Top 10 Modern Foods With (Mostly) Delicious Histories
10种拥有美妙历史的现代食物

9. French Fries
9.炸薯条

Of all the foods to have an origin story, this one seems to be the most clear cut as to where it came from. Unfortunately, there’s an ongoing dispute between France and Belgium as to who really made it.
在所有具有历史起源的食物中，这一款食物的源起最清楚不过。不幸地是，法国与比利时一直在争论到底是谁真正发明了这种食物。
The Belgian side of the story is that the 17th Century residents of the Meuse Valley in Belgium were not shy of frying things. They had a tendency to fry any fish that they caught, which made up the majority of what they ate. When winter came and the rivers froze over, the Belgians turned to the ever-reliable spud, preparing them in battered slices, the same way they prepared fish.
比利时的版本是：17世纪比利时默兹河流域的居民喜欢吃油炸食品。他们习惯把捕来的所有鱼都进行油炸，这在他们的饮食中占据了绝大部分。当冬天来临，河流冰冻，比利时人就求助于他们一直以来所依赖的马铃薯，把它们切成薄片预备着，他们对鱼也采取同样的处理方式。

The French side states that, in the late 17th Century, potatoes were regarded unfit for human consumption, and only for pigs to eat. When a famine struck in 1785, this mind-set changed, and the French gave the potato another chance. It caught on so well, by 1795 they were grown everywhere, with even some royal gardens being converted to help grow the friendly spud. During this boom, someone had the smart idea of frying the slices and selling them as ‘frites’. Thus, the French fry was born.
法国的版本是：在17世纪后期，人们认为土豆并不适合食用，只能用来喂猪。到1785年爆发了饥荒，这种想法才得以改变，法国人发现了土豆的另一个用途。它 变得相当流行，到1795年已经在各个地方都有种植，甚至一些皇家公园都被改造以有利于这些友好的马铃薯生长。在这个土豆繁荣的时期，有人想出一个聪明的 点子，将土豆切片并油炸，然后起名为“炸薯条”进行售卖。薯条由此诞生。