Adventures in Poutine
Here I am in the land of poutine. Never heard of it? You are probably in the majority, because the only place I’ve seen poutine regularly appear on menus is up here in Quebec. Some times it will be a novelty item, available far and few between in New England, but it’s not something very common.
Today at a fancy lunch, my hosts wondered why that is. I mean, can’t we buy the ingredients? French fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds. And in many cases, big chunks of chicken, duck or beef are added in. But it must be those curds…I have never seen cheese curds in the store, and even thought I bet I could make them, I just don’t see that happening.
Pierre, our host here in Mt Tremblanc, shared a story about an American TV star who was here for some sort of food network production about local foods. Of course, he had to have poutine, and they brought him to a big bar where there was a selection of everything you can imagine to put on top of the fries, curds and gravy….beef, chicken, pork, duck, and this guy just poured it all on, I mean ALL of it, the way someone who was going on camera would do. Later on, the TV star felt very ill, the poutine clearly got the best of him.
Like so many regional specialities, everyone claims to have the best poutine across this big province. And so far, they’ve all been pretty, pretty good, to my New England tastes at least.
Larry
February 24, 2016 @ 4:44 pm
The poutine in Quebec is the best, but there are a couple of places in the Northeast that are close. One is Stanley’s Restaurant on Dexter St in Central Falls, RI. The other is the Mile End Deli on Hoyt St in Brooklyn, NY. Both are a bit far from Deerfield, but, if you like poutine, give one a try.
The Mile End is named after the neighborhood in Montreal and for my taste is the more authentic Quebec poutine with the cheese curds and gravy. It can be ordered with Montreal style smoked meat, which is similar to pastrami. Delicious.
Note that many years ago, Central Falls, RI was heavily populated by French-Canadians, who came to work in the textile mills, which may have some bearing why poutine became popular at Stanley’s.