CHIPS vs FRIES

The quality of fries is more consistent but chips can be and often are much much better than fries. Voting chips.

Well done for not including the disgusting savagery that is potato wedges on this poll.

That photo doesn't do chips justice.

Those things in the first photo look like fries to me.

feel free to provide yr own visual examples

fries are so wimpy and a sad unfulfilling accompaniment to a fat greasy burger.

I was under the impression these were the exact same thing.

This is gonna be confusing for Americans because we don't distinguish between the two really so picture a = thick cut fries (sometimes called steak fries according to a friend) and picture b = thin shoestring fries but we'd consider both of those fries.

steak fries - idk they're the right kinda size but they ain't no chip, or i've just been served bad oven-cooked or reheated ones.

CHIPS with shallow depth of field

http://www.lovepotatoes.co.uk/assets/Recipes/_resampled/croppedimage280280-tray-of-chipsLOSQUARE.jpg

^exactly.

what ENBB said

Also, chips from a chip shop in England have a very distinct taste which makes it even more confusing if you've never had them because they sort of are a thing all on their own. IDK. Voted chips cause they're awesome and I miss them.

i think there is going to be some transatlantic trouble any minute and part of the trouble is going to stem from the non-american chips being shot in a bad light that makes them look pasty and snaggletoothed.

lol

The trouble is gonna happen because we just don't distinguish between the two because we don't have chip shops! They're all fries to us regardless of what light they're shot in.

i agree fries would win always a beauty contest hands-down.

Chips why bc GRAVY <3

http://watchoutfor.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hot-chip.jpg

Chips win this cos who ever has a fries butty?

sorry, wrong hot chip

http://www.figandcherry.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Grilld-Burger_Chips.jpg

some really ugly but delicious CHIPS

http://myzerowaste.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/chips.jpg

Hot Chips being shot in a bad light that makes them look pasty and snaggletoothed. xp

NickB is very right, i voted chips for chip butty reasons.

c'mon. It's chips.

Since I sure as hell didn't know what a chip butty was before I lived in England I'm just gonna post this cause there will be others who wonder:

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/stargatechris/stargatechris1101/stargatechris110100094/8687997-traditional-english-chip-butty-isolated-on-white.jpg

does a butty get a sauce or anything? looks a little dry

Gotta be sliced bread + ketchup or you end up with lots of cold dry bun.

butter crucial imo. ketchup optional.

Also wholemeal bread for health reasons.

lol

yeah most of the pics on GIS seemed to have ketchup but I've mainly seen them with butter

i think sliced bread, and there should be so much butter and ketchup that they melt from the heat of the chips and drip onto your plate.

This is making me hungry and but it's only 10 am and all I have is stupid oatmeal. :(

having considered the matter i think i must allow thick cut or steak FRIES to be an acceptable stand-in for CHIPS.

I think we can all agree that fried potatoes are a pretty goddamn good thing all around, whatever you call them. Hash browns, bratkartofflen, etc.

def

here is a man whose location on a particular side of the atlantic i couldn't possibly guess just by glancing at him and his chip butty:

http://www.croquetworld.com/images/croquetvideo5.jpg

lol

whose location on a particular side of the atlantic watford gap i couldn't possibly guess just by glancing at him and his chip butty

voted fries mainly because of the consistency thing matt mentioned

consistently unsatisfying.

truffle chip butty

chip butty looks pretty unsatisfying next to a

http://fattyfriday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/primanti_42.jpg

also for reference

favorite french fry cut

chip butty looks pretty unsatisfying next to a

http://fattyfriday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/primanti_42.jpg

― i think drake distracts (dayo), Wednesday, 13 April 2011 14:12 (5 minutes ago)

Dude it's just taken close-up. Looks kinda revolting if you ask me.

"Steak fries" make me think of the ones which are 2cm wide and only 2mm tall, which are a sad travesty of a chip, because to get the outside to look delicious and chip-like inevitably turns the inside into horrible overcooked powder

(and therefore all the steak fries you ever eat are horrible overcooked powder, because who wants to eat a sad white soggy-looking chip? so I don't even know if it is possible to cook a steak fry right)

i love really good fries, like the sort of bendy french styled ones. possibly even more than chips if the fries are REALLY REALLY GOOD. but i dunno, chips are v different, a good bag of chips if heartier and more wintry.

x-post make me think of the ones which are 2cm wide and only 2mm tall, which are a sad travesty of a chip, because to get the outside to look delicious and chip-like inevitably turns the inside into horrible overcooked powder

OVEN CHIPS

the continuum as i see it:

chips <<<<<<<<<<<<< fries << oven fries <<<<<<<<<<<<<< oven chips

of course i mean

chips >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fries >> oven fries >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> oven chips

Oven wedges are the worst of all possible potato configurations imo.

half a squashed chip stuck to your shoe is worse than any oven wedge.

i think you're supposed to eat them in a doorway.

