poutine Archives - Page 3 of 4

Which came first, the gastro or the pub? – Le Pourvoyeur

by Jason August 29, 2011

written by Jason

When I say “pub grub” what do you think of? An old dusty basket packed to the top with gloopy-suaced chicken wings and recycled carrot and celery stick? Fries fried in oil that’s probably as old as the recipe for the stout they have on tap? Now what do you think of when I say “Gasto-Pub”? Contrary to what the name implies, it’s not a place where you’ll get some stomach bug and forced into isolation from friends and family and treated like you own a Clay Aiken album.

My “vanilla couple”, (the ones who like to order the same thing unless I yell at them – as illustrated in my post about dinner at Osteria Venti) and I hit up this spot overlooking the Jean Talon Market. I cornered them and bullied them into ordering different things this time, I refuse to try a new menu and have only 2 different meals amongst three people! We went to check out Le Pourvoyeur – gastro-pub to grub on the menu and try to decide if they were pub, or restaurant, or proverbially, chicken or egg.

August 29, 2011 0 comments

Downtown Food Mile-end/Plateau Mont-Royal Reviews

No relation to Cruella, because it would be wrong – Restaurant Burger de Ville.

by Jason April 18, 2011

written by Jason

For you loyal readers, if you haven’t already liked my Facebook fan page, or are following me on Twitter, there is one question for you… What the heck are you waiting for? Geez, my friend’s cat has a friggin Facebook profile, there’s no reason for you not to be following me… unless you’re not down with social media, or networking socially, then in that case… no biggie, that’s cool too yo.

I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about burgers and what makes a burger “a burger”. After this lengthy conversation, it planted the burger seed in my head. I haven’t had a really good burger in the longest time and I was fiending for one. Something came over me, a feeling of desperation; almost to a level where I was self-diagnosing a burger deficiency. I heard a while back that Burger de Ville had opened up a second location on St. Laurent and I decided to go check it out.

If you’re unfamiliar with Burger de Ville, they pride themselves on using fresh, never frozen, “100% Canadian beef”, which coincidently is my middle name. You pick up an order sheet and check off the kind of burger you want along with the fixings and sides. I ordered the cheese burger, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup and mayo from the list of 16 different complimentary toppings – which includes three different types of mayonnaise and mustard.

As you can see, the burger is as honest and simple as it gets. Great beefy flavor cooked to a kind of perfection little red riding hood would approve of – in the updated version of the story – as we all know, bears don’t eat bowlfuls of porridge anymore. Unlike most places who like to cook their burgers to resemble a scouring-iron wool pad, Burger de Ville cooks them juuuuust under, leaving them with a touch of pink in the middle.

My friend was feeling adventurous that day and decided to go all out, ordering the bacon burger. It was topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, ketchup, old fashion-grainy mustard, and jalepeno hot peppers. You can’t really sugar coat it and there’s no mount of flowery writing that can explain this, but let’s face it; bacon always makes everything taste better. Not that the burger needs help in the taste department but there’s just something about bacon.

Of all the sides there are to choose from, we chose a side from the poutine menu. We chose the straight up, classic poutine from the choice of their house specialty poutine as well as w tex-mex option. Like I’ve said before, the key to a successful poutine is that the sauce MUST be hot enough to melt the cheese, and there must be a congruent harmony between cheese and gravy and when there is… this is what happens.

You throw some ketchup and pepper on those home-cut fries and you kill it like a boss. A.BAWSS. Chewy and squeeky, the cheese curds were nicely melted and the fries, crisp; simple.

The only discrepancy I had with the burger was with the “lettuce” – they use mesclun – little dainty baby salad leaves nestled atop a big fat burger is totally wrong. Albeit, it’s not a big deal, when you’re grunting and eating meat cooked over fire, the only kind of vegetables that should be involved is scenario is ketchup and bacon. Burger deVille is a palce for solid burgers, the kind your fat uncle makes for the family barbeque in the summer. Nothing fancy, you go here cos you want a burger, a good burger, a good burger made the way you like it.

Burger deVille
5282, boul Saint-Laurent
(514) 507-5050

I should also mention that they serve steak as well. I saw a few people eating it that afternoon, so it’s probably something worth checking out too.

