All About Poutine: Everything You Need To Know About The Quebec Classic

What is poutine?

It's a typically savoury meal born and bred in Quebec, with roots in simple comfort food that's easy to access and even easier to shovel down your throat. Oh, and it's pronounced "poo-TZIN" in Quebec, even though most people elsewhere say "poo-TEEN," the pronunciation for which is way easier to write.

All cheesy curds and crispy fries and hot gravy, this dish is perhaps the crown jewel among Quebec's treasures, like snow and ice and Anglo suffering. Poutine stands above the rest: restorative after a night out or a bad exam, delicious on a cold winter's day and satisfying like the knowledge that your city is cooler than all the others.

When was poutine invented?

Allegedly invented in Quebec in the 1950's, poutine has remained a popular mainstay ever since. You can get it literally almost anywhere in the province (but maybe don't actually try to eat 50 in seven days) and in many places in the rest of Canada — and even beyond Canada's reach, for better or for worse (it's pretty grim in Toronto).

Montreal is particularly known for extravagantly large poutines, wildly expensive poutines and some of the weirdest poutines in the country. From breakfast to dessert, there exists a poutine to fulfill your wildest comfort-food fantasies.

What are the main ingredients of poutine?

The traditional poutine consists of fresh French fries, hot brown gravy and squeaky-to-melty fresh cheese curds on top. But Montreal has near-infinite variations on that theme, some so far from the original that it's hard to tell what they're even supposed to be. There's a fine line between an avant-garde poutine and a hot mess, but when weird poutine works, it definitely works (here are eight of the weirdest in Montreal).

What are cheese curds?

The squeaky lumps of pure melty joy that are cheese curds are made of milk or cream, bacterial cultures, rennet (an enzyme mixture) and salt. Curds are an especially young cheese, and the younger they are, the squeakier the bite. You don't even need to refrigerate cheese curds: in fact, unrefrigerated cheese tends to have a louder squeak.

Is poutine vegetarian?

It depends on who you ask and what you're eating. Anecdotally, many Montreal vegetarians and vegans will choose to ignore the meaty implications of rich gravy, cheese and greasy French fries, preferring the delicious experience of eating poutine to the pitiful meatless options available at most poutineries. Some places opt for a vegetarian or (rarely) vegan gravy, so if you're wary of animal or animal byproducts, it's worth asking what's in your restaurant of choice's brown elixir. Bonus points if you ask in French!

What qualifies as a poutine?

More creative poutines will play with the formula, but at its most basic, any poutine needs a potato base, a sauce or gravy of some kind and a cheesy or dairy element. Breakfast poutines might swap traditional fries for hash browns or home fries, or trade gravy for Hollandaise (it's delicious, I promise).

Many places add additional toppings to the classic poutine base, like smoked meat, hot dogs, sausage, onion and pepper. Other restaurants fuse poutine with popular dishes like butter chicken, General Tao chicken or even tteokbokki at popular Korean restaurant Ganadara. There are even sweet dessert poutines to be found on the island with nary a potato in sight.

It's up to you to decide whether these outliers actually are poutines. Most of the time, they're too delicious to be worth arguing about.

What's the best poutine in Montreal?

• La Banquise
  • Address: 994, rue Rachel E.
  • Website
• Greenspot
  • Address: 3041, rue Notre-Dame O.
  • Website
• Décarie Hot Dog
  • Address: 953, boulevard Décarie
  • Website
• Patati Patata
  • Address: 4177, boulevard Saint-Laurent
  • Website
• Chez Ma Tante
  • Address: 3180, rue Fleury E.
  • Website
• Maamm Bolduc
  • Address: 4351, avenue De Lorimier
  • Website
• Montreal Pool Room
  
  • 1217, boulevard Saint-Laurent
  • Uber Eats
• Chez Tousignant
  • Address: 6956, rue Drolet
  • Website
• Chez Claudette
  • Address: 351, avenue Laurier E.
  • Website
• Paulo & Suzanne
  • Address: 5501, boul. Gouin O.
  • Website
• Gibeau Orange Julep
  • Address: 700, boul. Decarie
  • Website
    
• La Patate Rouge
  • Address: 755, boul Crémazie E.
  • Website