Years ago, Burger King had a massive campaign about new, revamped french fries. Free samples everywhere, tons of advertising dollars spent, and some actually better fries. Over the years, those crispy good fries devolved into soggy messes.
Now, BK is once again advertising NEW FRIES! I hadn’t been to a BK in at least 4 years, so I just stopped and got some for lunch to try these much lauded fries.
What? These taste exactly the same. Like, literally exactly same. Except I guess they’re a little more. . . dense? Not sure how to describe it.
And my Whopper literally tastes like a cafeteria burger. Fail BK, fail.
It’s been a bit, but my take on the fries they had before was that they were coated with some kind of space-age polymer that crisped up while leaving the centers as mush. These fries were tasty and crispy while hot, but quickly became nigh inedible when cooled. I didn’t mind them, but I did feel like fries that were still enjoyable if I didn’t get to them right away had a distinct advantage, especially if they could actually be re-heated.
So, what’s the story with the new fries? A differenter coating?
McDonalds restaurants used to have a hand-operated device that cut their french fries from whole potatoes right there next to the fryer. Fast food fries haven’t been any good since those machines were relegated to the scrap heap.
I somehow missed this new ad campaign, but we were forced to eat at a BK at the airport in Orlando this past week and ended up noticing the new fries. They were hot and fresh and were notably better than any BK fry I’ve ever had. Still a long ways from Mickey D’s fries, but better. A little thicker than they were and crispy. Not sure how well they’d travel if you had to get them home from the drive thru though.
I’ve not been much of a fry-eater for a while, but I actually tried these today. They’re not bad. Better than Wendy’s Sea Salt crap, to be sure. And better than McDonald’s - at least, locally. But our McDonald’s is kinda cruddy.
“Oh the Crunch enhancer? Yeah it’s a non-nutritive cereal varnish. It’s semi-permiable. It’s not osmotic. What it does is it coats and seals the flake, prevents the milk from penetrating it.”
I ate a Whopper last weekend as we were under severe time pressure to get to a concert. I didn’t finish it. The bread was terrible and doughy, the meat was frankly, worse than what I would expect from an institutional cafeteria.