Animal Fries

For the inaugural post we have a west coast treat. Those of you who gave up on Southern California to come to Dartmouth (an odd trade I might add) are probably missing In-N-Out, and those of you who have never seen an In-N-Out don't know what you're missing. But, I'm about to change all of that. That's right, I have managed to create Animal (Style) Fries here at Dartmouth. Granted, my recipe will seem amateur as In-N-Out Burger has had quite some time to perfect their recipe (and it is perfect), nonetheless, I think that I have invented a recipe similar enough to get you salivating. It's easy enough to make, so long as you don't mind some occasional groans from the DDS workers who have to give you a little bit more than your standard order of fries. Without further ado, brevity is not my forte, here is the recipe:

You will need:

Fries

Cheese sauce

Grilled onions

Thousand Island dressing

It seems intuitive enough that all the recipe calls for is a mixing of these items, but there are several ways to ensure that all goes right in the process. It is best if you just ask for an order of cheese fries with grilled onions. Sometimes you may get all three items (fries, cheese sauce and onions) together, while other times, the disgruntled DDS worker may give you fries, a small cup of cheese sauce and a side of grilled onions (which counterintuitively ends up being a lot more work for them, and more advantageous for you, but manages to satiate their desire to make you suffer for your non-standard order). Either way, Animal Fries are all about proportion. You do not want an overwhelming amount of cheese sauce (we are not making a fondue), but you may well get it depending upon how zealous the DDS cook was with the cheese dispenser. The way to compensate is in the dressing and the onions. Your cheese to dressing ratio should be about 2:1, that is to say that you want about 2/3 of the total sauce to be cheese and 1/3 of the total sauce to be dressing. The cheese should be poured over the fries first, followed by the dressing (which is readily available near the salad bar). When I say that you want grilled onions, I do not mean that you want caramelized onions, I mean simply what I say: grilled onions. The onions are meant to add another texture and flavor to the fries. It is therefore a good idea if the onions are still somewhat crunchy, but have some of the sweetness and savoriness of a caramelized onion. You don't want a raw onion, nor do you want a caramelized one, you need a middle ground, hence, (can we say it again for reinforcement?) grilled onions. It doesn't really matter when the onions are added to the plate in relation to the other ingredients, all that matters is that they become a part of the mix. Ideally, you should have some onion in every bite. I have found that the easiest place to make them is FoCo, but of course, feel free to try elsewhere. You will probably need a fork (and a very healthy cardiovascular system) to eat them.

Voila! Animal Fries courtesy of DDS and Sam, I am.