Looks like the "French" is back in fries

by Diane Duane

Took them long enough. (eyeroll)

Of course, the real joke is that the fries are actually Belgian in origin. (The WWI US “doughboys” who discovered them had simply wound up in a French-speaking part of Belgium.) The best evidence of this provenance — not concrete, granted: the dish is too old for that — can be found in the fact that every other language assigning fries a national origin associates them with either the Belgians or the Dutch. Only US English calls fries “French”.

Much more on the subject here.

(Argh, I wish I was standing in the main square in Brugge right now, outside that little frietkot that sits down by the door of the Bell Tower, with a paper box of fries. Or down at that frituur around the corner from the apartments we stay in when we’re visiting there. [BTW, I agree with the photographer: this guy unnerves me somewhat.] …Oh well: back to work)

[tags]France, French fries, French, freedom fries, freedom, Congress[/tags]

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1 comment

P J Evans August 5, 2006 - 2:45 pm

So much for trying to use politics on food! (It was silly to begin with, wasn’t it?)

I’m going to have to look up the nearest In-n-Out to Worldcon. They have fries usually worth meeting (since they’re not pre-made they can be variable).

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