Pommes Frites!

I’d never had fries like this before, certainly not with a peanut satay, a teriyaki mayonnaise or a wasabi sauce.

We found them in a narrow, half-timbered shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in the kind of place you could easily walk past and never notice. But the locals know it.

Pommes Frites is the kind of place people line up out the door to get their fix. We were in on the secret because a good friend’s sister owns the business.

No surprise, there’s a story behind the store.

Years ago, Suzanne Levinson made the typical backpacker’s trip to Europe, eventually making it to Belgium. While there she discovered the distinctive Belgian version of pommes frites. They became an obsession.

When she came home to New York, she couldn’t find real pommes frites anywhere. This presented both a problem and an opportunity. Suzanne returned to Belgium, mastered the art of cooking them, and brought the secret home to New York.

As it turns out, no fancy skill is involved but there is a trick. The potatoes are fried twice. The first time the potatoes are cooked through – the second gives them their golden color and crisp texture.

At Pommes Frites, the dipping sauces will challenge your idea of the french fry. The current menu of sauces includes: Irish Curry, Smoked Eggplant Mayo, Sweet Mango Chutney Mayo, Sweet Chili Sauce and Cheddar Cheese Sauce.

You can get ketchup too, if you must.

It’s a great place to drop in for a snack if you find yourself in Greenwich Village or wondering around near NYU.

The moral of story is this: Be careful where you travel because it might just change your life.