La Poutine Week: And the Winner is...

And the winner is… traditional poutine! After seeing the results and sampling 6 poutines we have concluded that we tend to be more purist when it comes to our poutine.

For the official La Poutine week 2014 website and results click here

Poutine Week is more than deciding whose poutine reigns supreme. It is an epic battle of traditional versus out of the box versions of the iconic dish. Brussels sprouts, seal meat sausages, kale, and edible flowers are just a few of the offerings that challenged the notion of the holy-poutine-trinity, cheese (that has to squeak), gravy and fries. Purists however insist gourmet ingredients like foie gras are a gentrification of the dish outside of its working class diner roots.

Rebel versions of poutines make sense; Montreal, land of one-thousand poutines, is after all famous for them. A few years of poutine weeks, under our belts and onto our waistlines, mean restaurants want to avoid offering the same boring old thing. Eye catching ingredients draw attention to your establishment and create buzz. We noticed some busy restos during lunchtime and staff informed us that poutine week was drawing the crowds. The poutine debate crossed our minds a few times during our outings and we are left wondering what is the fine line between ingredients and whether the dish is still a poutine. The taste profile of the traditional poutine seems to get lost when it is pushed too far with too many ingredients and flavours going on.

We picked our 6 poutines randomly, close to where we work, and made a special trip to Chez Boris. We ended up at Mange Moi Poutinerie after stumbling around the Plateau in a snow storm and figuring out we should have checked the schedule because a few places were not open for lunch. 

Le Gourmet Burger: Thyme for Poutine

Le Gourmet Burger - Le Gourmet Poutine: We kind of lucked out making this our first Poutine Week stop because it was our favourite poutine of the week. In passing, we recommend Le Gourmet Burger when people ask us where to go for a great burger downtown. We like the casual laid-back atmosphere of a place that offers upscale burgers at a reasonable price. Le Gourmet Poutine was steeped in tradition with nothing too far out except maybe for the twig of thyme that we did eat with our dish. Caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, bacon just added to the heartiness of the gravy that took on a really nice texture with the spicy chipotle mayo. We liked this poutine so much we honestly wanted another one right away because it was that good.

Burger Bar Crescent - La Nordique: We have been to Burger Bar and our main impression was that the fries were amazing so we were really looking forward to trying their poutine. Topped with rocket salad and big pieces of pink picked onions it looked like a colorful salad. We were also excited because this was a duck poutine. Once again we will go on record saying how much we love duck and that the duck poutine from Lucky's Food Truck is one of our favourite poutines. We eat duck with rocket at home so why not on a poutine? We did find the optic color of the pickled onions a bit off-putting but got over this because they were a great pairing with the duck with sweet, sour and savoury tastes going on. With the nutty taste of rocket and blue Benedictine infused gravy there were a lot flavours going on. This poutine walked the line in pushing the envelope too far in being a poutine but the generous portions of duck won us over. 

Frite Alors! Rockin' the Lobster

Frite Alors! - The Lobster Monster: Revelation, the texture of lobster goes really well with cheese curds. Frite Alors! get  bonus points because their poutine had cheese that squeaked. Lobster has a nice delicate flavour and the deep fried pieces were not overcooked or overpowered by the batter. Our only beef with this poutine was with Béchamel sauce. We get that it must have been chosen as to not drown out the taste of the lobster but the rather neutral fried taste of the poutine felt like a flavour was missing. Not sure if it was this batch of sauce, too much flour perhaps, but something more buttery tasting to go with the lobster might be the way to go. The overall flavour of lobster, cheese, fries and absence of a dark gravy taste, an essential item in the holy poutine trinity, left us with the feeling that this was not a poutine. Don't get us wrong, this was a really tasty dish but it did not feel like eating a poutine. To sum up, “You don’t buy Sony when you want an RCA.”

In Memorium Resto Ori - Japanese Poutine

Imadake Izakaya - Attack of the Imadake's プーティン Disaster 2014: This being Montreal, this was not our first tasting of a Japanese style poutine. Restuarant Ori, now shuttered, did a big ad-campaign for a rather great tasting Japanese version of the dish featuring panko breaded sweet potato fries, lobster, fish roe, cream cheese cubes and sauce. Imadake Izakaya came up with something very different. Pickled ginger, bonito flakes, potato cubes (a trinity violation?), cheese curds, covering a scallion pancake (a great surprise) with a sweet ginger sauce. A truly inspired, original creation but like The Lobster Monster, the absence of a hearty sauce felt like something was missing. 
 

