#524 When your fries order has a few onion rings stashed in the mix

Neil Pasricha

Dive in.

Scoring some sweet and salty rings hidden in your fries is the fast food equivalent finding a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea. Suddenly you’re an explorer stumbling upon a lost shipwreck way, way down in the darkness. While your friends linger above, you plunge deeper and deeper … eventually spotting a coral-covered chest wedged between some slippery rocks.

As your heart thump-thumps you kick the rusty lock and peel open the lid to behold a glittery sight. Your face lights up like a flashlight and your eyes pop open behind the scuba mask as you realize you’ve uncovered a hidden stash of crunchy, oily gold.

There be treasure in these fries.

AWESOME!

The Book of Awesome is out now!

Join us live in Toronto for The Book of Awesome event.

The book will be coming soon to the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and Holland! (Dates TBD.)

Send photos of The Book of Awesome to 1000awesomethings@gmail.com.

Photo from: here and here

65 thoughts to “#524 When your fries order has a few onion rings stashed in the mix”

  1. Another awesomely beautiful and tiny thing that turns a good thing (fries) into a great thing.

    I’m so jealous of all the people in Toronto who are able to attend the event.

    I LOVE seeing the book in stores! Probably not at much as you do, though. ;)

  2. Another fabulous aspect of this phenomenon are the few fries surrounding the rogue onion ring(s) that also get just a hint of oniony goodness on them. Because fries that have just a nuance of onion flavor… kinda awesome.

    I love your blog a lot. It’s new to me. But I think I’d like to go buy the book when I get paid this week.

    1. Ditto! I don’t like onion rings, but that one ring gives the rest of the fries such a good flavor. And if my meal companion likes onion rings, I get to give it to them. Win-win!

    2. I work at burgerking i give ppl onin rong is their freis all the time it makes me happy i also try to hook up people that look poor and give kids toys from the kids meals its my way of stickin it to the man and making my job bearable

  3. This is definitely an awesome thing! I don’t eat at BK very often, but when this happens I smile despite the low-quality, pre-formed onion rings!

  5. Staying up late after doing an insane amount of homework and loving the new website you found so much that it definitely puts a smile on your face after an exhausting day… AWESOME.

    Great website. I’m definitely going to grab the book when I can! =)

  8. Lucky people in Toronto or around there that are able to attend. I’m so jealous.

    The fry thing seems to always happen to me and its always awesome

  10. It’s just like getting some fries with your chili cheese tater tots from Sonic. It makes me smile. =D

  12. For me, this is an extremely rare occurrence. This has only happened to me once in my life. Unfortunately, my hatred of onion rings was so strong back then that the situation is one of trauma rather than glee.

    If I could go back to that one rare moment of awesome…mmm…boy. I’d be living large with my slivers of fried potatoes and my rings of fried onions. AT. THE. SAME. TIME.

    Holy cow.

    I’m off to Wendy’s.

    1. I hated onion rings when I was younger, too.

      I can’t believe this has only happened to you once! Here’s hoping it happens again soon, for the sake of awesome.

  13. How about a twisty-fry mixed in with the regular fries?! Makes me wish I had remembered to order them instead!

    Thank you for reminding us to find joy in the simple awesomeness of life!

  14. Heh, awesome unless you are deathly allergic to onions and you’re driving alone during a 15 hour car ride and munching on your fast food in the dark and suddenly you’re realizing that you can’t breathe and you reach for your cell phone to call 911 but inevitably crash the car.

    Nope…didn’t happen to me. Nope Nope!

    I do love when, on the rare occasion that I actually get fast food, that I get curly fries mixed all in with my normal fries. That moment made up for my near death experience!

  16. This is one of the only ones I disagree with. Probably because I’m obsessed with fries and an onion ring would ruin a perfectly good box of them in my opinion. =P

  17. When two forms of Awesome collide… playing PRS with the hubs to determine who gets the onion ring mixed in with the fries!

  18. I just found this though Galadarling.com! I love it when I fins onion rings in my fries. For some reason, it always happens at BK.

  19. i can’t wait for the event in toronto :) hopefully you’ll be able to sign the book for me :D

    this site is AWESOME

  20. Congrats on the book arriving in the shops! Saw you on BT this morning – you were “awesome” yourself. So very happy for you!

    And yes, I do agree… finding rogue onion rings in my fry order is truly one of life’s magical pleasures. Makes me wanna visit Texas Burger — it’s a fab restaurant in Ajax, Ontario that’s been there for yonks. Best food *anywhere*, let me tell ya.

  21. My favorite is when there are a few curly fries thrown in the mix! :). Those are my fav!

  23. I worked at a Burger King for three years, and have an unfortunate secret about the rogue onion ring. A lot of the time it’s because there weren’t enough fries ready to fill all the orders. An onion ring or two in the carton under all the fries takes up a lot of space and props the fries nicely, making people think they got a full order.

