Are FRENCH FRIES Really FRENCH???
French fries. Are they actually French?
It turns out the answer is actually no.
They are Belgian.
Historians state that potatoes were being fried by at least 1680 in the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals would eat small fried fish with their meals, but when the river was frozen over, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to use as a substitute.
So why are they called French Fries?
There appears to be 2 main lines of thought on this one. The first is that 'French frying' is the name given to the way in which it was prepared, so regardless of it being potatoes or anything else, if it is lightly fried in oil as such it can be referred to as French fried.
The second is that of a Belgian legend which claims that when British and/or American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, upon tasting the fries they referred to them as 'French', as the official language of the Belgian Army at that time was indeed French.
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