A few days ago, during a conversation, something came up and it was compared to the time right after “9-11.” It seemed like for a time after that event, the nation seemed united and people were just generally nicer to each other, and the word patriotism was used a lot.
Someone said that we even changed the name of french fries to freedom fries for a period of time. I remember that and it got me to thinking about french fries.
First of all, french fries didn’t originate in France — they’re called french fries because of the cut, not the country of origin. That’s why the “f” in “french” is lower case — we’re not referring to the country. As I said, french fried potatoes didn’t originate in France, they came from Belgium.
There’s no point here, except when I mentioned the french fries not coming from France, the subject turned from patriotism to potatoes. Someone thought that the “chips” part of “fish and chips” popular in the U.K. were the same as our french fries. I often order fish and chips when we go out and I ‘d say that the “chips” are all pretty much “french fries” in just about all restaurants. I’ve had fish and chips in England and I remember the chips being more like what we call steak fries around here.
It seems like the term “french fries” has become a term used to describe just about any kind of fried potatoes — those that are cut really thin, or a little thicker like at most fast food places or the “crinkle” cut that we sometimes get from the grocery store. I think it’s even used to describe the waffle cut that is popular at Chick-fil-A or the curly potatoes at Arby’s.
I should mention one thing that I remember about fish and chips in the U.K. The Brits eat their fries or” chips” a bit differently than we do. We usually eat our fries plain or maybe with ketchup. But the Brits almost always douse their chips in vinegar, and often they dip them in mayonnaise.
In a lot of places we lived overseas, we ate rice and almost never potatoes. But today potatoes are pretty much a staple in our house — and probably a good part of the world. There’s an old Irish saying that “only two things in this world are too serious to be jested on, potatoes and matrimony.” I guess that about sums it up — potatoes are a serious subject. Personally, I’ve taken them so seriously that I’ve become a couch potato…..
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