Alternative stories of the origin of the famous fry:

1. First sold in France, by street vendors on Paris’s Pont Neuf in 1780.
2. Invented by the Spanish, as Spaniards were the first Europeans to encounter the famous South American Potato, and were famous for frying food in oil.
3. Bought to American by Thomas Jefferson, who went to France during the 1780s and had his slave collect recipes for vanilla ice cream, cheese and macaroni, apart from fried potatoes.

For a few years, French fries were renamed as Freedom Fries in the United States, as a way to protest against France’s refusal to give them political support in the Gulf crisis.

This was later restored in 2006, and Freedom Fries became French again.

• While French fries are consumed globally, different cultures consume them with different toppings or condiments.
• Americans have them with ketchup, while the French with mustard. Japanese have their fries with green curry or soy sauce, while Malaysians eat them with chilli sauce.
• The Belgians, who consider themselves as the place where french fries originated, eat them with mayonnaise.