Extinct food........LOL, I love that choice of words. Tater Tots are still 'in your grocer's freezer section' as they say on commercials. My DH particularly loves Tater Tots, and he gets them about once every ten years since I do the marketing. My tongue can always, always pick up a 'freezer' taste in them and it turns me off. However I do love hashed browns.

I don't ever remember seeing tater tots in restaurants in areas where I lived.......the closest thing would have been potato cakes or patties.

I miss "Spanish Bars" from the old A & P store chain. It was a sort of carrot cake loaf with white icing. Does A & P even exist anymore?

Good morning, Marda and Suzy!
Marda---nice to see the sun again?

Tater Tots--- don't recall seeing any in a long time---I'll ask my DGS---he'd know for sure!

I hadn't thought of "Spanish Bar" cakes in years, but I sure remember them. I think I bought one every week when I went grocery shopping. Carrot cake is still my family's favorite, but it has to be homemade, now! I think A&P stores are no longer around, at least not in my area. Same with Acme, I never hear of or see them, anymore, either.

I've seen Tater Tots are in store freezers in this area. I don't remember ever seeing them on a menu... guess I wasn't going to the right places. I agree that after a tasty beginning, the frozen version began to have a off-taste. I don't think the change was due to freezing per se, but more to a different processing method or possibly a change in oil type. I frequently freeze leftover [homemade] potatoes from all sorts of recipes, and have found that as long as one vacuum packs, then re-heat gently, the frozen interrim is undetectable. Unless vacuum-packed, I have found that fried items have an extremely short freezer life; maybe items in the store are left on the shelf for too long.

I LOVE Tater Tots. My mom used to make them and serve them with her "special sauce". LOL Ketchup and Miracle Whip mixed.
I pick them up from the frozen food section once every several years.

Any house hold that has kids between the ages of 3 and say 14 knows and buys Tater Tots. How el;se would one make "Tater Tot Casserole" without tater tots.
And acme is alive and well in the eastern part of the US.
Haven't seen an A and P in years.....remember Ann Page jams and things? Gave a little panache to the store brands.
Linda C

Tater tots are still around and I have a bag in the freezer too. I don't fry them though, the bake them to cut the fat a bit.

For about 4 years I worked at our companies in house printing facitly and the morning cafe staff always had them on the menu. For about a buck you got a huge plate of them to start the day. Heaven when dipped in the egg yolks. I became freinds with Carmela, a lovely lady from Italy that headed up the grill stations and graced us with her home recipes for lunch. When I would come in for breakfast she always made the tots fresh for me. I have been back at the home office location for several years now, but whenever I get the chance, I head over there and treat myself. And she still makes them fresh for me...salted and hot from the fryer.

Some are in my freezer right now!!!

Lord luv a duck y'all.
Every burger place in the south serves up Tater Tots.
I had some just the other day with my burger.
You know how we southerner's love all things fried.
Tater Tots are a staple in all freezers down here.
Just like Kraft's Garlic Cheese roll before they
decided to remove it from the market.
I am still in mourning over that.
I haven't made a decent Garlic Cheese Grits casserole since.
Surely Tater Tots will be around for awhile.

Janis beat me to it. Yes, Sonic proudly serves Tater Tots here. I don't think I've ever ordered french fries from Sonic!

Lisa

I've seen them on a few menus around here, too, mostly semi-hipster ones. I'm pretty sure they're in the stores as well. I only ever had them in school cafeterias, where, even then, they were maligned, mocked--and secretly well-liked. But they have to be good and brown--an underdone Tater Tot is truly a nasty nugget.

I think we had tater tots once as a kid. We all couldn't stand the taste. "Course mom prided herself on no frozen food. We thought we were really special the time she had some "do" in the evening (a rarity) and we got Banquet Frozen meals. We boasted about it a school. She was appalled.