Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle involves my teenage daughter’s favorite food, which can be made in many varieties. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: On the side.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: McDonald’s has great ones.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• SATE, SEAT, SEEK, SEEKS, MEEK, LINE, KEYS, FACE, RINK, STIR, HOSS, RING.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• HOME, CURLY, CRINKLE, STEAK, WAFFLE, SHOESTRING.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FRENCHFRIES. To find it, start with the F that’s four down on the farthest right row and wind backwards and up.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

It’s barely May, right? There’s a group in today’s Connections puzzle that made me think ahead to Halloween. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, showing number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Smooth moves.

Green group hint: Bela Lugosi.

Blue group hint: Stagnate.

Purple group hint: Like a test tube.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Glide.

Green group: Associated with Count Dracula.

Blue group: Stop changing.

Purple group: Things that are long and cylindrical.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is glide. The four answers are coast, cruise, drift and float.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Count Dracula. The four answers are bat, cape, castle and fang.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is stop changing. The four answers are flatten, level, plateau and settle.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that are long and cylindrical. The four answers are baton, cigar, hoagie and torpedo.