Gilroy Garlic Fries: The Redux

Every picture I’ve taken in Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, is the same. The field is out of focus, but sharp and centered is a white cardboard concession tray loaded with glistening potatoes. Locals know they’re Gilroy garlic fries: the only stadium shot I’ll ever post to grid.

I was raised a Giants fan—an East Bay native with orange in my closet and insider knowledge of the best parking spots to get back across the Bay Bridge quickly after the ninth inning. As soon as the stadium opened in 2000, my parents made a habit of taking me and my sister to home games. Our family joke was that my mom came for the concessions: crab sandwiches and Ghirardelli sundaes. Oracle was early in the shift toward good stadium food, bolstering the essential menu of hotdogs and frozen lemonade with porchetta sandwiches and lumpia. At the time—my career in food media and recipe development over a decade away—I didn’t know how good we had it. I just knew I liked the fries.

You know you’re getting closer to one of the Gilroy garlic-fry stands at Oracle Park the same way you know you’re approaching the city of Gilroy itself: The scent is unmistakable. Ninety minutes south of the stadium, Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World, is home to the annual garlic festival that roared back onto the scene this summer, after a few years off. The ballpark’s nod to the NorCal town feels like honoring a hometown hero. You can’t leave without an order. 

Now that my tastes have matured, I must admit that the fries themselves…are fine. Would I prefer them crispier? Sure would. Thickly cut and occasionally a little floppy, they’re outshone by a well-done batch from In-N-Out (at least in their undressed form). But the flavor is incomparable: tons of fresh parsley and Gilroy garlic spooned over the top, attached to each potato plank with the help of residual oil from the fryer. 

My family tries to sneak in a game whenever we’re all back in the Bay. But now that I’m based on the East Coast, I don’t get to eat Gilroy garlic fries as often as I’d like. This rösti recipe is one way I can re-create that stadium flavor in my own kitchen while improving (sorry!) on the original’s textural pitfalls. Rösti is a Swiss dish made with shredded potatoes, similar to hash browns, and often cooked in a round puck. Crispy on the outside and tender within, it can be augmented with cheese, onion, or even cured meat. In my Giants-inspired iteration, I grate the garlic instead of chopping it to create a drizzle-able topping of garlic-parsley oil rather than the ballpark’s dry, spoonable mix. The result is a side dish that’s punchy and bright with an audibly crunchy exterior. Taking a picture of the plate held up by my Brooklyn window, I can almost hear the crack of the bat.•