French Fries or Chips?

Fries or Chips. What's the Difference? Experience England's famous dishes and find out for yourself the answer to the age old question; which is better, American fries or English chips?

England has become a melting pot of cultures and as a result, a melting pot of cuisines. In the heart of London you can find Indian cuisines, African cuisines, Chinese, Japanese, Jamaican, Mexican, Spanish, Italian, French, German… any kind of cuisine you can think of, London has it! Although there is so much amazing new ethnic food for you to try during your trip to England, and we encourage you to try as many different ethnic foods as possible, it is also fun to try some foods that are very common in the United States and compare them to what you can find in England, like french fries!

Referred to as chips in England, and typically paired with fish such as cod or haddock to make England's famous dish: fish and chips, chips are just sliced potatoes that are fried. Similarly, in America, we also like to slice up potatoes and fry them; however, we call them french fries!

You may be asking yourself, “so, aren’t they the same thing with different names?”. And although that is technically true I have found there are some big differences between french fries and chips. Here is a list of differences that I noticed while I was traveling abroad in England. 
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1. Shape. Although in America fries come in all shapes; curly, crinkle, waffle, etc; when we think of a french fry we picture a small, thin fry. We usually think of the picture on the right. But chips are actually bigger than a french fry. Chips are cut thick as you can see in the picture on the left. 
2. Saltiness. In my experience, I found that chips, obviously, taste similar to french fries however, chips were way less salty. And that is because they don’t use nearly the amount of salt to season chips as we do to season fries. I found that I actually enjoyed chips more than fries because of how lightly salted they were! If you love salty fries please do not be alarmed, extra salt is always offered just in case you crave that extra salt.
3. Serving Size. Since chips are fried with sunflower oil which is a healthier alternative to canola oil, which is what is used to fry french fries, and since they are served with a fraction of the amount of salt, the portions of chips tend to be much larger in England. As a potato connoisseur, I was happy to discover this!

On top of yummy chips and other delicious cuisines, England also has lots of shopping, sightseeing, bustling cities, quiet country sides, and TONS of history. England is a wonderful destination to travel to for any type of traveler! 

I strongly encourage you to travel to England and try some chips and come up with your own comparisons and share your opinions with me! Book an adventure planning session today to get started planning your trip to England!
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Some pictures that I took while I was in London at a restaurant called 'Fish& Chips". I got fried cod and fresh chips with some gravy because I'm in love with poutine! It was so delicious!