A year or two ago burger joints started to invade Hong Kong once again, claiming the stakes and the hearts of burger lovers, now with new flavours, selections and for us, more choices. Little has changed, however, in the choices with how we want our potatoes. Fried and most likely between home fries (thick wedges with skin) and shoestrings (thin matchsticks without skin). When a new joint opened and called itself Ireland's Potato, I was inspired to discover a whole new world of spuds, from the tiny new potatoes to roots of Falstaffian proportions. Just as you think you cannot get any wrong with potatoes fried in hot deep fat, you're wrong, it just gets downhill from there. The Chinese name suggested "mad potatoes" with a Jack O'Lantern logo on it. If you've lined up in the midst of Causeway Bay bustling traffic and heat at this weather, it's hard not to be mad about this potato shop, that sells a bowlful of in-between lengths of potatoes fried crunchy and piping hot for a whopping $30.
Four staples were recommended, including Cheese, honey mustard, sour cream and Meat Sauce. The cheese has great flavour and colour, obviously better than bottled Cheese Whiz and more yellow than any Cheddar I've tasted my whole life (and that includes processed cheese). Eat quickly as the cheese sets at the bottom into a gooey messy round disc that's now cold and the taste will not remind you of cheese. Not a chance. Honey mustard tasted homemade, with a faint taste of honey and a necessary tang and sharpness from English mustard not found in bottled sauce. Sour cream (apparently bestseller here) resembled of Mexican Crema except you can smell the industrial part of the tartness from afar. It's definitely sour and it doesn't look very creamy. Meat sauce is microwaved and only partially heated up when you eat them. It reminds me of my student days' Sloppy Joes except the one I made was half as sloppy and twice as flavorful.
True Irish may not be so pleased with their national crop being trashed throughout the menu with choices like fries served with fruit dipping sauces with choices of strawberry and passion fruit. It looks very yoghurt based and it does not yield the colour of either fruit, and it's creamy like mayonnaise. A sweeter alternative can try Fries with cinnamon sprinkled on top. If it's made of sweet potato instead you'll get a better match with the cinnamon and sugar. But potato on its own, I wouldn't count on it. Other menu items include chicken tenders and calamari breaded and deep fried. More than one occasions adventurous customers ordered calamari only to be offered with soggy rings of overcooked rubber rings instead.
The staff can be very casual and friendly when serving. Expect long lines outside after 6 pm. Waiting time between 5 to 15 minutes (at least). Make sure you ask for enough napkins, as eating fries with or in sauces is not exactly a mess easy to handle.
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