First Look: Tornado Fries in Rehoboth Beach

Trying to catch the eye and stomach interest of hungry tourists strolling Rehoboth Beach’s streets and boardwalk isn’t an easy task.

You usually have to stand out, maybe even offer something fairly unusual before visitors will part with their cash.

Vic Minio and his family are hoping to whip up a frenzy about Tornado Fries , their new business inside an old frame shop at 62A Rehoboth Ave., that’s sandwiched between E.C. Shades and Snyder’s Candy.

Last month, the Minio clan began making and selling spiral-cut, deep-fried potatoes-on-a-stick that have been featured on the Food Network series “Unwrapped.”

Tornado Fries originated in 2009 on the Wildwood (N.J.) boardwalk. The snack is a riff on street food sold by vendors in South Korea.

Minio, whose father Tom had been one of the partners of the old Alley nightclub on Union Street in Wilmington and ran the Brandywine Club on U.S. 1 and 202 in Delaware County, Pa., saw the “Unwrapped” episode and thought the fries would go over well in the Delaware resort town.

Since opening on June 18, the storefront’s clientele has been building slowly. “We’re at a tough location, we only have 10 foot of frontage,” says Minio.

But the business has a bright orange awning and a TV out front that continuously shows the “Unwrapped” episode that explains the product.

“We’ve had a mix of people from outside of the state who have seen it on the Food Network and we have people who see ‘Tornado Fries’, and they don’t have a clue about what it is.

“Some people ask: Is it a banana?” Minio says. “Everyone is very, very curious.” Tornado Fries come in two sizes. An 18-inch stick is $4, a 26-inch stick is $6.

To make the “tornado,” a Russet potato is skewered on a stick and then placed in a machine that cuts the potato accordion-style.

“It looks like a Slinky,” Minio says.

The potato is deep-fried in canola oil anywhere from 90 seconds to 2 minutes. As soon as it’s removed from the hot oil, the stick is handed to a customer who can then sprinkle on some of the 12 different powdered seasonings.

“You do it yourself, but we show you how,” Minio says.

Flavors include salt and vinegar, Old Bay, barbecue, parmesan garlic and something called “Schmutz,” which Minio calls a salty-sweet blend.

How is Canola Oil Made

Canola oil is one of the most popular cooking oils on the planet. This versatile oil can be used in many cooking situations; from deep frying to baking a cake. However, it is also used in many non-food applications and is used in products such as; cosmetics, candles, inks, lubricants and biofuels. Canola oil is a popular choice in cooking because it is low in saturated fat and contains beneficial omega 3 fatty acids. It also contains a toxic substance known as erucic acid, but the levels in canola oil are well below the safety threshold. You might be wondering how this versatile cooking oil is made? Read on to find out.

How is canola oil made? Canola oil is made from a hybrid variety of the rapeseed plant that was first bred in Canada (that is how Canola oil got its name). This strain of rapeseed, today known as canola, has much less of the toxic erucic acid than wild rapeseed, which made it suitable for commercial sale. The process of making the oil is as simple as; harvesting the canola plant, separating the seed from the plant, crushing the seed and then pressing the canola seed to get the oil. This can be done with a variety of methods, but the centrifuge, solvent extractor and the screw press are most commonly used. These can also be used together for the best level of oil extraction and some of the larger canola oil producers also use chemical extraction methods to extract almost all of the oil from the seeds.

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