― estela, Monday, 18 April 2011 17:12 (1 hour ago)

http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/2lyd8k.jpg

chip shop curry sauce is great but tends to have distinct bits of peas and onions and whatever else round here. wouldn't do it on fish tho. ditto gravy - altho mrs v is partial to fish chips and gravy cos she weird. curry sauce + vinegar + chips + breadcake for dipping is mint tho.

If we're talking about curry sauce, then can I just say JELLIED EELS!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Eels_1385.JPG/220px-Eels_1385.JPG
(are gross)

What

The fuck

It's eels, stewed in a sauce and left to cool so that the sauce solidifies into a jelly.

ohhhhhh no

Never tried jellied eels. I expect them to be all salt and no flavour - true?

MOVING RIGHT ALONG much like the contents of my stomach right now.

Curry sauce for chips is A LOT like the sauce for Japanese katsu curry. I don't think I've ever had any that contained readily identifiable vegetable matter apart from perhaps a bit of onion.

oooh it's like katsu sauce? Okay that sounds like it would be good then
I don't understand it on fish and chips though

think i've been seriously remiss in not riding the curry + chips bandwagon. also, i haven't even eaten a single chip since i started this poll, wtf.

do people in the uk have the "three in one" in bad chinese takeaways? i never see it here but it's basically fried rice, chips, and curry sauce. it is one of the most amazing drunk foods ever, just so fucking stodgy.

if i saw curry sauce offered in a chinese takeaway i would be raising an eyebrow.

what? all chinese takeaways do curry sauce. all chinese takeaways ever do curry sauce.

*raises an eyebrow*

Chip shop or Chinese takeaway "curry sauce" is a bright yellow sludge which is flavoured with curry powder and nothing like anything you can get in an Indian restaurant. Similar to Currywurst sauce in Germany, if that helps any non-Britishers.

Our Chinese out in the provinces definitely does it, either as a "curry dish" or a tub on its own, and the chip shop will serve it with chips, but I don't think either will do it with chips and rice. Not as one item, anyway.

A takeaway box with half rice, half chips is a typical Chinese takeaway thing in Northern Ireland (where it's called a "half and half", and yes, you can have curry sauce on it) but I've never seen it here in the south of England. Someone told me they do it up north though.

what? all chinese takeaways do curry sauce. all chinese takeaways ever do curry sauce.

― Will.Have.Known (Local Garda), Monday, April 18, 2011 5:10 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

poll!

IME Ronan otm. Chinese place curry sauce is awesome btw and is sort of similar to Katsu VG.

VG, re. this snack the curry sauce is never, ever served with fish and chips. Just with chips.

Curry sauce is always on the back page of the British Chinese menu with other 'extra' condiments like pancakes and additional tubs of sweet and sour sauce. It is also where you find the short list of English dishes for the food-insular. Plus the chips, which everyone eats. Without disparaging The Provinces or The Suburbs, the Chinese takeaway I associate with this menu is inevitably strip-lit and linoleum-floored and features foul versions of Cantonese food trends form the 1960s.

BTW an Irish coworker of mine in NYC in the '80s said that the Chinese takeaways in Dublin - the worst Chinese food she had ever eaten - found a way to include cabbage, carrots, peas and potatoes in ALL the dishes, regardless of aptness for the dish in question.

i will swear that there is no Chinese takeaway in the entire UK that doesn't do curry and chips. Chinese takeaway chips are usually pretty excellent as well, I assume because they have hotter fat than many regular chippies.

i will investigate my local.

yeah exactly...aren't you uk ledge? to me questioning there being curry sauce in a chinese takeaway is like doubting that they serve rice.

xxp my favourite local chippy is a place that's owned and run by a Chinese family.

curry sauce is never, ever served with fish and chips. Just with chips.

Had fish + chips + curry sauce for my tea last night. It was epic.

http://fuckyeahnouns.com/images/curry+and+chips

yeah exactly...aren't you uk ledge?

yeah but i think my eyes naturally avoid any part of a takeaway menu that doesn't deal in the actual ethnic cuisine of that specific establishment.

Perhaps the Chinese food you eat comes from higher-standard places without the 'English menu', like most places where I order takeaways. I have never ordered chips and curry sauce for delivery because the sauce would clag by the time it was delivered - it's definitely a drunken takeaway 'impulse buy'.

i never order delivery as i can't find any that's any good...

Oh katsu curry sauce of course. that makes a lot of sense. I actually think it'd be quite edible despite my earlier ew comment tbh. I like that generic Keens powder inna tub stuff when you make curried saussies with it. Oldstyle Aussie 70s comfort dinner innit.

