I ran across the video embedded below at the top of a Yahoo! post that had nothing to do with the vid. I wish they wouldn’t do that! But it caught my eye. And I hope you have a chuckle as you watch former employees of other Fast Food brands try Chick-Fil-A’s wafflers…
It’s CFA’s latest vehicle for promoting their ingenious and tasty Waffle Fries.
Which I think they don’t promote heavily enough. Anyway…
Is it real?
It’s clever to sit former competitors’ employees down and ask their opinion… But I have a problem with the video’s authenticity. It’s suspect for a number of reasons.
First, how do we know these are really former employees of competing Fast Food chains? CFA doesn’t warrant that to be the case. All we have is the FE’s own word for it. As in so many other ‘customer testimonial’ ads, these could be actors ‘portraying’ real people. But in those other ads, the Law says the brands have to disclose if the faces on screen are not the ones behind the testimonials. And the words themselves may have been ‘edited for time and context’. Of course, this CFA vid is not a broadcast ad. So it’s not bound by the law to disclose anything.
Get to the point, Mags…
Okay. I do love waffle fries. In fact, I once had a slicer-dicer gadget (shower gift?) that cut them auto-matically out of whole potatoes. But I didn’t like the wafflers, then. Because they didn’t turn out very nice in a frying pan.
Folks had not yet, at the point in history, thought to try baking fries in the oven. That’s a shame.
My home-made waffle fries always missed the mark by one metric or an-other. They were either soggy or greasy, too thick or too thin.
The worst batches were the ones that came out like heavy-duty kettle chips which you could hardly bite through. Others came out overdone on the out-side and raw on the inside.
As much as I loved the idea, waffle fries just weren’t worth the trouble.
The pros know…
CFA decidates a whole page on their website to their Fries. Among the points they make:
“Waffle Potato Fries were first rolled out in 1985, and turned the French Fry industry upside down,” CFA proudly states. Well… By all accounts, they did make quite a splash…
They’re CFA’s most-ordered menu item. No surprise, there. I’ll bet McD’s fries are their most-ordered item. Probably at least some of the other chains’, as well.
They’re a dipper’s dream, with all that flat surface area. Not to mention the waffly crenelations that hold dip or sauce like a magnet.
And they’re claimed to be less salty than other chains’ fries.
Less noticeable features…
One less-noticeable feature of CFA’s wafflers is that they have those perforations all over, where the waffle ridges intersect. And they’re thinner than other Fast Food Fries. That means they cook faster, absorb less oil, and manage to develop a crispy outer surface while maintaining a chewy – never greasy or soggy – interior.
Like McDonald’s, CFA keeps a close eye on the spuds that go into its fries: “Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fries are made from potatoes using sustainably-focused farming practices by Lamb Weston, a long-standing partnership that’s lasted over 30 years.” That’s got to count for consistency, of nothing else.
The ultimate comparison?
Vaunted food commentary site Food Republic last year produced what may be the definitive French Fry comparison to date. They actually reviewed 30 different styles of fries, pretty much covering the whole gamut.
Article author Emily Alexander made a point to include dressed variants such as Poutine and Cheese Fries, as well as other garnished versions, such Belgian Fries, which are traditionally served with a big dollop of mayo.
One of the main sources of division among online commenters at Food Republic was whether those ‘augmented’ versions should be included. But I was more interested in another angle. It turns out that curly, shoestring and spiral-cut fries all have similar ‘healthier’ cooking times to wafflers. Alas, they can’t come close to the Waffle Fries for dipability!
The overall favourite…
I’m sure you won’t be surprise to learn that the overall winner of Food Republic survey was the Waffle Fry!
The post from which we pinched the gorgeous Waffle Fry photo, above left, is a great place to start in the quest for your own fave waffler recipe. And be sure to try author Chahinez’s superb copycat Chick-Fil-A Sauce, also pictured above.
~ Maggie J.