Poutine Buffet Bar Party

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Ryan loves poutine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some incarnation of it every week. Poutine is a Quebecois dish that only became available in the rest of Canada in the past few years. Basically, it’s a bowl of French fries dotted with fresh cheese curds and dripping in gravy. The hot gravy melts the squeeky cheese into a gooey mess, and the whole thing is delicious. Typical of Canadian lumberjack food!

When we were kids, we would go skiing up near Collingwood, and after some time on the slopes we would eat a hot lunch (and drink hot chocolate) at the ski lodge. They had French fries and hot gravy, but without the cheese curds, it wasn’t true poutine. In fact, I hadn’t heard of poutine until several years afterwards. Restaurants in Toronto, like Poutineville  or Smoke’s Poutinerie, now specialize in poutine and offer a wide scope of variations, with different types of fries, different gravies, various cheeses, and a whole assortment of toppings.

For Valentine’s Day, I made Ryan a poutine bar for us to enjoy.

Poutine Buffet Items:

• regular potato French fries
• sweet potato French fries
• hot poutine gravy
• fresh cheese curds
• fried halloumi cheese slices
• sliced avocado
• bacon strips, bacon strips, bacon strips
• pulled pork
• gravy made with the pulled pork juices
• turkey gravy
• green peppercorn gravy
• sauteed onions in vermouth
• sauteed mushrooms
• green peas

This is a lot of food for just two people, only one of whom eats meat, so I invited Tomiko, Donatello, Karlos and our parents over as well. They brought some some wine for us to wash it all down. Now that’s how we celebrate Valentine’s Day!