Poutine

This is the fast food dish. For the completely different Acadian dish, see poutine râpée.
Poutine
OriginalPoutineLaBanquise.jpg
Beef gravy on French fried potatoes and cheese curds.
Origin information
Country of origin : Canada
Region or state : Quebec (late 1950s)
Creator(s) of the dish : Multiple claims
Dish information
Course served : Main Dish
Serving temperature : Hot
Main ingredient(s) : French fries
Cheese curds
Chicken Velouté Sauce
Variations : Multiple

Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation putsɪn) is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. [1] It is a quintessential Canadian comfort food, especially among Québécois and Acadians of the Maritimes.

Poutine is a fast food staple in Canada; it is sold by many fast food chains (such as New York Fries, Harvey's, Ed's Subs[2], and Deluxe French Fries ) in most provinces, in small diners and pubs, as well as by roadside "poutine trucks" and "fries stands," commonly known as "cantines" or "casse-croûtes" in Quebec. International chains like McDonald's,[3] A&W,[4] KFC and Burger King[5] also sell mass-produced poutine across Canada. Popular Quebec restaurants that serve poutine include Chez Ashton (Quebec City), La Banquise (Montreal), Lafleur Restaurants, Franx Supreme [6],La Belle Province, Le Petit Québec and Dic Ann's Hamburgers. Along with fries and pizza, poutine is a very common dish sold and eaten in high school cafeterias in various parts of Canada.

Contents

Origins

Typical poutine from Quebec

The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950s and is now popular in many parts of the country. Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964),[7] Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville. One often-cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957,[8] when a customer ordered fries while waiting for his cheese curds from the Kingsey cheese factory in Kingsey Falls (now in Warwick and owned by Saputo Incorporated). Lachance is said to have exclaimed ça va faire une maudite poutine ("it will make a damn mess"), hence the name. The sauce was allegedly added later, to keep the fries warm longer.

Variations

Plate of poutine served at Chez Vachon, a local French-Canadian diner in Manchester, NH

There are many variations of poutine. A common variation, Italian poutine, substitutes the gravy with spaghetti sauce (a thick tomato and ground beef sauce, roughly analogous to Bolognese sauce), while another variation includes sausage slices.[9] Greek poutine consists of shoestring fries topped with a warm Mediterranean vinaigrette, gravy and feta cheese.

Some restaurants in Montreal offer poutine with such additions as bacon, or Montreal-style smoked meat, although these are not as common. Poutine Dulton, which is offered in a few places, is made with ground beef, onions, and sausages. Some such restaurants even boast a dozen or more variations of poutine. For instance, more upscale poutine with three-pepper sauce, Merguez sausage, foie gras or even caviar and truffle can be found.[10]

Some named variations may not necessarily be prepared with the same ingredients in different establishments. For example, a variation called "poutine Galvaude" adds shredded turkey (or chicken) and green peas,[11] similar to the typical Québécois "hot chicken" sandwich.

Some variations even eliminate the cheese altogether, but most French-speaking Québécois would call such a dish a "frites sauce" ("french fries with sauce") instead of poutine. In some regions like Shawinigan you can find Patate-sauce-choux where the cheese is replaced by shredded raw cabbage.

When ordering a fast food combination meal in Canada, you can very often pay extra to get your french fries "poutinized" by adding cheese curds (or shredded cheese) and gravy.

In addition to Canada, poutine can also be found in many border regions of the United States, for example in northern New England. It is a popular item among small, privately-owned restaurants. In the state of Maine and in Canada's northwestern part of the province of New Brunswick, poutine is frequently referred to as "mixed fries", "mix fry", or simply "mix", although the term "poutine" has been gaining in popularity in recent years, especially in Aroostook County. Residents sometimes pronounce the word "poo-tine", but most pronounce it "poot-tsien".

These regions offer further variations of the basic dish. Cheeses other than fresh curds are commonly used (most commonly mozzarella cheese), along with beef, brown or turkey gravy. In the county culture especially, a mixed fry can also come with cooked ground beef on top and is referred to as a hamburger mix, though this is less popular than a regular mix.

"Chips, cheese, and gravy", a variation, is often served as a hang-over food or drunken snack in various places around Australia and the UK.

Etymology

"Original" flavour poutine from La Banquise with thin sauce and cheese curds.

The word poutine has a bewildering variety of meanings in French, and is of uncertain provenance. The online version of the Dictionnaire historique du français québécois lists 15 different meanings of poutine in Quebec and Acadian French, including, among various culinary senses, "a dessert made from flour or bread crumbs," like pudding in English. The word pouding, borrowed from the English pudding, is in fact a synonym in this sense. The pejorative meaning "fat person (especially a woman)" of poutine is believed to derive from the English pudding "a person or thing resembling a pudding" or "stout thick-set person".[12]

In many uses of poutine, a relation to the English word pudding is uncertain. One of these additional meanings is "unappetizing mixture of various foods, usually leftovers," the meaning from which the name of the dish with fries is derived. (This sense may also have given rise to the meaning "complicated business, complex organization; group of operations whose management is difficult or problematic.")

