Chips

So who was it who invented chips?

Ever since the 1830s, both the Belgians and the French have enjoyed eating loads of chips, but there’s no doubt chips were actually invented in Belgium.

Apparently, one winter when the River Meuse was frozen over, the citizens of Namur were really upset because they could no longer catch the little fish they liked eating by the mouthful. Someone then had the clever idea of cutting up potatoes in the shape of little fish and frying them. Chips were invented and honour saved.

A story about «papa»

The French were originally very suspicious about the «papa», a strange-looking tuber which had come from Peru. In 1757, Antoine Parmentier, a chemist, survived captivity in Prussia (Germany) by eating potatoes which were fed to pigs and prisoners. He remembered how well they had satisfied his hunger and tried to convince the French of their value as a food source for humans.

Consequently, in the 19th century, everyone in France started to eat potatoes. The slang word for a potato (“une pomme de terre”) is “une patate”, which comes from the English word “potato” or perhaps from the Spanish “patata”.

Workers in particular like to grow them in their gardens. They can be bought cheaply in big sacks and then served up with all kinds of sauces: as potato soup, mashed, diced, as crisps or French fries, steamed, boiled, baked in their jackets, as gratin dauphinois or chips – there’s something for everyone.

These days there are countless varieties of potato, each one belonging to the grower who invented it. So a gardener or farmer can only reproduce a particular kind of potato if he has permission from the seed company and has paid them royalties (reproduction rights). This is so in both French and European law.

Picturesque spud-speak

• “As-tu la frite?” or “As-tu la patate?” is a slang way of asking if you are feeling fit. You should only say it to your mates and definitely not to a teacher, nor even to your parents.
• “Se refiler la patate chaude” (“to pass on the hot potato”) means to get rid of a troublesome matter.
• “Se débrouiller comme une patate”(“to cope like a spud”) means to be lacking in ideas for solving a problem.
• “En avoir gros sur la patate” (“to have a lot on your spud”) is the feeling of having been unfairly treated.
• “Quelle patate!” (“What a spud!”) is a mild way of telling someone you think they’ve done something silly.

If you ask Snoopy (the dog in the Peanuts comic strip) what happiness is, he replies, “It’s another portion of chips!”