French fries (North America; sometimes also uncapitalized as "french fries" or simply "fries"), or chips (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and some Commonwealth nations), are pieces of potato that have been Batoned and deep-fried.In areas where "chips" is the common term, "French fries" usually refers to the thinner variant found in US-influenced fast food restaurants, or to the even thinner "shoestring potatoes". In North America "chips" generally means potato chips (called "crisps" in the UK and Ireland), which are deep-fried, very thin, salted slices of potato that are usually served at room temperature. In Australia "chips" refers to any form of fried potato. A more recent hybrid of thicker cross-cut splicings, and generally eaten hot, is "waffle-cut potatoes" (not to be confused with potato waffles made from reconstituted potato).