April 18, 2011 8 comments

Food Reviews Rosemont

Why are kids in school? It’s National Poutine day! – Restaurant Poutineville

by Jason April 12, 2011

written by Jason

If you didn’t know, today, Monday, April 11th is National Poutine Day! I kid you not. So on this day, I mad a conscious effort to celebrate appropriately by seeking out our Nationale export – I’m not talking about Celine Dion, but funny I should say that because I’ve been calling her “Celine Poutine” for the longest time now – POUTINE!. Sinfully delicious French fries topped with cheese curds and doused in hot gravy, it’s practically art. I hit up Poutineville this afternoon in search of squeaky and stretchy cheese.

We were handed both a menu as well as a Harry Potter like sorcery checklist to concoct a custom poutine to our own likes and specifications. The menu consists of classic burgers and hotdogs, but that’s not what we were in for today. We were out for poutine blood, and Poutineville was to quench our thirst. I had the poutine tasting choice and my friend decided to test what would be as close as she’ll ever come to her cooking skills, by choosing the toppings to her poutine.

I had the three poutine sampler plate. Explained to me by our waitress, it was a chance to taste Poutineville’s namesakes stripped down to its bare essentials. Three different preparations of potatoes as well as three different sauces.

Smashed potatoes with red wine sauce. Potatoes roasted whole with the skin on, then smashed and beaten like it stole something. What’s best about roasting potatoes with the skin on is that the skin crisps up and the edges of the potato gets hard and crusty, leaving the innards soft and fluffy. I was told that this is a nine-hour-sauce, meaning, this bad boy sat on top of the stove all morning in a saucepan spa slowly simmering away. The taste is really rich and deep, almost murky and mysterious, definitely the Keyser Söze of the poutine gravy world.

I spun my plate around to experience the next level of poutination. Sweet potato French fries with a three-pepper gravy. The potatoes lend a mild fruitiness to the poutine which is completely balanced out by the pepper sauce. Genius. I’ve always found that the only problem with sweet potato fries is that they don’t stay crispy long enough – this is attributed to the higher starch content of the potato. But when I was close to waving the white flag in defeat and was picking away at what was left of these fries… they were still crispy. I don’t know how they do it or what technique is used, but Poutineville managed to discover some sort of secret sweet potato viagra.

Straight up fries, cheese curds and original brown gravy. This option doesn’t mess around. Having Poutineville’s straight up original poutine (even if you’ve never had a poutine in your life before), tasting it for the first time, you will know right away that this is what a poutine should taste like.

My friend went with combination # 43,542,245 (explained later), which comprised of sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, Italian sausage and bacon. Mushrooms and onions go together regardless of the context, and let’s face it, you would probably eat a door-knob if it was wrapped in bacon… ok, maybe that’s just me.

We ordered the large size like we suffered from poutine deficiencies. Poutineville scored MAJOR points, because before we even started, I dug right to the middle of the pile and discovered that the middle was filled with cheese as well. How many times have you eaten off the cheesey yamaka of a poutine to be left with just a pitiful bowlful of fries? ALWAYS right? They knew this was a concern to addressed it accordingly… by stuffing the middle of this SOB with more cheese.

It’s easy to say that a poutine is a poutine, WRONG. All elements play important roles in this gastronomic symphony of Quebecois culinary heritage. Cheese curds, must be the highlight; it must squeak to the bite, and also be able to be pulled like hot glue or sweet maple taffy. This would only be possible if the gravy is thick but viscous enough to maintain and retain a level of adequate cheese melting temperature. Gravy must also compliment both fries and contrast the cheese to provide a sharp tang to the creamy cheese.

Mathematical breakdown of Poutineville; by chosing one of three types of potatoes, one of three types of sauces and a mix and match of 33 toppings.

3 * 3 * (2^33) or N[3 3 2^33] = 77,309,411,328

That’s 77,309,411,328 different combination possibilities (did anyone else get a little turned on?), and even if you had a poutine three times a day, it would still take you 70,602,202 – 70-friggin-million years to eat through Poutineville’s menu (I believe this calculation to be correct, but if any of you math geeks out there think otherwise, let me know). What are you waiting for? You have to start somewhere, get crackalackin’.

Poutineville
‎1348 Beaubien
514-544-8800

April 12, 2011 22 comments