size) are the best of both worlds.

Not sure if this is a challop or not, but I really like the new fries at Wendy's.

also, fries don't work with mushy peas imo

That's because mushy peas don't work with anything.

mushy peas and chips are amazing. i like to have them with faggots, even though mash is probably more common there.

marrowfat peas are one of my favourite things.

good mushy peas is food of the gods. i'm starving btw

yeah mushy peas, chips and faggots = hell yeah altho today's faggots are wildly inconsistent

so many starch-on-starch violations

mac and cheese pizza
chip butty
spaghetti burrito

roll and pie.
macaroni pie.
piece and pizza (a slice of pizza in between two bits of buttered bread)

I'm getting very fed up with semi-upscale eateries serving a Jenga-style cross-stacked block of enormo-chips. Even if the exterior is crunchy, the interior is too firm. And the size of the chips prevents a satisfactory chip-condiment ratio on the tastebuds, because there's too much potato in every bite.

Order of fried potato preference
1/ Properly good, posh triple-fried chips; flaky and golden on the outside, soft and yielding inside. Served only with salt.
2/ Soggy chip shop chips, swimming in salt and vinegar, eaten from paper.
3/ Thin-cut fries. Served with salt and mayo.
4/ Jenga chips. Yet to work out a condiment combination that really works. Probably ketchup here, to add moistness to the interior.

mushy peas and chips are amazing. i like to have them with faggots,

3 Reasons I'm more of a francophile than britophile. Overcooked peas make me want to cry.

The "put some rice on it" line is actually stolen from mw, who suggested that course of action w/r/t lasagna pizza that has actual pasta on it.

Just feel like something is categorically wrong with the starch-on-starch. For the love of god add some protein and a vegetable or two.

thing is this whole starch on starch thing is a Platonic law that doesn't allow for exceptions, like of course most of those things don't work but a chip butty does as long as you are prepared to believe in it.

Traditional Hull chip shop meal = patty and chips, where the patty is basically mashed, seasoned potato dipped in batter and deep fried. That does weird me out a bit tbh.

Fishcake and chips is a CLASSIC starch-on-starch violation given how often the fishcake is just fish flavoured mash.

Speaking of authenticity and Chinese restaurants, even out here in the wilderness of Not London there are restaurants who put all the trad Anglo-Chinese takeaway fare at the front and then the main section of the menu trumpets its ~authenticity~

I have no idea how authentic these menus really are but there is usually some pretty interesting stuff in them

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

But back to fried potatoes, the best kind are called beach fries and you douse them in malt vinegar and they look like this http://blog.streaminggourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/P1000133.jpg.

they look great.

yeah they look similar to the ones i had at Coney island

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

― dimension hatris (a passing spacecadet), Monday, April 18, 2011 8:31 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

put the whole chunk in your mouth and spit the bones out on the table as you go (honest to god)

Chinese takeaway chips are usually pretty excellent as well

cosign - my local Chinese takeaway does Salt&Pepper chips which are srsly good; seasoned to within an inch of their thick cut lives and covered in chopped red chilis.

Thanks dayo! Think I'll give the spitting a miss, but at least I know I'm not missing a trick.

those beach fries look mighty good, with a little cajun seasoning.