It’s best paired with hamburgers, which have been widely presumed to have originated from the German city of Hamburg, but is the French fry really French?

An interesting piece by renowned writer Rebecca Rupp for National Geographic indicates it may not be at all.

She said there were claims the fries originated in Belgium, where, she explained, villagers along the River Meuse traditionally ate fried fish.

“In (the) winter, when the river froze, the fish-deprived villagers fried potatoes instead,” Rupp wrote.

She also noted that French Fries were discovered by American soldiers in Belgium during World War I.

“Since the dominant language of southern Belgium is French, they dubbed the tasty potatoes ‘French’ fries,” Rupp said.

(Up next: French Fries may actually be Spanish.)