Chinese takeaways here are quite their own thing. Standards are fried rice, sweet n sour pork, beef n black bean, mixed veg/tofu. All sitting soggily in bain maries. You'd never get chips or whatnot tho, those belong in burger/fish n chip takeaways.

my drunk food used to be fish+peas+curry sauce. I'm not sure how it started, but it was yummy.

steak sized chips are decent when cooked right. But love fries for the fact i can ram half a dozen in my mouth at a time.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=well+street+hackney&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.418852,71.191406&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Well+St,+Hackney,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.544507,-0.046649&spn=0.008754,0.017381&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.544591,-0.046589&panoid=l10AkZraPg3Wsx5WmG_WkQ&cbp=12,87.77,,1,5.74

is that one good?

Chinese takeaways here are quite their own thing. Standards are fried rice, sweet n sour pork, beef n black bean, mixed veg/tofu. All sitting soggily in bain maries.

plz foreigners don't listen to the filthy lies being spread across ilx by mongxicans today

Ha! I speak purely of shitty chinee takeaways, I know there's better stuff around!

chinee takeaways

That be racist.daguerrotype

xp Ronan, I think Gourmet San delivers and it's one of the best Chinese restaurants in all London. IT IS EVEN ON BETHNAL GREEN ROAD. You may not have ventured there because it is Szechuan and hellaciously spicy, but you could have an amazing not-too-overspiced dinner from there by ordering half a dozen lamb skewers, rice and chilli green beans.

i actually am mad keen to check out gourmet san....just for whatev reason have never done so, i've never booked and it's always busy. i think i knew they delivered as my flatmate had a menu lying around, then i seem to have completely forgotten this.

is that one good?

the link wasn't a recommendation, let's put it that way. check out those houseplants in the window. the inside is the grimmest thing you've ever seen, like stepping into communist poland. there's one counter and five plastic chairs against the wall. two or three sullen people sit in them, clutching carrier bags. they may have been there for years. everything is indescribably dingy. a television can be heard faintly from the back. one of the fluourescent lights has gone out.

Yeah, Tracer, I can't imagine you frequenting that establishment.

The key to getting a table at Gourmet San via the walk-up method is to go at 7pm.

check out those houseplants in the window. the inside is the grimmest thing you've ever seen, like stepping into communist poland. there's one counter and five plastic chairs against the wall. two or three sullen people sit in them, clutching carrier bags. they may have been there for years. everything is indescribably dingy. a television can be heard faintly from the back. one of the fluourescent lights has gone out.

in every small-town Chinese takeaway ever thread coming up

must give that a go. i do have a soft spot for noodle king just a few doors up, not in any way going to challenge gourmet san for authenticity, but when i've been broke or jobless it is unbelievably cheap, 3.50 or so for a gigantic plate of rice or noodles.

x-post the chinese on globe road is the worst i've ever been to.

Noodle King is OK for what it is, but I made an ordering error there once by going off the noodles/rice grid for some seriously knuckly and flavourless 'hot and spicy' spare ribs.

'Houseplants' must be plastic to qualify for pride of place in such takeaways, which are not GANGSTA unless there is plexiglass between you and your server.

the singapore fried rice is the best thing in noodle king probably. the ribs do vary...they can be good but i know what you mean, gaping jaws of fat, shudder.

Speaking of authenticity and Chinese restaurants, even out here in the wilderness of Not London there are restaurants who put all the trad Anglo-Chinese takeaway fare at the front and then the main section of the menu trumpets its ~authenticity~

I have no idea how authentic these menus really are but there is usually some pretty interesting stuff in them

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

But back to fried potatoes, the best kind are called beach fries and you douse them in malt vinegar and they look like this http://blog.streaminggourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/P1000133.jpg.

they look great.

yeah they look similar to the ones i had at Coney island

but if you order a chicken/duck dish from the "authentic" section, it's usually been diced with a cleaver while on the bone, leaving chunks and shards of bone in most of the slices, which are pretty hard to identify through the marinade and almost impossible to remove from the meat with chopsticks. So my question is, what is the proper way to eat these? Is there a nicer way than repeatedly picking bits of bone out of your mouth?

― dimension hatris (a passing spacecadet), Monday, April 18, 2011 8:31 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

put the whole chunk in your mouth and spit the bones out on the table as you go (honest to god)

Chinese takeaway chips are usually pretty excellent as well

cosign - my local Chinese takeaway does Salt&Pepper chips which are srsly good; seasoned to within an inch of their thick cut lives and covered in chopped red chilis.

Thanks dayo! Think I'll give the spitting a miss, but at least I know I'm not missing a trick.

those beach fries look mighty good, with a little cajun seasoning.