Damn, you people are not only making me hungry, but actually making me sorry that dinner is braised lamb shanks in an onion/red wine/tomato/pomegranate molasses sauce over basmati rice. Broccoli on the side. If I weren’t so damn tired that I am already in my jammies, I’d be tempted to go for my favorite local(ish) burger and fries. (With an extra side of tzatziki for dipping the fries.)
Can I have your recipe? :o
Well, it wasn’t really a recipe - I improvised at 5 a.m. when I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided I might as well do something useful and left it in the slow cooker all day (actually Instant Pot, so I could brown everything first). But more or less:
2 large lamb shanks (about 2.5 lbs. total, if memory serves) - our usual grocery store cuts them most of the way through in chunks
2 huge diced onions
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 gigantic heaping tablespoons of tomato paste
1 gigantic heaping tablespoon of Turkish (sweet) red pepper paste
Salt and a fair bit of freshly ground black pepper
about 1 c. cheap-ass full-bodied red wine
maybe 1/4 c. pomegranate molasses?
Heat olive oil and brown the salted and peppered lamb shanks well. Add the onions and sautee until they are turning golden. Add the garlic and stir for a couple of minutes. Then add the wine and let the alcohol boil off for a few minutes. Then add the tomato and red pepper pastes and pomegranate molasses. Slow cook on low for ~ 8 hours or more (I did 9.5, and it was falling off the bone). Enjoy!
I dislike French Fries as they soak up way too much fat, actually that’s what makes them fantastic but a traditional twice cooked chip with malt vinegar from the local fish and chip shop is a thing of wonder on a winters evening.
And you can’t make a decent chip butty without proper chips!
I can report there are Culver’s available here in Arizona, but I’ve tried them only a couple times. Their burgers didn’t offer anything particularly memorable so the last time I ate at one a few weeks ago, I ordered a pot roast sandwich instead and it was yummy.
I’ll try the fish and chips next time I’m there but I warn you, I was spoiled on fish and chips when I was at Keflavik. The USO there about once a month would go down to to the docks, buy a couple hundred pounds of cod off the top of the hold in a boat that had just tied up, and serve 'em up that evening for two bucks (40 years ago). Nom nom nom.
…and Central Washington. 
Actually, I don’t think we call the skinny ones ‘American Fries’. I tend to see ‘skinny fries’ in restaurants, or just ‘fries’ - it’s not a word we’d use for normal thick cut chips, so people will know they are ‘American style’.
So at Burger King and McDonalds in Britain, what do they call their fried potato strings? (For that matter, what do they call them at Five Guys, where they are thicker?)
According to my research, they’re all “fries.”
https://www.fiveguys.co.uk/our-menu#tab-fries
If you’re being picky about the thickness of your fries, those three are quite different from each other, from my point of view. In particular, the McDonald’s fries are quite unlike the others.
Fries.
I don’t know what Five Guys is, presumably it hasn’t skipped across the pond.
EDIT. I take it all back, apparently Five Guys is a thing. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed one though. I doubt I’m their demographic.
You’re not in the demographic for good burgers and fries?
No, he said he wasn’t in the 5 Guys demographic. Completely different thing. 
I see you’re in Southern California. I understand that there are reports of problems with some of the recent franchising. But generally speaking Five Guys is pretty much the tastiest burger and fries you can get at the fast-food chain level.
Really well made burger and fries in a classy independent, certainly. Mass produced stuff from large chains, not so much. MacDonald’s had its place when I was younger, but now I’m in my 40s I suspect Five Guys, without knowing them, are a bit new on the block for myself, who has moved on to more salubrious establishments.
No, sorry, I wont eat there. The REFUSE to carry 1000 island for their burgers. It’s not that they just dont have any, they *refuse. *
I agree on the burgers: they’re definitely in between the fast food places and a really good burger (they’re not really fast food because your food takes up to 10 minutes to get cooked even though they are pretty fast.)
The fries, however, have the advantage of being fresh, which is much more of a game changer for fries. Even Steak n Shake fries, which are nondescript shoestring-ish things, taste pretty good when fresh and hot. Plus you get a lot of them at Five Guys.
If he’s in Southern California, Five Guys is a terrible substitute for In-N-Out. (Both places have terrible fries, though.)
Nah, In-N-Out burger with Five Guys fries would be the ultimate fast food burger & fries combo for me.
I think I tried a Five Guys burger once. I don’t recall being impressed.
In&Out has better burgers and yes Five Guys (the one time I tried it, the time they were very rude about having the condiments i wanted) had better fries. But not lots better.