Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Poutine Orgy - Poutineville


You know foodies often compare food to sex... like seriously! I remember one of my boyfriends was jealous of the food because I seemed more pleased with it than with him! Ha ha ha! But if you are one, you will truly understand what I mean. The vague of emotions and excitement when you eat something good just makes your toes curl! Ha, wasn't expecting this post to be XXX did you?
 
Now for your quebecers out there, you know how pleasing a poutine can be... greasy fries, squeaky cheese curds and oh so yummy brown gravy... ahhhhhhh. Either to finish off a night out with your drunk friends, or on a day that you feel down or even on a day you feel like you want to celebrate your little self... poutine is there for every occasion. And particularly with the restaurant scene growing so much here, you can have the most basic poutine to the galvaude (with chicken and green peas) to the most sophisticated one with truffle oil and foie gras (triple heart attack! but you die happy!)

Restaurants designated to poutines, we have a bunch of them here starting from the most popular one 'La Banquise'. Especially because it is open 24hrs for late nighters and it offers a very large variety of poutines! But a newbie just came into the picture a few months ago, April 2011 to be more precise: Poutineville! With a name like that, their poutines better be good!

So how different is Poutineville to the others? Now where do I start?

1. You can customize your poutine!!! How amazing is that?!?  You are greeted with a traditionnal menu and a check list of all the ingredients you can choose from to create your AWESOME poutine!


POTATOES - you can choose anything from regular cut, to their signature 'patates écrasées' or sweet potato fries!

My fave is definitely their smashed potatoes! It is brilliant! They use small potatoes that they cook with their skins on, smash it and fry it! Wow! The taste of skin and its slight resistance under the teeth just adds an oumph! and you know the upside of it? Keeping the skin on keeps the vitamins as well! Boo yeah!

The sweet potatoes fries are also a must! The sweetness of it just almost lighten up your meal and yup they are crispy alright!

The regular fries were less of a wow! A little too starchy for my taste and not as crispy as I would have liked!

CHEESE!!! As most of you know, I am cheezy person... in every sense of the word ;) and boy am I obsessed about cheese!

The cheese curds are from Fromagerie Champêtre from Le Gardeur. Freshly made every day and delivered to Poutineville, the owners made sure to request smaller curds in order to allow an even distribution throughout the poutine.  In other words, you can find the cheese in every single bite of poutine! However, this compromises the squeaky texture so seeked for this Quebec dish.

VEGETABLES - All your nutritionnists and veggie lovers will be happy to find everything ranging from your expected onions, green peas to hot peppers to more interesting choices like zucchinis and eggplants!

MEAT :) The presence of BACON will make many of you jumping of excitement. You even have the liberty to add smoked meat, ham, chicken etc.

SAUCE - Sauce is usually the turning point determining whether the poutine is good or not. It has to be hot enough to melt a little the curds, not too salty, not too sweet and just the right amount... and trust me, not that many restaurants are able to successfully make it work.

Poutineville offers four choices: the homemade traditional gravy sauce, a red wine sauce, three peppers sauce and a italian meat sauce. I was extremely impressed with the red wine sauce, it was rich, it was bold. Its slight tangyness and sweetness counterbalanced the heavyness of the potatoes!

The three pepper sauce provided the kick I wanted, leaving my mouth with just enough heat.  The traditional gravy was good but it did not blow my mind away.  The Italian sauce however was too dry because of the huge quantity of ground meat in it.

AWESOME COMBINATIONS!!!! 

1- Smashed potatoes, hot banana peppers, green peppers, onions, black olives, bacon, sausages, mozz + cheese curds, red wine sauce


Hmmmmmmm.... I mixed the mozzarella with the cheese curds to add stretchiness and meltability while keeping the squeakiness! The smokiness of the bacon and the sausages were absolutely lovely with the red wine sauce!

2 - Sweet potatoes, feta + blue cheese, green peas, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, grilled eggplants, bacon and red wine sauce


There you go you veggie eaters (minus the bacon!)! The choice of cheese did not provide the same effect as you would expect in a poutine but it was nonetheless quite an adventure for your taste buds! Even though it sounds weird, this poutine was quite light because of all the veggies! And I must say one thing, Poutineville is very generous in its toppings!

3 - Sweet potatoes, goat + feta, zucchinis, grilled eggplants, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, chicken, three peppers sauce, gratinéed


I was told to pick the most unconventional ingredients that I would never expect in a poutine.  These choices of veg and meat will most certainly never be found in one of my choices so I was eager to see how Poutineville will be able to make me like it. Well, 1-0 for Poutineville! They brillantly put my poutine in the oven to give this caramelized touch and this technique was also giving a different mouthfeel (especially with my choice of cheese!)  And I was impressed by the chicken, it was roasted and had that smokiness to it! The sweet potatoes along with all the veggies made me feel less guilty to eat it! Bravo Poutineville! I surrender :)

4 - Home cut fries, cheddar sauce, philly steak, onions


The cheese sauce was oh so creamy and tasted like real cheddar with a hint of spice... This tasted literally like a bite at a philly cheese steak sandwich!

5 - Sweet potatoes, hot banana peppers, cheese curds, sausages, Italian sauce, onions



The sauce was a little bit too dry but had a good tomato taste to it.  My sister and mom absolutely loved this combination! (They are more conservative I must say!)

6 - Smashed potatoes, braised beef, onions, Blue + Swiss, red wine sauce
(we finished all of it too fast... the camera lense was not fast enough to capture it! ;) )

Wow! This was proposed by the owners and wow! I could not believe the taste of it! The braised beef is cooked for 8 hours and boy can you notice it! It is tender to the fork! And the cheese combination is absolutely mind-blowing! I am still a novice with Blue cheese but in this case, it added just a creamyness and buttery taste to the whole while the swiss provided the stringy melt... And the sauce just rounded everything up perfectly! I was just missing a glass of red wine in it. High class cuisine in a poutine!

ps: they also have the heart attack: a 5lbs of fries an 5lbs of toppings! Check out their challenge!!!!


A LITTLE BACKGROUND STORY

We had the immense opportunity to chat with two of the owners, Kosta and Camillo.  Extremely friendly and welcoming with every single customer, they want to make sure that you live the best experience they can offer you.  They are one of the rare restaurants nowadays that do welcome families with children; providing the kids with paper and colored pencils to keep them entertained while the parents enjoy their meal.

Another item that really impressed me is their care for environment. Every little detail is so well thought of: Glasses of water are only brought to the table when requested (to avoid any waste), there is only a fork on the table to save water from dishwashing, they compost the leftovers (!!!!!) and all of their equipment are energy efficient. How awesome is that?!?

Lastly, it is their passion and friendship that I believe makes this business a success.  The concept came from childhood memories, where Kosta's mom used to gather all the leftovers, mix it with potatoes and transform what could have been wasted to a whole new yummy dish! They brought this idea and modernized and adapted it to Quebec! And who doesn't like to decide exactly what they want in their dishes? And for those that does not want to think, they also propose an array of yummy combinations.
And if you are still not sure what to choose, ask one of their staff! All of them are trained and have tasted all of the products in order to be able to describe them well ;) 

There you go! You know where to go next time you are craving the national dish!

Poutineville on Urbanspoon


4 comments:

  1. Very touching story!! Love the post!

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  2. I totally agree with your blog description ! :)

    I'm happy to discover your blog, and I'll come back often !

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  3. I agree too - always well treated, always eat great food, and Kosta and his gang do their best to make their customers feel like family....:-)

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  4. Thank you guys for your support! It seems like there is unanimity towards Poutineville: it rocks!!!

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