On a French Fry Bender
Uncovering my hidden potato history
Welcome to everyone who has landed here from The Tattered Page Book Club. I hope you’ll come along for my deep dives into what I’m researching.
Today, I’m exploring French Fries.
In one of my current writing projects, Trudie, the main character, is processing some life changing news. Currently, this is a single point of view story told in close third person. I’m also dabbling with a direct first person telling. We’ll see what shakes out in the editing.
I needed a way to physically move Trudie from the last immediate life altering event to the next life altering event all the while addressing WTF just happened to her.
What came out was a total surprise to me. Characters often have a way of directing their stories. It’s best to see where they take you.
Trudie ends up sitting in the car having a French Fry bender. She’s alone with her huge bag of fries and several tiny cups of ketchup eating with messy abandon. It’s her guilty pleasure and she’s not sharing. As the fries disappear, her internal monologue is processing the last scene. Her eating style reveals parts of her personality in a show and tell moment.
I had in mind that Trudie was eating one of those way to large orders of Five Guys fries that are like thin shoestrings but have the skin. But what was that style? Details matter in my world. And so the research began. A quick search revealed the answer - boardwalk style! But I didn’t stop there because research is nothing but writing procrastination in disguise. The fryer was open and in I went.
What’s your favorite fry?
That evening as I was planning an upcoming trip to London, my husband asked if there were any restaurants he should book. I’d love to have some really good fish and chips. CHIPS - the British expression of French Fries. Which then began a conversation of the last “fry” meal I requested last summer, Poutine in Montreal. Which brought back “do you remember that fritche stand in Amsterdam? I lived in the Netherlands for three years where I discovered in my early twenties that the both the Dutch and Belgians adore their fries and eat them with a mayonnaise sauce. At first I thought it was disgusting - team ketchup - until I stopped being a boorish American.
I write a lot about food. The Pelican Tide is about a hot sauce chef. I like food metaphors and how food provides comfort, community, habits, locations, and so much more in stories.
Everything I Wanted to Know about Fried Potatoes and More
Cultural Spuds
Chips
are what people in Great Britain and Ireland call French Fries. Potato chips are called crisps. These spuddy beauties are thicker than most American style fries with a crisp outside. They are ubiquitous and half of the dynamic duo - fish and chips.
Poutine
This dish of fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds hails from the French side of Canada. The word Poutine so sources say is Quebecois for “mess.” And if you’ve been presented with a plate of this deliciousness, it does look like a dog’s breakfast.
The first week in February is Poutine week. Sort of like restaurant week in cities across the U.S. It’s really, really cold in February in Canada so come out and have some gravy cheese fries.
April 11 is International Poutine Day.
Belgian/Dutch Style
Research is great. I thought that the difference between the Belgian and Dutch fry was the sauce and the blurry boarder between the two countries. Turns out according to the link here that Belgian fries are deep fried in suet (beef fat) and Dutch fries in vegetable oil. French fries were everywhere while I lived there but I was grossed out by the mayonnaise (team ketchup as I said above). I was too busy drinking beer and eating chocolate to mess with fries.
My Frozen Potato History
My first and almost longest writing beat was in frozen foods. I was the Benelux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg) editor for the trade journal Quick Frozen Foods International.
Author Aside
For reasons that I don’t know, one of my articles was made into a booklet? and someone listed it on Goodreads!? I’d love to know how/who is responsible.
I find this to be so funny. I have rated that article 5 stars and if you want in on the joke, PLEASE visit my profile and give the article 5 stars. It’s from 2006 and I can’t find it in my archives, but I’m still looking.
In short, I wrote about frozen food, first in Europe and then in the United States, for over two decades. The global frozen french fried potato market is huge $17.11 billion (with a B) This is the type of investigative research that launched my writing career.
But before I wrote about frozen fried potatoes for a living, I was a college student.
Back in my undergraduate days (hello fellow Clarkies) my roommates and I would return to our apartment after a night of (insert whatever activity) and be hungry. My roommate JQ came up with snotty fries. Melted cheese smothered Smiley fries. That became a crime scene when doused in ketchup.
Smiley fries are formed mashed potatoes. I had to clip this truly alarming image from an article I found on the Smiley Fry trademark.
Delicious kid’s snack or yet to be animated killing disk?
Cue the Super Creepy Music
What Country Lays Claim to the Original French Fry?
This is a great question and I think has caused more than one international incident. Fried potatoes are found all over the globe. I do like this Wikipedia article that lays out some convincing information. Warning as always that it’s Wikipedia. Always a good place to start but not always land. Spain was the first country to bring potatoes back from the Americas — but Belgium is laying claim. Does it matter? Fried potatoes are just delicious.
Book Report
Thank you to everyone who has supported The Pelican Tide by taking a chance and spending a few hours reading and experiencing Grand Isle, Louisiana. The book is earning great reviews and posts. I am blown away with how this book is connecting with readers. Please share this story and ask your local libraries to order it too.