This is the Quebec-style dish. For the completely different Acadian dish, see poutine râpée. Poutine râpée, not to be confused with the Quebecois fast food Poutine, is a traditional Acadian dish that in its most common form consists

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

Typical poutine from Quebec

Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation putsɪn (help·info)) is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown BBQ chicken gravy and sometimes other additional ingredients. Quebec French ( le français québécois, le français du Québec) or less often Québécois French, is the predominant varieties French fries ( North American English; sometimes not capitalized chips ( British English) fries or French-fried potatoes (formal This article is about cheese curds as a regional delicacy For general information about the dairy product see Curd. ^[1] The freshness of the curds is important as it makes them soft in the warm fries, without completely melting. It is a quintessential Canadian comfort food, especially but not exclusively among Québécois. Canadian cuisine varies widely from region to region Generally the traditional cuisine of English Canada is closely related to British and American cuisine, while The term comfort food refers to a variety of familiar simple Foods that are usually home-cooked or eaten at informal restaurants A Québécois or Quebecois (pronounced) or in the feminine Québécoise (pronounced) (plural Québécoises) is a native or resident of the

Poutine is a fast food staple in Canada; it is sold by many fast food chains (such as New York Fries and Harvey's) in the provinces, in small diners and pubs, as well as by roadside "poutine trucks" and "fries stands," commonly known as "casse-croûtes" in Quebec. Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page New York Fries is a Canadian Fast food restaurant that serves French fries and Hot dogs as its main menu items Harvey's is a Fast food restaurant chain that operates in Canada, with locations concentrated in southern and Eastern Ontario, southern International chains like McDonald's,^[2] A&W,^[3] KFC and Burger King^[4] also sell mass-produced poutine across Canada, especially in Quebec. A&W is a North American Fast food restaurant chain. It was originally part of the American A&W chain but was sold to and operated separately Kentucky Fried Chicken, usually known as KFC, is a chain of Fast food restaurants based in Louisville Kentucky. Burger King ( often abbreviated to Popular Quebec restaurants that serve poutine include Chez Ashton (Quebec City), La Banquise (Montreal), Lafleur Restaurants, La Belle Province, Le Petit Québec and Dic Ann's Hamburgers. Chez Ashton is a popular fast food restaurant in Québec Canada famous for its Poutine. Quebec City ( French: Ville de Québec, or simply Québec) (kwɨˈbɛk or /keˈbɛk/ is the Capital of the Canadian province Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec Lafleur Restaurants is a chain of family-owned Fast food restaurants located in the metropolitan area of Montreal La Belle Province (French for "The Beautiful Province" is a well-known fast-food eatery in the province of Quebec, Dic Ann's Hamburgers is a local Fast-food restaurant chain centered on Montreal, Canada Along with fries and pizza, poutine is a very common dish sold and eaten in high school cafeterias in various parts of Canada. French fries ( North American English; sometimes not capitalized chips ( British English) fries or French-fried potatoes (formal Pizza (ˈpiːtsə, in Italian:) is a popular dish made with an Oven -baked flat generally round Bread that is covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based High school is the name used in some parts of the world (in particular Scotland, North America and Australia) to describe an institution Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

Origins

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

The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada in the late 1950s and is now popular in parts of the country. Quebec (kwɨˈbɛk Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964),^[5] Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville. A Québécois or Quebecois (pronounced) or in the feminine Québécoise (pronounced) (plural Québécoises) is a native or resident of the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada about southeast of Montreal. Victoriaville (nicknamed "Victo" is a city in central Quebec, Canada, on the Nicolet River. One often cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957,^[6] 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). Warwick is a small town north east of Montreal, located in Arthabaska county Quebec, Canada. Saputo Inc ( is a Montreal based Canadian Dairy company Founded as a cheese store in 1954 by Italian immigrant Giuseppe Saputo 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

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. Bolognese sauce ( Ragù alla bolognese in Italian also known by its French name sauce bolognaise) is a Meat -based sauce for Pasta ^[7] Greek poutine consists of shoestring fries topped with a warm Mediterranean vinaigrette, gravy and feta cheese. Feta ( φέτα, also spelled fetta) is a brined Curd Cheese traditionally made in Greece with goat's and Newfoundland poutine consists of fries, dressing (similar to stuffing, but not moist) and gravy.

