French Fries Are Crouton
The charms will tell you that toast is a piece of bread cut into cubes, tossed in butter and seasonings, and baked or fried until crispy, but toast is just a construct. If it creates a textural contrast with a bunch of raw vegetables, then in my book (or blog) it’s croutons. Cheese is a crouton . Tater tots are croutons . Pizza is toast . And as the good people of Pittsburgh know, french fries are toast.
It’s one of those things that I was sure I wrote about before (and didn’t) because I knew about it for a while. Many years ago, my then-husband (my husband, if you will) went on a business trip to Pittsburgh and returned with tales of french fries in everything, including salads, an idea I immediately embraced.
Like the famous Primanti Bros sandwich, adding french fries to the dish instead of serving it as a side dish makes it more complete and satisfying, more suitable for the working person who burns more calories than the one who works at the table. and he may have to eat his dinner unencumbered with utensils and/or plates. (I heard that there are many such workers in Pittsburgh.)
But whether you “need” extra calories or just appreciate the delicious elegance of a healthy vegetable and carbohydrate diet, you should put French fries in your salad. This is most common in salads that contain meat, such as steak salad or fried chicken salad, but fried potatoes are neutral enough that you can sprinkle them on any salad without fear of flavor clashes.
I do think they would be especially desirable in a salad with a savory, sour dressing, like a Greek salad, or something with cheese or bacon, like a salad with slices, since cheese and bacon are already natural friends of the stir-fry. They also go well with ranch dressing, which is obvious but needs to be mentioned.
As for chips, that’s the dealer’s choice, but I think the classic, crunchy, fast food-style fries work best, but I wouldn’t get mad at curly, skinny, or even waffle. However, I recommend frying them with duck fat . (And I always will.)