Okay Spud Lovers, What’s Massachusetts’ Fave Way To Eat Taters?
Who doesn't love a good potato dish now and again, Berkshire County? It's such a simple food, yet it can be put to so many creative and delicious uses. How do you prefer your taters?
Fried? Baked(with sour cream, melted cheese, butter, and bacon bits)? Boiled(with corned beef and cabbage)? Scalloped(what could be wrong with potatoes and cheese)? And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
Heck, I even know of a few people(only a few) who can eat raw potatoes. That's probably the only kind of potato I won't eat. Regardless of your personal preference for potato-y goodness, what do you think is the most popular potato dish in Massachusetts?
The team at Verdesian, the nutrient use efficiency company, conducted a study/survey on America's preferred way of enjoying their potatoes. For the survey, they asked over 2,000 people across the country about their potato preferences.
Then, they analyzed search interest data from Google Trends for the most popular potato dishes in each and every state. The most popular potato food in the country by a whopping margin was...Any guesses? Potato chips! They were the most popular potato dish in 20 states.
The 2nd most popular potato dish(which also happens to be the favorite in the Bay State)? Mashed potatoes. Mashed was the most popular in 13 states. And coming in at #3? Baked potatoes, which claimed 8 states. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty happy with choices #1, #2, or #3!
Surprisingly(at least to me), french fries didn't do as well as I thought they would. I'll bet that if more kids were included in the survey, french fries would have won out. Also, tater tots didn't do well at all, either. They brought up the rear out of all the potato dishes that were used for the study.
There are plenty more cool stats and facts to be gleaned from the study. Take a few minutes, potato lovers, and check it out for yourself at Verdesian's website here. "You say po-tay-toe, I say puh-tot-toe, let's call the whole th--" Oh, who cares? Let's eat!