[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.