Chunks of potato hit the 300-degree fat with a moderate sizzle.
While hardly qualifying as health food, the fries have one less strike less against them: They contain no artery-clogging artificial trans fats.
The Grille Zone, a Commonwealth Avenue eatery where the fries were cooked, is one of several Brookline restaurants that already have no artificial trans fats in the oils, marinades, and spreads served to its customers.
"I could see the transformation coming," said owner Ben Prentice, who opened his restaurant in June.
Brookline health inspectors, who in the fall will begin enforcing a townwide ban on trans fats in restaurants, have been talking with owners in recent weeks about how to comply with the new regulation. But as they make their rounds, inspectors have been surprised to find that a lot of their job has already been done.
New York's decision in late 2006 to ban trans fats from restaurants and Brookline's similar decision last year are a big part of the reason, as is the nationwide trend toward healthier eating. Whatever the motivation, restaurants and food vendors in the area are switching over well before they have to.
Cooks have been perusing condiment labels to check ingredients. Margarine is no longer an option for dinner rolls at most places. And the ominous Frialator, where foods used to deep fry in a cocktail of hydrogenated oils, now uses a blend of heart-friendlier substances such as soybean, canola, and peanut oils.
"I don't think we used trans fats, even before Brookline passed a ban," said Luke Li, owner of Quan's Kitchen on Commonwealth Avenue. "We just use oil."
The same sort of behavior has been going on in Boston.
"Many restaurants have been looking for alternative products and making the switch on their own," said Ann McHugh, project director for the Boston Health Department's anti-obesity program. "They know it's good for business."
Even though kitchens are changing on their own, lawmakers are continuing the campaign to squeeze out trans fats. Boston's Public Health Commission could impose its own ban at about the same time Brookline's takes effect. Meanwhile, the state Legislature is considering a measure that would make the ban official for all food eaten in restaurants or as takeout in Massachusetts.
State Representative Peter Koutoujian, a Democrat who represents Waltham, Watertown, and Newton, hopes the bill he sponsored will come to a vote by July.
"There's been no opposition. None," he said. At a public hearing on the bill last summer, he said, "No person spoke in opposition, not even industry representatives."
Brookline health officials also expected more of an outcry. After all, they got a lot of heat for the smoking ban they pushed in the early 1990s.
"I'm really optimistic that people will be able to do this without a problem," said Alan Balsam, Brookline's director of public health.
Artificial trans fat is created when vegetable oils are hydrogenated, as in the production of margarine or shortening for deep-frying. Products made from this process, which prolongs the shelf life of frying oil or baked goods, have been linked to chronic illnesses.
One reason for the relative ease of implementing the ban, Koutoujian and Balsam speculated, may be that people know the bad things trans fat can do to the body. "It's nasty, causes heart attacks, and now there's new evidence that it may also cause diabetes," Balsam said. "It can be removed from foods, so why not?"
Brookline health inspectors are expanding their routine visits to restaurants to include a look at the nutrition facts on items in the stock rooms and walk-in refrigerators.
"We're not trying to drop the hammer on people," Balsam said. "We figured if we give people time, they will do it right."
Jared Orsini, a senior health inspector in Brookline, said he's discussed trans fats and acceptable substitutes with restaurant owners, such as offering pats of butter instead of margarine, or regular mayonnaise instead of industrial-strength versions that contain trans fat.
But in recent visits to the Grille Zone and Quan's Kitchen, Orsini found nothing to ban.
Companies that sell ingredients to restaurants are also making changes - Prentice noted more marketing for oils labeled as free of trans fat. "When we first looked at the vendors, there were more that were trans-fat-free than not," he observed.
Prentice says avoiding trans fats isn't expensive - a consideration for a restaurant that sits across the street from Boston venues that may not have a ban as early. Prentice said the blended oil his Frialators use costs about the same as blends containing trans fats. And it lasts longer, he said.
As for the food, Orsini said he has heard complaints that fries or chicken fingers are soggy and don't taste as good. Balsam noted that at least one restaurant "tried a reformulation for french fries and was dissatisfied with the results. But you can switch to another blend. More options are appearing monthly."
For stragglers, Brookline has an online survey to gauge the need for trans-fat information for restaurant owners, and will hold an April 7 educational session on trans fats for anyone interested.
In the meantime, Orsini said, he and his colleagues will continue to check "until we are reasonably confident that they are trans-fat free."
But things have been going so well, Orsini has already started to move to the next phase of enforcement, which takes effect in April 2009: the ban on artificial trans fats in baked goods and deep-fried yeast dough (in other words, doughnuts) sold by restaurants and bakeries. He's now researching the common vendors of baked goods.
In this category, the area's big player - Dunkin' Donuts - has already dropped trans fats, with no harm to the product, said Orsini.
"I inspect the one on Beacon in Coolidge Corner," he said, "and the manager said she has not received any negative comments about the doughnuts since they switched."
