{"id":6296,"date":"2019-10-01T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=6296"},"modified":"2019-10-01T07:46:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T07:46:26","slug":"150-years-of-fries-in-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/150-years-of-fries-in-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"150 Years of Fries in the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week marked 150 years of the delicious and crispy fries in the Netherlands. 150 years ago, a kermis\u00a0<\/em>or fair\u00a0<\/em>in Breda introduced the Dutch to fries and life was never the same!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo taken by Charleston’s TheDigitel found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Patat of friet?<\/h3>\n

There is an ongoing debate in the Netherlands as to what is the right name for fries.\u00a0Boven de rivieren\u00a0<\/em>or the north part of the country calls\u00a0this delicious snack patat<\/em> while\u00a0onder de rivieren<\/em> or the south and\u00a0parts of Belgium call it\u00a0 friet or frieten<\/em> (plural). Many many years ago, the Dutch used to call this snack\u00a0patatfriet.\u00a0<\/em>Patat<\/em> referred to the potato and friet<\/em> described that it was fried. Eventually, people tried to shorten the word. In an interview with Linda.nl<\/a>, a university professor from Amsterdam University specialised in language explained that the reason for the split was that in Limburg dialect, patat krijgen<\/em> (literally getting a potato) means getting whacked in the head. Hence, the south opted for friet<\/em> and the north opted for keeping just the first part of the word: patat. <\/em>In Belgium,\u00a0patat <\/em>refers to a potato and using friet<\/em> made more sense.<\/p>\n

The video below explains more of the history of this dish and the\u00a0patat\/friet\u00a0<\/em>debate.<\/p>\n