this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
1385 points (98.5% liked)

Memes

45746 readers
1771 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago (1 children)

French is actually the language of the fries.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Curious, so why is it I never heard them talk in French?

[–] Sept@lemmy.ml 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

2003 Americans: "Freedom made this"

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Poik@pawb.social 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The term "frenching" is also a culinary term that means preparing food for even cooking and to make it visually appealing.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, we did that in middle school too

[–] Bunnylux@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even though we werent visually appealing...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't it short for french-cut fried potatoes and had nothing to do with France at all?

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, France developed the cut. No?

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Eh, they just liked it a lot. But they definitely popularized it and detailed usages of it in books. They didn't invent "cut it long and thin" though, since that's just basic knife work whose origin is lost to time.

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 44 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Potatoes are a food native to the Americas and the Belgians claiming them is cultural appropriation. French fries are Chilean.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fun fact: what's known in the US as "Danish pastries" are known in Denmark as wienerbrød (Vienna bread) and it turns out that both terms have some merit:

It was invented in Copenhagen by immigrants from Vienna

[–] Fridgeratr@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] AJam@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I was curious about French Toast the other day. Turns out it was invented by someone with the last name French and the intention was to call it French's Toast. But when he printed the name, he forgot the apostrophe and 'S'!

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Similar story with German chocolate cake. It was German's chocolate cake. A guy named German.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

And Black Forest cake was actually created by Forest Whitaker.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Species8472@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 year ago (15 children)

Who wants to claim our Brussels Sprouts? Go ahead, take them. Nobody? Well well well.

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] hOrni@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

In Poland we have Greek style fish, Ukrainian borscht and Russian pierogi. None of which have anything to do with the place they are named after.

I forgot about French pastry. Which I just puff pastry, but we call it French pastry for some reason. Doesn't it come from Ireland?

[–] Azgrel@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

A little correction, the name "ruskie pierogi" comes not from Russia but from Red Ruthenia/Red Rus, or Ruś Czerwona in Polish, a region in western Ukraine.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Hot dogs are bastardized from three separate Germanic names. Frankfurt sausages sounded a bit formal, so you got "hot dachshunds," except Americans could neither spell nor pronounce the name of that breed, so you get "hot dogs." If you asked what a hot dog was you'd probably be told it's a wiener on a bun, where the English word "wiener" is a loanword from the German conjugation of "from Vienna." And we've come full circle by routinely referring to dachshunds as wiener dogs.

The less-fun tangent about the prominence of German food in American culture is that New York was famed for its wealthy German-American families until all their wives and children were on a boat that sank. I am not joking.

[–] TheyCallMeHacked@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Quick note, just to be a pedantic arsehole: conjugation is specific to verbs. The general term is declension, which includes conjugation, but more broadly refers to the changing of a word depending on its semantical context

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
[–] someguy3@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But... alliteration is always awesome.

[–] SexyTimeSasquatch@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We could have called them Flemish fries.

[–] idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even as a homophone, I don't want the word phlegm associated with my salty snacks.

Don't call me homophonobic though, I support phonemes of all stars, stripes, and identities.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What about Flanders fries then?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] pooberbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Alternatively, alliteration am always awesome

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

No, Freedom made this.

[–] yata@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It has been established that the earliest recorded recipes of fries are French.

[–] Stamets@startrek.website 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Which is debated as there are signs that point towards Spain having done it first. Then there's the fact that Belgium says they developed it first, not the French, and that remains hotly debated.

It's almost like people aren't entirely sure where French fries came from yet north America insists on calling them French anyway. Wonder if a meme can be made from that?

[–] somas@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@Stamets

I’ll simplify things for you. I French fries. Anyone who says otherwise is a dirty liar

[–] Prunebutt@feddit.de 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Without knowing anything at all about the subject, except for where potatoes come from: Can we even be sure that native Americans didn't do them first?

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 10 points 1 year ago

I always thought they were called French fries because they're French style, as in cut into long thing pieces. Til!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Belgians: And I took that personally…

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] spark947@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's the Belgian flag. But don't worry, they are so rare and tiny, that it doesn't make a difference. We eat more Pommes in Germany anyway!

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Actually...my nation made it. Every popular food item you can think of actually.

Then I spread them around your planet and had my agents whisper in people's ears to say things about them all.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Deiskos@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Oh hey, OpenDyslexic font.

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We call them pommes frites in Denmark

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›