Canada invades Minnesota

     Several new foods were debuted at the Minnesota State Fair this year.  One was an import from Canada, Quebec to be exact.  I had never heard of the comfort food Poutine previously and was not familiar with the dish whose name is Acadian slang for "mushy mess."

     So I eagerly plunked down my cash and shared a cup of this new fair food with my daughter, wondering what exactly poutine really tasted like.  We were handed a cup full of frites (fries to those of us in the lower 48), a thin greasy gravy, and some sort of cheese.  It did not look very appealing, and tasted only marginally better.

     Upon further research I discovered that this fair food was vastly different from the food invented in 1957 by restaurateur Fernand Lachance in Warwick, Quebec.  To create an authentic poutine you must first begin with fries that are hand cut and very fresh and then fried in pure lard.  And the gravy cannot come from a jar but is lovingly slowly simmered.  It should be very flavorful, peppery with hints of vinegar and thick enough for a spoon to stand up in it.  And it needs to be steaming hot.  The cheese should be fresh white cheddar curds, so fresh that they squeak in your teeth as you bite into them.  The curds are then placed on the fries and the hot gravy is simply poured on top.  When prepared this way, poutine is far different from the (un)fair food that I purchased.

      Annual poutine festivals are held throughout Canada from British Columbia to Quebec to celebrate the food that many of our neighbors to the north want to see become their national snack.