The Unvegan

Oooh curds.

After a few drinks, our tour guide (aka the girlfriend’s bro) took us to a little hole in the wall called Pommes Frites.  Here, they specialized in cones of Belgian fries served with some crazy sauces like Pomegranate Teriyaki Mayo, Irish Curry and more.  These seemed all good and well, but I saw something on the menu that tickled my fancy even more:  Poutine.

For the uninitiated and un-Canadian, poutine (pronounced pooh-teen) is a gloriously unvegan treat consisting of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.  This combination creates something spectacular, yet rarely found south of the Great White North.  It had been a long time since I was in Canada and I was with a couple poutine virgins, so we ordered a large one to split for six bucks.

I watched as the cook scooped up some fries, grabbed some curds and ladled the gravy into a styrofoam cup.  I had never seen poutine dished out in a styrofoam cup like this, but I reserved my judgment for the taste.  We grabbed our forks and went at it.  It was actually surprisingly good for not being in Canada.  The fries maintained a level of crispiness in all that gravy and the cheese curds made it halfway into that semi-gooey state that makes poutine so good.  The gravy happened to be of the chicken sort and was nice and flavorful and definitely went well with those fries.

Poutine at Pommes Frites was definitely an unexpected treat for my trip to New York.  Although not perfect, they definitely did poutine justice and the place could definitely be a little taste of home for any homesick Canadians hanging out in Manhattan.