Poutine vs. Pootine

Following part deux of my Eating Drinking and being Merry in MTL post I thought it only right to write about poutine. Poutine ( /puːˈtiːn/; Quebec French pronunciation) is just about the best thing to come out of the beautiful city other then Celin Dion or Schwartz Deli. Poutine is something I take very seriously. In my humble  opinion it's just the ultimate indulgent sinfully delicious dish. Contrary to what you might believe it is not a simple dish to make good. You really need the perfect squeaky fresh cheese curds, proper brown gravy or sauce brun as the Quebecois call it with the right crispiness of yukon gold potato french fries. You can get a decent poutine pretty much anywhere in Mtl. including  fast food hot spot La Belle Provence. Yes it's a dirty late night poutine. In fact you'd probably only eat it if wasted out of your mind, but its better then many of the wannabes we find in Toronto.  The plethora of subpar poutine's in Toronto fall in the category I call POO-tine. Even the restaurants strictly dedicated to the decedent dish are a serious disappointment.  Both Poutini's House of Poutine and Smokes Poutinerie fell short in my books. I've yet to try Poutine Plus, I think it's new since i've only just heard about it or the blue chip truck that parks at Nathan Philips Square, which is said to have one of the city's best. Barque Smokehouse's brisket poutine bordered on putrid, and the truffled goat cheese poutine with seared foie gras at Trevor Kitchen  was fabulous but just too far away from what poutine really is. The best true poutine i've ever had (photo above) was at 1:30 am at La Banquise obviously in Montreal. It's just so perfect! The line up was around the block for both dine and take out and word is it doesn't slow down ever! This place is the BOMB and it's also opened 24 hours. There are like 20 different types of poutine on the menu, but I'm a purist so I recommend the original. If you're interested in eating your way through the cities best poutine check out this promising looking list. 


***update*** just watching Ricardo and friends on  Food Network Canada he mentions both Aux Pied and La Banquise for go to places for poutine in MTL