El Penjamo in Booneville

Fry Spy JoDonn found something special in the river valley.

"Special Fries" at a Mexican joint? We weren't sure what to expect either but we're glad we tried them. There's a little Mexican joint named El Penjamo in a little town named Booneville in AR.

There's not much in Booneville but Laura and I were hungry so we stopped. To start, these are not referred to as sides instead they are listed as appetizers. Good start! Second, they come with white queso and your choice of bacon or fajita steak. We got both! 

Even though they were straight out of the freezer, the addition of cheese, steak, and bacon made them awesome! Laura and I laid waste to em and were too full to eat our meals. 

A great bargain!  Laura loved them, I loved them. We give them a 9. 
LAURA:  Are you seriously taking a picture of me right now?

Trinity Brewing in Colorado Springs

My Lithuanian Fry Spy JoDonn recently sent in this review by nuclear carrier pigeon:

While visiting the Denver area I found a place called Trinity Brewing kinda out of the way in Colorado Springs. The bar keep described the place as a "hippie craft beer bar" (whatever that means). I sat at the bar and ordered their sampler of beer. 

40 ozs of exceptional craft beer for $12 is not bad. 
Gibby's note:  What the hell are the sugar cubes for?

While I was waiting for my flight of craft brew I found an item on the menu I just couldn't ignore -Golden Belgian Fritas! 

For $5 I got a fancy "cone" of twice-fried "Authentic Belgian Fries". I'm not really sure what makes them Belgian though. Do they grow russets in Belgium? I also had the spicy mustard sauce, very good, and the house ranch, Meh. For being fried twice they really weren't that crispy. They were just ok. 7 out of 10. The beer on the other hand was very good and I was feeling very gokdoaosdijfaoidjfa290348 rf0jmw0j.  Pickels!

I think JoDonn was sloshed at this point.  Stupid Lithuanians!

Longhorn Steak House Tupelo, MS

Fair Warning: If you live in Tupelo, Mississippi or have family, friends, or some other connection/affinity for/to Tupelo, Mississippi I suggest that you not read this post. 

Tupelo, Mississippi is a rotten little embarrassment located at just the right point between Memphis, TN and Birmingham, AL that 99% of anyone traveling anywhere close will have to stop there at some point.  Yeah, yeah, it's where Elvis was born and all that-but if you go there you'll realize why he left.  Dumpola!

On a recent car trip back home from Florida, we were forced to stay in Crapelo overnight.  The Grunion was starving, so we had to go out somewhere to dinner.  About a block from THE WORST HOTEL WE HAVE EVER STAYED IN (don't get me started) was the Longhorn Steakhouse.  We figured it was a good bet cause it was a chain and all.

It was Saturday night, and the wait was 30 mintues!  We said forget it.  How is this possible with a population of only 35,059 people?  We drove to some of the other restaurants.  Buffalo Wild Wings?  1-hour wait!  Chili's? 45 minute wait!  WTH?  We went back to Longhorn and waited.  Turns out that the population surrounding Crapelo is 160,000 people or so.  This means that every weekend, everyone from the sticks crawls down to the "big city" to have a fancy dinner and get drunk at the "bar" in Chili's.  Yeesh.

The Longhorn Steakhouse presents itself as a "fancy" establishment, as evidenced by the price of their sides.  $2.69 for a "side" of fries at a "fancy" chain restaurant is not out of the ordinary, but wait...

So...yeah.  Faux skin-on frozen bag Sysco nightmares that were actually soggy from obviously being dunked in oil that wasn't hot enough.  And the picture makes it look like a decent amount, right?

Here's a shot with one of the Grunion's crayons to show scale.  Those suckers were tiny and few.  Boo.

Grunion:  You sure got hosed on those, Pop.  Pretty good Mac and Cheese, tho.

Longhorn Steak House fries = 0 out of 10.  Mostly because we had to be in Crapelo to try them (and also cause they totally suck).

Port Orleans Hotel Disney World

While we were at Disney World a couple of weeks ago, we stayed at the Port Orleans Hotel.  It's a fine enough stay, but the fries were CRAPOLA.

$3.00 for this paper boat of soggy embarrassment.

Boo.  2 out of 10.

Picture Weirdness

Sorry for some of the picture weirdness lately here, folks.  I guess you get what you pay for when you use a free blogging platform.  I will try to see what is up with the missing photos.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe at Disney World

The Grunion made us take him to Disney World last week.  He said he needed to "talk to Mickey about a project", but wouldn't elaborate.  That kid is so secretive.  Anyhoo, while the Grunion was meeting with Mickey I grabbed some fries from Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe snack bar near Space Mountain.   Hmmm.  $2.79 for an order of fries.  Seems reasonable for Disney World since I've paid more at a crappy AA baseball park. 

They came in this weird cup that made it look like there weren't that many but when I counted them there were 28.

They were okay.  Straight from a bag in the freezer (I saw the fry cook dumping some in the oil while I was waiting), but with some skin still on them.  It was a nice touch for fries that are obviously scarfed down in record time by kids rushing to get to the next ride.

Here are the fries with the PeopleMover in the background.

7 out of 10.  Worth getting if you're already at Disney World (but don't buy an $89 admission ticket just to try them).

Inlet Harbor in Daytona Beach

We have been to the Inlet Harbor a few times in the past, but it occurred to me on our recent trip there that I hadn't reviewed the fries.  Or maybe I have.  I can't remember.  Anyway I did when we were there last week.  The Inlet Harbor is an uber-touristy bar/live music club/restaurant/marina/store complete with kitschy ocean-themed installations.

On this particular trip, they had infused Halloween stuff in with everything.  Scary!

The view of the Intercoastal Waterway is awesome, and the ambiance is generally pretty sweet.

$2.25 for fries?  Okay, I'll bite.

Steak fries?  Sweeeeet!

Although there were only 20 actual fries, they were crispy on the outside, and fluffy and hot on the inside.  Everything a steak fry should be.  Here is a shot showing the fluffy interior.

The seasoning was great as well.

The only thing that put me off (besides the price vs. amount ratio) was this crap ketchup.  Seriously?  Top-notch steak fries with bottom of the barrel ketchup? 

All things considered, 8 out of 10.

Joe's Crab Shack in Daytona Beach

Joe's Crab Shack is a big national chain joint that supposedly has good crabs.  I don't know cause I don't like crabs, but they also have fries so they get the treatment.  This particular Joe's Crab Shack is located on the pier in the super-duper party section of Daytona Beach.

It's probably a real happening place when I'm not in Florida causing the weather to suck.

$2.89 for a "surf side" of fries?  They better be good...

This is what they brought out.  Fancy ceramic boat, but the fries were meh.

GRUNION:  Is this just the first half of them?

22 meh fries for $2.89.  The Grunion was not impressed.

GRUNION:  I don't get it.  I don't taste any "surf" in these.

The view is great, but the fry situation sucks.  As we were walking out, we saw this FRY STATION on the side of Joe's!  Dammit!  How did we miss this?  We decided it was probably just the fries from inside the restaurant anyway so we passed.

Joe's Crab Shack Daytona: 4 out of 10.

Twisted Taco in Atlanta

Spent some time recently with Stan and Amanda in Atlanta. They took us to this awesome taco joint called Twisted Taco that also had fries (kind of an anomaly).

Here we go again. Fries are a "side"?  No respect.

$1.99 for 32 decent fries. 7 out of 10.

Badass award of the month goes to Stan's wife Amanda WHO TAKES HER OWN COOZIES WITH HER WHEREVER SHE GOES.  She apparently collects them and has OVER A HUNDRED in case you were wondering what to get her for Christmas.