Two Words Chez Boris: Doughnut Fries!

Chez Boris - Doughnut Poutine with Duck Fat Gravy: We are not sure of the Chez Boris formula but doughnut recipes often use potato flower so the progression of doughnuts to fries seems natural. Crisp, fluffy, slightly sweet bites of deep fried dough were a perfect replacement for fries. We wanted to love this no nonsense traditional looking dish so much, especially because we think Chez Boris is a great place, but the sauce with black pepper was a bit light tasting. Not sure if this was because of the neutral tasting duck fat or a fear of overpowering the doughnuts but we noticed a theme. It would seem for great tasting poutine that the secret is in the sauce. In this case, it was missing just a little punch in making this a truly over the top holy poutine experience.

Gettin' Piggy with it: La Cochonne Pulled Pork Poutine

Mange Moi Poutinerie – La Poutine Cochonne: A simple formula, wrought with tradition, good fries, nice sauce, pulled pork and cheese curds that kept turning into melted cheese strings, won us over the more we ate it. Pulled pork might seem simple and somewhat ubiquitous in the wide word of poutine but after La Poutine Week we have concluded that simple good ingredients is the way to a winning dish and Mange Moi delivered the goods.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments and whether you are a traditionalist or rebel when it comes to your poutine.   

Montreal Summer Food Wrap Up

Le Mondial de la Bière Celebrates 20 years

Summer is winding down, yes already, so here are our thoughts. We kicked off the estivale season with The Mondial de la Bière (May 29 – June 2, 2013). As if we needed a reason to celebrate with a beer but the fest did mark their 20^th anniversary. Safe to say with this many notches under their belt the Mondial marks the beginning of Montreal’s summer and slew of events.

Like any big anniversary this is a chance for reflection on the past. Taste evokes memory and beer is no exception. Where and what beer you were drinking 20 years ago might not be the moon landing in terms of significant life events but the old brands and labels do have a certain nostalgia. We remember the big beer companies launching their “dry beer” lines. The promo package for Labatt Dry included an audio cassette featuring a phone sex operator voice describing the sensual new smooth flavour of their beer. Carling Black Label was marketing itself as the alternative cool counter-culture beer. St-Ambrose was starting to appear on the scene only to become the granddaddy of craft brewing in Quebec. If anything the Mondial today illustrates the rise of the microbrewery industry. Come to think of it the first time we tried a St-Ambroise was compliments of Montreal journalist and Boulevardier Nic Auf der Maur who was buying a round of drinks at Grumpy's. Auf der Maur was declaring something to the effect "if I buy you a beer it has to be a Montréal beer." You can switch gears and ask yourself where you might be twenty years from now but also what kind of brews will we be drinking in 2033?

Cold Beer & the great outdoors - Mondial 2013

In honour of their 20th anniversary the Mondial moved from Place Bonaventure to some new digs at Le Palais des Congrès. The venue is a nice contrast to the tomb like atmosphere of Place Bonaventure mainly because the outdoor site is back. No secret beer fest fans missed the open outdoor pub since the fest left Windsor Station three years ago. During our visit this year we were treated to some delicious sunny summer weather. The De La Gauchetière outdoor site, behind the Palais des Congrès, has some great cachet and in addition to the regular beer fest food offerings we found some food trucks. With Chinatown next door, offering bites and respite, from all the excitement and crowds we were glad to discover that The Mondial will be back at the Palais in 2014.  

Déserables Beer Braised Ribs

While beer, memories and sunshine might sound like enough we do have to mention a few faves from the fest. Since it is an Ontario brew, we cannot get it here in La Belle Province, a must stop is Beau’s Brewery who make organic beer made from some rather unique ingredients. Much to our disappointment there were no samples of their kimchi beer so instead we tried their Bog Water made with bog myrtle. The beer has a nice malt taste with some dark fruity notes. Also from Ontario, we enjoyed Crosswind Ale from Lake of Bays Brewery. The bottle boasts “brewed in small batches” and had some nice citrus flavours. Over the past few years we have developed a fondness for beers from Quebec brewery La Grimoire mainly because of the great flavours that pair nicely with food but are also for cooking. This year we had the Déserables maple beer, refreshing, a nice balance of sweet and bitter. Déserables beer makes a great braising liquid for pork ribs – trust us we have tried it. Speaking of favorite beers cherry beer still remains on top of our lists. That’s 2 years in a row Brasseurs de Montreal ran out of their cherry beer at the fest but we did find some sweet solace in a glass of Belgian Kriek (cherry beer). Since our first sip, over 10 years ago, Kriek remains one of our favorite beers of all time.

