Butter Chicken, Bánh Mì, And Other Ethnic Dishes We'd Like To See On Fries

After salivating over the pictures of America's most outrageous French fries, I thought to myself: what's missing? Here at The Daily Meal, we are constantly learning about dishes we've never heard of and thinking of ways to re-imagine the food we do know. Naturally, the next thing we thought of was: How do we bring the unfamiliar together with the familiar? By adding them to fries, of course.

You'll find some of these dishes on fries at restaurants or food trucks, but you're encouraged to try them at home (in moderation). After all, we do have recipes for all of them, including one for homemade French fries. Poutine lovers, rejoice. Health-conscious eaters, look away.

Bánh Mì

Toronto's famous Bánh Mì Boys is just as famous for their kimchi fries as they are for their bánh mì, because they are also loaded with pulled pork. Now, subtract the kimchi and put all the ingredients from inside the sandwich on top of the fries. What results might just be perfection. The Gorbals in Williamsburg is a few steps ahead of us; they serve bánh mì poutine, which is exactly as delicious as it sounds.

Butter Chicken

We don't want to see a plate of fries drowned in butter chicken, but a tasteful amount, so that you can see more fries than chicken, might just bring together the rich, spicy gravy with the rich, crunchy fries in a way that is divine. The lucky people of Toronto can try butter chicken on fries at New York Fries.

Crackling Spinach

What is cracking spinach? It is a little-known appetizer that you'll probably only find at Indian-Chinese restaurants in India. Finely shredded spinach is deep-fried till crisp and perked up with roasted sesame seeds, garlic, and a sprinkling of sugar and salt. Deep-fried on top of deep-fried might sound like a bit much, even though one of the elements is spinach, but think of it as more of a seasoning. To try it at home, make spinach (or kale!) chips and season them with the aforementioned ingredients before adding to French fries.

Croque-Monsieur

It's pretty common to see croque-monsieur served with fries on the side, but what if you took out the bread and just let the gruyère ooze onto the fries (latticed with ham) instead?

Doubles

Doubles is a popular Trinidadian street food consisting of spiced, curried chickpeas in between fried bread. If it's that delicious in between fried bread, it must be good on French fries, too.

Ful Medames

French fries are said to have been invented in 1789, shortly before the French Revolution, and ful medames has been eaten in the Middle East for almost 2,000 years. The combination of a very old and a relatively new dish has appeal, especially when you consider how well the soft fava beans would go with crunchy fries.