Belgian Specialties: Part 1 - Fries

Mons is extremely close to the French border – it is about a 15 minute car ride. Needless to say, the language and culture reflect the French influence. But they do have their own twists – the primary example I can think of is the Belgian love of frites (French fries, ironic on the name, hmm? But that is a rabbit trail for another day).

A small historical sidebar: Belgians claim to have originated “French fries.” According to Wikipedia, (that wonderful source of information, mostly reliable) Belgian historian Jo Gerard recounts that potatoes were fried in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liege, Belgium. The poor inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals.” Interesting. It is impossible to know for sure who started it, but the Belgians have definitely adopted it and made it their national snack and are the largest consumers of them in Europe.

These frites aren’t like fries in the States, they are really much better. Apparently they fry them twice (very healthy) once at a low heat in which to cook them and then the second time at a high heat to give them that wonderful crispiness. They serve them with a variety of sauce options – the standard here is mayo, again, it isn’t mayo like at home, it is much creamier, almost like a tartar sauce and it is yummy. We have also had it with a curry sauce that was very nice. Ketchup is the standard American pleaser. They are served in friteries, which is a fry stand, but also at restaurants with all kinds of food. At the fry stand, the frites are served in a paper cone and you eat it with a spear or tiny fork. They are piping hot and fairly lightly salted. (They don't want the flavor of the fries to be masked by a wall of salt.) At restaurants, fries are served with fish, meat, mussels, omlettes, just about anything. Frites places are everywhere and they serve just about every meal with them. Fantastic. We have also witnesses, although didn’t visit, a Frites Museum in Brugge. These folks like their fried food. And, naturally, they go well with our next specialty (coming in Part 2), beer.