Monday, January 11, 2010

Poutine is good food and a recipie for delicious

Poutine making it big united states? Indeed! Poutine may be king! Read on:

It's all in the curds: Quebecois mainstay poutine making culinary inroads in US
By Sheryl Ubelacker
THE CANADIAN PRESS


Here's a source for poutine and recipes for traveling food lovers.

Unless it's maple syrup, it's unlikely many Americans could
identify an example of truly Canadian cuisine. But it seems one
national dish, a belly-busting concoction born in La Belle province,
is creating a buzz south of the border.

Poutine -- a mixture of French fries, cheese curds and hot gravy --
is making it onto menus alongside typical American fare like
cheeseburgers and chili dogs.

Thierry Pepin, an actor and model who moved to New York from his
native Quebec six years ago, opened a restaurant last summer
dedicated to the hearty dish. T-Poutine (the T is for Thierry) is
located in the Lower East Side, close to bars and the club scene,
and offers 12 different variations of the item on its menu.

"It's great, but it's not easy," says Pepin of the reaction to
the calorie-laden creation, often described as a "heart attack on a
plate."

"A lot of Americans haven't heard about it, are skeptical about
it. But the ones that come to the restaurant open-minded, they want
to try it. For the most part, they all love it."

The rib-sticking dish is believed to have originated in rural
Quebec in the 1950s, and several communities lay claim as its
birthplace. One such tale involves Fernand Lachance of Warwick,
Que., who was asked by a customer to add cheese curds to an order of
fries and deemed it "une maudite poutine (roughly translated as
"an unholy mess"). The addition of gravy came later.

Pepin says many of his customers are New Yorkers who attended
McGill University in Montreal and got hooked on poutine. Canadians
living in the Big Apple are also regulars, he says.

Now, it seems, poutine is going mainstream. T-Poutine and Pepin
were recently featured on ABC News, which took a lighthearted look --
replete with Mounties and lots of frozen tundra -- at the invasion of
this most Canadian of foods into the heart of its southern
neighbour.

Poutine is also a big hit in south Florida, where the Grenier
family has been serving the dressed-up french fries at their Dairy
Belle ice cream parlour/fast-food outlet in Dania Beach for the last
decade.

Francois Grenier, who runs the outdoor restaurant with his
parents and sister, says most of their customers during the winter
are Canadian snowbirds, many of them from Quebec.

"During the season, with the Canadians down here, we go through
about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of cheese a week," says Grenier,
explaining that the restaurant has that all-important poutine
ingredient shipped from a farm in Wisconsin.

"They're the real thing -- real cheddar white curd cheese."
Americans' reaction to their first sight of poutine is mixed, to
say the least, concedes Grenier, who moved with his family to the
Sunshine State from Victoriaville, Que., in 1992.

"By the window when you order there's a big picture of poutine
... And there are people who will just look at it and they're like,
'What is this?' And they'll tell you it sounds disgusting or it
sounds great."

Those with more adventurous palates who try poutine either
"totally love it or they totally hate it," says Grenier. "But we
have expanded our clientele with that. A lot of Americans now have
come to it. A lot of Hispanics are eating it, because the Hispanic
culture loves cheese and they love it."

Poutine aficionado Ronna Mogelon of Dunvegan, Ont., sampled the
Dairy Belle's offering last year on a trip to Florida and pronounced
it "fabulous."

The artist, who grew up in Montreal, began penning a blog called
the Poutine Chronicles, asking North American followers to send in
their favourite spots for the sinfully rich dish.

"There's something about poutine that just sort of calls your
name," says Mogelon, whose quest for the ultimate poutine draws her
inexorably to roadside chip stands.

"I thought it was a summer dish because it's sort of fun to sit
outside and have a poutine. But there's something also I
unfortunately discovered -- that when it's cold out and you go for a
poutine, it's almost like your grandmother rubbing your tummy or
something. It's warm. It's all cosy and melty cheesy."

"It's like oatmeal with a bit of tooth."

That poutine is considered a supreme comfort food -- and reputedly
an antidote for a night of heavy imbibing -- is a fact not lost on
Lee Seinfeld, owner of the Dive Bar in New York's Upper West Side.

"I put it on my menu because my son went up to Canada eight
years ago (on a school trip) and he came back raving about it. And
he's a kid that was just such a fussy eater."

"He just fell in love with it, so he convinced me to try getting
it," says Seinfeld, who has had some trouble finding a reliable
supply of cheese curds.

And how did his customers react to this foreign food?

"Well, you know, it's funny, the Canadians or people who have
had it before seem to get it," he says. "But sometimes Americans --
the cheese is cold and you pour the hot gravy on the cheese, so they
wonder why the cheese is not melted. So sometimes they're a little
bit confused."

"When they try it, they usually come back and have it again. I
sell a lot of cheese curd, a lot of poutine."

Pepin of T-Poutine hopes the dish could one day be as popular
with Americans as Mom and apple pie. He's thinking of opening other
T-Poutines and perhaps franchising.

"There are still a lot of places in New York City I think I
could open ... I would like to open a couple more, in Brooklyn and
around. Places like Vegas would do really well or anywhere in the
South. People love cheese. And it's something new."

"All around the U.S., I think if I can put it out there and
bring it, I think we'll have a huge crowd who's going to be very
happy."

15:32ET 11-01-10

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