HIDDEN GEM:DID YOU KNOW that French fries (or chips, if you must) should really be called Belgian fries and that the mistake is all the fault of the Americans?
The only reason they’re known as French is that during the first World War US soldiers would scoff fries in what they thought was still France but was in fact the French-speaking part of Belgium.
You can learn this and other wondrous information at the marvellous Frietmuseum, or Chip Museum, in the Belgian city of Bruges.
Opened by the man who opened the nearby Lamp Museum, it features pictures and films that will give you a history of chips and go some way to explaining why they’re still the most popular fast food going.
Chips are also said to have been born in Belgium. The story goes that during one particularly bad winter in the late 17th century, frozen rivers meant locals could no longer catch fish. Instead they cut potatoes into fish shapes and fried them.
Set in an stunning 15th-century building, the museum has an array of historical chip-making machines, potato peelers and rudimentary “chip ovens”. It’s not the Louvre or the Prado, but it’s intriguing in its own chip-loving way.
After lingering perhaps a little too long over photographs of old Peruvian tubers and the like, there's only one thing you'll want to do: sample the product itself – and down in the cellar you can smother some fritesin mayonnaise.
There are also some examples of “chip art” and a great video explaining how to make perfect chips, which you will need a pen and a notebook for.
If you’re ever in Bruges, do yourself a favour, and head along.
- Frietmuseum, Vlamingstraat 33, Bruges, Belgium, 00-32-50-340150, www.frietmuseum.be/en
- Do you know of a hidden gem? E-mail us at go@irishtimes.com
