Dirty Word

In my mother's food lexicon, there was one dirty word.

Frying.

She never fried anything that I can recall, not even an egg. She might saute' something in butter, but fry in hot oil? No, indeed! She saw frying as the royal road to a fat family, an idea that horrified her. As a result, we never had potato chips or fried chicken or any of those fatty foods while she was the cook.

So, when I decided to exercise my new crinkle cutter, a garage sale bargain given scouted out by cousin J-Yah, I did so with a certain amount of trepidation and guilt. Trepidation because this is a skill I didn't learn at my mother's elbow and guilt because, you know, she's watching from heaven.

Turns out, it's pretty easy. I used a heavy iron skillet and about half an inch of canola oil, set it over a medium-high burner and, when it was hot enough to make a scrap of potato sizzle, I put in my crinkle-cut red potato pieces and let 'er rip.

I was hoping to approximate the fries we so enjoyed in Belgium so I fried them twice, once to soften the potatoes and, after cooling them, once again to crisp the outside. As they came out of the second frying, I salted them lightly and served them with - what else? - burgers. They weren't Belgian but they were darn good, nicely crispy and browned.

Frying may be a naughty word but, damn, it's good!

Steak and Frites

In Paris, we had a dinner of steak and frites that was sublime. The entrecote was perfectly grilled, the mustardy sauce was perfectly balanced and the frites were crisp on the outside, dreamy creamy on the inside. What's more, the delightfully friendly and helpful waitress brought the two servings of steak and frites separately, so each was fresh and hot when we ate them. Enjoyed with the house red wine, it was the most memorable of all the wonderful dinners we had in Paris.

Believe it or not, the steak and frites dinner we enjoyed this week at JoJo's on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland gives Relais de Venise a run for its money!

Instead of the simple lettuce salad with walnuts and dijon mustard vinaigrette, JoJo's offers a nicely zippy watercress salad to accompany the perfectly cooked steak and chubby, fresh, crisp frites. While I have a preference for the mustard sauce served with the entrecote in Paris, the anchovy-mustard butter at JoJo's was an interesting, if slightly too salty, twist on the classic. The steak at Relais de Venise was perfectly grilled; the one at JoJo's had a charcoal-grilled flavor which was absolutely delicious. The glass of Puligny-Montrachet I enjoyed with the meal crowned one of the best dinners with the nicest staff it has been my pleasure to relish.

If you can't get to Paris just now but you're hungry for Steak Frites, JoJo's is a terrific alternative!