Queuing up for Pommes Frites

Jim & Victor wait in a pommes-frites line in Ghent

In the USA we call them french fries, and naturally, we think they were invented in France. WRONG! 

Belgians deserve credit for coming up with this culinary treat, which they call pommes frites or frites for short. And Belgians LOVE their frites. If you're in Belgium and you see a lineup of people waiting near a takeout stand, it's probably a friterie. The Dutch love frites, too. They call them patat in the north and friet (or vlaamse frieten) in the south. Most Belgians and Dutch like their frites with a healthy dollop of mayonnaise on them. But there are many other toppings to choose from: mustard, curry sauce, bicky ketchup…

Bicky ketchup? Bicky ketchup is just regular ketchup, but sweeter. It gets its name from the Belgian Bicky Burger, a deep fried burger made with a mix of chicken, pork, and horse meat (to Americans, who don't generally eat horse meat, that might be an icky burger).

A cornet of frites 

In Belgium and the Netherlands most frites are made up fresh while you wait: crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. Michel Mes, a Dutch guy whose mission is to find the best "Belgian frites" all over the world, has a website devoted to them: belgianfries.com. He describes the cooking process: "Belgian fries are double-fried. First there is the cooking process, then the fries need to cool down and finally, just before serving, they are fried again to make them crispy and golden brown." Bintje potatoes (developed in the Netherlands) is the potato of choice for making frites.

Frites are traditionally served in a paper cone called a cornet, with a tiny plastic fork. Mayo and the other toppings are an additional charge.

Jeffrey 

At the best pommes frites stands there is often a waiting line. But waiting in line for frites is part of the fun! In the Belgian city of Ghent, Victor and Jim met a great Canadian guy named Jeffery in the pommes frites queue. Jeffrey told Jim he had lived in a town near us in Pennsylvania for a while! He was touring Ghent by bicycle and took a break for pommes frites. Jeffrey asked for brown gravy topping on his frites. We ate ours with mayo, of course.

There are tons of friteries in Belgium and the Netherlands and many of them advertise with a giant cornet of fries out front.  Some have found other creative ways to get our attention:

Belgians love their frites, but they are not allowed to take them everywhere. Mary Jane snapped this photo of a "don't" sign that was posted at the entrance to a church in Dinant. According to Wikipedia, it's recorded that the folks in Dinant were eating pommes frites as early as 1680…but not in church :-)