History

The friterie is its own institution in the Nord, a wooden hut or a shopfront doing one thing properly. Frites are cut fresh, blanched at low heat and finished hot, traditionally in beef fat rather than oil, which is what gives them their flavour and their reputation. The fricadelle is the standard partner, a mixed-meat sausage with no skin, fried until dark. Sauces run to andalouse, samourai and, in Lille, a maroilles sauce that no other region attempts.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 25 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 1.2kg bintje potatoes
  • Beef dripping for deep frying, about 2 litres
  • Fine salt
  • 4 fricadelles, or good mixed-meat sausages
  • Mayonnaise or andalouse sauce, to serve

Method

  1. Cut the potatoes into 1cm batons, rinse until the water runs clear and dry them completely.
  2. Heat the dripping to 150C and fry the potatoes for 6 to 8 minutes until soft but still pale.
  3. Lift them out and rest on a rack for at least 10 minutes, or up to 2 hours.
  4. Fry the fricadelles at 170C for 5 minutes until dark and firm. Keep warm.
  5. Raise the fat to 180C and fry the potatoes again for 3 minutes until deep gold and crisp.
  6. Drain, salt immediately from a height, and serve in a paper cone with the fricadelle on top.

Tip from the editors. The rest between the two fryings is not optional. Skip it and the frites go limp within a minute.

Where to eat frites et fricadelle

Frites et fricadelle in Lille

Friterie des Lilas ★ 4.2

€ Street foodWazemmes

Friterie des Lilas on Rue Saint-Gabriel in Lille cuts its own potatoes and prices its student menus low enough that Wazemmes queues for them.

TryFrites and fricadelle

TipAsk for the student menu if you have a card. Sunday is evening service only.

Directions

Friterie Meunier ★ 3.8

€ Street foodLille Centre

Friterie Meunier beside Lille Flandres station sells frites, croquettes and fricadelle from 11:00 to 22:30 daily, the cheapest fill near the trains.

TryFrites and croquettes

TipIt runs to 22:30 every day, so it covers the gap after most kitchens close.

Directions

La Friterie du Splendid ★ 3.9

€ Street foodFives

La Friterie du Splendid on Place du Mont de Terre in Lille is a working baraque à frites, cheap plates of frites with sauces made on the premises.

TryFrites with house sauce

TipClosed Monday, and both weekend days run an evening service only, from 18:30.

Directions

Bierbuik ★ 4.3

€€ French regionalVieux LilleUntil 01:00 Thursday and Friday, 02:00 Saturday

Bierbuik's brewpub on Rue Royale in Lille runs to 01:00 on Thursday and Friday and to 02:00 on Saturday, and the kitchen stops at 23:30 then.

TryFrites sauce maroilles

TipOn those three nights the bar outlasts the kitchen, so order food before 23:30.

Directions

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