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CITYLIFE / Eating Out
The highlights of Belgian cuisine
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-05 10:21
Regular customers of?Beijing's two?Morel's Restaurants?know they provide
authentic Belgian dishes. Do you know what are?the most famous creations
of Belgian cuisine???There is really no better place to start than with
French fries ... which are not French at all, but Belgian.
"Belgian" fries
Fried potatoes or "frites" are the favorite snack of the Belgians, who
buy them at roadside stalls called "frietkot" in Dutch. Belgian fries
served with mayonnaise are also the favorite complement for a whole range
of famous Belgian dishes, like the steak tartare or a pot of mussels.
Fries are potatoes cut lengthwise into batons of variable length and
thickness, which are deep-fried in oil. Fries exist in various forms,
from the tick-cut variety preferred by the Belgians, to the shoestring
fries served at McDonald's. Belgian fries are about 10 to 13 millimeter
thick and must be fried twice, originally in ox or beef fat. Later
vegetable oil was used, because it is cheaper and has a lower cholesterol
content. The batons of potato are first fried for 6 to 10 minutes at a
temperature of 130 to 160 degrees Celsius, removed from the oil and
allowed to cool. They are fried again for 2 to 4 minutes at 175 to 195
degrees until they become golden-brown on the outside and slightly crisp.
According to the Belgian historian Jo Gerard, potatoes were already fried
in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of the Meuse valley
between Dinant and Li猫ge, two cities in present-day Belgium. The poor
inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their
meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were
unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to
accompany their meals. The Dutch called them Flemish fries. In 1862, a
stall selling French fried potatoes called "Max en Fritz" was established
near the castle "Het Steen" in Antwerp.
Nobody will be surprised to learn that the Belgians are the largest
consumers of French fries, so why still call them French?
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