Wednesday night was effectively Friday night because of the public holiday on Thursday. So, we had dinner at Green Glass because Jane had a long day, and I like having dinner at Green Glass. It's a simple place in the style of a French Bistro, and I normally don't get past the steak frites.
Wednesday night, I did not get past the steak frites again.
The steak, as always, was perfect, a well-rested medium rare slice of Wagyu that delivered a much-needed 51g of protein on board a first-class flavour train.
The fries were... different. Better. They weren't really fries. They were chips, big, fat, chunky old chips in the English rather than Parisian style.
Honestly, I don't know why everyone everywhere doesn't do their chips or fries or whatever the hell you want to call them like this. Bloody French fries are just these thin, crunchy, tasteless high-carb roofing nails that aren't much good for anything other than dipping into mayo. A proper chip, however, that's a meal in itself. Well do I remember lo’ those many years ago, buying massive, greasy packets of them from any number of fish-n-chip places in my teens and 20s.
There used to be a terrible greasy spoon just around the corner from the Rolling Stone offices in Surrey Hills, Sydney. It did the best chips ever. Golden brown motherfuckers with fluffy white clouds of potato packed inside. We used to imagine they tasted so good because the proprietor was murdering hoboes and rendering them down for his cooking fat. They were that good.
“Mmm... human sacrifice”
I should have taken a photo of my chips from Green Glass, but by weird coincidence I came across a story in British Esquire the next day raving about a London caf doing old-fashioned food, including chip butties. The piece was illustrated with plenty of shots from the caf’s Insta page and their chips looked even better.
Tell me that Napoleon’s stringy surrender fries can match this.
Those do look like proper chips, but at what point does the transition from fry to chip go too far? You know those "chips" from really fancy restaurants where you end up with some sort of Jenga stack of 4 or 5 one inch square prism slabs of potato. Have they crossed into roast potato territory?
and as an aside, how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?
TROVE would beg to differ. While trying to trace the Irishman who allegedly fathered my great-great grandmother, (no records because, you know, Terra Nullius & they kept records for the sheep but not the blackfellas that killed and ate them) the only fellow that I could match came to an untimely end in the Avenue Range, SA. Having fled the potato famine & the English for a new life in Australia, he lasted two years before falling off a dray laden with potatoes that he was carrying to Mt Barker, landed head first on a rock & was found dead of a haematoma a few hours later by a passing shepherd. So the 'luck of the Irish' can go either way.
I visited Chicago, Boston, New York, Savannah, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Francisco on my big trip in 2018, and am sad to report that the chips in each of these venues was sub par. I think the best I had was in Vegas at the Outback Steakhouse, possibly because they were attempting to emulate Australian style "chips", despite persisting in calling them "fries".
I wonder if there's a business opportunity to open a venue doing proper chips and wedges and all their accompaniments in the US? In the style of all the Australian led cafes teaching you heathens how to do proper coffee 😂
Even importing Aussie potatoes to make it properly "authentic" would be cheap. We have a guy called Tony Galati over here who's gone from being a potato farmer to owning and operating a chain of discount supermarkets called Spud Shed and with the recent shortage of chips and potatoes due to the flooding over east he's now setting up a factory to process his spuds so we're never short of chips again. I'm sure arrangements could be made with the "Spud King" for international delivery of proper Aussie spuds for proper Aussie chips for potato based diplomacy with the land of the free 😂
Yeah, you ran into the "two countries separted by a common language" thing. Kind of like the word fanny, which gave me a spot of trouble once. My Grandma, and many old people over here, used it as a polite term for your butt. Yeah, not the same in the UK, etc. How was I to know? But I digress. I despair of every finding a proper plate of delicious chips without an accompanying ticket to London, preferably loaded with vinegar. Let alone no-kidding fish and chips. And British beer. Pretty amazing. The continent gets all the press, but I thought the ales and stouts of the British Isles to be pretty excellent.
Having grown up in sunny England I can attest to the quality of the Great British Chip especially when sprinkled with a generous amount of salt followed by malt vinegar - and then stuffed between two sizeable slices of white stodgy bread lathered in butter. Feel free to wash it down with a decent pint of smooth Marstons Pedigree bitter for a proper Midlands lunch.
Wait, the US doesn't do fish and chips the way the UK and Aus do? Christ, I'm going to have to give up my lucrative IT career and emigrate over there and set up a chain of proper fish and chips shops and make out like a bandit.
I've been in Melbourne all week for work with consultants from a partner company from India, who were asking what Australian cuisine was, and us locals had to explain how Australia basically borrowed from all the much better cuisines that immigrants brought with them (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Lebanese etc etc etc). This is a perfect opportunity to export what little qualifies as properly "Aussie" cuisine to a land that's managed to be even more culinarily forsaken than us.
New farm fish cafe does amazing Chips and so does the Valley Cafe and Takeaway near Aldi on Wickham st (just like the ones John is Waxing lyrical about)
I think the fondest chip memory I have was the cafe at UQ. Big chunky MFers that were actually left in the fryer long enough. Discovered aioli there too. Certainly got me on campus more than the classes
That's just a normal night for my dear old Liverpool born parents. The chip pan is nearly as old as me, sporting a rich golden brown patina from the decades of oil baked into its aluminium skin. Served alongside egg and beans and sausages.
