The origin of French fries is Belgium.
According to some historians, potatoes were being fried by 1680 in
the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals often ate small fried fish, when
the river was frozen they used potatoes as a substitute. They used
to cut potatoes lengthwise and fry them in oil to use them as a fish
substitute.
Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to
America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after
reportedly requesting, "Potatoes, fried in the French manner.
The average American eats thirty pounds of French fries per year.
The earliest known reference to fries in English literature is in A
Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to, “Husky chips of
potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.
In general, potatoes cooked with the skin on are healthier, as most
of the nutrients in a potato come from the skin
French fries are eaten all over the world and every culture has its
own preferred condiment. Americans dunk them in ketchup, Brits eat
their chips with salt and malt vinegar, mayonnaise is a popular
accompaniment in Belgium and they look forward to steamed mussels
and fries, in Vietnam they serve fries with soft butter and a
sprinkling of sugar. "Clams and chips" is a very popular dish in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. French fries served with hot mustard
is very popular in Ireland
There is a museum in Belgium entirely devoted to the classic
fast-food snack frites.
French Fries in France are known as frites, patates frites, or
pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many
non-French areas.
About seven per cent of the potatoes grown in the US are sold by
McDonald’s. It sells more than one third of all the French fries
sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.
According to the Agricultural Research Service in Navarre, potato
skins are packed with 60 phyto-chemicals, many of these are
flavonoids which help lower bad cholesterol and keep arteries clear.
Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do
consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.
Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French
fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping.
The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the
fries have been pulled from the fryer. This tends to mostly cook the
egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.