While the Dictionnaire historique (under sense 1 of poutine) mentions the possibility that poutine is simply a francization of the word pudding, it suggests (under sense 9) that the form poutine was more likely inherited from dialects spoken in France, but that some of its meanings resulted from the later influence of the similar-sounding English word pudding. It cites the Provençal forms poutingo "bad stew" and poutitè "hodgepodge" or "crushed fruit or foods"; poutringo "mixture of various things" in Languedocien; and poutringue, potringa "bad stew" in Franche-Comté, although those dialects are not known to have had any influence on the formation of Quebec French.

The Dictionnaire historique dates the word poutine in the meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" to 1978.

Poutine in politics

In a Talking to Americans segment on the television series This Hour Has 22 Minutes during the 2000 American election, Rick Mercer convinced then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush that Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, was named Jean Poutine and that he was supporting Bush's candidacy. A few years later when Bush made his first official visit to Canada, he joked during a speech, "There's a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him for that endorsement. I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine." The remark was met with laughter and applause.[13]

Related dishes

In New Brunswick, there is an earlier traditional Acadian dish known as poutine râpée, which is completely different from the "poutine québécoise". The Acadian poutine is a ball of grated and mashed potato, salted, filled with chicken or pork in the centre, and boiled. The result is a moist greyish dumpling about the size of a baseball. It is commonly eaten with salt and pepper or brown sugar. It is believed to have originated from the German Klöße, prepared by early German settlers who lived among the Acadians. Many other dishes, similar or not, are known by the same name.

Acadians of western Nova Scotia feast on a similar dish which is called râpure, or rappie pie in English. Râpure is baked in a pan in a hot oven, and is often served with molasses.

Chips and Gravy is a staple of the cheaper bistro style menus, in such places as Royal Canadian Legion and Workers Clubs, where the food offered would not be considered "fast food" but is still cheap and filling, especially for children. (The word "chips," commonly referring in the United States to flat, crunchy slices of potato, is a synonym for 'french fries' elsewhere in the English-speaking world).

In the United Kingdom and on the Isle of Man, it is common to find "chips, cheese & gravy" for sale in a chip shop or "chippy". This usually consists of brown gravy and grated mild Cheddar cheese.

In Newfoundland and Labrador most non-national chain restaurants serve a traditional dish called CDG or chips, dressing and gravy. Dressing is a mixture of mainly white bread crumbs and savoury and is often referred to as stuffing outside of Newfoundland and Labrador. Chips, dressing and gravy is served much like poutine, except for the dressing substituting for the cheese. While loved by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the dish is not widely known of outside the province.

Disco fries, served in New Jersey and select New York City diners, are made with brown gravy, mozzarella, and heavier steak fries. The term Disco Fries was the brainchild of a waiter at a small cafe in Rockville Centre, NY. Elsewhere in the greater New York City area and Long Island, diners serve "cheese fries", using either American (processed) cheese or mozzarella.

Cheese fries are also served in many diners in the American Southwest; in Texas, for example, they usually include at least one variety of grated cheddar cheese, with ground sausage or hamburger and onions mixed in. Diners then top the dish with hot sauce or ketchup.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Knight, A. "Poutine 101". Knight's Canadian Info Collection. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  2. ↑ http://www.lunchonline.ca/LunchSpecials-NB/EdsSub.htm
  3. ↑ Day, Adam. "Oh Canada, we stand on guard for … poutine?". The Digital Times. Kamloops, BC: Journalism Students at Thompson Rivers University. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  4. ↑ "Nutritional Facts - Small Poutine". A&W Trade Marks. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  5. ↑ "Our menu - Poutine". Burger King. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  6. ↑ "MTY Group". MTY Group. Retrieved on 2008-08-19.
  7. ↑ Sekules, Kate (2007-05-23). "A Staple From Quebec, Embarrassing but Adored", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.  Article on Poutine coming to New York City
  8. ↑ "The 50 Inventions - Poutine". The Greatest Canadian Invention. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  9. ↑ Zimmerman, Karla (2008). Canada (10th edition ed.). Footscray, Victoria, London: Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741045710. OCLC 191754242. 
  10. ↑ Krauss, Clifford (2004-04-26). "Quebec Finds Pride in a Greasy Favorite", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-19. 
  11. ↑ "Reviews - Maamm Bolduc". Retrieved on 2008-03-10. "...; Galvaude (turkey, green peas);..."
  12. ↑ "Poutine". Base de données lexicographiques du Québec. Trésor de la langue française au Québec - Université Laval. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
  13. ↑ (2004-12-01). "President Discusses Strong Relationship with Canada". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.

External links