So I have to know. Do you eat and enjoy “fake” potatoes? Well there really not fake they are dried and at some point were a real live potato, or at least that is what I’ve been led to believe.
I have to admit I love the potatoes in the Swanson Tv Dinners. Ya totally unhealthy I know, but once a year or so I need those potatoes to breathe. About a year ago a friend was commenting on how the boxed fake potatoes are really good, so I mosied to the store and bought some. Followed the directions. Sat down to eat some with my dinner…. omgoodness! They were the most disgusting tasting thing ever. It tasted like I had just eaten a molotov potato cocktail. In the garbage they went. I really never thought about it again until this past Christmas. My dad’s side of the family decided to do a dinner at a fancy restaurant. It was just over $25 a plate. Ouch. Anxiously waiting for my $25 a plate Christmas dinner I smelt some familiar chemical smell but couldn’t quite place it. Maybe they just cleaned something in the kitchen. Not of my concern. Or so I figure….. Out come the plates, piled with turkey, dressing, gravy, beans, and lumps of white stuff. Surely this can’t be mashed potatoes. What happened to them? Were they beaten beyond recognition? Omgoodness. It’s fake potatoes. You are kidding me right. $25 dollars a plate and I get dried chemical potatoes? I think I was more shocked that this fancy restaurant would find it appropriate to serve us such a thing.
So, Is it just certain brands that taste like paper mache? Do you have a brand that you eat that is good? Any instant potato horror stories? Please do share, I’m always up for a giggle!
For the party poopers, this isn’t a deal I know its an off topic. But I do have a few half boxes of dried potatoes in my cupboard I can send ya 😉
Costco used to have some made by Paradise Valley but they don’t sell them here anymore. They were halfway decent. I wonder what the new McCain steam and mash ones taste like? Anyone tried those yet?
Thanks for the laugh!!
I don’t tough the fake boxed potatoes… but if you’re up for some real ones… I LOVE the McCain Russet potatoes in the red bag. They are the BEST around… IMO!
HAVE TRIED A FEW BRANDS OF DRIED POTATOES FOR CAMPING – blah!
I have decided – when 6 minutes in a microwave will “bake” a spud – why suffer with dried?
Fond memories of childhood! We only had “real” smashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and the like. It’s been years since I’ve made instant (my husband was horrified by them), now I’m going to put them on my grocery list. I found the hard way that instant mashed are one thing that you just can’t go generic on. Name brand is worth the extra price. (Now there’s a topic I could weigh in on–what to buy generic vs. what name brands are worth the premium).
Oddly enough as long as they are plain flavoured I love them! I just can’t handle the fake garlic tasting ones…gag!
YES I have bought the “fake” ones, and to me its a blessing. The potatoes are dried so you can always add your own touch. For me its fresh garlic, flour, spices, and even broth to change it up. Think outside the box and have fun
ok, dont tell a soul…..i loooove swanson dinner mashed potatoes, too. remember its our secret. 😉
As for that unmistakable chemical smell – I used to work in a cafeteria/ truck stop type of place and let me tell you…., that smell is forever in my brain. The mere mention of it and it’s like I’m back wearing that polyester uniform, slopping them on the plate!! Good times my friend, good times!
Ewww, no way Sally!
Fresh made mashed potatoes are the only way to go.
You mean they’re not real…oh my goodness $25…to think of the times we ate out and thought they were real…=(
This is why my dad *always* asks the waiter or waitress whether the mashed potatoes are “real”! I guess he’s a connoisseur.
I have to admit there’s a kind I like..it’s the butter and herb flavor of the instant potatoes. Apparently the chemical potatoes are lower in fat/
Thats funny, I call them “fake” potatoes too. I had never eatten them until I married my husband, and sadly they have become a staple in our little household. I don’t mind the taste as much as I used too. About the $25 plate dinner, I was at my Besties college grad that was a $50 dinner, they had fake potatoes and store bought pies, lol. “Best” $50 meal I ever had, lol.
mmmmmm….. chemicals
I’m with Christa above
they are great if you’re in a hurry!
I love Idahoan brand…they had a freebie a few years back ( before that I too was hater).Sooooo easy and sooooo good…after that never even bothered to try any other brand.
I’ve added the boxed stuff to real mashed potatoes to make my mashed potatoes a little creamier without all the work. Didn’t notice any chemical taste.
