Like the recent revolution of burgers, fries are going upscale. Toss them in a little truffle oil, sprinkle over some fleur de sel (French sea salt), or serve with wasabi aioli. There, you’ve just elevated greasy fries from fast food grub to chi-chi cuisine.
But gourmet fries aren’t just about adding fancy ingredients to fried sticks of spud. It’s also the little details that go into making the perfect taters–using fresh, quality potato, cutting it into suitable shape and size and frying it at the right temperature and length of time.
With gourmet fries all the rage now, inSing.com checks out some highly-raved recommendations. Are they worth the extra bucks, or merely style over substance?
#01-106/107, VivoCity
Opening hours: Sun-Thu: 11am-midnight; Fri-Sat, eve of PH: 11am-1am
Taste test: Chips with chilli crab dip ($10++)
Rating: 5/5
There’s just one word to sum up the thick-cut chips at The Queen & Mangosteen: magnificent. Although not the hand-cut variety, they were faultlessly executed. Golden and crisp on the outside, moist and fluffy on the inside, these chips were simply majestic.
We were also amazed at how grease-free they were. Evenly seasoned with the right amount of salt, these chips were good enough to enjoy on their own.
But how could we pass on the gorgeous chilli crab dip? Sweet, spicy and piquant, it was brimming with luscious crabmeat. The chips were of a perfect width to scoop up this scrumptious sauce. These regal chips and dip are truly fit for a queen!
8D Dempsey Road
Opening hours: Mon-Fri: 12pm-10.30pm, Sat-Sun: 11am-10.30pm
Taste test: Truffle Fries (S$9++)
Rating: 4.5/5
You’ll either love or hate Barracks’s truffle fries. If truffles turn you off, imagine this as McD’s fries gone horribly wrong. But if you adore the earthy aroma of truffles, they’re a dream come true.
Looking like ordinary shoestring French fries, these spuds carried a faint whiff of truffle scent. Once in your mouth, an earthy pungency hits you, with a luxuriously slick mouthfeel. Like we said, you’ll either love it or hate it. Well, we loved it!
Besides truffle oil, a light dusting of salt was all that was needed to flavour these delicate shoestrings. Light and crisp, they stayed crisp till the end. This is a cult classic in the making.
320 Tanglin Road, Phoenix Park
Opening hours: Mon-Fri: 10.30am-10.30pm, Sat-Sun: 8.30am-10.30pm
Taste test: Hand cut chips with sage ($5.00++)
Rating: 4/5
Spruce uses hand-cut chips, hence the rustic-looking taters. They definitely tasted better than they looked. Sage leaves were fried together with the chips, infusing them with a pleasing fragrance. They tasted lightly savoury and peppery. Yummy!
These chips weren’t as crispy and fluffy as the ones we’re used to. That’s because they used a more waxy variety of potato. But the chips were rich with potato flavour and full of bite. It definitely had more character than the usual commercial variety.
A pity the chips weren’t evenly cooked, so some pieces were a little hard. Otherwise, we’d be glad to have seconds.
#01-01, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites
Opening hours: Mon-Sat: 11.30am-11pm; Sun: 10.30am-11pm
Taste test: Hand-cut thick fries & aioli, garlic, rosemary, parmesan ($8.00++)
Rating: 3.5/5
Like Spruce’s, Oriole’s chips had rich potato taste. There was no lack of flavours here. Browned wedges were spiked with rosemary specks, parmesan flakes and whole little cloves of deep-fried garlic.
There was also an intensely flavoured dip of garlic and parmesan aioli. All those strong flavours and liberal sprinkling of salt over the fries was rather excessive. But when enjoyed with booze, these wedges were excellent.
We’d have given a higher rating if not for inconsistency. Our first batch was limp and greasy, probably due to the oil not being sufficiently heated. But a repeat order yielded crisp and much more palatable fries.
Food For Thought (Queen Street)
8 Queen Street
Opening hours: Daily: 9am-10pm
Taste test: Rosemary Garlic Salt Fries ($4.00+)
Rating: 3/5
The fries here were so generously portioned it’s nearly a meal in itself! These thick, long ribbons of potato were sufficiently drained of oil. Crisp when served, they tended to turn soft quickly, as thick-cut fries usually do.
Food For Thought offers three kinds of flavoured fries—rosemary garlic, pepper thyme, or spicy chilli. The rosemary garlic scent was too mild. Also, they were too light-handed with the salt.
Coupled with dry insides, these thick fries started to feel rather flat-tasting after a few. Fortunately, they tasted much better with a liberal dose of dip. Choose from chilli sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise.
