Canada's La Poutine Week Announced Its Winners & Montreal Dominated

On Valentine's Day, the nation's greatest contest ended for the 11th time. Now, La Poutine Week has unveiled its best-in-show, from publicly voted-upon to privately judged poutines.

Four of the five La Poutine Week concoctions that topped the people's choice list are from Montreal.

Unfortunately for us though, the very best people's choice poutine is a dish from Quebec City, consisting of tons of seafood on a bed of bisque sauce and fries. From restaurant La Gaspesienne 51, the dish is called the Crise d'identité, and most of the extraordinary poutines crafted for this special event could bear the same name.

The best Montreal poutine, per the public vote, was La Belle Tonki's Poutine Tonkiyaki, which features a mirin-braised octopus and sake-based gravy. Talk about an identity crisis.

Next in the people's choice rankings was a poutine from Le Gras Dur titled Poutine au bœuf birria de Jalisco. It's exactly what it sounds like: birria beef on poutine.

Besides heaps of seafood, beef was the dominant protein among winning poutines. From Maamm Bolduc, the fourth most publicly loved poutine was the Beef Poutine from M'Lasse Faubourgs, which featured braised beef and mixed veggies in a mushroom gravy over (you guessed it) cheese and fries.

Fifth was Montreal restaurant Chez Simon Cantine Urbaine's La Polpettine, a meatball-laced delicacy topped with spaghetti sauce.

The judges' choice again snubbed Montreal, with first place going to a Vancouver-based poutine topped with duck confit. La Belle Tonki's Tonkiyaki took second place, though, and Le Gras Dur took fifth place in the judged category.