Are fries really French?
We eat them with hamburgers, the French serve them with steak, the Belgians like them with mussels.
What Americans call French fries (in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, often thick-cut deep- or "French-fried" potatoes are referred to as chips) are called pommes frites -- or just frites -- in France. So why do we call them French?
Some say it's because of the "French" cut of the potatoes; others, the "French-fried" cooking method; or that the name caught on after English-speaking World War I soldiers ate fries in Belgium, naming them "French" because that was the official language of the Belgian army. The Belgians are generally considered the originators of the French fry, although at least one historian argues that fries were first introduced in Spain.