Whither Poutine?
I've got a quick Canadian question. I've addressed this to various Canadian friends and relatives, and they gave me the answer I expected, but they're all in Montreal or southern Ontario. Various sources on the web suggest another answer. My question is a simple one, and I invite answers from anyone in the know. Is poutine readily available in Canada outside of Quebec?
I know, for many readers the true question is, "What is poutine?" Fortunately, the answer to that is fairly easy. Poutine is french fries topped with cheddar cheese curds and then covered with brown gravy. And yes, it is popular in some areas. As traditional foods go, it's a fairly recent addition to the Quebecois cuisine. In fact, this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary! There's no big secret to its creation. A customer asked restaurateur Fernand LaChance to add some curds to a bag of fries he was taking out, and voila! It's not clear where the gravy came in, but LaChance claimed he later added it to the concoction to keep the fries warm. Another restaurateur, Jean-Paul Roy, claimed that he served fries with gravy, and customers were adding curds to it by themselves, so he just added the dish to the menu. This happened in 1964, seven years after LaChance's gravyless poutine. Could poutine really have existed without gravy for all that time?
I'm curious to find out now whether, unbeknownst to me and the people I know, poutine has expanded its grip into Canada at large. My aunt told me that it's available in Ontario but that they replace the cheddar curds with mozzarella cheese. A cousin pointed me to New York Fries, a Canadian fast-food emporium (with outposts in Korea and the United Arab Emirates!) that has it on the menu. New York Fries appears to be mostly situated in malls and movie theaters, so I'm not sure if each location counts as a full-fledged restaurant, but if they do, their Website lists more than 175 locations across nine provinces, so I guess that counts for something. Burger King in Canada and Harvey's each has poutine on their online menus. Canadian McDonalds and Canadian KFC don't offer online menus, but they each offer nutritional information about poutine. Does this mean that I can pretty much go to any McDonalds or Burger King in Canada and order poutine? It sure looks that way.
If this is the case, ultimately you have to wonder if it's a good idea. Poutine is tied up with the very identity of Quebec. Not even a month ago, the Montreal Gazette covered a new book on the subject. Here's what the article had to say on the subject:
If you thought poutine, Quebec's favourite fast food concoction, was made of french fries topped with gravy and salty cheese curds, you're wrong.
According to the political scientist who wrote a book on Quebec's signature dish, the real recipe is a generous portion of shame fried gently in an inferiority complex and topped with a hint of denigration from the ROC (Rest of Canada) - and a touch of guilty pleasure.
"Love it or hate it, poutine has become a strong symbol of Quebec," said Charles-Alexandre Théorêt, author of Maudite poutine!
Is it really responsible to allow McDonalds to stand in the way of that?
posted by Doug @ 1:14 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Nutritional information on poutine? Zut alors!
You're right, it sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it? According to the KFC nutritional page (PDF), one serving of poutine weighs in at 358 grams and hold 970 calories.
I just can't believe that McDonalds and KFC offer poutine all over Canada. I'm going to ask our friend in Calgary....
You may remember comedian Rick Mercer asking Dubya about "Canadian Prime Minister Jean Poutine" back in the 2000 presidential campaign, but if not, here's the lowdown (from dewit.ca):
OTTAWA (AP) Stung by a pop quiz about foreign leaders earlier in his campaign, U.S. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has fallen victim to a foreign affairs prank.
Canadians are chuckling over his on-air answer when a comic posing as a reporter made up a story that Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine" had endorsed him.
"I appreciate his strong statement[,] he understands I believe in free trade," Bush replied. "He understands I want to make sure our relations with our most important neighbour to the north of us, the Canadians, is strong and we'll work closely together."
Canada's prime minister is Jean Chretien, not Poutine, and he has endorsed no one in U.S. politics. Poutine is a popular food in the French-speaking province of Quebec, consisting of french fries, gravy and cheese curd.
The stunt was pulled by comic Rick Mercer from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes," a satirical TV show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Mercer, who sets up politicians for laughs, button-holed Bush at a campaign event in Michigan before that state's Republican primary last month and fired several questions at him about a Prime Minister Poutine.
Canadians are keenly aware how little Americans know about them, a sense reinforced by Mercer, who has traveled in the United States fishing for evidence of that ignorance.
The real prime minister's office took the episode in stride, offering this response: "Clearly, Canada is not in the Bush leagues."
Gov. John Engler of Michigan, a border state with Canada, also didn't catch on when asked about Poutine at the same event. But he did seem surprised that a Canadian leader would supposedly take sides in a U.S. election.
In Arkansas, Mercer got Gov. Mike Huckabee to congratulate Canadians on their efforts to preserve their "national igloo," which Mercer had told him was melting because of global warming.
And he got American professors to sign a petition urging and end to the "Toronto polar bear hunt." Toronto is a city of 2.4 million people without any such bears.
Mercer said it's easy to lead his victims astray because they expect a straight question from someone they think is with the media.
"People don't really expect reporters to be asking trick questions," he said Monday. "It's all in really good fun."
I do remember that. My favorite part of that whole exchange was Bush referring to Canada as "our most important neighbour to the north of us."
Because he's right! Canada is far more important than all the other neighbors to the north.
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