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| side order of french fries with the chicken sandwich (1/2025) |
In the feudal years of Japan it was a luxury reserved for people of certain status in the public pecking order to eat foods deep-fried in pools of heated oil: tempura (a batter and method taught by the 1500s Portuguese visiting Japan) and later other forms like Kara-age (chunks of chicken battered and plunged into boiling hot oil) and Age-dashi Tofu and abura-age (again, deep-fried). But in 2025 USA there is deep-fried food everywhere you turn; so much so that it is ordinary (not for special occasions like 1800s Japan).
When french fried potatoes seems dull or routine, some will opt for more creative forms like sweet potatoes that are cooked in the fryer. Or the slender fries from Russet Burbank potatoes may be prepared in unexpected shapes: chunky (cottage fries), with skin on (rustic), in lumps (American fries), or shoestring (thinnest of the long strips).
For people who only enjoy the deep-fried tubers once a month or so, due to dietary, availability, financial, or philosophical reasons, there is something particularly satisfying about facing off with a portion of fries recently out of the fryer and salted neither too much or too little. Thinking about the mouth experience of those freshly served fries there are several dimensions of the eating experience that intersect in that sensation of bite and chew.
First is the color and texture and temperature: tactile senses are engaged to begin with. Then there is the taste of salt and the sensation of heat radiating from the fries newly out of the oil. Upon biting the slender fries down to chewable size there is the crunch (ancestral delight in crunching on bugs?) and the contrast of crisp exterior versus soft interior. Finally, there is the sensation of the oil emanating from the cooked surface of the fries, tickling the primitive part of the brain, eager for fatty foods.
Taken all together, fresh fries combine so many dimensions of flavor that the result is particularly satsifying. And then some people will gild the lily by introducing various condiments to the fresh portions: mayonnaise (made famous by the Belgians), traditional tomato ketchup or one of the many variations, shredded cheese and gravy (made famous in Quebec: poutine). Thank the New World (Andean civilizations) for cultivating the hundreds of varieties of potato. But thank, also, the many local adaptations of the humble spud to deep fry in many ways; indeed, not only deep fried but in the myriad other forms it can be eaten, too.
