I thought the French-hating stuff of a few months ago (because they wouldn’t do our every bidding, apparently) was all a joke. You know, the whole Freedom Fries thing, and “Send ’em to France,” and whatever. Then I heard the Congressional cafeteria was officially changing the name of its French fries to Freedom Fries and I thought, Is there nothing these people won’t do in the name of pandering to unthinking constituents? Just politics, not real world.
I walked past a Johnny Rockets yesterday, and it had a sign up mentioning some of the tasty items on their menu, including American fries.
It’s not like they’re going to get my food dollar particularly often anyhow, but I can’t bring myself to ever go eat at a place that panders to the knee-jerk idiot on the street. Because if this is what Johnny Rockets has to do to keep customers, it’s quite clear the food alone isn’t enough.
Anyone know when they started calling ’em “American fries”?
Um, here in the Midwest, American fries are what we call cooked potatoes that are cut into thin, round slices and then pan fried until crispy. They’ve been around forever and have nothing at all to do with the side dish formerly known as French fries.
Aha. That is very interesting. I grew up calling those “home fries.” I have never heard “American fries” before.
Yeah- in Wisconsin American fries are an old thing. Generally it is used for fat cut wedges or slices, as opposed to the skinny cut McDonald french fries. Also, I live in Paris and have seen the same thing on menus- fat cut fries = American fries.
I’m annoyed if they’re doing this to pander to the idiots, but I won’t cut my nose off to spite my face by boycotting Johnny Rocket’s – I think they have outstanding fries, by whatever name. (And burgers, and shakes.) We don’t go there a lot, for fat-avoiding reasons, but we like them a lot.
Well if anything they should be called “Belgian fries” ‘cos the Belgians invented ’em and they have the best ones anyhow.
Gosh I miss “pommes frites” from a roadside stand ….
And I had no idea about the “American fries” either. Clearly, I haven’t spent enough time in the midwest.:)
This reminds me, unavoidably, of when a nationally televised show made fun of an apparent typo on a Wisconsin high school’s fund raising ad:
“Pasties $1”
This irked me, since they didn’t even bother to find out that yes, indeed, there is a dish called a “pasty” and it comes from Corwall. A lot of Cornish miners settled in Wisconsin, so it’s pretty typical to run into this on the menu in some areas.
Cornish pasties can be obtained in California, in the mining area around Grass Valley. Apparently Cornish miners settled there and brought their own food.
IIRC, Johnny Rockets has been calling that particular side “American Fries” forever. I’m 99% confident that it had nothing to do with anyone’s ire at the French.