Idahoan is the only decent brand – I agree with Michelle. If you make them properly (on the stovetop, NOT the microwave – the microwave instructions never work and turn the potatoes into a PlayDoh like consistency!), they are a decent substitute for the real thing.
I rarely buy them ( like once in the past 3 years) BUT they are handy to use to thicken soupy mashed potatoes. My mom says it used to be common to use them as a thickening agent “back in the day” she said she would add a spoonful or two to stews.
Tho they aren’t my fave, I can tolerate them – but when I am paying big bucks for a fancy meal, I have no problem sending them back to the kitchen!
I really love the Betty Crocker butter and herb or garlic ones, made on the stove. They actually taste like real potatoes and are so quick and easy! I bought a big bag of another brand at Costco once and they were like eating play dough, gross! The Sidekick ones aren’t very good either.
Agreed, at least once a year I too need an instant potato fix!
I like the post about asking if they are real potatoes at the restaurant.
Not many of you probably realize you are indeed eating plastic bagged potatoes that they just add water and tell you that they are real.
They aren’t lying, they are real, just dried out and bagged too.
OMG< this is my ULTIMATE comfort food…boxed mashed potatoes…reminds me of the mashed potatoes from the old tv dinners, you know the Swanson’s ones….whenever I am having a REALLY crappy day, I take out my box of mashed potato mix.MMMMMmmm..
But at any other time, my family has REAL mashed potatoes.
I make real mashed potatoes, it doesn’t take that much time and it’s easy. wash potatoes, cut, boil, mash, add stuff to it (cream cheese, butter whatever) mash more done.
The ones from M&M meats aren’t so bad.
oh and yes BTW, i only like tho original Idahoan brand.
Straight, they’re enjoyed alone. I tried and Love all the brands but my wife can’t stand them. She used to drain the real potato water after boiling which drove me nuts (kinda). All that goodness down the drain? Our compromise is leave the water there and thicken everything up with the instant mashed. Even she enjoys them that way. 😉
That’s crazy about the restaurant meal – no reason for that to happen!
Mind you, that’s happening with other things at restaurants – one of my fave meals is cutlets – and I always have to ask if it’s ‘real’ or one of those preformed patty things (ew).
I totally agree with you about the potatoes with the Swanson dinners – don’t know how they do it, but they taste great (I add a bit of margarine, salt and pepper).
Have tried the Idahoan and Lipton instant potatoes – both very icky. However, I must admit that when the Lipton is very cheap, I buy some because I love the gravy mix!
One ‘fake potato’ product I do like is the scalloped style with the dehydrated slices – Lipton or any other brand. My son likes them, too, but my husband cannot stand them…
In our house, it’s real smashed potatoes, for sure!
My cousin Omar works at the Tim’s. He said their hash browns are made from the same powers. They add onion to cover the smell. And their eggs are precooked too with onion and cheese, to cover the taste and smell. Soon people will be eating lead paint because they never question what we eat.
Oh my, I can not say what is in the coffee. But in the states they have been caught adding PCBs to gasoline in highway stations.
WE use Idahoan instant potatoes and they are great. I add the butter and milk (use a little extra milk and a little less water for a better taste). I used to work a really fancy restaurant and they used instant potatoes in their appetizers, no one knew the difference and they always tasted great and no lumps!
I like Idahoan instant mashed and the scalloped ones (regular–no flavoured) are better than I can make myself. The Paradise Valley mashed (see Patty’s post above) from Costco were the best I had ever tried but haven’t had them lately. I recently ate at an Olive Garden in Bradenton, FL and ordered the garlic mashed potatoes. I am SURE they were instant. Not good in a good restaurant!!!
When I was a kid we had them once in a while. My Mom used to make them into a potato salad that was pretty good.
Now I absolutely stay away from them. Yuuuuuk!!!!!!!
Love the boxed potatoes.Never had any problems with them.
I have never put the dried flakey-fakey potatoes on my table, nor did my Mother. They just don’t look RIGHT. Recently I bought a bag of McCains cubed tators that you nuke and mash. Good for a quicky dinner. They weren’t bad 🙂 http://www.mccain.ca/en-ca/Pages/PPWhitePotatoChunks.aspx
I LOVE fake potatoes! If I didn’t have a son I’d eat them every day I love them so much! I don’t even care what brand!