There's a song that goes with this meal. And you can line-dance to it. The blog bots won't let me post a link, but if you get the urge to boot scoot after dinner, Alan Jackson's 'meat and potato man' is the tune I would choose for you. And yes I listen to way too much Murri Country for my own good.
Those do look like proper chips, but at what point does the transition from fry to chip go too far? You know those "chips" from really fancy restaurants where you end up with some sort of Jenga stack of 4 or 5 one inch square prism slabs of potato. Have they crossed into roast potato territory?
and as an aside, how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?
None
Yeah, it's a divisive subject. A Wedge issue in fact.
"BRAVO"
TROVE would beg to differ. While trying to trace the Irishman who allegedly fathered my great-great grandmother, (no records because, you know, Terra Nullius & they kept records for the sheep but not the blackfellas that killed and ate them) the only fellow that I could match came to an untimely end in the Avenue Range, SA. Having fled the potato famine & the English for a new life in Australia, he lasted two years before falling off a dray laden with potatoes that he was carrying to Mt Barker, landed head first on a rock & was found dead of a haematoma a few hours later by a passing shepherd. So the 'luck of the Irish' can go either way.
you can do em in one of the new-fangled air fryers.. peel an cut the spuds yourself.
5ml of beef dripping. 35 minutes.. jd
This is an excellent tip. I have an air fryer, potatoes, and access to beef.
Chips v Fries
Scallops v Cakes
Potato Wars are fought in the fryers of our nation.
Murdering hoboes. This made my f’n day. Of course now I need to find a fat potato fried in murdered hobo fat . I’m off
Chips v Fries
Scallops v Cakes
Potato Wars are fought in the fryers of our nation.
They sure are, the debate rages hotter than the oil...
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/team-potato-scallop-vs-team-potato-cake,17162
It is excruciating, trying to get proper English style chips around here. The best ones I ever had were in Scotland somewhere. Amazing stuff.
I visited Chicago, Boston, New York, Savannah, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Francisco on my big trip in 2018, and am sad to report that the chips in each of these venues was sub par. I think the best I had was in Vegas at the Outback Steakhouse, possibly because they were attempting to emulate Australian style "chips", despite persisting in calling them "fries".
I wonder if there's a business opportunity to open a venue doing proper chips and wedges and all their accompaniments in the US? In the style of all the Australian led cafes teaching you heathens how to do proper coffee 😂
That's not a bad idea. Your inputs would be cheap.
Even importing Aussie potatoes to make it properly "authentic" would be cheap. We have a guy called Tony Galati over here who's gone from being a potato farmer to owning and operating a chain of discount supermarkets called Spud Shed and with the recent shortage of chips and potatoes due to the flooding over east he's now setting up a factory to process his spuds so we're never short of chips again. I'm sure arrangements could be made with the "Spud King" for international delivery of proper Aussie spuds for proper Aussie chips for potato based diplomacy with the land of the free 😂
Yeah, you ran into the "two countries separted by a common language" thing. Kind of like the word fanny, which gave me a spot of trouble once. My Grandma, and many old people over here, used it as a polite term for your butt. Yeah, not the same in the UK, etc. How was I to know? But I digress. I despair of every finding a proper plate of delicious chips without an accompanying ticket to London, preferably loaded with vinegar. Let alone no-kidding fish and chips. And British beer. Pretty amazing. The continent gets all the press, but I thought the ales and stouts of the British Isles to be pretty excellent.
Having grown up in sunny England I can attest to the quality of the Great British Chip especially when sprinkled with a generous amount of salt followed by malt vinegar - and then stuffed between two sizeable slices of white stodgy bread lathered in butter. Feel free to wash it down with a decent pint of smooth Marstons Pedigree bitter for a proper Midlands lunch.
Wait, the US doesn't do fish and chips the way the UK and Aus do? Christ, I'm going to have to give up my lucrative IT career and emigrate over there and set up a chain of proper fish and chips shops and make out like a bandit.
I've been in Melbourne all week for work with consultants from a partner company from India, who were asking what Australian cuisine was, and us locals had to explain how Australia basically borrowed from all the much better cuisines that immigrants brought with them (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Lebanese etc etc etc). This is a perfect opportunity to export what little qualifies as properly "Aussie" cuisine to a land that's managed to be even more culinarily forsaken than us.
New farm fish cafe does amazing Chips and so does the Valley Cafe and Takeaway near Aldi on Wickham st (just like the ones John is Waxing lyrical about)
My god, chips that look like they have seen a knife wielded by a human. Heavenly.
i am so glad i came to this post late - my favourite topic! And with the current shortage of potato goods, very frustrating.
I think the fondest chip memory I have was the cafe at UQ. Big chunky MFers that were actually left in the fryer long enough. Discovered aioli there too. Certainly got me on campus more than the classes
alas for me it looks like there is no outdoor seating which seems a crime in a climate such as Brisbane.
That's just a normal night for my dear old Liverpool born parents. The chip pan is nearly as old as me, sporting a rich golden brown patina from the decades of oil baked into its aluminium skin. Served alongside egg and beans and sausages.
There's a song that goes with this meal. And you can line-dance to it. The blog bots won't let me post a link, but if you get the urge to boot scoot after dinner, Alan Jackson's 'meat and potato man' is the tune I would choose for you. And yes I listen to way too much Murri Country for my own good.
There's a song that goes with this meal. And you can line dance to i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9f8ZeCiMWc
Damn, now I want a chip butty and the chip shop isn't open yet