10/07/2025
Perhaps the most uniquely Quebeqois food is poutine. This is basically the Quebec version of nachos or taco salad. It is a bed of French fries covered with gravy and cheese curds. When here, you must try it. It was only first created in the 1950s, and has evolved into something of a national, or at least provincial, dish. It is junk food, to be sure, and as I ate it I wondered what the French would think of this junk food, this "pile of damn mess," as it was described by its purported creator in the 1950s. And what would they think of the vegan version?! They'd be horrified, I'm sure. I don't think they could find a wine that would pair with it. The French are nationalistic, even paternalistic about their food. They are gastronationalists. Quebeckers? Seemingly, not so much, thankfully. Anyway, I cannot imagine that the French would appreciate poutine. But much like nearly all food in North America there have been generations of evolutions to our foods, and foodways continue to bring new influences.
So I wanted to try more traditional poutine and also a vegan version. Traditional poutine can be made without meat anyway, so it was just a comparison between vegan and vegetarian. So I stopped at two places, Poutineville, the franchised fast food chain. They have a non-vegan, but vegetarian, version. And then I went to Le Chic Shack. Le Chic Shack replaces the cheese curds with tofu curds. They are decent, but still... honestly, nothing can really replicate the texture and taste of cheese if that is what you are looking for.
I could absolutely see myself throwing fries, cheese curds, and gravy into a bowl and eating it while watching a football game at home. It could easily become an American favorite during the Super Bowl. But it is not the kind of dish I would order in a restaurant... at least not the versions I tried here. I would try a different version, but probably something less traditional, with more toppings or flavors.
But is less traditional food not authentic? What is authentic? Probably the people who worry most about what authentic food is are the people who don't live in the place where the "authentic" food comes from. Locals, around the world, seem to worry less about what authentic cuisine is than do tourists or outsiders. Well, except in France perhaps, and maybe India. And certainly in China. I recently read that more traditional Nordic fish is consumed in the US states of Minnesota and Wisconsin than in the Nordic itself. I don't know if that is true, but it is an interesting statement on how descendants of immigrants want to cling to the foods of their ancestors' homelands. Most other countries I have visited let their national foods evolve. Quebec is no exception, and kudos to them for that.