Food Truck Feeding Frenzy

“We got a great big convoy…” The big Montreal food story this summer is the return of food trucks to our city streets. We know a lot about this subject because we attended all the public consultations on street food at City Hall last year. We have been sampling the food trucks and have only had a couple of let downs. Perhaps our disappointing dishes warrant a second visit before laying the smack down and since the Montreal food truck movement is a new initiative we will hold back on the negative comments. This does have us wondering how many people will decide to continue with their street food endeavors next year. Not sure if it has to do with experience but we have noticed that the food trucks that were around last year seem to offer some of the best food. We have not tried all the trucks and like everything in life a few are ahead of the pack so here are a few items that we think are worth the detour.

Grumman ’78: Order a taco and taste a piece of Montreal street food history. The Grumman crew is the Granddaddy or Mother of food trucks in Montreal having played a major role in bringing food back to the streets. Besides leading the way for food trucks we have noticed restos popping up in Saint-Henri around their H.Q. (restaurant). As influencers of the Montreal culinary scene none of this would have been possible without serving up great food. 

Lucky’s Food Truck: “I know what you’re thinking, punk did I eat six poutines or only five?” Do you feel Lucky Punk? The duck confit poutine is pure pleasure and the only dish sampled at Lucky’s because that is all that we want. Needless to say we love duck so we actively sought out this dish last year when food trucks made casual city appearances. With a couple of food trucks offering poutines Lucky's was the only one with squeaky cheese curds. As poutine purists insist it is not a real poutine if there is no squeak when you bite into your cheese. We also always seem to find ourselves scrapping our dish to get every drop of the sauce.

Lucky's Duck Confit Poutine

Nouveau Palais Winneburger: A little side note, Nouveau Palais Chef and co-owner Gita Seaton has become a bit of a star on the Omnivore Young Chef World Tour (see our listing below). The Winneburger does one dish and they do it right. No easy feat considering they make the ubiquitous hamburger. We have always been of the opinion that a good homemade burger is the best way to go but the Winneburger has us challenging our beliefs. The bun, Challaleujah, egg bread. Perfect size patties we like the small size because it leaves you wanting more. Our burger is usually gone in sixty seconds. We recently caved and bought the double burger and all we can say is nobody does it better.

Pas D'Cochon Dans Mon Salon: We have tried the pulled pork sandwich but more importantly we have seen them do a cooking demo. Anybody that breaks down an entire pig as part of their process knows what good food is about. We have heard complaints about the cost of Montreal street food trucks but this is a perfect example of why it is worth the money when done right. You might also want to consider that some of the big sandwich shop chains, offering industrial made pulled pork, charge roughly the same amount.

Pas D'Cochon: This is how we pull our pork

Chaud Dogs: To quote one of our colleagues “I paid $7 for a hot dog and it was the best hot dog I have ever tasted in my life.” No secret we love cooking and eating all things Korean so we were more than excited to try the Chaud Dog Bibimbap. Our dog was topped with rows of Korean pickles (kale kimchi was amazing) offering different flavours as you chow down. The grilled buttery bread, more baguette than bun, was just a bonus.

Best in show: Bibimbap chez Chaud Dogs

Dispatch Coffee: Another thing we love, in addition to summer, beer, duck and Korean food is espresso. We will never forget our first double espresso from Dispatch because it knocks the cockles off. Deep tasting and robust flavours we love the way it made our back teeth tingle with caffeine excitement for the afternoon. If we had hair it would have been standing up on the back of our neck. We have also tried the Dispatch espresso and ice cream based drinks (affogato and Vietnamese style coffee) that are great summer treats. If you see the ricotta and spinach pop tart on menu get at least one.

P.A. & Gargantua: “You know, I've always liked that word, ‘gargantuan’… I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.” When we first started our summer foray into food trucks we kept running into P.A. & Gargantua. We were run over rather early with springtime fiddlehead salad and later impressed with a caramelized cheddar, strawberry rhubarb grilled cheese. Anyone that uses seasonal items, appreciates fiddleheads and make a grilled cheese with rhubarb work is ok in our books. 

