Friet-ful Experience

WITH A SIDE OF FRIES:  In my seemingly never-ending quest to play catch up, I'm still way behind on chronicling our excellent European adventure.

We started off by landing in London (Gatwick), spent the night in Dover, took a ferry over to Dunkirk/Dunkerque, France, and then drove up to Bruges, Belgium, for night number two.

Before leaving Bruges, we had one important item to check off on our 'to do' list. Funnily enough, it wasn't even on the list until a bit after we arrived in Bruges.  However, in the lobby of our hotel, we happened to see a little flyer about the Friet Museum. 

We don't really read or write any Dutch or Flemish, but we know fries (frites) when we see them and the thought of a whole museum dedicated to the deep fried wonders? Be still our hearts! 

Suddenly, it became SUPER IMPORTANT to find said museum and tour it. So, that's just what we did. We were waiting at its door when it opened that morning.

A museum dedicated to the history of the fries is an interesting concept, and it was a surprisingly compelling collection.

We loved the artsy, suspended potato mobile near the entrance. 

The history of the potato was documented. Most agree its roots are in Peru.

Then, the story became about how potatoes made their way from Peru to Belgium. 

This book, below, is thought ot be one of the oldest writings about the glorious potato. 

Displays in the museum extolled the many attributes of potatoes, including its medicinal qualities. 

Throughout the museum, there were a number of photo opps. Who could past this one up? Not us!

One section of the museum was all about implements used to cut fries. I have to admit, it's hard not to type FRENCH fries. We learned in the museum that fries probably maybe might have originated in Belgium.

Did you know Belgian fries have been to space? I did not, but we saw a video of them heading space-ward in the museum!

 There was even a display all about the various paper kinda cones that they are served in in Belgium.

All sorts of friets art was to be found in the museum. I wish I had something to show you the scale of the friets shop below. It was micro tiny!! Half the size of a shoe box, and so detailed!

We saw this fry guy not just at the museum, but in a number of places in our travel in Europe. We're thinking he must be the face of friets for some restaurant chain or brand of friets. 

There were a couple of pretend friets stands in the museum. 

Christian and the kids pretended to whip up some.

A friets food truck!

So, before we came to the museum, we'd had the most WONDERFUL breakfast. We were stuffed. But, can I tell you that after wandering through three floors of friets-related displays, suddenly you're hungry. And not just for anything, but for FRIES!!!

As luck would have it, there is a fry shop right in the basement of the museum. 

We had the place to ourselves and had some AMAZING friets, complete with "American" sauce. :)

Bottom line: If you're ever in Bruges, Belgium, you simply MUST visited the Friet Museum. 

Here's a short review from CJ: 

Frietmuseum is a museum in Bruges, Belgium, dedicated to the history of fries (and, by extension, potatoes). Frietmuseum is the first (and currently only) known museum in the world with the subject of fries.

My family visited Frietmuseum during our European trip this year. The street floor of the museum tells the story of how potatoes started in Peru, were domesticated (made larger, tastier, and more edible) by Native Peruvians, and brought to Europe (in particular Belgium) by European colonists.

In Europe, some chefs cut the potatoes into rectangles and fried them, thus making food that resembles modern french fries. In the early 20th century, "fry shops" (carts like food trucks that sold fries) were commonplace.

In the basement of Frietmuseum, there is a cafe that sells fries. The fries are sold alongside a special sauce made with ketchup, mayonnaise, and pickle bits.

There were mentions of what sauces have been served with friets over the years. I wish I had taken a photo of them all - and the list of sauces offered in the restaurant - but this is what I have.

And I just found this photo on my phone. One of the many artsy freit displays. It was about as tall as me.