French Fries

Since Ben is more inclined towards traditional French cuisine and knows its history – stuff like why Opera cake is called Opera, etc, I asked him why French fries are called French fries. Like you have Penang Hokkien Mee which is prawn mee, and then Singapore Hokkien Mee which is something completely different. So why don’t we have Spanish fries and American fries? What’s so special about French fries when they don’t even come from France and are probably made from US potatoes?

Ben can’t sleep for days when I ask him these weird questions. And he actually goes and gets answers for me if he doesn’t have it at his fingertips.

Like once, I asked him if British royalty have a surname. Like y’know, Queen Elizabeth, Prince William… It can’t just say “Prince Charles” in his passport right… Does he even have or need a passport? So Ben actually asked one of the English boys, and he told him “It’s Windsor”.

Really? Seriously? So it’s Elizabeth Windsor? William Windsor? Hmmm…

Now since we’re on the subject of French stuff, did you know that before I met Ben, my friends were oddly eager to introduce me to French-speaking guys? I have no idea why! First there was Shan, who asked me to meet her for dinner. Then just before she picks me up, she says, “Wear something nice” which when translated means, “I’m introducing you to a guy against your will so don’t come in your jeans, rock t-shirt, without make up and with your hair looking like crap”.


So on the way to dinner she says, “Wah… He can speak French!” So what? He could be speaking Mandarin to me and I still wouldn’t understand a word. So this dude turns out to be a really nice and very Singaporean-ised angmoh, but he was like 12 years older and the only thing that seemed truly French about him other than his name was his Zidane-ish hairline.


Then after that, Shorbs and Raena tried to pull an “oh-you-must-meet-this-guy-thing” on me. This time, it was a Chinese fellow who speaks French, has a good job, is really nice and single (oxymoron?)… It’s a good thing their little plot fell thru ‘cos the only things French I like are French onion soup and French toast, and the only French-speaking guy who’ll ever get my attention is Johnny Depp. Ooolala…

Then I worked at GC, and the boss there said, “Ooooh… my Chefs are cute and they speak French you know” Enough already! These two “cute” French-speaking chefs she was referring to were Ben and David, who can’t really speak French lah – just a bit of cursing n swearing they learnt from Chef Julien.

They probably just said something like “Le mis en place escargot café au lait dauphinoise crème brulee thierry henri champs elysees…” to 'bedek' the ladies lah.


I remember when I had to do some food shots, and Ben was describing the starters that were on display. Pointing to the ratte potato with a ‘pekat’ French accent, “This is a rrrraahh potato, best potato in the world”. He only found out later that all he had to do was speak 'Yoda-ish' to impress this girl.


So the answer to why French fries are named so? Thomas Jefferson introduced fries to the colonies in the late 1700s, and the term French fries simply evolved from Jefferson’s description, “potatoes, fried in the French manner”. However, there’s no evidence that fries originated from France, with other countries like Belgium and Spain also claiming its origin.