Besides, don't most places in the US batter their fries now anyway? That's Chicken-Fried Fries and belongs in the garbage.

Last week a friend and I were in a very nice restaurant that's just opened in Cambridge -- called Bruno's Brasserie, believe it or not -- and there was something very odd about the outline of the chips that came with her supreme of duck with Thai spices. After due investigation we determined that they'd been battered before being fried. They were actually very nice, though you couldn't eat more than a few.

Peter