[DigitalTurk]

> McDonald's french fries are great. At their best, they are everything a french fry should be: salty, crisp, light, and not greasy.

Funny. I tend to think of super thin fries as an American thing. Fries from McDonald's, in particular, taste like cardboard to me.

Then again, I'm Belgian.

[chestnut-tree]

"Then again, I'm Belgian."

If you can access this 30 min radio programme from the BBC about chips (from June 2010), you might find it interesting. It features a segment on Belgian fries

"In Belgium the oven chip hasn't caught on. Instead friterie shops proliferate, and Belgians take their chips very seriously. How the potato arrived in Europe remains contentious, but the Belgians are confident that it was them, and not the French, who invented the "French" fry. Ray Kershaw visited the Friet Museum in Bruges established to celebrate their national fry with director Eddie Van Belle."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sqkgb (segment starts at 18:33 seconds)

[rhizome31]

Just to clarify on this crucial topic, note that us people of France do not claim to have invented french fries and we find it odd that American people call them french. We generally also see it as a Belgian speciality.

[reirob]

Maybe it was some French-speaking Belgians who invented the French fries ;-)

Just a wink to the ridiculous conflict that goes on between French-speaking-Belgians and the Dutch-speaking-Belgians, now for years.

[DigitalTurk]

Interestingly, in the Netherlands they often call them Flemish fries. Flanders being the Dutch-language region in Belgium.

If you called them that in Belgium I bet you would cause a riot. ;-)

[waxjar]

In the Netherlands the thin fries McDonalds sells are referred to as French fries (franse frietjes): http://i.imgur.com/n0F248C.jpg.

Slightly thicker (square) fries are just called fries (patat): http://i.imgur.com/tui5FDe.jpg. These are served most often.

The big rectangular fries are referred to as Flemish fries (vlaamse frieten): http://i.imgur.com/QDwv9IA.jpg.

[toolslive]

What happened is that at the end of WW2, the Americans learned about the fries in Belgium, but since the people spoke French, believed to be in France.

Anyway, in Belgium people still use beef fat for the perfect fries.

[LoganCale]

The term "french fried potatoes" was in print as early as 1856. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fries#Etymology

[bsaul]

To "french" is a verb meaning to "slice". Probably the original expression was french(ed) frie(d potatoe)s.

[stinos]

Exactly. The article was almost annoying as it talks about "perfect" fries like everybody on the whole planet has the same taste. There aren't many things more subjective than taste. Just saying a fry should be salty in order the perfect is already a mistake. Not everybody likes that taste. Which is why you get asked specifically if you want salt or not. At least in Belgium, where we like to enjoy the one and only true superior real fries. Lol.

Anyway, still appreciate the article, it just started with the wrong premises.

[chaz]

Talk to anyone about food, and everyone will have a different opinion of what/who/where the "perfect" is: the perfect pizza, the perfect burger, the perfect sushi, the perfect pie, the perfect ____. Everyone obviously has different tastes and it's universally acknowledged to be a subjective, if not contentious, topic.

If nothing else, I appreciate that the author laid out his criteria for selection, and didn't just jump straight into it.

[foobarian]

People may not agree on perfect, but I think a lot more people agree on what "bad" is. Bad pizza, bad fries, etc. At the very least it should be universally easy to avoid those.

[maxerickson]

It literally starts off with the sentence "I'm gonna come right out and say something that I'm sure you won't all openly agree with".

That's a pretty decent acknowledgement that other perspectives exist.

[riffraff]

I am italian living in hungary and I never considered McD fries "amazing". I have never met anyone who didn't prefer home made ones/random shop one's either.

So, last time this article came up on HN I generously filed it under "maybe fries in fast food chains in the US are different than fries in US fast food chains everywhere else".

[malaporte]

I think they are. I'm a Canadian living in France, and I pretty much hate McDonalds here. Fries are soggy and not salted enough, burgers are completely messed up, and the service is impressively slow. I tried several places, it's all more of the same.

Everytime I go back to a McDonalds in Canada I find the food just tastes better. It's still fast food, but I'm enjoying it so much more.

[cocoflunchy]

It's funny because it's the exact opposite for me as a French guy living in the US. I find MacDonald's to be vastly superior in France, and it's also the opinion of all my French friends who have tried both.

They say that McDonald's adapt their recipes to the taste of the country they're in, which these anecdotal observations would support :)

It's a shame we don't have 5 Guys though...

[DigitalTurk]

I don't remember McDonald's fries tasting better in the US than in Europe, but then I don't go to McDonald's all that often. (I do grant that there are subtle differences between McDonald's restaurants in different regions.)

There's actually a second type of American fries that I think is somewhat better than the ones at McDonald's. They're called Cajun fries [1]. They're made in an oven and are a bit spicy. You can get them at cheap fast food places like Checkers or fancier hamburger places like Five Guys.

[1] http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/cajun-oven-fr...!

[evan_]

Cajun fries at 5 Guys and probably most fast-food restaurants are made by simply sprinkling Cajun spices on fries prepared in a fryer as usual, the oven is an implementation detail Rachel Ray choose in the linked recipe that is uncommon.

[jaggederest]

Confirmed, an American who has made the trip to Belgium, the fries in your country are ridiculously superior to anything we get here, except certain places that specialize in them, where they occasionally manage to achieve par with Belgian frites.

[kbutler]

The author acknowledges that other types of fries are also great, but this article is about the perfect "thin and crispy" fry, rather than the perfect thicker style fry.

"my thick-cut pub-style fries are super-potatoey and fantastic, and when I'm in the mood for them, my seasoned steak fries can't be beat, but for thin, super-crisp fries..."

The "taste like cardboard" is probably because McDonalds no longer fries in beef tallow.

[raldi]

Other than the thickness, what are some of the differences between the fries you like and the ones at McDonald's?

[jkn]

One difference would be that Belgian fries are traditionally fried in beef fat, which changes the taste quite a bit.

[yincrash]

McD's fries used to be fried in 93% beef fat before 1990.

[coldtea]

I'm European too, and I also wondered what was he going on about. I mean, McDonalds fries "great"? "Everything a fry should be"?

I've had lots of wonderful french fries in the US -- and none was in a McDonalds (or Burger King, or Jack in The Box, or Arbies, or ...).