I’m Josh Ozersky, the national restaurant editor for Citysearch, and newly-converted zealot for Team Rachael. I write our New York food blog, The Feedbag, but I’ll be writing every week here on topics that aren’t all tied up with the comings and goings of the New York restaurant world, my usual sphere of authority. Along with meat, that is — I’m also the author of The Hamburger: A History, coming to you soon in paperback.
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about hash browns. Too much. I thought about them when I was at the Minetta Tavern the other night, and they kept me from recognizing Madonna, even though she was sitting in a corner booth with Gwyneth Paltrow. What was Gwyneth Paltrow doing in a restaurant primarily known for its meat, I thought? But then I remembered that the Minetta Tavern was still ultra-hot, and not, sadly, just for its magnificent dry-aged hamburger. Whatever. I didn’t care. Let the stars hobnob. I was thinking about hash browns.
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The Minetta, a sister restaurant to Balthazar, has pommes anna on the menu: thin slices of potato,arranged in an overlapping spiral, and cooked in clarified butter. They show up at the table in a little cast-iron crock, but they have the same problem as all hash browns. There’s a gorgeous, golden crust, festooned with big pieces of fleur de sel, and reminding you of everything that ever made you happy. Then, underneath, there’s an expanse of white, flavorless potato. pommes anna is like a disappointing marriage. The crust gives you that giddy, euphoric honeymoon, followed by the stultifying sameness and dull routine of daily marriage. “Where did I leave my pruning shears?” That was the experience of eating that dull white starch, and I knew there had to be another way. It was a long wait between the Black Label burger course and the steak course, and I had ample time to fill while not listening to other people talk. What was it that moved me so much about Waffle House? Those are the gold standard of hash browns. Scattered by an attentive, paper-hatted functionary on a flat griddle, with generous dollops of “lo-melt” margarine grease laid over them, they’re the most satisfying food imaginable. The ratio of crispy, lattice-like shreds of potato to white tender interior is 2-1 or 3-1. You can get them with or without onions, you can get them well-done, and you can get them with extra grease, if you assure the waitress that you’re not kidding.
The day following my Minetta blowout, I shrugged off a mean meat hangover, and stumbled into my kitchen determined to recreate the lost joys of Waffle House hash browns, “scattered, smothered, well done, extra greezy.” Unhappily, I didn’t have a five-gallon container of Lo-Melt. I didn’t even have margarine! And I didn’t have a bag of semi-dehydrated, processed potato shreds. So I was reduced to using high-quality butter, and a lot of it, and grating a potato, unpeeled and barely washed, into a nonstick (yes!) skillet. I left a lot of space in the pan, to avoid dangerous moisture, and was rewarded almost immediately with a delicate web of bronzed potato shreds, a 12-inch latka that I was able to flip more or less intact through the use of a big plate. It was all crust, and hardly any white interior, and I congratulated myself on my lonely ingenuity as I stood at the sink gobbling them up and planning improvements. In Greater Ozerkistan, that’s what passes as a great morning. Well, why shouldn’t it?
03.25.09 @ 4:35 pm
this man is right, if nothing else.
03.25.09 @ 5:10 pm
I. Want. Hashbrowns.
03.25.09 @ 6:14 pm
I too, love hashbrowns and would like the recipe for latkas. I used to make them but I have forgotten how.
03.25.09 @ 8:40 pm
nothing better than hash browns at the Waffle house,” all the way”
03.26.09 @ 6:07 am
Give us the recipe for hashbrowns! I want them too!
03.26.09 @ 7:04 am
Isn’t the nearest Waffle House on the Mason Dixon Line? What happened to great hash browns at practically every single coffee shop in NYC? Or anywhere else? Even in Cali, where breakfast is taken much more seriously than NY, I have noticed a hash brown decline. Is this one of the arts of pedestrian food that is disappearing? Come to think of it, I could list a number of things that coffee shop/diners used to get perfectly and are now hit or miss. If hash browns go, is the proper grilled cheese far behind?
03.26.09 @ 9:55 am
Two things…
1. Gotta love Waffle House… same person greets you at the door, seats you, takes your order and cooks your food…
2. What ever happened to a good ol’ finely shredded, extra crispy hash borown- diner style. Everyone serves home fries now that aren’t even good unless the onions are properly caramelized and they have a red tint from paprika that you can’t event taste.
