Potato F.
Yelp
You visit a fast food stop for the obvious qualities - it's quick, it's cheap and it's consistent. You hope that it would be consistently good. An order of Cajun fries here comes in a paper bag - no sleeve, no box, just the easiest way to dig into the fries immediately. It's perfect if you can't wait and are on the go.
You're drunk, you need to be able to walk and eat, to have it waiting for your ride or the subway. You anticipate this and ask your polite cashier for ketchup in advance, letting both of you know that this isn't how you'll be treating these fries. That you might need to tear open and arrange the tiny satchets of condiment. That you'll be sitting down with these fries.
The Cajun fries are seasoned with an inoffensive spice that's not too salty and it's flavor is difficult to pinpoint or define. There's enough to certainly be seasoned, but completely forgettable. The fries are consistent in size, shoestring, and consistency. They're soft and bordering on soggy without being soggy, but never crisp. The consistency keeps you going. They're too easy to plow through the bag. The consistency keeps you searching, hoping for a perfect fry with some crispiness on the outside, pillowy potato on the inside. But that perfection would betray its promise of consistently inoffensive fries.
Maybe you will have them again, because they aren't terrible, they aren't difficult, they aren't expensive. They aren't perfect, and they aren't special. But in the right moment perhaps they're even better - they're reliable.