Patat or Friet? Dutch French fry debate explodes on Twitter

For months there has been a quite intense French fry discussion going on in the Netherlands, with the central question being are the delicious deep fried strips of potatoes called friet or patat. Hundreds of Dutch people have posed the question and given their opinion on Twitter and other social media platforms. The Meertens Institute has come up with an answer. And the answer to the fight that has been going on for months is: Patat and Friet are two completely different words that have exactly the same meaning. This is the conclusion of Mark Oostendorper of the Meertens Institute, the watchdog for the Dutch language, HP De Tijd reports. According to the Meertens Institute, the word "patat" comes from the Spaniards. During sixteenth century, Spanish explorers in the Andes came across the sweet potato, which they called "batata" and the white potato, which they called "papa", both from the Indian language Quechua. The two later merged into one word - patata. A few centuries later, the Belgian-Dutch started frying strips of potatoes and called them "patates frites", frites coming from the word frying. In the Flemish dialects, the fried potato started being pronounced as "patat friet", and in the Dutch-Dutch it was shortened to simply "patat". So whether you like to call them "patat" or "friet", they're actually "patat frites". The word "friet" is more often used in the southern parts of the Netherlands and the word "patat" in the northern parts of the country.