Yes! Beijing Wants Fries (With That)

Faddy food trends come and go all the time in Beijing. This Beijinger has witnessed gourmet burgers, hot-dogs (on-going), and people going potty over paella. Lately it seems you can't move for Japanese takoyaki (deep fried fish balls with lots of sauce), whole lamb leg barbecue places, and now ... French fries! (Note: must be cute and have anthropomorphic potatoes either in store or on the logo).

Newly opened Shu Biao French Fries, at 98 Gulou Dongdajie, has a fries-only menu that offers potatoes cut myriad ways, from the standard "extra long fancy fries" (RMB 15) to these lattice fries (called "slightly spicy potato chips" on the menu). You can even try "little potato stars", crinkle cut or, most tantalisingly, "cheese potato ball" with a note saying "coming soon". They don't seem to cut any of these themselves, instead proudly listing the commercial brand name of each fry product on the menu.

The laoban says he knows of several other fries-focused restaurants in trendy Xidan, which would suggest this trend is one for the younger generation for whom western-style fast food holds a greater allure.

In Dongzhimen's Raffles City Mall, Let's Fries has been open for a month, with a simple menu of fries cut one-way and topped with a range of sauces. The difference here is that this food stall chips the fries themselves - big crates of muddy spuds sit on the counter or soaking in water, so they're fresh - and best of all, fried skin-on.

So the Chinese are taking to fries in a big way? "Chinese like French fries but usually only eat them at McDonald's or KFC so we are trying to change their habits," the guy at the counter told me. We tried their fries (small, RMB 10) with garlic powder and spicy ketchup and they were genuinely tasty. In fact, the only fail is a fine piece of Chinglish in the company slogan that suggests a laissez-faire approach to ingredients sourcing - Let's Fries: Pretty Fries, Pretty Fresh.