AlwaysPartying: Poutine Tasting (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Josh Kaplan — June 26, 2009

Wednesday night at the Australian Park Slope gastropub, Sheep Station, Chef Martine Lafond (a Quebec transplant) held a Poutine tasting in honor of “La St. Jean Baptiste,” (Saint Jean Baptiste Day, June 24th), a national holiday of Quebec that celebrates French Canadian culture.

Poutine has been on the rise around the city. Draft Barn threw a disco fry tasting this week. TPoutine is supposed to open on Ludlow soon. Even the swanky Hotel Griffou makes poutine with duck confit. This Canadian junk food classic, (French fries cheese curds and gravy) is said to have its etymological roots in the Quebecois slang, “une maudite poutine,” which describes what it resembles, “an unholy mess.”

Of the three poutines at the tasting —Classic, Chicken and Peas, and Italian— the first (above) was the best. Fries were bathed in a straightforward pan gravy and topped with five curds— salty, chewy bites reminiscent of mozzarella balls. There just weren’t enough curds.

 

The overcooked Chicken and Peas Poutine was depressing—same fries, gravy and five curds as the classic, but with pale green peas and sickly white chicken chunks. It tasted like the Shop Rite potpie Mom used to buy.

 

More egregious was the Italian Poutine: fries covered with a sweet meat sauce that tasted bottled. “They’ve desecrated poutine,” said someone with a thick Quebec accent at the bar.

 

The capper was the “Quebec dog,” a standard hot dog topped with shredded cabbage, Heinz relish and yellow mustard. Aside from the classic, this was the evening’s best bite, and you could buy the same dirty water product from a street vendor for half the price. I’ve previously really enjoyed both the Shearer’s Burger (beets, pineapple, fried egg, lettuce, tomato and onions) and the Meat Pie at Sheep Station (view site), so this sad poutine affair was particularly disappointing. In this case, unfortunately, the taste lived up to the dish’s name