We invented the real French fries in 1781!

According to the historian Jo Gérard, Fries were first cooked in the town of Huy. A 1781 family manuscript describes how the poor in the Andenne Region (which includes Huy) used to catch small fish in the River Meuse and fry them as a treat. In the winter, when the river froze and it was not possible to fish, they would cut potatoes into fish-shaped pieces and fry them in the same way as they fried fish. The writer in 1781 states that this practice was already current more than a hundred years previously.

Belgian fries are different from the French fries, they are thicker and are baked twice. They are eaten with meals or as a snack and they are served with a large selection of sauce like mayonnaise, tartar sauce, Russian dressing, or béarnaise sauce.

Belgians consume an average of 165lbs of fried potatoes per person each year, a third more than Americans.

There is more than 5,000 friteries (fries stands) in Belgium and fries are served in a sheets of paper rolled into an upside down cone. The most famous is Maison Antoine located Place Jourdan (www.maisonantoine.be).

A variation is to serve the meat, the frites, possibly salad and sauce in a half of a baguette and is called a mitraillette which literally translates as submachine gun.