Poutine is the ultimate comfort food, and a French-Canadian staple since the 1950s. At its most basic, a dish of poutine is a steaming heap of French fries, cheese curds (solid parts of soured milk, which have a mozzarella like taste and texture, and squeak when you bite into them) and rich gravy. However, many fancier restaurants have made serious upgrades to the dish, and at dedicated poutine joints, there are a variety of options that make poutine a much bigger meal.
Take 24 hour Montreal poutine joint La Banquise for example, which has 28 different poutines. There you can try an Elvis, with ground beef, green peppers and mushrooms, or La B.O.M, which comes with bacon, onions and merguez sausages. La Banquise takes their poutine seriously, and every dish is absolutely delicious.
That said, if you want some knock your socks off poutine, then head to one of Montreal’s top restaurants, Au Pied du Cochon, for Poutine au Foie gras. Served with a massive slab of foie gras atop French fries that were fried in duck fat and incredibly delicious gravy, the dish is rich and almost too much to actually eat. Another luxuriously upgraded option is available at Garde-Manger, the restaurant owned by Iron Chef Chuck Hughs, who puts lobster in his poutine.
Poutine has always been popular, and you won’t have any trouble ordering some wherever you are in Canada. Many Eastern Canadian Burger King restaurants allow you to order it as an upgrade to fries with your meal deal, and in the past few years several trendy chains have opened across Canada (such as Smoke’s Poutinery) so you can get this dish in pretty much every province.