There's no wrong target. Some people enjoy deep-dish pizza. It kinda baffles me but I wouldn't be telling them that they're "shooting for the wrong target" if they tried to replicate this particular recipe because that's what they like.

I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section and that properly cooked Belgian style fries would be a revelation for a great number of people over here.

Besides, the whole premise of TFA is based on snobbery and a bit of nostalgia. They're recreating the old McDonalds fries, not the new because of the perceived superiority of the old ones, after all.

I only argue that if you're going to be a snob, you should at least be a well-informed snob, though perhaps my intended humor came across poorly over the internet.

Imagine reading an article written by somebody who has never tried deep dish pizza (or any other kind) writing about their quest to replicate an old Dominos crust recipe.

That's the thing about America. Somebody from every country is here, making their traditional foods or riffing on them with new ingredients and processes. I can go downtown and try Ethiopian, two British pubs, two Vietnamese, French (high and low styles), three Indian places, 4 Thai, 6 kinds of Mexican. All run by folks from those places.

Plenty of exceptions exist, but tend to be very local.

[1]: He expressed it as a threat.

[2]: I think the hope that we'd have a taco truck on every corner was probably more unifying than anything else that's happened or been done by anyone in the US since.

American Thai food as generally consumed is rapidly becoming it’s own thing that’s somewhat related to actual Thai food. Like California rolls or hotdogs what’s left over after the free market has it’s say is a very different thing.

And that's what we're seeing now with Thai food. As the generations get further and further removed from the original immigrants, the cuisine continues to evolve in its own direction. And why shouldn't it?

It's also worth remembering that restaurants are not always (and in fact, rarely are) representative of the actual local cuisines. There's still heavy emphasis on the good ol' home cooked meal (as hard as frozen food chains might try to supplant home cooking), and that's where you see both the preservation of tradition and the proliferation of experimentation, marketability and profit be damned. Indeed, looking at these home cooked meals, it becomes readily evident that the oft-denigrated Chinese holes-in-the-wall and small town pizzerias are far closer to authenticity than the fancy gastropubs and fusion restaurants of snobbish preference; authentic cuisine puts form over function, and heartiness over presentation. Authenticity comes from humility and self-awareness; it doesn't need to try to impress anyone's palate.

I stand by my original point that you can’t call something authentic X after you significantly later what it is. Small town pizzerias and snobbish restaurants are both very distinct from classic Italian food.

That said, if you go to Italy today they very much cater to tourists expecting food their familiar with. Further, while the tomato was only imported in the 16th century, that’s plenty far back to confuse the issue.

So does that make it "not Italian"? It was first-generation cooks that made it. Certainly not "Traditional Italian" but so what?

So we're gonna ask the next time.

PS: Hot isn’t a complex flavor it’s exactly what’s left over after you extract the complexity from many ethnic dishes.

Unless the American eats only at fast food restaurants (which is probably a decent sized group), then I can't imagine that to be true. There are fries with many difference cross section sizes even in a regular grocery freezer aisle.

And many restaurants frequently serve fries ranging from skinny shoestring to full on "potato logs" that are easily an inch diameter cross section.

Everything tastes better when you're on vacation. Less stress. Heightened senses It's science.

I mean don't get me wrong, at home we have a fryer and we make the odd load of homemade chips as well and they are the tits, but it's not the same.

We used to be able to get solid blocks of frying fat, probably was beef tallow or something like that, but it's all saturated fats (I believe) and bad for one's health and the like. According to the wisdom of the time anyway; I don't know, there may have been some lobby behind it (like how the wheat lobby made fat the boogeyman, and now someone is making the sugar / carb industry look bad).

A lot of the things humans put in their mouths just aren't safe long term. We're pretty good at making suboptimal long-term choices.

Without being able to run experiments on real human bodies over full life spans like I suggest here [1], it's impossible to quantify.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 (I advocate for this rather frequently)

Small amounts of any of those "bad" things is just fine. The problem is that many people have come to see them as the core of their diet, with vegetables as an unpleasant supplement to be minimized. Learn to cook vegetables well, and vast frontiers of interesting, delicious food open up.

Indian food is an excellent starting point[1], for either vegetarian or vegan eating. For that matter most authentic Asian cuisines are heavy on the vegetables, with small amounts of meat for flavor, which is also a very healthy way to eat (especially if you substitute whole grains for the white rice).

Plenty of other cultures have thrived on vegetable-based diets. It's really not that difficult. You just need to get over the notion that "food" consists of a meat main dish, a starch, and a desultory, obligatory vegetable side.

[1] https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish is a current favorite of mine.

Think of a dish composed mainly of "vegetables, whole grains, and beans" with minimal carbs and even more minimal butter/oil. What is the recipe? Then, consider if it tastes good - as good or better than similar recipes where more carbs and oil is used. I've been cooking a variety of meat and vegetarian dishes of various cuisines for years and I know of no such dish I'd want to eat with regularity. Brown rice, steamed chicken breast, and cauliflower just doesn't cut it for my palette, and I suspect the same for the majority of people who know how good a Sunday roast or pizza tastes.

Controlling total calories is important in weight loss, and that's a matter of portion control. A diet with a good proportion of fat will be fairly satisfying; you just need to limit the total amount of it. That'll still leave you a little hungry. There's no magic that makes calorie deficit pleasant. Tweaking the ratios can make it less unpleasant, a matter of personal taste.