Caramelized grilled cheddar cheese with strawberry & rhubarb

Le Super Truck: Reading the menu online we could see that Le Super Truck is on the right track. The fact they had a duck dish, with poached amaretto apples, and another with fried cheese also helped. The whole grain wrap, part of their cornet de verdures canard, had a really nice light texture, a perfect package to the dish.

Au Pied de Cochon Food Truck: Martin Picard, Le Roi du Foie Gras, seems to be vying for top spot as King of The Road. What can we say about Picard’s food? So much has been written about Picard’s cuisine we think all the words have been used up. We also wish to avoid getting into the whole gentrification of poutine debate. We do want to mention PDC’s homemade maple soda and how much we love it only because it must get overlooked when compared to the other crowd pleasing plates. 

King of The Road: Smoked Meat Pied de Cochon Style

For the locations of food trucks and individual contact info check out this website. 

The good news is that summer is still over yet so there is still plenty of time to enjoy food trucks and events.

Upcoming Food Events

 

Cooking Under the Dome: Omnivore World Tour (August 14 – 10, 2013)

The uber cool European food event, that makes stops in Istanbul, Brussels, Moscow, Shanghai, New York, San Francisco, Rio and Sydney, is coming to Montreal for a second year at the Société des Arts Technologiques. Last year we attended 3 days of cooking demos, featuring local and international Chefs with outstanding examples of Master classes and the culinary arts. If you are unsure of the difference between a cook and a Chef then look no further to this event. The platings alone often looked like masterpieces. Should you wish to sample the food you can attend the Omnivorous cocktail party. Also on the menu are "The F*cking Dinners,” four handed dinners, collaborative menus featuring Omnivore’s lineup of international and local Chefs at their respective restaurants.

For Omnivore ticket info click here.

Channeling Chagall: Culinary Arts with Chef John Horne - MTL Omnivore 2012

Burger Week (September 1-7, 2013)

In case you did not get your fill this summer Burger Week is just around the corner. A perfect reason to justify eating at least one burger a day for an entire week. We had fun last year sampling the signature burgers created exclusively for the occasion but also getting out to some restos that we have never tried.

For information on Burger Week click here.

Oyster Fest (September 8, 2013)

Thumbs Up for Oyster Fest: Bob Le Chef - Oyster Fest 2012

Oyster Fest was our favorite food event of 2012. Great food means great fun and we were amazed with the food offerings last year. Need we say more? For information click here.

Seeing Food at Oyster Fest - Oyster Fest 2012

To purchase tickets for oyster fest click here.

Top Chef Canada Season 2: episode 4: Mattoscio's poutine is no go

Once-again tragedy has reared its head on this season of Top Chef Canada. Remember Kunal Ghose? The Chef / Owner of Redfish Bluefish, that specializes in seafood tacos, was sent home for making a taco. Now, Montreal's Sergio Mattoscio is sent home for his beef tongue poutine. Why the tragedy? Besides the obvious, a Chef from Québec being sent home for poutine, in his audition video Mattoscio showed off his signature dish gnocchi poutine. 

We did pay a couple of visits to Mattoscio's, Macaroni Bar in Montreal when we found out he was going to be on Top Chef Canada. The establishment reopened after some renovations when it was announced that Chef Mattoscio would be competing for the title of Canada's next Top Chef. On both occasions we did sample the gnocchi poutine. The dish comes as a small appetizer ($15). Eating the poutine made us think a lot about our province's signature dish.  A variety of poutine combinations exist in our city. Consider that La Banquise's offers over 25 varieties of the dish but never strays from the basic building blocks of fries, gravy and cheese. Has anyone tried the Pogo medallion poutine? Mattoscio's creation is certainly one of the more unique combinations in Montreal's wide world of poutines. The use of gnocchi instead of fries is a logical step given the potato connection. From the look and taste of the dish we think that it has been baked under the broiler since the gnocchi has a deep amber color. You know when marshmallows are perfectly roasted and have a crisp outer skin and soft middle? We found the gnocchi took on the same consistency under the broiler. And the gravy? We were told it was made from fond de vœu and cut with ricotta. Obviously the dish is very rich, almost dessert like, and in Montreal's poutine landscape it is definitely at the top of our list. Our one suggestion would be to offer a bigger portion. This is after all your signature dish.

