Post Title: Team Chi Wulff Throws Down the 2009 Tater Tot Challenge
Post Subtitle: Clarity on the Yellowstone is Slipping a Bit
After a business meeting in Livingston today discussing a pending video shoot concept with a client, Jake and I found ourselves with time to burn around lunch.
As we’ve been preaching this spring, with Mark’s In and Out Drive In open once again for the season, lunch anywhere else simply seems a waste of time and energy. Don’t get me wrong, Livingston has more than her fair share of unique and delicious eateries – but on a glorious spring day ripe with sunshine and temps pushing 70, Mark’s is really the only choice.
We have marveled often at how the deft team of chefs and food wizards at Mark’s can transform a lowly Tater Tot into a culinary gem each and every time we’re there. $1.69 buys you a large bag of crispy (but not too crunchy) Tots hot out of the fryer, with just enough salt to make you think about taking another sip of your ice-cold, genuine fountain cherry coke.
Tater Tot historians credit potato king Ore-Ida with creating the Tater Tot in 1953 as a method to utilized potato shreds that were left over from french fry production. Tater Tots were delivered to the masses in 1954, and unbelievably Mark’s in Livingston began serving them that very year.
Tater Tots have graced menus world wide under several clever aliases: Potato Gems (Australia), Potato Pom-Poms (Australia, New Zealand), Oven Crunchies (UK, nomenclature retired), and Potato Puffs (Canada and NE US). They’ve also been called Tasti Taters, Spud Puppies, Tater Treats, and Jullienes.
Enough history – here’s the challenge. There is no question in our minds that Mark’s serves the finest Tater Tot in the country world universe. If anyone opines that their local eatery serves a better tot, we’ll pay for the procurement of professional level culinary judges who are also part of the greater fly fishing brotherhood to judge the upstart against a Mark’s Tot. The Tot Challenge Face Off will be scheduled pending the identification of suitable challengers.
We’re thinking the judges team should include a member or two of the Fat Guys, as they have also blogged of late about regional culinary delights in their neighborhood. We’ll need several judges with somewhat more refined tastes as well – we’re thinking through who might fit and welcome any and all suggestions.
And BTW, the Yellowstone is off at Mallard’s as you can see below; the drifter was just launched at Mayor’s Landing as we drove by.
Tags: Chi Wulff