It doesn't need to be junk. You don't even necesarily need a calorie deficit, if you're happy with your weight. There exist good vegetarian and vegan diets with appropriate amounts of fat and appropriate total calories, and they don't at all resemble "brown rice, steamed chicken breast, and cauliflower".

If carbs are bad, you can't have those.

The problem is that some foods have nothing but carbs, and if you eat a lot of those, you'll either consume too many calories overall or fail to get necessary nutrients. So eat fewer white, starchy foods like potatoes, and more leafy foods, squashes, and other colorful foods.

Similarly, whole grains bring a lot of vitamins and fiber, while refined grains like white rice are reduced to just the starch. It's just fine that those whole grains also have carbs in them. That's actually a good thing, becuase you do need calories for energy. You just need more than that.

Most people can get away with eating whatever they want with a modest amount of rigorous exercise each day. Granted, they still need to control their food intake and ensure they are getting required nutrients, but that's pretty straightforward.

You can get calories from protein, fats and carbs, so choose a balance diet.

“Life ain’t worth a dime without a little colesterol” Leah Chase

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase

Although checking out the Google Reviews before a visit filtering by the Belgian names of the reviewers' is generally a good enough measure to go by.

But please, do try them with mayo!

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262110048

It's astonishing to me that mayo is not the default dipping sauce for fries in the US, considering mayo is put on everything in the US.

Mayo with hot sauce is my favorite fry dip by a staggering margin.

On the rare occasions I make fries at home, I like to mix some curry powder into mayo for dipping, a taste I acquired on a trip to Italy.

They absolutely do have the contrast, where are you getting your shoestring fries?! :P

The only thing is, shoestring fries need to be eaten within ~10 minutes of being fried, before they dry out. Maybe you let yours sit around too long, or get them from somewhere that does.

Thicker fries are too close to baked potatoes for me. :( I want golden cripsy goodness!

Thankfully there are 100 types of fries because people like 100 types of things. :)

So I'm glad you like the Belgian fries. What I've always learned to be key is that we fry our cut potatoes twice: once at 140°C, wait for them to cool down, and once at 175-180°C. Then you add salt, that's it.

And the mayo: I don't think many people like it like that when they eat fries at home, but it's easy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

FWIW, they're brined in a solution containing sugar, it's not like there's sugar sprinkled on them. Very little of it makes it into the final product and in my experience brined fries aren't perceptibly sweet in an obvious way. It assists with browning and a crunchy exterior.

There are some other variations, like blanching the potatoes with vinegar, or freezing the potatoes overnight between frying. The idea is to make them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

But, in any other situation if mayo is involved I'm grossed out to the point of puking. Even when I just smell the mayo (from the same brand) someone is putting on their plate of vegetables or whatever.

The southern US used to produce a lot of sugar. Before refrigeration it was heavily used as a preservative.

So there's a big market that expects things to have a lot of sugar in them.

Europeans would absolutely eat sugar in the same volumes if it were as cheap there as it is in America. As with most of the cultural differences between the regions, a lot of it comes down to economics: if gas were cheap in Europe, they'd also drive big SUVs; if land were as cheap in Europe, they'd have McMansions; etc.

£0.65/kg in Tesco in the UK, 7.5kr/kg ($1.20) in Føtex in Denmark, but $1.80/kg at Walmart. Corn syrup at Walmart is more expensive, $2 a pint, but presumably cheaper in bulk packaging. (Last time I was in the USA, I saw an entire freight train of tank cars full of HFCS.)

(You'll also note that plenty of rich Europeans prefer large "normal" cars, like Audis, BMWs, Mercedes etc, and a nice apartment in the middle of a city.)

BBQ sauce is full of sugar. Ketchup too. People dip their fries in ice cream. Chocolate dipped pretzels work on the same principle. As does candied bacon and apple grilled cheese. Your Thanksgiving Honeybaked Ham is glazed in a sweet sauce. Turkey and cranberry sauce are a match made in heaven. Bacon and maple syrup were practically made for each other.

For example, this pasta sauce has sugar in the American version (https://www.classico.com/product/00041129077023/italian-saus...) but not the Canadian one (https://www.kraftwhatscooking.ca/brands/classico/product/cla...). The funniest thing about it is that the Canadian version still says "Product of USA" on the jar, they just cut out the sugar for that market.

Some of the local foods in the US also have off the charts levels of sweetness, such as southern sweet tea and sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. Bread and pizzas also tend to be on the sweeter side in the US.

Sugar is not uncommon in commercial pasta sauce, even in Canada.

> That's super reductionist... [list of American foods (or foods that aren't american but are extremely popular there, as in ketchup) with sugar added to it]

You didn't do much to dispell the idea that this is an American thing.

Maybe salted caramel pralines. But sour and sweet is a common flavour trope in much of the world. e.g. lemon + sugar e.g. in cannoli; tamarind and cane sugar in SE Asia and Mexican recipes; Chinotto.

But after a few days in America I wasn't that surprised. It was just another thing with added sugar for no reason.

That is not normal, and it isn't fair to extrapolate your single experience to be so.

I've had hotel breakfasts in 48 states. Nobody puts sugar on the sausages.

You probably had pancakes on the plate and some of the sugar got on the sausages during sprinkling.

There's no disputing taste.

I love them topped with mayo but some places have a curry option that is even better!