Recognition for the potato - Belgium wants the UNESCO cultural heritage tag for its potato fries

Efforts are on in Belgium to get Belgian potato fries recognized as global cultural heritage so that it can come at par with Peking opera and the Argentinian tango. The Belgian fries are traditionally sold, in a paper cone, in a "fritkot", generally a shack or trailer and there are nearly 5,000 of these in Belgium. Obviously, it is 10 times more common, per capita, than McDonald's restaurants in the United States.
However, to earn recognition from the United Nations' cultural arm UNESCO, Belgium must get the request endorsed by a minister of culture, and Belgium has three of them.
The government of the Dutch speaking region of Flanders has already recognized Belgian fries as an integral part of national culture and the French- and German-speaking communities are expected to debate the issue next year. Hopefully, they also would give their consent.
It seems tourists love the potato fries and join the locals in the long queues at popular Brussels fritkots such as Frit Flagey and Maison Antoine.
UNESCO has a list of some 314 items of intangible cultural heritage that are believed to be worthy of preservation – these range from Turkish coffee to the polyphonic singing of the Aka pygmies of the Central African Republic. Belgium potato fries want to be included in that list.
Incidentally, potatoes had reached Belgium in the 16th century, but it was not until the 19th century that they were widely sold chipped and fried as a meal in themselves and, as per UNAFRI, the national association of fritkot owners, most of Belgians visit a fritkot at least once a year.