Golden Fries and The Grilled Cheeserie

Address: 6505 Jeanne D’Arc Blvd N, Orléans, ON; also at events and festivals
Hours: 11am – 8pm (Sun – Sat)
Website: https://www.goldenfries.ca/
Green factor: Compostable containers, plastic utensils

When there’s an event like the Tulip Festival a few blocks away from your apartment, it’s not only a good chance to stop and smell the roses tulips, it’s also an opportunity to sample the wares of mobile food vendors that set up shop at these big to-dos.

The bright, bright yellow colour of the Golden Fries/Grilled Cheeserie trailer works for both products. It was enough to lure me in, like a bee to a flower, if flowers were pure carbohydrates and deep fried.

With the sun nearly as bright as this mobile food-slinger’s digs, it was a good day to be eating outside. The menu was lean in the figurative sense, with just a few grilled cheese and French fry-related options. Their basic, old fashioned grilled cheese was $6 (2017 pricing), and adding bacon or pulled pork would set you back $1.50 and $2, respectively.

I pondered getting some fries to give them a try, but at $6 an order, and no apparent discount for a full meal/combo, decided to just have a bottle of water. It’s probably for the best, as a carbs-with-a-side-of-carbs lunch isn’t exactly the picture of health.

After a short wait, I soon had my non-descript wax paper bag and strolled over to the shade of one of the large trees in Commissioners Park and sat in the grass. Once I took the obligatory food porn shot (and it was a good one, I must admit), I dug in.

Grilled cheesin’

The bread, locally-sourced, was nice and thick, and had an even, golden-brown crust. The pleasant crunch of the bread gave way to the juicy and cheesy pulled pork. It was a fairly typical pulled pork flavour, earthy with just a hint of spice, which was enjoyably familiar, if not a pulled pork to remember. The cheese mostly got lost in the bigger flavours of the pulled pork and its sauce, but made its presence known here and there and kept the messy package together.

At this year’s Tulip Fest, I went back to try out their poutine. The regular poutine with no fancy toppings like bacon or pulled pork seemed a bit pricey at $9.50, but my concerns were allayed when I had the hefty container in hand. Two hands are suggested.

Dem curds, do’

Large, plentiful cheese curds from St. Albert topped this potato salad, squeaking with each bite. The gravy was rich, with a good depth of flavour, and wasn’t too salty. I’m not sure if the curds and gravy were layered, but a stir halfway through mixed everything together appropriately.

The fries themselves were very good – hand-cut (you can see them put through the fry cutter in the trailer), and lightly crisp on the exterior and fluffy on the inside. These fries would be excellent on their own! #TeamNoKetchup

I ended up taking half of my poutine home, since I had already had two tacos from Bonita’s Cantina. It was a tough choice between getting too full, and eating re-heated poutine, but in the end I thought that the latter was the better choice.*

The Golden Fries/Grilled Cheeserie event truck might have limited offerings, but what they’re doing are solid products. Eat a salad for your other meals that day, and treat yourself to some well-executed comfort food.

*PS. I would eventually re-heat them in a frying pan, which had much better results that the microwave has in the past.