F is for French Fry

A lot of people in my local area know my husband is from Idaho and so when they later learn of my love of potatoes and french fries, they seem to think I am too. (Nope, born and raised in California.)
 
Everyone has their own idea of what makes the perfect fry, but this is my critera:

Photo from: The Burger Lab

Perfect Fry Factor #1: The exterior must be crispy, but not tough.
Perfect Fry Factor #2: The interior must be fluffy, and have a potato flavor.
Perfect Fry Factor #3: The fry must be an even, light golden blond color
Perfect Fry Factor #4: The fry must stay crisp and tasty for at least as long as it takes me to eat the carton’s worth. 

McDonald’s fries are my favorite, and this is how I make sure I get a good fry experience every time:

Photo from: The Burger Lab

1. Cars seem to come through the drive through in sets of three. When I worked at McDonalds I was trained to drop a basket whenever I had 3 cars in the drive thru queue. The first car usually gets whatever is under the heat lamp unless they take a really long time to order. The second car gets the hot fries. The third car gets hot fries, but a smaller proportion if there isn’t a fourth car behind them. (One basket feeds about 2 cars worth, but if the second car ordered a large, then there's a little bit less for the third car. <<You'll still get your 4 oz, but the typical employee will fill it more like 5-6.)

2. Sample a fry at the counter to make sure it’s hot. As the customer you are entitled to fresh, hot fries. If they’re not, request new ones. 

3. McDonalds fries have a VERY short lifespan of 6 minutes. There is a quality control timer for each fryer. Once the timer hits Q1 it’s *policy* to throw the fries out. (Employers don’t like to do this because it’s wasteful, but that’s not the customer’s problem. And if the employee rolls their eyes, ignore them. It’s not like McDonalds pays their employees in leftover French fries.) I always try to visually check the timers before ordering. If the timer looks low I'll stall and pretend like I don't know what I want to order until they drop a new basket. 


4.If all else fails, you can request unsalted fries. It takes 3 minutes to cook a batch, and the employees will probably give you the stink eye, but those fries will be guaranteed HOT. And let’s be honest, you don’t need all that sodium because you’re just going to slather them in ketchup.

 

My husband's favorite fries were Wendy's before they switched to natural cut with sea salt. (Is it me, or is natural cut a cheap way to cut costs by leaving the skin on?) He likes the extra potato in the center and prefers steak fries over shoe string fries. 

So what's your favorite fry, and why?

E is for A Void

A Void is a 300-page French novel (titled La Disparition in French) that never once employs the letter "E"

I really admire the translator who put this into English. I tried this in English class once, just 100 words, and it was HARD. That's why my A-Z post today is a tribute to the most used letter in the English alphabet.

Below is the first few opening paragraphs from A Void:

1

Which at first calls to mind a probably familiar story of a drunk man waking up  with his brain in a whirl

Incurably insomniac, Anton Vowl turns on a light. According to his watch it’s only 12.20. With a loud and languorous sigh Vowl sits up, stuffs a pillow at his back, draws his quilt up around his chin, picks up his whodunit and idly scans a paragraph or  two; but, judging by its plot impossibly difficult to follow in his condition, its vocabulary too whimsically multisyllabic for comfort, throws it away in disgust.

            Padding into his bathroom, Vowl dabs at his brow and throat with a damp cloth.

            It’s a soft, warm night and his blood is racing through his body. And indistinct murmur wafts up to his third-floor flat Far off, a church clock starts chiming – a chiming as mournful as a last post, as an air-raid alarm, as and SOS signal from a sinking ship. And in his own vicinity, a faint lapping sound informs him that a small craft is at that instant navigating a narrow canal.

For more fun with writing challenges, try Googling “Oulipo.”