The Many Flavours of Poutine

Yeah so I wrote an article a few weeks ago about how to integrate into a foreign society. While I make some great recommendations on how to set some roots down in another country, there’s nothing wrong with indulging in a little nostalgia of your motherland. Be it watching a taped hockey game at a bar, reading my hometown’s news, or indulging in some dishes from back home, there’s nothing wrong with that. While travelling my curiosity is always aroused when I see poutine on the menu. From personal experience, any poutine made outside of the general French Canadian area of Canada is garbage. Lets take a look at some of the poutines made outside this area:

Vancouver Poutine

This was my first ever experience having poutine outside of the safe zone. After an evening of watching the HSBC Festival of Light and walking back to realize that there was a bazillion people waiting at Granville Skytrain station, me and my friends made our way down the street and saw that the Roxy was quiet and still serving food. Low and behold “Genuine Montreal Poutine” was on the menu, how can you screw that up? Well folks what I got was not poutine, more like fries swimming in gravy with a token piece of cheese here and there. The amount of gravy I ingested made me sick. Hence a precedent was set, poutine outside of French Canada sucks. Took me years to be brave enough to try it again outside the poutine safe-zone. Strike 1.

Seoul Poutine

My Korean poutine

Heh yeah you read that right, I had poutine in Seoul! I thought I’d save this story when I wrote Seoul Food. I found a Canadian bar in the Itaewon district. Itaewon is the foreigner district, better known for it’s seedier elements such as hooker hill and American GI’s starting trouble. This is also where you’ll find bars/clubs/restaurants that cater specifically to foreigners. Over here I found the Rocky Mountain Tavern, a bar catering specifically to Canadians. There was hockey on TV, Canadian beer, and poutine on the menu. Made my order of a Moosehead and poutine. I got this weird metal pot with a concoction that looked NOTHING like poutine. There were chives, chicken (yellow) gravy, and the cheese just wasn’t right. I couldn’t finish this abomination, I seriously thought I was gonna puke. Also throw in the fact that in Seoul in wintertime, Koreans love their heat, so it was like being in front of a hair dryer as well. Strike 2!

Melbourne Poutine

Doesn't look right, but does it taste right?

So the precedent had been set, poutine sucks outside of French Canada and had been pretty much wiped from my mind after the Korean experience. Once day at work, my manager brought up the topic of poutine and mentioned that there is a place that will do it out here. Well obviously there’s a story in it for me so I just HAD to go and try it. I made my way over to Lord of the Fries after work and ordered myself some fries with “French Canadian” topping aka poutine. What I got looked almost like the real thing! It had the right gravy, the cheese was ok, but shredded not in curds. Despite that, it was definitely a hit which surprised me. For $4.95 for a medium it was quite a deal (at least by Australian standards) for a meal. So if you’re around and wanna have a taste of home go check ‘em out!

In the end, I learned that I was wrong. Sometimes poutine can be done right outside of French Canada. Had it of not of been for the hit here in Melbourne, the world would have struck out when it comes to my opinion of their poutine making. It’s also nice to indulge a little in a taste from back home every now and then. Just be sure to try some local grub as well!