Too Much To Dream

We'd have then also call "chips" "crisps."

Does this mean we now should refer to "freedom toast" and "freedom kissing"?

Oh, dear, is "American cheese" still "American cheese"?

Signed,
Worried In Boulder

I could deal with calling chips "crisps."

You're in Florida -- call 'em what we do : pappas. If anyone gets confused, shout pappas fritas! Andale! Chop chop!

Actually, I tend to just call them "fries." Saying "French fries" sounds affected, rather like saying "video-tape recorder" instead of "VCR."

Scott,

Florida's a pretty big place. I'm 99% sure I wish I was wherever you are, but most people here in Tallahassee would have no idea what you were talking about.

Myself, I tend to agree with Andrea and just call them fries. Of course, I also spent time in Belgium and do sometimes eat them with mayonnaise (consider said dialogue from Pulp Fiction hereby invoked), whereupon I'm tempted to refer to them as "frites," but that'd be even worse than "French fries," now wouldn't it?

Ew, mayonnaise is evil!

Andrea, you are crazed! Fries with mayo is the ONLY way to go! MMMMM! :) I've no idea how that tradition got into my family, but I do so love it.

Ick. French fries should never touch mayonnaise. Talk about your cholesterol double-whammy. Almost as bad as the french-fries-and-gravy habit of the folks in Newfoundland.

No food should ever touch mayonnaise. Mayonnaise should only be used in wartime on lawful enemy combatants.

Fries-and-gravy is not limited to Newfoundland. I saw that for sale at a fast-food joint in Whitehorse (called poutine), and was served it by mistake in Grand Prairie after the waitress asked if I wanted gravy on my fries and I said no.

I did eat the gravy-fries, though. It wasn't chunderworthy but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it again.

Give us fish now, and keep nassty chips!

I haven't heard anyone say "French fries" in years it seems like. It's always just "fries." As for French toast, I read somewhere recently that it didn't originate in France anyway. Now isn't that just like the French to take the credit for something good? Come to think of it, French fries might not be French either. American fries?

Alright folks. It's NOT _F_rench fries. It's _f_rench fries. As in, they are not FRENCH at all.. it refers to the way the potatoes are cut, which is called frenching.

Anyway, we all just call them fries down here in Texas.

everyone I know just calls 'em fries, as in "You want fries with that?"*

"french fries" (regardless of whether it's the name of the country or of the mode of cooking) sounds rather affected to me.

• a friend of mine who taught high school always used to use this as a threat when his students complained about "all the work" that was heaped on them: "Ok, then, you can drop out and you'll only need to know five words for the rest of your life: 'you...want...fries...with...that?'"

Griddle toast for breakfast sounds good to me.

The first time I had fries with mayo was in Italy. I actually like them that way.

Of course, if we're talking fish and chips one has go 100% English style and smother than in vinegar, the better to soak up the salt.

Les Quebecois go the Newfoundlanders one better and add horribly disgusting "cheese" curds to the brown gravy: it's called "poutine" and THAT's what should be reserved for use on the enemy.

Finally, the one thing that I crave most for my fries is something called "Samurai Sauce" which is available only at the better frite-shops of Brussels. It's spicy and, well, difficult if not impossible to describe, although the name does not allude to anything because one thing it remotely isn't is Japanese. Ah, fond memories of Frite-Land, just across from the Bourse...pick up some Chimay or Hoegaarden (that's beer) to go with it, hang out on the Grand' Place and smoke some Cuban cigars...life could be worse. ;-)

This is too confusing. I am switching to onion rings. And tater tots (For The Children™, of course). Both are suitable with mayonnaise. I mean, um, coleslaw dressing.

My wife says mayonnaise is a "condiment of mass destruction."

Maybe not mass destruction, but certainly arterial obstruction. ;-)

This is threatening to take all the fun out of French kissing.

On second thought, no it's not. Who can think of the French while you're so occupied?