Coffee With Bob...conversation about this, that and the other: Gourmet Poutine!

Bonjour, eh! It’s Poutine Week here in Canada... well at least in Quebec and Ontario. Glad you could be here to participate. Fill your mug with some delightfully perky coffee and nudge a virtual treat onto your plate. Et maintenant (And now) on to poutine, which is quickly working its way up the ladder of favourite Quebec foods along with tortiere, soup au pois, tarte au sucre, beef au jus and my favourite, the famous hot chicken sandwich! My mouth waters just thinking about these. Unfortunately, it doesn’t when I consider poutine which, up until now, I ...and remember that I was born and brought up in Quebec... have never eaten poutine...and now that my doctor tells me I have Angina, it doesn't look as though I'll be having poutine anytime soon!

Quebec is full of contradictions. For example, this French-speaking society has a well-deserved reputation for its culinary creativity.

Montreal in particular is known worldwide for having sumptuous five-star restaurants that effortlessly combine old-world charm and new-world innovation.

But Quebec’s new staple dish “poutine,” is an artery-clogging plate of goop that takes years off your life with every irresistible bite. Perhaps best described as a “heart attack in a bowl,” poutine is a meal consisting of French fries topped with cheese curds that are generously covered with dripping hot gravy.

Once just a fast-food staple, this fatty dish can now be found in Montreal’s finer restaurants, smothered in goat cheese, camembert, stilton, and yes, even foie gras.

Quebecers take their poutine very seriously. For purists, the dish simply isn’t the same unless it starts with hand-cut fries cooked in pure, unadulterated lard. Secondly, there’s no substitute for real gravy. Unlike its watered-down American cousin, poutine gravy is as thick as molasses. Finally, the cheese curds must come from fresh white cheddar. Any other combination of ingredients might be just as tasty (and possibly just as lethal), but it won’t make the real thing.

A brief warning

Although undeniably delicious, one of the many side effects of eating poutine is the irrational desire to separate from Canada. Oh, and gas. Loads of it.