Poutine? What the heck is poutine you may ask. Well it’s a Canadian specialty. It comes in many, many verities but the original poutine is very simple, Hand-cut french fries, beef or chicken based gravy, and cheddar cheese curds. Traditional cheese curds are white not orange. Many places who make poutine in the USA either use mozzarella or orange cheese curd and both are WRONG. You must use the correct cheese curd or you cannot call your item a poutine. This has also become an issue in Canada, restaurants and food trucks are calling everything a poutine when all it has in common with a traditional poutine is the fries and some don’t even use fries! They are trying to capitalize on it’s popularity, so beware when ordering poutine from the wrong place.
One of the best places to get a traditional poutine is from Big Reds Poutine food truck. They can be found at all the festivals in the lower mainland of British Columbia, Canada but they can be hard to track down as they do a lot of food truck catering but if you find them you will get a real taste of what an original poutine tastes like. They have been in business for over 10 years and have wonderful reviews. This poutine food truck is well worth trying if your ever in the Vancouver area.
Not only do they offer traditional poutine they also offer specialty poutines such as boneless dry rib poutine, chicken strip poutine, donair poutine and MANY more wonderful options. They use authentic cheddar cheese curds from Quebec.
Some history about poutine and where it came from. It all started in the 1950’s in the province of Quebec in rural towns and snack bars. By the 1990’s poutine had spread to other provinces in eastern Canada, restaurants, food trucks, and even fast food chains. But it did not really take off in the western portion of the country until the 2000’s. Even though it was becoming popular in the west it was not being made right! Most places could not or would not buy authentic cheese curd and used mozzarella or regular shredded cheddar cheese! When Big Reds Poutine started their poutine food truck over 10 years ago there were no other food trucks making it right! 10 years later they are ranked the best poutine food truck in the province and have also been ranked 6th and 11th best out of all poutines places in Canada! Even with a lot of competition, who are finally using real cheese curd Big Reds still beat the pants off of them for quality and taste!
Even Prime Ministers, celebrities and other famous people have publicly stated they love poutine. Some Canadian political figures have even tried to gain votes in Quebec by eating at well know poutine places in the province and promoting it during a campaign. Some of this has back fired on them for various reasons as people in Quebec take their poutine very seriously and don’t like it to be messed with! There was a Canadian politician Preston Manning who tried a stunt saying he loves poutine and ate a poutine from a place more known for smoked meat and was criticized for it and some speculate lost some votes over the ordeal. Don’t mess with poutine is the moral of the story.
Poutine is saturating the market in Canada but is slowly spending throughout the United States and is showing no signs of slowing its progress and is helping share a little bit of Canada to the world. We have even heard of a place serving poutine in England!
