French fries (North American English), chips (British and Commonwealth English), finger chips (Indian English), or French-fried potatoes are batonnet or allumette-cut deep-fried potatoes. In the United States and most of Canada, the term fries refers to all dishes of fried elongated pieces of potatoes, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa (rarely), Ireland and New Zealand, thinly cut fried potatoes are sometimes called shoestring fries or skinny fries to distinguish them from chips, which are cut thicker.
French fries are served hot, either soft or crispy, and are generally eaten as part of lunch or dinner or by themselves as a snack, and they commonly appear on the menus of diners, fast food restaurants, pubs, and bars. They are usually salted and, depending on the country, may be served with tomato sauce, ketchup, vinegar, mayonnaise, or other local specialties. Fries can be topped more heavily, as in the dishes of poutine and chilicheese fries. Chips can be made from kumara or other sweet potatoes instead of potatoes. A baked variant, oven chips, uses less oil or no oil. One very common fast food dish is fish and chips.
