Poutine of Montreal

Hello. I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s celebration : )

Montreal turned out pretty fun. It’s a beautiful city and a great city to eat in. One thing I noticed about all the places we went out to eat is the service. The staff tends to be friendly and helpful, but to finally get the food in front of you takes forever! I don’t know if it is only so as compared to New York, or perhaps we kept choosing the wrong restaurants, but either way, patience is a virtue when it comes to eating in Montreal. However, in most cases, the long wait was quickly forgotten because the food was delicious.

Prior to setting out on this little journey I asked around to find out what foods I should try during my stay in Montreal. Everyone unanimously recommended a dish called poutine, which I’ve never heard of before. Poutine is dish consisting of a mound of French fries, topped with cheese and gravy and often meat or other ingredients. This sounded weird to me at first but hey, it had to be famous for a reason.

Some brief research revealed that the best place to eat poutine in Montreal is La Banquise on Rue Rachel est and that’s where we set out.

La Banquise offers over 20 variations of poutine, some with chicken, beef, sausage, bacon and/or vegetables. I ordered the Poutine Danse.

The Poutine Danse is a poutine with chicken, bacon, white onions, cheese and a peppercorn gravy. When this beauty was first presented for me to tackle, I must admit I was intimidated. Firstly, despite its rustic and messy look, it was a masterpiece that I did not want to ruin. But my hunger and curiosity got the best of me. Secondly, I simply did not know how to tackle it, as it was quite a tall dish. Eventually I got the hang of it ; )

This poutine blew my mind. What a genius creation. Who knew fries, cheese and gravy, of all things, make such a perfect marriage?

Well…the Quebecois apparently.