Do French Fries Really Come From France? | Wonderopolis
Wonder of the Day #24
Do French Fries Really Come From France?
Are French fries really French?
Does everyone eat French fries with ketchup?
Can French fries help improve your math skills?
Tags:
Listen
The French gave the world the hot air balloon , the sewing machine , and the bikini. They even gave the United States the Statue of Liberty . However, one thing the French cannot claim is the French fry.
Despite its name, the French fry is not French. The origins of the French fry have been traced back to Belgium, where historians claim potatoes were being fried in the late-1600s.
According to local Belgian lore , poor villagers living in Meuse Valley often ate small fried fish they caught in the river . During the winter months the river would freeze over — making fishing impossible and forcing the villagers to find other sources of food.
Enter the potato. The villagers turned to the root plant, slicing and frying it much in the same way they prepared the fish . And just like that, the earliest French fries were born.
American soldiers stationed in Belgium were first introduced to French fries during World War I. As the official language of the Belgian army was French, soldiers nicknamed the delicious fried potatoes “French fries." The name stuck, and decades later we're still giving credit to the wrong country.
French fries are one of the most popular side dishes in the world. When it comes to dipping, fries often find themselves covered in ketchup, mayonnaise , or vinegar, but that seems to be where the universal preference ends.
In Belgium, people prefer to eat French fries with cooked mussels or with a fried egg on top. The United Kingdom is famous for its “ fish and chips." In the Middle East, fries are wrapped in pita bread with chicken, and in France they are served with grilled steak. Canadians serve up poutine, a dish consisting of french fries and cheese curds, topped with brown gravy!
Wonder Contributors
Tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day will have you saying, “Excuse me!”
Try It Out
Are you ready to enjoy some French fries? Find a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities:
We're hungry! How about you? After reading about the history of delicious French fries, how could you not be? What better way to celebrate what you've learned today than eating some French fries? Ask an adult friend or family member to take you on a field trip to a local restaurant that serves French fries. Share an order of fries and try some new toppings on them…if you're daring! Go beyond ketchup and try some fries with mayonnaise or vinegar. Enjoy your snack!
If you can't make it out to a restaurant, no worries! You can make your own homemade French fries right at home. You'll need some potatoes, cooking oil, and a few other supplies. Check out the recipe for Perfect French Fries online and then ask an adult friend or family member to help you cook up a batch at home. What do you think? Are they better than restaurant fries? We hope so!
French fries are a fun way for visual learners to master the basics of addition. Collect a few old French fry containers and label them with numbers 1 through 10. Slice a yellow sponge into fry-like strips. These will become your "fun fries." Fill each container with the appropriate number of fries. Practice addition by placing "orders" for different combinations that require adding boxes together. For example, if you want an order of 12 fries, you could combine the 10 and 2 boxes or the 8 and 4 boxes.
Wonder Sources