Poutine

About Dish

One way to refer to yukky leftovers in colloquial Quebecoise is to call them poutine. At its worst, poutine can indeed be awful. But made right, it is transcendent. It must start with excellent French fries (twice fried), which are a staple at roadside snack bars throughout the province. Top the hot spuds with squeaky-fresh cheese curds, which begin to melt from the potatoes’ heat, then dark, beefy gravy and you have wickedly wonderful comfort food. One story of poutine’s origin is that a customer at a cheese factory in Kingsey Falls asked chef Fernand Lachance to combine the curds and spuds, at which Lachance is said to have declared the combo a mess, aka poutine.