The Unvegan

I like my poutine with gravy and curds.

A few more beers into the night and not yet having satisfied my craving for poutine in Toronto, my drunken munchies search became a quest for poutine.  The quest ended when we discovered Smoke’s Poutinerie in the Queens West area.  This place was a chain, but still had the look of a greasy hole-in-the-wall style poutine joint.  Their menu had a few different variations of that delicious treat, even one including bacon, but we decided that the traditional was the way to go.  We got a large for 8 loonies and waited about 30 seconds for them to toss the fries, curds and gravy into a box for eating.

Shiny, glistening, Canadian fries.

Now this was how poutine was supposed to be.  The curds still retained their shapes and although the food looked deliciously sloppy, you could see exactly what you were about to eat.  The gravy tasted different from any I’d ever had with poutine before, but not necessarily in a bad way.  After a few bites, we decided it must have come from some sort of foul, be it chicken, turkey or otherwise.  And it was delicious, chain or not.  Each bite had the perfect mix of ingredients and there was enough gravy and curds in the box so that no fry went unflavored.  Even though the gravy was thin, it didn’t destroy the fries completely.  They definitely got a bit soggy by the end, but they retained their individuality and I never felt like they had been turned to mush.

It was the perfect treat to end a night of drinking in Toronto.  Look out, French-Canada, it looks like I don’t have to travel all the way to your part of the country next time I need some poutine in my belly.