Restaurant owner in Idaho potato country writes ode to fries

NEW YORK (AP) — Fried or baked, sprinkled with truffle oil or flavored with crumbled herbs, french fries are an enduring dish, fancied up or served the simple way around the globe.

[...] what do we REALLY know about the history of the lowly sliced potato, or in a broader sense, the lowly sliced yam, okra or just about any vegetable that can be, well, sliced and fried, sauteed or roasted, coated or battered.

Blake Lingle, co-founder and co-owner of the Boise Fry Company, with four locations there and one in Portland, Oregon, has some fun with his bite-size guide, written not for the hardcore foodie or food historian but the rest of us — just regular old potato lovers.

[...] the history of fries, he broadened their definition beyond sliced potatoes, to include yams, sweet potatoes and other vegetables prepared in different ways.

The Belgians blame the Americans for mistakenly giving french fries the name when they confused French-speaking Belgian soldiers in possession of some sort of fried esculents with French-speaking French soldiers during World War I.

Many are hand-cutting, inventing signature coatings and dips and experimenting with techniques often reserved for other foods, such as dehydration and sous vide, the method of sealing food in plastic bags then placing them in water baths or steam.