u'The real history of French fries.

What we recognize today as Belgian \u2018frites\u2018 or \u2018friets\u2018 is thought to have originated in the Meuse region in 1680. The poor inhabitants of the Meuse valley area subsisted mainly on fish. When the River Meuse froze in 1680, potatoes were cut into the shape of fish, fried, and used as a substitute to their main staple.

Belgian fries \u2013 \u2018les frites\u2019 \u2013 were incorrectly named \u2018French fries\u2019 by American servicemen when they came to Belgium at the end of World War I. The French fries mislabel was reportedly the result of naming the fries after the French language spoken in Wallonia.

There has been much disagreement over the origin of frites as the region lies in the heart of French-speaking Wallonia, forcing Flanders to desperately seek a Flemish origin to the food. But, as in most countries, food can define culture and in frites are generally accepted as a unifying force and thoroughly \u2018Belgian\u2019 \u2013 francophone or not.

French fries (or rather Belgian fries) are thought to have arrived in the US in the late 1700s. Thomas Jefferson brought the method back to the colonies. We can guess it\u2019s the method he brought back and not a soggy bag of chips.

In the UK, the first chip is believed to have materialised at Dundee Market in the 1870s, traded by a Belgian immigrant named Edward De Gernier.

As for the frites add-on essential, mayonnaise, its origin is cloudy. One theory connects it to the harbor town of Mahon, liberated by Cardinal Richelieux from the English. The towns of Bayonne and Mayon, however, also claim the golden morsels as their own.'