Not for a low carb diet . . .

. . . more’s the pity!  I’m losing weight slowly but steadily on a high-protein, low-carb diet, so I can’t sample the Thanksgiving poutine recipe I just found on BuzzFeed.  I haz a sad . . .

For those who’ve never sampled the delights of poutine, here’s an introduction from Australia’s Traveler online magazine.

Montreal’s La Banquise is famous for one thing: that mess of chips [fries, to US readers], cheese curds and gravy known as poutine. No wonder there’s a queue snaking right out the door and down the street on a Friday night. The 24-hour greasy-spoon in the bohemian Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood is on every poutine lover’s radar because it serves an extraordinary 31 varieties. Here, you could order the standard-issue La Classique – but why would you when chips can come slathered with everything from pulled pork, slaw and sour cream (La Boogalou) to that other Montreal culinary obsession, smoked meat (L’Obelix)?

. . .

Many regulars swear the best variation is La T-Rex, which piles beef mince, pepperoni, bacon and sliced hotdog sausage onto the chips and curds. Who am I to argue?

But who came up with the crazy idea for poutine in the first place? Its origins are contested but a widely accepted version is that it started in 1957 in Warwick – a town between Montreal and Quebec City – when a takeaway customer asked a chef to pop his squeaky cheese curds and fries into the same bag. Gravy was later added to soften the curds and – voila! – poutine was born.

Nowadays, some chefs elevate the fast-food institution to haute cuisine.  In Toronto, I’ve enjoyed pizza piled high with roast duck and poutine. One Montreal fine-diner serves poutine with lobster.

In Quebec City’s hip Saint-Roch neighbourhood, I resist a pub spruiking poutine with pork leg and mustard sauce. But I’m intrigued when I find “mountain poutine” on the menu at The Fairmont Banff Springs in western Canada. The skillet of chips is layered with pulled pork, the whole lot slathered with a smoky speck gravy. It’s good – but not great. “Is this cheese … mozzarella?” I ask my waitress. When she confirms my suspicions about the “curds”, I sit back with satisfaction. I’m now officially a poutine connoisseur.

There’s more at the link.

Damn, I’m hungry after reading that!

Peter