A while back we were hanging out and getting ready to BBQ.. I firmly believe that there's a time and place for everything so I have absolutely no problem slapping some burgers on the grill and cracking open a couple, ok, a lot, of beers.. However, I always try to mitigate my losses and do as much damage control as possible. This means that while I'm not above bustin out some 1/2 pounders on the grill, they're prolly gonna be comprised of either ground turkey or bison.. So while I'm at the store buying whole wheat buns, organic ketchup and what not, I really had a craving for something decadent.. I figured some "fries" would really complement the whole backyard burger theme, and as I stopped by the freezer case I noticed a bag of "sweet potato" fries and I thought what better thing to blend in with the whole "naughty but nice" theme of the evening. At first I cross-referenced the price of what appeared to be approximately 2 sweet potatoes peeled, cut & chopped into roughly "french fry" shapes vs. the price two actual sweet potatoes and decided the manual labor involved was well worth the extra three or four dollars the bag of frozen orange slivers commanded.
Unfortunately it wasn't until I got the bag home (and was searching for cooking instructions) that I discovered their dirty little secret.. Although the bag was festooned with proclamations such as: "0g of Trans Fat" and "Low Sodium" and "An Excellent Source of Vitamin A", my attention was quickly drawn to the ingredient list, which I had not noticed at the store since it had never occurred to me that sweet potatoes would ever contain anything other than, well, sweet potatoes. So, what exactly are your "sweet potato fries" comprised of? Read on if you dare.. (from the actual packaging): "sweet potatoes, canola oil, and/or sunflower oil, and/or safflower oil, modified food starch, rice flour, cornstarch, dextrin, salt, dextrose, xantham gum, leavening (disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate), colored with turmeric and oleoresin paprika." For me this was what you call a "WTF?" moment.. Several months later my only question at this point is "Why?"
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