PsychoSerenity wrote:Forty Two wrote:This is not that complicated, nor is it really a bone of contention, at least for Americans. We know what chips are and we know what french fries are. When served with fried fish, it's "fish and chips." So, Americans are fully capable of embracing multiple usages of the word.
No no no. You do not have fries with fish. You have fries with burgers or fried chicken or other excessively processed fast foods. Fries, chips and crisps are all distinctly different things.
It's not that complicated, FFS. In the US, the things you call chips are a variety of fries. However, when served with fried fish, they are called chips. if served with a burger, the same chips would be called fries.
We don't really call anything "crisps." Pringles renamed its things "crisps," but in practice they are not called that.
You say "you do not have fries with fish." No. YOU don't have fries with fish, because in your land you don't consider chips a kind of fries or fries a kind of chips. In the US, the chips you serve with fish would be called fries if we served them next to a burger. Yes, we have fries with burgers or fried chicken, but those may or may not be similar to the chips you are referring to. We have some fries here that are very thin and crispy, some soggy, some medium cut, some crinkle cut, some waffle cut, some thicker cut, some called "steak fries" and still other varieties, only we lump them all together under the umbrella rubric "fries."
Please link to images of the "distinctly different," fries and chips. I understand that crisps in your milieu are the same as our potato chips, so that's not necessary.
Also, as an aside, you referred to fries being served with burgers and fried chicken and "other" excessively processed fast food. Note, that a burger and fried chicken are generally not any more (or less) "processed" than fish and chips. Fried chicken is chicken that is breaded or battered and fried. Fish and chips involves fish that is breaded or battered and fried. No additional "processing" involved. A burger is just meat in a patty with any number of varieties of seasonings and spices, etc., involved. Other than the meat being ground, there is no more processing to it than with chicken or fish.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar
