It's Friday night, and at our house that means poutine!  Most Fridays as we walk home from DH's work (I meet him halfway for exercise and together time) we take a little detour to the "cantine" (prounounced can-TIN, like the metal).  The best way I can describe it is if you mated a greasy spoon with a fast food restaurant and put it in a snack shack from the fair.  To go to one is to take in a major dose of Quebec culture.

Most cantines serve things like hot dogs, french fries, and of course, poutine.  Most also do hamburgers, subs, clubs, and these things called "hot chicken" which is sliced chicken on bread with a side of peas, all covered in hot chicken sauce (sorta like gravy). There's usually a list of "specials" with creative names or named after owners, customers, etc.  They sell cans of soda (at outrageous prices, usually), and sometimes the cantine also includes a dairy bar (ice cream and similar desserts) or sometimes you have to go to a separate place if you want dessert.

Poutine (poo-TIN, which is also the French pronounciation for Russian leader Putin!) is totally bad for you!  But it tastes so good, and it's pretty ubiquitous here in Quebec.  Pretty much every restaurant has a take on it, and people here keep a running tally in their heads of which restaurants have "good" poutine, sort of like people elsewhere might do with hamburgers or steak.  And yes, you can get McPoutine.  But in almost every town or village, the best poutine around is from the local cantine.  The place where we get ours is considered by many the best in our region (people who were born around here of course think it's the best in the whole province!)

So now if you've never heard of it, you're asking, what the hell is it??  It's a heart attack in a dish, really.  A "regular" is french fries, topped with fresh firm cheese (the kind that squeaks when you chew it), and covered in poutine sauce - kinda like gravy but seasoned a little differently.  Over in New Brunswick they make this stuff they call "poutine" but it's really more just french fries in chicken gravy with cheddar chunks or melted Velveeta.  Ew.

Then there's variations, like what I'll be getting tonight, a poutine italienne.  Fries + cheese, but with marinara sauce instead of gravy.  Took me a while to work up the nerve to try it but it's surprisingly good!  You can also get all kinds of different topping combos to go along with the fries/cheese/sauce: bell peppers, sausage, bacon, onions, hamburger, etc.  I've had poutine with bacon in it once, in another town.  Pretty good.  But I'm pretty much a "regular" or "italienne" girl.

When I'm not ordering hot dogs of course (hot dogs with mayonnaise, hot dogs covered in fries...they sure eat some weird stuff here!)