Gnocchi Poutine at Macaroni Bar

The theme ingredient for the elimination challenge in this episode of Top Chef Canada featured offal. This is one episode that had us longing for last year's Cheftestant Connie DeSousa, aka the butcher ballerina or bacon ninja, who can butcher a pig's head in record time. The challenge was not so much about butchering skills but what to do with your nasty bits in the kitchen. These days it seems like all the Chefs are talking about nose to tail as one of their kitchen philosophies. The trendy topic shows customers a social consciousness by not wasting food. You know how food trends work? The cheap cuts of meat are a great way for restaurant's to mange their cost to profit margins. The cheap cuts of meat prepared by famous Chefs in their restaurants results in the item becoming gourmet and expensive. The offal challenge forced the Chefs to put their money where their mouth is by having them prepare a variety of animal parts.

The combination of offal and Chefs also reminded us, sorry Chris Consentino, of Sue Towsend's Book Adrian Mole: The Cappucino Years. The book, published and set in the late 1990s, features protagonist Adrian Mole working as a celebrity Chef in London's Soho area. The book features lots-of Kitchen Confidential moments like a waiter with foot fungus who washes his feet in the sink, an insane coke-head owner and a scatological review from critic A.A. Gill. Mole, who has no formal culinary training, specializes in English working-class cuisine and therefore offal. Adrian also gets his own cooking show, Offaly Good, and book deal. Townsend's book was made into a television series and is available on YouTube. Ep 3.2 

To see the filming of Offaly Good hit the 4:45 mark.

Let's get back to Top Chef Canada. It is looking like Chef Elizabeth Rivasplata, who is also a very strong competitor, might be emerging as the next Top Chef villain. We will have to wait and see but this might shed the show's reputation as being a polite version of the original U.S. series.

Poutine Porn at Burger de Ville: Goat Cheese & Black Pepper Sauce

La Banquise review: 24hr Poutine People

Ongoing discussions about food icons: 

The Bacon Cheeseburger & Poutine

With Chuck Hughes’ lobster poutine making National headlines we decided to pay homage to our city's victory by going to La Banquise. Since we are on the subject of Chef Hughes’ victory and the fact we have been taking some heat for dishing Toronto in our Top Chef Canada article allow us this moment. Toronto, how many Iron Chef winners do you have? Remember when David Adjey lit himself on fire? That was hilarious, any road, let’s bring on the food. 

La Banquise has a bit of a mythical status as a poutine paradise in Montreal. First, they are open 24 hrs. so it is a popular last call, late-night eats destination. Second, the various incarnations of their signature dish, there are 25 varieties of poutine on the menu. Third, many locals say it is the best.

Photogenic: the burger, not the smiling girl

Burger Construction: In keeping with our Bacon Cheese Burger thread we ordered the Banquise burger that had, a beef patty, fried onions, swiss-cheese, tomato and spicy sauce. This burger will set you back about 5 bucks taxes included.

Poutine perfection

Poutine Construction: We had the Taquise that consisted of, in addition to the basic ingredients (fries, cheese-curds and gravy), guacamole, sour-cream and tomatoes.We upgraded our dish with meat sauce. The small version of this dish will set you back about 11 bucks taxes included.

The Verdicts:

Service: waiting for ketchup & mustard

Burger: La Banquise is famous for it’s poutines and not their burgers but none-the-less this was a good burger. We liked the thin patty, that was nicely cooked, good bacon, and the bun was one of the better toasty fluffy experiences that we have had lately. The tomato was a real slice and not razor thin. Our beef with this burger was the spicy sauce because it tasted like Kraft. Go that extra mile with your sauce and you will be working on a masterpiece. 

So glad we had this time together

Poutine: When you look at the varieties of poutines on the menu you might think that the bizarre combinations take precedence over the flavor. The menu almost reads like a gross gag me with a spoon pig out, like Epic Meal Time, but this is not the case. Obviously some thought, or tasting, has been put into the food combos because we would have never thought of these flavors but they worked. For junk food it is surprisingly easy going.


Recommendation: 

La Banquise is a family run business hat has stood it’s ground for close to 40 years. If you chose to eat here you will not be disappointed. The menu might read gourmand but it leans more towards gourmet. In fact, this is is good food masquerading as junk so perhaps that is the secret of their success.