Thanks to this conversation, I think I'm now going to have to have F&B for lunch (even if they have changed their once-exciting hot dog menu into a far more mundane one, they're still the only place in walking distance where I can get frites with garlic aioli).

Now I want a Lilt. Them's good.

More on mayo, and my mother's cooking - she always served Jell-O with mayo. Is that an Iowa thing or a Depression-era thing, or what?

Also, Cindy (or anyone) - do you have a recipe for making your own rice cereal for babies? Sugar is the second ingredient in all the store-bought ones here.

she always served Jell-O with mayo. Is that an Iowa thing or a Depression-era thing, or what?

I think it's a no-taste-buds thing.

She loves to tell how she had no idea about cooking anything when she got married and how it means that everybody has a chance. She is also, I should note, the picture that can appear in the dictionary next to the definition of "optimist".

Nilly's Mother being delightful, this shocks me. Not.

Yeah, potatoes are so starchy, there's really no mixing them with other starches. It puts a whole new spin on redundancy.

There's a restaurant here that makes a mashed potato pizza -- crust, mashed potatoes, bacon crumbles, cheddar cheese, drizzled with sour cream. Guh. It's *almost* carb overload. But not quite.

I still don't understand why it's never caught on here, given the extreme nastiness of ketchup and the utter perfection of the fry/mayo combination.

I love tartar sauce on my fries, and that's basically mayo. Or, at least, it's closer to mayo than to ketchup.

Fries with mayo = awesome, although I never think to do it outside of frites. Some foreigners next to me at McDonald's the other day asked for a side of mayo with their fries. It had never occured to me to put mayo on McDonald's fries! Sometimes I'm not very bright.

Also, apparently the best restaurant in the world is in England. I read it in Vanity Fair, so it must be true.

Wow, what an awesome trip Meara.

I think my brother got that game for his 16 year old BIL at xmas. Just to twit his in-laws. They don't mind the violence, but ohmygawdsex!

Of course, then my mom detests it for the violence.

Made for entertaining disapproving relatives. It's a good thing we only get together once a year, because there is a huge gap in attitudes between my parents and SIL's parents. HUGE. I'm just waiting for the day one or the other manages to get completely offended.

In Israel, it seemed like most places put french fries into falafel. I didn't try it -- the potato/bread combination seemed too weird.