I can still find the Paradise Valley mashed potatoes at my Costco. They are the absolute best, even though they are kinda pricey. A box costs around $12, and it has 20 packets inside, each packet makes about 4 servings (or 1 big serving at our house). I love that I don’t have to measure the flakes, and that the flakes aren’t loose in the box – I’ve had issues in the past where I’ve found bugs in my similar open boxes of pancake mix, so sealed packets are preferred.
I really love the Sidekicksmashed potatoes they come with a gravy packet too, in beef or chicken. They taste authentic. mmm…
I love the Idahoan brand as well…especially for Shepperd’s Pie…I had never eaten them until Hubby & I got together….my Mom is a real food type person so potatoes from a box weren’t an option in my home growing up…lol
I found the Sidekicks ones are ok, because the gravy usually masks most of the taste. 😛 But I can’t eat them all the time, kinda gives me a sick feeling even thinking about it!
The Paradise Valley ones are the best….I usually don’t eat boxed potatoes but those are the best….closest to real potatoes I could find and easy to make if you’re in a hurry.
mmmmm…instant fake mashed taters…reminds me of what i’d eat when visiting my father in the hospital!!
Did you know you can even get the one with cheese sauce – i think its the liptons brand…YuM!!
Gotta admit, I LOVE them. During my pregnancy I had to have them, as well as for a period in my teens. My cousin and I lived in the same apartment complex and we would visit each other just to have boxed potatoes as our “brain food” when we took a break from studying!
But as everyone else says, they can’t be generic.
Have never found a boxed one that I could stand. Guess I’m a purist.
Omgawd…I crave St.Hubert instant mash potatoes…Mmmm…but yah Paradise Valley from Costco is pretty darn good for instant 2-3 min potatos…I guess instant stuff can stick around long enough…its gotta taste somewhat good…and Don’t tell PEI islanders that u eat fake potatoes…I almost got killed 😛
The Real McCoy all the way. I bow before fake gravy though.
“Smash” brand from the UK are really good…….as for Canadians having Mash potatoe with roast, that is just a disgrace, roast potatoes is the only way to go….mash is the lazy man’s half roast! LOL
They taste good… Fake or real.
I do have a good use for fake potatoes! I use them to make quick potato gnocchi! They’re fantastic and fun to make.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-Gnocchi/Detail.aspx
i don’t mind the idaho ones we get either. of course real is always better but i dont have a lot of time to sit wating 20 minutes for water to boil then another half hour for the potatos to be tender enough to start mashing not to mention peeling,cutting,waiting for them to soften first in water,that takes an hour and a half plus alone, i can get instant done in like half an hour. we have potatos a lot so.. all the time that’d be a pain.
You can have the luxury of complaining about taste when your belly is full. Everything tastes good when your belly is empty.
The author of the mashed potato article should be complaining about the restaurant that served bad tasting mashed potatoes. Why didn’t you post the name of the restaurant in your online story? You are lucky that you can afford to pay $25.00 for a plate of food. And Christmas was over two months ago so why are you complaining now? Did you write the article so that the blog wouldn’t appear empty?
As for the food itself: when you are hungry everything tastes good. If you didn’t like what was served to you in the restaurant then why didn’t you send it back and ask for something else?
WOW cheap your grumpy lol!
Just so u know the xmas story fit with my instant potatoes blog. I’m not going to send back food at a family function and look like a joker. I didn’t post the name of the restaurant because I’m quite rural and don’t give out my exact location. But then again thats all need to know info
I’d like to think I help feed empty tummies by the large amount of donating I do to the local foodbank.
It was suppose to be a funny post btw…. most got that. Sorry you didn’t 🙁
The fake potatoes goes well with the chemical sludge we call gravy, the genetically modified veggies, the hormone injected beef and the sodium-injected chicken which is enhanced with beef/pork waste. YUMMMMM.
I’m glad you find the time to deride the evils of the potato flakes and turn a blind eye to the other perversions that sit on your plate.
Bad potato….badddddd potato.
No way fake potatoes can stay on the shelf. There is nothing like fresh potatoes that has grown in your garden all summer 🙂 That’s the best tasting potato ever! 🙂
I will not eat,buy or make instant potatoes!! My son tried them at a friends house once and was disgusted by them..I really dont know why anyone would use them,its very quick and easy to do your own potatoes..Never mind the crap that would be in them is very very unhealthy and its cheaper in the long run to use fresh potatoes..I see now there are frozen cubed ready to cook potatoes,why??Are paeople really that lazy,or do people have lots of money to throw away on expensive ready made foods!!! If you really look at the labels on stuff,you would be disgusted..The sodium levels are killing us..I know that for a fact as im recovering from congestive heart failure at age 36…High salt intake could easily kill me…
The Idahoan brand is pretty good, comes in a brown box. It works well to if you want to mix it with ‘real’ mashed spuds if you need a lot, like to top a Shepards Pie.
