Smoke’s Poutinerie Revisited

December6

I try very hard to eat food for the “right” reasons, that is to supply my body with the appropriate fuel that it requires for optimum health BUT I am human and sometimes slip into old habits. I’ll be frank, I eat when I am stressed or to reward myself for (what I perceive is) a job well done. Case in point, I have recently had a long stretch of teaching and speaking engagements along with a couple of food styling gigs. I am such a “pleaser” that I put myself under a lot of pressure to think of every single little detail for the chef and publicists that I am contracted to. When the time comes that I am able to pack up and head home, I am relieved and looking for a way to celebrate.

My last commitment today was at the not yet opened Paterson GlobalFoods Institute at the Exchange campus of Red River College. Lo and behold, I was parked right in front of Smoke’s Poutinerie and I hadn’t indulge with a treat from there since the summer that they opened. Even though the menu was intriguing with chicken, pork, beef and vegetarian offerings, I am a purist and ordered the Traditional. I enjoyed my first couple of piping hot bites but I had to get on with the rest of my day and so packed the majority up to finish at home. By the time I unloaded all of the gear from my car, the dish had cooled off and I found that I enjoyed the tastes even more! The gravy was rich and not overly salty and the authentic cheese curds had firmed up and retained their squeakiness once more.

I have just finished a work entitled “My Canada includes Foie Gras” where the author Jacob Richler, Maclean’s food columnist, proclaims that “Poutine” maybe Canada’s only authentic food: “Our culinary identity abroad is more often rooted in unexciting single ingredients than actual dishes- things like maple syrup and “Canadian bacon” ( a minor stylistic rethink of a very common food). And with the exception of poutine, a genuine Quebec original, most of our Canadian cuisine has far too much in common with its European antecedents to appear to others as something new.”

So there you have it-I rewarded myself and substantiated culinary research all at the same time (as if I needed a second excuse)!