Get a load of these fries
When I was a college freshman, I ate my body weight in French fries. The potatoes — crisp, crusted and load-bearing — were hardly the problem. The problem was what happened next. At some point that first year, we started decorating and defiling our fries with mac and cheese, collard greens and other steam table fare without regard for the fast-approaching freshman 15. It didn’t help that I lived above the dining hall. Or that I could smell the fryers from my twin XL. I may be wiser now, but I’m no better when it comes to loaded fries. In kebab shops and Vietnamese restaurants, you’ll find fries — perfectly desirable on their own — heaped with bánh mì fixings, charbroiled lamb and melted cheese. Who can resist? New York has to be one of the best cities in the world for French fry fans. No surprise: Those of us who prefer ours buried under carne asada are eating just as well.
Have it your wayYou won’t find mirchi kebabs atop French fries in the chef Vamshi Adi’s home city of Hyderabad, India. He added them to the menu of his East Village kebab shop, Kebabishq, hoping to attract college students from N.Y.U. nearby. Yes, the potatoes come from a freezer bag. No, you’d never know it. Not after they’re hoisted from the fryer, still hot, and liberally dusted with masala spice. From there, the choice is yours: Charred jumbo shrimp or punishingly spicy chicken kebabs marinated with ghost pepper chiles? My current fixation is the fatty seekh kebab, a minced lamb sausage hacked to pieces with a tangle of lettuce, spiced yogurt and mint-cilantro chutney. Somehow, under the weight of all those toppings, the fries stay crisp and intact. 128 Second Avenue (St. Marks Place), East Village, Manhattan
Put an egg on itJoJu, a local Vietnamese chain, is loaded fry royalty. On just about every Reddit thread related to the subject, you can find some good Samaritan preaching the gospel of its fusion fries scattered with pickled daikon, carrots and other bánh mì basics. Here’s why: The double-fried potatoes are still tossed in potato starch, just like when JoJu opened in Elmhurst, Queens, in 2011, forming a rigid shell that stands up against a barrage of toppings, like spicy mayonnaise and the jalapeño-based house sauce. (The owner, Julie Wong, modeled it after the aji verde she grew up eating at Peruvian restaurants in Queens.) I’m partial to the towering kimchi fries, stacked with fermented cabbage, cilantro and more jalapeños. Add grilled bulgogi or a barely fried egg with a leaky yolk, and you have a full meal. Multiple locations, Manhattan, Queens
Room for carne asada?Martin Medina, an owner of La Taq in Park Slope, tested more than a dozen French fries from three distributors before finding the “Cadillac of French fries,” as he calls them: blistered, skin-on spuds that won’t wilt under salsa and sour cream. That’s exactly what you want in the case of his carne asada fries, a regional specialty from San Diego, served on a family-size platter with Oaxaca and mozzarella cheeses baked onto the edges of the plate. Chopped steak is scattered over the top and, at the last second, a chef adds oversize globs of pico de gallo, full-fat sour cream and guacamole with an ice cream scoop, evoking the colors of the Mexican flag. But be warned about the portion size: Bring friends or commit to eating carne asada fries for days. 70 Seventh Avenue (Berkeley Place), Park Slope, Brooklyn Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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