I love them!
These days it’s the only reason I can still make my fabulous shepherd’s pie that my spouse and kids love so much. No way I am sitting down to peel all those potatoes on top of all the other work (I suffer from a post-traumatic pain syndrome).
We still have a big box of Costco’s paradise valley dried potatoes and they have been great for us (I actually love the taste). I hope they haven’t been discontinued??? 0_o
~krismom
I buy small quantities at the bulk store. I don’t eat potatoes very often, but find this stuff handy on days when i don’t feel like cooking and have to make something quick and easy.
Thanks for the link for the gnocci!!!
I never tried instant/fake potatoes till I got married. My husband said he didn’t mind them so why not. Once I got the hang of it I grew to like them too. I originally bought some from McCains that were in a large red foil looking bag in the aisle of the grocery store. Not frozen stuff. I used to buy the big size and I could decide how much I wanted to make – just had to measure properly. Now I can’t find those anywhere! A friend of mine gave me the Costco ones and we have slowly used those up. I need to go to Costco this week so I hope the still have them. Anyone out there seen the McCain dry flakes that I am talking about? Let me know. Their cust. service dept is totally useless. Also, can’t find Cavendish hasbrowns either! What happened to those? Hubbie’s fave from his bachelor days.
Okay the best fake mashed potatoes are the ones from Costco!!
You would not be able to tell the difference
Just boil water, remove from heat, add skim milk for low fat recipe and stir, then stir in package of fake potatoes….Stir it all up and Voila!
It’s awesome….a must try! If my kids eat it and love it then anyone can eat it…they are the picky ones!
HHAHAHA this is too funny.. if i could choose.. i would never buy a BAG of potatoes again and strickly eat the boxed kind.. i dont know why but i LOVE them!!!!(my hubby thinks im a nut..) there just so much smoother and tastier(in my opinino) 🙂 butter and herb flavor is the BEST! lol
and i would also like to add to “cheaps” comment that not everything tastes good when your hungry.. beleve me.. i know what hungry is and there is no extent of hunger that would have me eat broccoli or fish……………… LOL
fake potatoes are one of the nastiest things on the market….I don’t get it…its such a simple thing to cook
Living in NB, home of McCain, it may be illegal to eat fake potatoes 😉
I understand your reluctance to send back the potatoes at the time of the meal, but I hope you commented to the restaurant manager/company at a later time. $25 should warrant real potatoes, and the restaurant needs to know it had an unsatisfied customer.
Zabrina, my dad asks the exact same thing, LOL. You can’t serve a farm boy fake potatoes!
I have never believed in buying anything from a box to eat. However my friend raved about Paradise Valley instant mashed potatoes from Costco. She had us over for dinner, and had one bowl full of instant mash and one bowl of real mashed potatoes. My husband coudn’t tell which was which. I was shocked! He has amazing senses of smell and taste and he honestly couldn’t tell. In fact he thought the instant mash tasted better!!! From someone who only shops on the outside relm of the grocery store I have made my first “box” purchase of food. I guess never say never! Paradise Valley potatoes are worth the purchase.
Yuck!
I use Idahoan to coat haddock in before I panfry it. It is much lighter and crisper than useing a flour coating.
Had my swanson fix today! Go me!
I used to loooove the sidekicks spuds, but alas they have recently changed some additive in them because now they make me physically ill.
I love the Idahoan ones when I’m lazy 🙂
I just learned that store bought perogies are made from pototoes flakes?
Some of the bag potatoes when peeled, cooked, and mashed are terrible…Idahoan brand all the way for me since I found them, no more gambling with what are the real taters gonna taste like, Idahoan is consistently good.
I buy the 27 oz. bag and put 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil, shut the heat off and pour in about 2/3 cup of Idahoan potato granules and let stand about a minute. ready to eat.
I occasionaly use Idahoan for a side dish but mainly use potato flakes as an additive to my bread machine Potato Bread. They work great for this. We grow our own potatoes and I agree they are the very best! It is like Russian Roulette buying potatoes in a bag in the Grocery Store, I usually opt for the Baby Potatoes, they are more consistantly good.
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