Eat This Blog

From November 23 through November 30, I had the pleasure of going to my second home away from home, Canada. While it was great to see my family again, I was more excited about my reunion with what I’ve been craving for since my last visit in December 2001, Canadian fast food. And most importantly- poutine.

Poutine (pronounced, roughly, poo-teen, or poo-tin; exact Québécois pronunciation in IPA [pʊʦɪn] — listen to it in .wav format) is a dish consisting of french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and covered with hot gravy (usually brown gravy) and sometimes other additional ingredients. The curds’ freshness is important as it makes them soft in the warm fries, without completely melting.

Poutine is a fast food staple in Canada; it is sold by many fast food chains (such as New York Fries and Harvey’s) in the provinces, in small diners and pubs, as well as by roadside “poutine trucks” and “fries stands”.

Poutine is available in only a few places outside of Canada, including the northern United States and a handful of Canadian-themed restaurants and pubs throughout the rest of the world. Some popular Canadian travel destinations (such as Mexico, Florida, and Taiwan) are also known to have poutine available, but only sporadically or at the behest of Canadian expatriates. – Wikipedia

Now when I mention poutine to friends and family, I get a 70/30 response of “Ewwwww! That sounds gross!” over “Mmmmm, that sounds awesome.” Of course, I prefer the latter. And when I go into detail of what poutine is, I gush over how that combination of hot gravy and melted cheese work so magnificently with French fries. The following are pictures of poutine I had during my recent stay:

This was purchased at the local Costco in Burlington. The cheese was too cold and the gravy wasn’t hot enough to melt most of it. The fries, however, were excellent as they were crispy around the edges and steaming hot.

This was purchased at a mom and pop-style diner at Niagara on the Lake. The sandwich was a corned beef sandwich that didn’t taste like corned beef at all. The cheese on the fries was just shredded cheese, so it was more like gravy fries with cheese rather than real poutine.

This was purchased at New York Fries at Eaton Centre. This is the way poutine should look like! This was really good, and the fries were a little bit burnt, which is just the way I like ‘em sometimes too.

Along with poutine, I can’t go to Canada without having Tim Hortons.

For every five blocks you pass on a typical street in Toronto, you’ll see at least four Tim Hortons. They’re the biggest coffee and donut chain in Canada. I was only able to go there three times during my vacation, but each visit was great:

Left: Double chocolate donut with a French Vanilla latte
Right: Boston cream-filled donut with a cappuccino.

If I didn’t have so many other commitments in Los Angeles, I’d move to Toronto in heartbeat. Then I could have all the poutine and Tim Hortons I want. Well, at least until I was fat enough that I wouldn’t be able to walk anymore. But then again they do have those scooters, right?