Some restaurants in Montreal offer poutine with such additions as bacon, or Montreal-style smoked meat, although these are not as common. Bacon is a cut of Meat taken from the sides belly or back of a Pig that has been cured, smoked, or both Smoked meat is a method of preparing Fish and Red meat which originates in Prehistory. 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. Merguez ( from the مرقاز mirqāz "sausage" is a red spicy sausage from Algeria North Africa. Caviar is the processed, Salted Roe of certain species of Fish, most notably the Sturgeon ( black caviar) and the ^[8]

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 and green peas,^[9] similar to the typical Québécois "hot chicken" sandwich. A Québécois or Quebecois (pronounced) or in the feminine Québécoise (pronounced) (plural Québécoises) is a native or resident of the

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. A Québécois or Quebecois (pronounced) or in the feminine Québécoise (pronounced) (plural Québécoises) is a native or resident of the

When ordering a fast food combination meal in Canada, you can very often pay extra to get your french fries replaced with a poutine.

In addition to Canada, poutine can also be found in many border regions of the United States, for example in northern New England. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the It is a popular item among small, privately-owned restaurants. In the state of Maine and in northwestern 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. The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean New Brunswick ( French: Nouveau-Brunswick /nuvobʁɔnzwik/ is one of Canada 's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally Aroostook County is a County located in the US state of Maine. 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. Mozzarella is a generic term for several kinds of originally Italian Cheeses that are made using spinning and then cutting (hence the name the Italian verb 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 popular than a regular mix. Ground beef, beef mince or hamburger meat (in North America) or mince or mince(d meat (in the rest of the English speaking Diners in New York City and Long Island serve "cheese fries", using either American (processed) cheese or Mozzarella. New Jersey diners refer to the same dish as "disco fries" and serve it with brown gravy, almost exclusively using Mozzarella.

Etymology

The word poutine has a bewildering variety of meanings in French, and is of uncertin 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". ^[10]

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.

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

Poutine in politics

In a 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. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian Television comedy that airs on CBC Television. The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Democratic candidate Al Gore, then Vice President, and Republican Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer (born October 17, 1969 in St George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien, (generally known as Jean Chrétien) (born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian politician who was the twentieth Prime 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. ^[11]

Related dishes

While at first glance the dish may seem similar to American 'disco fries', poutine with melted cheese, shredded cheese, or cheese slices is not regarded as "genuine" poutine, which is served with curd cheese.

In New Brunswick, there is an earlier traditional Acadian dish known as poutine râpée, which is completely different from the "poutine québécoise". New Brunswick ( French: Nouveau-Brunswick /nuvobʁɔnzwik/ is one of Canada 's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally This article is about the Acadian people and culture The Acadians (Acadiens are the descendants of the seventeenth-century French Poutine râpée, not to be confused with the Quebecois fast food Poutine, is a traditional Acadian dish that in its most common form consists The Acadian poutine is a ball of grated and mashed potato, salted, filled with chicken or pork in the centre, and boiled. Mashed Potato or mashed potatoes is a common way of serving Potato in many countries worldwide Pork' is the Culinary name for Meat from the domestic Pig ( Sus scrofa) often specifically the fresh meat but can be used as an all-inclusive The result is a moist greyish ball about the size of a baseball. A baseball is a Ball used primarily in the sport of the same name Baseball. It is commonly eaten with salt and pepper or brown sugar. Brown sugar is a Sucrose Sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of Molasses. It is believed to have originated from the German Klöße, prepared by early German settlers who lived among the Acadians. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. For small boiled dumplings served as a Side dish, see Spätzle German cuisine Klöße (singular Kloß) or Kartoffelknödel 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. Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's 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 Royal Canadian Legion is a Non-profit Canadian Ex-service organization ( Veterans Organization) founded in 1925 with more than (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". The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Take-out (in North American English) carry-out (in US and Scottish English) take-away (in Australian English, This usually consists of brown gravy and grated mild Cheddar cheese. Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard pale yellow to off-white and sometimes sharp-tasting Cheese from the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset

In Newfoundland and Labrador most non-national chain restaurants serve a traditional dish called CDG or chips, dressing and gravy. Newfoundland and Labrador (ˈnuːfɨn(dlənd ən(d ˈlæbrəˌdɔr (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador is a province of Canada, the tenth and latest to join the Confederation 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.

See also

• Cheese fries

References

External links

• www.mapoutine.ca - A website for poutine lovers! (French)
• Food Tangent: The Majesty of Poutine BrightestYoungThings. com overview of poutine and Chez Vachon in Manchester, NH
• The Poutine, She's Delicious, a brief irreverent history of the food
• Montrealpoutine.com, a poutine website with poutine restaurant ratings, recipes.
• Poutine Page A poutine enthusiast's webpage, including pictures and an overview of the poutine making process.
• Poutine on The News (1991), CBC News Report on Poutine
• montrealfood.com