    Of course there are the times when one just happens to end up in the fry bin and it’s not worth the work of picking out with the scoop.

  24. This can go the other way, tho. Sometimes I’m enjoying some tasty fries and all of the sudden there’s a hard black object making its way toward my mouth. What is it? It’s unidentifiable. Probably a burnt mass of onion ring and french fry batter that went through the fryer too many times to count. Regardless, it kinda ruins my appetite.

  25. I stumbled upon your blog today. And I absolutely love it. I have been reading it for hours now!
    All those little things you take for granted most of the time but when you think about them. Those things are awesome!!
    So good to read that your book is also comming to the Netherlands. Can’t wait!!

  26. I just wanted to let you know that I read your site every day. I love reading the new updates and laughing about how true they are. On the weekends I go back and reread my favorites. Your site truly made me appreciate the littles things and realize that it’s them that really makes the day worth it. So, thank you.

  30. I just had my own awesome thing. I made strong coffee and put freshly-made whipped cream in it, and then I ate the whipped cream off the top with spoonfuls of coffee. The whipped cream was cool and sweet, and the coffee was hot and rich, and it made me glad to be alive.

  31. This is AWESOME!

    But….

    Receiving ‘The Book of Awesome’ today easily tops my 1000 awesome things.

  32. Just watched the segment on Breakfast TV – Congrats… Nice mug, did you have coffee in it, did they let you keep it!!??

  33. I heard about your website today,… yes, I am a tad bit late! Thank you for this wonderful idea! I needed it today. It lifted my spirits. When I read this entry, I remembered how I enjoy a good onion ring in a box o’ fries! Thanks again!

  35. It’s me!

    I just wanted to let you know that I immediately bought your book after you left and have been shamelessly promoting your book. Can’t wait to see you May 11th at Indigo!

  36. Hey Neil!

    Just wanted to congratulate you on the book coming out and I was so lucky to be able to get it since I am from Venezuela but I was in the U.S. for this week only!

    You can bet I will show it to everybody.

    AWESOME!

  37. Oh my god! This happened to me for the first time yesterday and I was thrilled! That probably sounds really sad but I hadn’t had one in years, really, over a decade and it was so delicious I raved to my boyfriend about it for a solid minute.

    And then I only discovered this site today, so double-bonus of coincidence :D

  38. This has never, ever happened to me. Have I truly lived?

    –Yes, he said, because sometimes I order onion rings and get fries thrown in C:

  39. I work at Burger King, and I know how much MANY people like to find onion rings in their fries. So I always make sure at least one or two onion rings make it into their fries. It’s good to know that this is an AWESOME thing!

  40. Unfortunately for me and my kids this is totally not awesome. We are on a gluten free diet due to food allergies. Some people on a gluten free diet come to Burger King because their policy is to have a separate fryer and fry oil for their fries making them gluten free. Finding an onion ring in our fries results in the fries going into the trash because the onion ring batter contains gluten and the fries are cross contaminated. When an onion ring is fried in the french fry oil, the oil is cross contaminated with gluten which will make us sick. So for some of us this non awesomeness changes “having it your way” into a “sad meal”. For the sake of my kids happiness and health, please hold the rings for those that ask for them. Thanks!

    1. I responded to the post with a similar issue….right beneath your response! Didn’t happen at Burger King, but at another burger place. “Dedicated fryer”…too good to be true.

  41. Except when you have Celiac disease and you were told the fries you’re eating were gluten free. Oh, and you’re about to get on an airplane.

  42. Whenever that happens, it makes me wonder why I didn’t order onion rings in the first place.

    And, I’m a newbie to this blog, but the commenters who chime in and say “not so awesome, I’m allegic” and stuff like that… you’re missing the point of this whole thing.

    1. I get it Tyler. I love the awesomeness in this site/book. I was just trying to educate that restaurant employees who posted above of the consequences of intentionally practicing this one. I don’t want my kids getting sick because of this. This is especially the case for those employees who work at restaurants that maintain a seperate dedicated fryer for fries to address the food allergy concerns of their customers, as several previous posters stated they did.

  46. If I ever open a fast food chain, it will be a signature that every order of fries will come with an onion ring on the bottom. Or how awesome would it be if you could order a mix of fries and onion rings instead of just one?

    1. My husband and I actually do at “Best Fish and Chips in B.C.,” whenever we stop by in Enderby. Their fish, fries and onion rings really are fantastic, fresh and delicious.

  49. Saw the entire item. There is certainly some actually informative info here. thanks. “The world is the sum-total of our vital possibilities.” by Jose Ortega y Gasset..

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