Someone please lead me in the right direction to an old school diner that still serves finely shredded hashbrowns that have been sitting to crisp on a griddle for hours.
Dare I tempt you to write about a good piece of bacon…?
03.26.09 @ 10:40 am
You can’t get them anywhere in NYC. There’s not even a Denny’s! But if you want to make the best approximation at home, melt 2 tbsp of margarine in a nonstick pan, and grate potatoes on the coarse side right into the sizzling margarine. But don’t try to load up the pan! They’ll never brown right. Do about a half a cup of potatoes at a time. they brown fast, and you can you do another half a cup right away. Then eat them at the sink.
03.26.09 @ 11:53 am
Isn’t the Waffle House the place where when you walk in everyone behind the counter yells “howdy” or some greeting like that? I love that place. Why don’t they have them in the NE?
03.26.09 @ 1:40 pm
Why indeed? Are you listening, Waffle House? Maybe we should start an online petition.
03.26.09 @ 3:49 pm
A perfect antidote to Jim Gaffigan’s Waffle House bit..thanks Joshie
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/8167d2cc8c/jim-gaffigan-waffle-house-king-baby-premieres-march-29th-9pm-on-comedy-central
03.26.09 @ 9:41 pm
I too LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Hashbrowns….!! I’ve tried many times to make them @ home, but can never get them as good as a breakfast restaurant. Maybe it’s that “lo-melt” you mentioned that makes them taste soooo good!
Do these breakfast restaurants realize many of us choose (or don’t choose) their establishment based on their hashbrowns?!?
03.27.09 @ 12:13 pm
I don’t think they do. If they did, they would take more care with them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat, impotently furious, as a counterman handed me some scalded, dry, unbuttered lumps of water-logged potato, and called it hash browns. The nerve! In my next column I may pay tribute to the greatest temple of hash browns outside of the Southland.
03.27.09 @ 1:47 pm
Hashbrowns RULE!! Nice story and though I am in the south, alas it is too far south… Miami. Hasbrowns are not a latin specialty. Now Vaca Frita is another story, but I stray.. Waiting for the next hasbrown story no0t in the south you say??
03.27.09 @ 9:41 pm
i know i make them hash browns just like the waffle house with onions, green pepper, and cheese. exactly!!!
03.27.09 @ 10:00 pm
I agree with the white , scalded, unbuttered lumps of often still-frozen items
dumped onto one’s plate & being called hashbrowns.. The word BROWN is IN
the name for goodness’ sake. It is not right. Just NOT right.
Useless places like these don’t deserve our custom, and with today’s
economy being what it is, won’t have their doors open too much longer,
thankfully.
03.27.09 @ 10:18 pm
I feel sorry for all of you! I live in a small town called Gulfport,Fl. on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico. We have a fabulous very small family place I love to eat at. they make the best hash browns anywhere! Come visit!
03.28.09 @ 12:00 am
Great story, have you tried IHOP? They have some pretty good ones. I liked some of the Waffle House one but, dare I say BUT? they are too greasy for me. IHOP has browns are crispy and no yucky white tasteless interiors. Also they have THE best slice of ham with all the breakfast goodies. Try their Harvest Grain pancakes for another delicious treat. Oh I’m making me hungry!
03.28.09 @ 9:21 am
We have a fabulous place downtown called Gailey’s that serves…are you ready for this….sweet browns. You can get regular hash browns which I prefer or sweet potatoes made in to browns with brown sugar. I know. You’re thinking “I can do that” but it’s never the same at home,
03.29.09 @ 1:52 pm
I never cared for hashbrowns until my husband made some, he grated the potato salt and pepper, and then he added Greek Seasoning, and he browned it pperfectly in a non-stick skillet. It was delicious. Of course I then added to his recipe, onions,mushrooms, mozarella and cheddar cheese. It was evwen more delicious.
03.31.09 @ 8:22 pm
Waffle House Will Do you Hash Brown any way you want them.I like my Hash Brown Steam with ice cube and they put a lid on them for stream and your hash brown or crispy I love them with Steamed,scattered, chopped, and diced that with [chop tomatoes ] you can now add mushroom. enjoy!!!
07.07.09 @ 10:59 pm
The closest Waffle House to NYC is in Bethlehem, PA. There’s also one in Allentown, another in Clarks Summit and a third in Moosic. Just ate there last weekend. Smothered and covered, YUM!