Montreal: The Quest for Poutine
Published by Gail June 29th, 2007 in Canada, Food + DrinkI suppose last weekend in Paris wasn’t enough French culture for me, I’m ready to push forward to Montreal tomorrow! And you can be sure I will be on the hunt for some poutine. It’ll look like this, but with cheese curds:
NOT poutine, but halfway there…
I got my first taste of poutine during my one-year stint in Banff, Alberta, a resort town in the Rocky Mountains where you will find probably the largest Quebecois population anywhere outside of Quebec. I worked with them, lived with them, partied with them, and grew to be quite fond of French Canadians. I was 18 and 19 years old at the time, and it was my first time living outside of my parents’ home. An impressionable age, to be sure, and I’d been quite sheltered up until then. My French Canadian friends introduced me to so many things for the first time: music of all genres, new places, experiences, ideas. I owe much of my early passions to them, because they were such passionate people. They seemed far less self-conscious in their identity and how they appeared to others, and they were always happy to share their culture and verve with me, no matter if there was often a language barrier.
In fact, even though tomorrow will mark the first time I have ever visited Quebec, when I returned to Canada from overseas in 1995 I was convinced I should either repatriate myself to Montreal or Vancouver. Vancouver won out, because that’s near where my family lived. Otherwise, I would’ve ended up in Montreal and that would make for an entirely different story…
I think I’m in a minority in this country when it comes to appreciating the French Canadians. But that’s OK, I’m more accustomed to being in a minority than a majority in most everything. This Canada Day long weekend I’m looking forward to being around the French Canadians again, soaking in the ambience of Montreal, and eating my way around the city!
9 Responses to “Montreal: The Quest for Poutine”
Leave a Reply
Search
Contact
Recent Posts
- Terry Fox Run 2008: Please Sponsor Me
- Aviation Weekend
- Visited Countries, Visited States Maps
- The Aviator Wall Of Fame (2008)
- All Good Meetings Happen Over Food
- @ Richtree
- @ The Distillery District
- Frolicking On Lake Ontario
- My Toilet Seat Cover Named Xena
- Sunday Brunch At The House of Fielding
- Post-brunch In High Park
- O Canada
- Over Lake Ontario In A Beech 18!!
- Brunch @ Kensington Market
- Heynabonics
- Tempest In A Pastel-Coloured Teacup
- Backup, Backup, Backup!
- Armchairs Are For Cats, Silly
- Philadelphia, The Photo-Friendly City
- Playing With Fire
Recent Comments
- Visited Countries, Visited States Maps 1
Fancy - My Toilet Seat Cover Named Xena 3
Helma Hoepken, Fancy, Monica - Azalea Trail Maids 25
Peter, Rachel, ACD [...] - Backup, Backup, Backup! 3
Renee, Lana, muckdog - Philadelphia, The Photo-Friendly City 3
Helma Hoepken, Elizajane, Kimberly - one of the oddest washrooms I have used 3
Lana, Peter, addie - Armchairs Are For Cats, Silly 4
Lana, Peter, Monica [...] - Tempest In A Pastel-Coloured Teacup 1
muckdog - As Day Slips Into Night 2
Kristin, addie - 1939 DC-3 Dakota: We Meet Again 2
Joe Gerardi, Alex - Cheltenham Badlands, Part 1 2
Peter, Lana - David's Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" 3
Ron Card, Frank, Karl - @ Helma's 1
Monica - Royal Wood: Even Better Live! 2
Gail, Elizajane - The Next Three Trips 2
Breigh, Fancy - Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall... 3
Marcy the Queen Bee, Gail, Claude
Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « May | Jul » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
Categories
- Acts of Kindness (27)
- Ancient History (43)
- Art (12)
- Aviation (35)
- Blah Blah Blah (35)
- Books (10)
- Chez Gail (Vancouver) (29)
- Consumer (28)
- Critters + Creatures (177)
- Culture + Society (40)
- David's Writing (61)
- David at 17 (7)
- Expat Life (66)
- Local Colour (24)
- Family (308)
- fave (17)
- Flying (89)
- Food + Drink (120)
- Friends (206)
- gailatlarge (60)
- gailatlarge.com (37)
- House of Fielding (322)
- Engagement/Wedding (37)
- Hugh (73)
- Xena & Beano (54)
- Humour (28)
- Letters to David (21)
- Life Lessons (10)
- Linkage (95)
- Living with Cancer (82)
- Haunted by Cancer (23)
- Loss (72)
- Memes, Polls, Quizzes (10)
- Moblogging (24)
- Music (56)
- Out + About (177)
- Photography (562)
- cameraphone (144)
- film photography (53)
- Flickr (32)
- Flickr Toronto (4)
- Other Photogs (89)
- Vandigicam (20)
- Politics + Economy (21)
- Pop Culture (24)
- AI - Season 4 (12)
- PWP (75)
- Raconteurism (39)
- Randomage (20)
- Rants (38)
- Redux (7)
- Reel + Screen (55)
- Filmmaking (4)
- Religion (6)
- Singleton Life (9)
- Student Life (66)
- Tales of the Absurd (30)
- The Adventures of Kermit (16)
- The Great Outdoors (44)
- Travel (423)
- Unabashed Geekiness (65)
- Urban Life (156)
- Videoclips (180)
- Volunteering/Charity (25)
- Wacky WWW (27)
- Widowhood (19)
- Working Life (72)
- [unfiled] (174)
Mmm, I just got goose bumps thinking about French fries. Is that a bad sign?:)
Had never heard of poutine before, except referring to the Russian leader! Eat one to my health. But from the looks of it, must be fattening
Fattening, Claude, you don’t know from fattening!
Anyway, Gail, you’re going to love it! I’m from Montreal, grew up in Laval and my sister lives west of the area in Ormstown. When he’s in the country and not gallivanting around the world (http://www.aroundtheworldgang.ca/blog/) it’s home to Case’s nephew as well. Montreal is a wonderful city with life and love and all that stuff!
Have a great trip Gail, hope your remember your French lessons better than I do.
J’espere que la Vieux Port est une de tes destinations. Si tu avais du temps, Le Biodome est tres populaire aussi.
When the base ingredient is “french fries,” you know the outcome is probably going to be incredible…
I’ll have to try that. Haven’t ever!
mmm Poutine! I cannot wait until I’m back in Canada in October to get myself a feed of it! I make poutine here but with regular cheese as I can’t seem to figure out what cheese curds are exactly or how to explain it to the dutch cheese guys so they can tell me what it is here.
You gotta have it with ketchup, by the way!
Poutine with ketchup? What a travesty!
No, seriously, people, poutine must be sampled at least once in your life. You, too, Muckdog! I didn’t have any yesterday, but I will definitely have some before I leave Quebec.
Breigh, I think you have to ask for unripened cheese to get the curds. It’s basically what bocconcini is, except bocconcini is formed into shape.
I have to admit I don’t get cheese curds… they’re so… squeeky!
Poutine or not, I so want to go to Montreal.