Wendy’s old fries were done of the worst I’ve ever had, so of course the new ones are better.
Apparently jojos are an Oregon thing. But they were invented during a restaurant show in Chicago, by the Idaho potato booth teaming up with the Flavor-Crisp Broaster. They claim that some guy came up with the name off the top of his head.
I can confirm that jojos were definitely a thing at deli counters in Northeast Ohio in the 80s (sorry, that’s as far back as my actual brain goes), and are still a thing today (cite cite).
But according to that article, they’re mostly an Oregon thing (@Lancia will be happy to know there’s an actual Oregon/NE Ohio connection!) I would suspect if Shakeys is selling “Mojos” they came well after the jojo, but that’s just speculation.
In the far past, we thought they had great pizza.
Don’t recall that the pizza was any great shucks, though they were about the only place hereabouts where one could get linguica. But I did like the signs on the walls, one of which is becoming more relevant by the day:
Before you complain about the coffee, remember: you’ll be old and weak yourself someday.
I’d planned a couple hours of errands around a trip to Wendy’s to try the new fries and to enjoy some of their fine chili. I haven’t had food from there in at least a couple years, certainly not since the pandx. The door thudded locked when I tugged on it and the sign said the dining room was closed due to staffing problems.
Understandable, I guess, but I don’t care for drivethrus and, anyway, I wasn’t going to eat in my car and I still had a few stops to make so no taking home.
The real crime is Arby’s discontinuing their potato cakes. They say it was due to customer lack of demand or something but I call BS. Everybody I know likes them. Their replacement crinkle cut fries aren’t too bad actually, but dammit I WANT MY HASHBROWN TRIANGLES!
Funny you should mention hash browns. I was driving with my wife this morning, she had a hankering for an Egg McMuffin and a hash brown. I’m trying to do a low-carb thing so I didn’t get anything but she gave me a bite of her hash brown.
Which reminded me, I’ve never been particularly impressed with McDonald’s fries, but their hash browns are like crack! They’re like a hundred times more tasty than the fries. How can one fried potato product be so much more tasty than another fried potato product from the same fast food place?
I WANT MY HASHBROWN ELLIPSOIDS!
Well, I just tried some and I’m happy to say they were not crispy. In fact, I almost wondered if, like everything else, my dumbass state is behind the rest of the country and our Wendy’s aren’t serving them yet. They maybe seemed a bit . . .stiffer, but they’re still pretty darned good.
Have yet to try the new Wendy’s fries, which I hope are an improvement over their limp predecessors.
Ok - you were doing ok, there, digging the hot, admiring the crispy, then OH! you muffed it, with the “one of these things is not like the other” gross thing going on - an unwelcome aberration negating the very essence of life, itself, and so you had to go and besmirch, nay befoul, the hot and crispy’s {{{integrity}}}.
Huh - never expected them to diversify.
Two (yes, different) Anal Leakage musical entities currently exist.
I agree they are among the best of fast-food fries (as I prefer my fries skin-on.) The plus side, when you order fries, even the small is like a bucket of fries. Or at least the locations I’ve visited, they’ll massively overfill the container, with plenty spilling out into the bag. If I pop into Five Guys, I never order fries with my burger unless I’m with the whole family.
There is absolutely nothing lower than the pig slop they serve at Jack-in-the-Box. Those 2 for a buck tacos? I swear they were deep fried. You could feel the plaque accumulating in you arteries while you ate them.
I mostly stay away from fast food now. But there was a Dairy Queen in the town I grew up in that had crazy good fries. In fact all of their grub was a notch better than other fast food places.
Then it went out of business and they tore it down.
They recently rebuilt and reopened it. Across the street from where it was. Maybe when i visit my brother I’ll stop and check it out.
There is another DQ up in Plymouth [ETA Wisconsin] that charbroils their burgers and serves them on a hard roll with the works if you prefer. Best damn fast food burger on the planet.
McDonald’s has long had the worst fries of ANY fast-food chain.
I will subscribe to that newsletter. Arby’s has greatly disappointed me with that move. Those things also endured the trip home well, unlike most carry-out fries.
I’ll pay them a visit at times, as it’s not too far from my work. But Randall’s in Sheboygan still has the better burger. AND better fries.
I don’t agree.
But in any case Randalls is not an international mega chain. I never count such places when comparing fast food as they can march to the beat of their own drum and not some corporate mandate. If more chains were able to do that I think less of the food would be McShit.
True, and I appreciate that touch at places like local A & W and Dairy Queens. Heck, even some of the McDonalds in WI serve up Johnsonville brats and cheese curds at times.
Know of any other chains that have sites that march to their own beat? Too often word never gets out too far about 'em.
Granted, this is a matter of opinion, but the general consensus among reviewers of fast food fries seems to support the view. McD’s fries tend to come out at the top or near the top in most surveys:
America’s best french fries ranked, from McDonald’s to Chick-fil-A (today.com)
I Compared and Ranked the Fries From 8 Fast-Food Chains (insider.com)
Best Fast-Food French Fries, Ranked - Thrillist
Best Fast-Food French Fries, Ranked - Thrillist
The official fast food French fry power rankings - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)