Comparison of the Confusable Terms of Potato Related
Potato Chips
Potato chips are commonly known as that thinly sliced potatoes, either deep fried or baked, until crunchy. However, sometimes we also refer to such slices as crisps. The different parlance depends on where in the English speaking world one is located. Simply speaking, the potato chip is American English, while potato crisp is British English. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, potato chips are the well-known crisps while chips are similar to French fries as in fish and chips but cut much thicker. However, they also use crisps to refer to other types of snack foods that made from corn, tapioca or other cereals. American also says crisp, but it is used for a fruit dessert with a sweet crumb topping, without any relation with potato.
French Fries
French fries, fries, in short, is American English. Americans and most Canadians refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries. Sometimes people bake fries instead of frying. Variants of French fries include thick-cut fries, steak fries, shoestring fries, jojos, crinkle fries, curly fries, hand-cut fries and tornado fries.
Potato Wedges
Potato wedges, a part of American cuisine, are a variation of French fries. Speakers of British English may talk about chips when they refer to potato wedges. Firstly, you could unpeel the large potato; just scrub it very well, and cut into large moon shapes; then generally season it with a number of spices such as salt, onion powder, and garlic salt. Furthermore, you may batter the potato by using a flour mixture or fine breadcrumbs to provide a crisp outside layer. Otherwise, you could fry them before seasoning. Once your batter, you can either bake or fry them. When purchased, people normally eat them while hot with sauce, such as ketchup, sour cream, and ranch dressing. In some regions of the United States, people call potato wedges as jojos, while the term originated in Ohio.
shoestring_potatoes
British English speakers may talk about fries when they refer to thin potato strips, sometimes known as shoestring potatoes in the United States. Potatoes are julienne cuts like extremely thin versions of French fry and deep fried until crispy. The name suggests their extremely narrow width that similar to a shoestring, but the length is free to decide. They also have another name: potato sticks. Unlike potato chips, with the packages in nitrogen filled plastic bags, potato sticks are typically packaged in airtight cans or foil bags.
Besides the common terms, they all have various variations in different countries and even in different areas of the same countries. If you are not sure what you are ordering or purchasing, just ask the others for explanation.
