Gravy, cheese curds and fries, oh my

By Ashley Ann Mentley/Converged Citizen Staff

Poutine is proving to be more popular than ever in Windsor.

Place Concorde recently held the third Festival de la Poutine, which sold out in less than a month and attracted 450 guests. The event offered classic, vegetarian, roasted chicken or pulled pork poutine, as well as other traditional meat pies and sugar pies.

The manager of Place Concorde, Didier Marotte, was dressed as a giant “Mr. Poutine,” to celebrate the event.  He said poutine has been popular in Quebec for a very long time but has recently gained popularity on an international scale.

“It’s only within the last few years that all of a sudden it’s everywhere,” he said. “It’s in Europe, in the States, in South America and in Canada of course.”

Didier said since they use only fresh potatoes and import both the cheese curds and gravy from Quebec, the poutine at the festival is very authentic.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the classic dish was invented in rural Quebec in the 1950s and has been growing in popularity since the ‘90s.  Didier said there are many other traditional foods in Canada to be celebrated.  These include foods that are trapped and hunted, like beaver, venison, rabbit and pheasant, maple-themed foods in the spring, lobster imported from the Maritimes to celebrate St. Jean the Baptiste Day in June and a harvest festival in the fall.

Alexander Lakhoian, who works at Frenchy’s Poutinery in Windsor, said poutine, maple syrup and the dessert nicknamed “beaver tails” are all typical Canadian foods.  He also said the poutine they serve is very popular with the Americans who come to downtown Windsor.

“They always seem to really love it,” he said.  “They have no idea what it is…they think it’s gross at first and then they see it and they’re iffy and then they try it and they absolutely love it.”

Though poutine traditionally consists of just french fries, cheese curds and gravy, its recent popularity has caused a surge of creative poutine flavours.  Didier said they can range anywhere from caviar or lobster poutine all the way to hotdog and bean poutine. Lakhoian said the most popular variety at Frenchy’s is definitely the pulled pork.