When I show people the picture of poutine on my smartphone, some embrace the picture with love, while others want to throw up.
Chances are what visually throws them off is the cheese in the mix. A picture of fries and gravy would win just about anyone over. Certainly looks more appetizing than French fries all by themselves.
Despite what Cartman and Kyle thought on "South Park," fries and gravy is not poutine. Frites et sauce is fries and gravy in French, not as smooth a phrase as poutine. But fries and gravy is still rather awesome.
I like the idea of poutine, but sometimes the cheese is too much. Either my body doesn't want cheese or the place puts on too much cheese or some other reason why I just don't want cheese.
Since I've been to places in Canada where you can get different combinations, I have been experimenting. Adding other ingredients to the fries/cheese/gravy combo has proven worthwhile most of the time.
On the last trip to Windsor, I tried experimenting with combinations that didn't involve cheese. I ordered a poutine sans fromage (without cheese) with Montréal smoked meat and mushrooms.
The smoked meat pinch hit for the cheese really well. Protein, oui. Sodium, oui. More flavor than cheese, tres oui.
Poutine has made its way into American restaurants, and almost all of them aren't pure forms of Montréal poutine. But as restaurants on both sides of the border have shown us, French fries and cheese and gravy is just a starting point.
So if you like the idea of fries and gravy and/or other foods, but aren't so crazy about the cheese, then you can discover your own take on poutine.
If people can adapt tacos to include seafood or exclude sour cream, then you can adapt other ethnic dishes such as poutine to your own taste. Just don't call them authentic.
Comments