Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The Dairy Queen in North Minneapolis has grits. Being a Minnesotan, I was a bit surprised.

I second Eat Street in Mpls.

Shamarock.

Or Peanut Butter

Chili is perfect with a bit of sour cream.
Goulash
Potatoes, cooked any way, especially roasted with caviar on top of the SC
Dips

We use full fat at times, but usually low fat or vegan. The tofutti stuff is really good.

roasted brussel sprouts

Erinlovestoeat figured out the apple fries - cutting them into "fries" takes an object like an apple, which anyone can buy several of for $1.50, and turns it into a "branded" product, that people will pay $1.50 for. (Same with potatoes, by the way, we're just a lot more used to them).

Think about the potato - how hard is it to cut a bunch up and fry them at home? Not very - but no company is going to make money off of a potato, because the production and transportation costs are just barely covered by the selling price (this is why you never see coupons for produce! There's not enough of a margin). So Ore-Ida comes along, and gets a few Urshel cutting machines and a deep fryer, and they take those potatoes and cut them up, slap a brand on them, and suddenly they can sell $1 worth of potatoes for $5, and make a much bigger profit than they would selling plain potatoes.

Unfortunately, natural products don't last in that cut up, branded state, so they have to add all sorts of chemicals to make them "shelf stable" - and we eat those chemicals every single day.

Of course it's healthier and cheaper to eat whole, real foods (like apples and potatoes) but we've been convinced over the last 25 or 30 years that cooking is for experts (like the chefs on Food Network), that it's too hard and it's a chore, so we pay a premium price to have other people and machines do the work for us, at the expense of our health and our budgets.

There's nothing inherently wrong with apple fries, or french fries, as long as one realizes that they're a convenience food, and not a Real Food, and eats them only in moderation. I hope no one would choose apple fries for $1.50 over an apple for $0.30, if there were a side by side choice. But there are no apples in the Drive-Thru... So it's not a side by side choice.

Fortunately grocery stores are trying to jump on the convenience bandwagon, but they're doing it with healthier, fresher food (because they have it available in a way that BK does not). So, at many stores, you can get cut up fresh fruit in the produce section that's ready to eat, or bagged salads with dressing and everything, or even soups and salad bars. One grocery store in my small town has a chicken wing buffet (?!?!?). I haven't quite figured that one out.

Hopefully, as grocery stores get more and more into convenience health foods, we'll start getting out of the drive thru and into the stores. Maybe the next step is to add a drive thru to the grocery store!

But apple fries is simply a way of taking a commodity, like an apple, and turning it into a Product, with a trademark and everything. It has nothing to do with "tricking" kids into eating fruit, and everything to do with "tricking" parents into being parted from their money.

Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com

So how are they keeping these cut apples so white and pristine looking?

Also, since when is Macaroni and cheese healthy?

The question asked was whether "we have to entice kids to eat apples by cutting them into strips and making them look like french fries." While I have a lot of problems with the execution of this idea, I have none at all with the concept.

Since when is serving food in an unusual, interesting or amusing way, or in a way that "entices", a bad thing? We see pictures on SE every day of food made to look like something else. It's fun. Kids are more likely to want the apples if they're presented in a way that appeals to them.

The Big King gives me the heebie jeebies. The Little King is equally creepy, just in a smaller size. I can't stand these commercials.

And yes, it appears we have to start disguising healthy foods as junk foods before the majority of the public will be interested in eating them. How sad.