Why doesn’t Seattle have GOOD poutine? Fries, cheese curds, gravy. It’s not hard! Yet, it’s impossible to find a decent plate of the stuff anywhere outside of Canada. Especially good vegetarian poutine.

Here are two plates of poutine from La Banquise in Montreal.

poutine.jpg

The top plate: Vegetarian poutine with cheese curds, and really rich, salty, and amazing gravy. The bottom: Vegetarian poutine with the same gravy and cheese curds along with tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream. It is SO GOOD. This place is open 24 hours and poutine is the perfect thing to eat when it’s snowing and 16 degrees outside (with a wind chill of about -10). It’d also be the perfect thing to eat when it’s raining and 40 degrees outside, like it often is in Seattle. And I can’t speak from experience, but I’d imagine poutine would be the perfect meal at 2 am when you need to soak up some alcohol before passing out. So why doesn’t this sort of magic exist in Seattle? Why is all of Washington’s poutine inferior?

Someone, please, MAKE GOOD POUTINE. Or I am never coming home.

Megan Seling is The Stranger's managing editor. She mostly writes about hockey, snacks, and music. And sometimes her dog, Johnny Waffles.

81 replies on “Why Doesn’t This Exist in Seattle?”

  2. What are you doing in Montreal, Megan?

    Gourmet poutine is the rage in Toronto right now. I can think of six poutineries that have opened in the last couple of years.

  7. Fnarf, I have looked at central market for sheep milk yogurt and failed. I’ll look again. You will now be either my best friend or my biggest dissapointment.

  8. i feel like you should only be able to eat food like this if you have tracked it through the forest for hours and sprung upon it with a spear.

    ….that or drove your fat ass to restaurant, chowed down and followed it up with a quick drive home and nap

    either/or….whatever, it all works, same difference

  10. I’ve had more than one person from Montréal tell me that even the regular poutine is basically vegetarian, as there isn’t anything remotely resembling meat in the gravy powder (the gourmet places may do it differently but the old school gravy is made from a powdered mix). We here in Vancouver really only got half decent poutine in the last decade, so maybe it will migrate down to Seattle one day. Can you please send up a couple of taco trucks in return?

  18. @46 and 47 it’s actually closer to poo-TIN than poo-teen, but either are acceptable.

    Poutine is the food of the gods, but if you’re in Montreal, you should really be eating bagels and smoked meat.

  19. @70 I was going to correct the pronunciation if you didn’t.

    Also, for everyone complaining about Seattles street food laws, street food is illegal in Montreal except during street fairs. Thankfully, we have restaurants dedicated to selling stuff that should be coming out of a cart on the side of the street.

    I’m surprised that so many of the skinny hipsters who move here stay skinny. Between the poutine, the bagels, and the smoked meat, Montreal is possibly the junk food capital of North America, if not the world.

  20. @70 and 71 ….okay, pooh-tin by someone who lives in Montreal, but for people who don’t live in French speaking Canada (like the no doubt English speaker who will be ordering it in Seattle?) Pooh-teen.
    In the same way that people in Quebec say Kay-beck, and everyone else says Kwuh-beck.

  21. @71 I’m currently living in Toronto, but I stock up on all the bagels I can whenever I visit. <3 They freeze well enough. There is no eating quite like a weekend of Montreal eating, even if I quite need to work it off afterwards.

    @72 Actually, I hear ‘keh-beck’ pretty much coast to coast now. (well, coast and coast. can’t speak to the middle bits.) ‘kwuh-beck’ seems pretty much restricted to the same sort of people that say Oregon by putting a huge emphasis on the third syllable.

  25. It should be tried with “Montreal smoked meat sandwich” and a pickle.
    http://hubpages.com/hub/Montreal-Smoked-&hellip;

    It is just the thing to do when visiting Montreal. There are many places in Vancouver that sell Montreal smoked meat sandwiches too along with a pickle and Poutine.
    But the new sensation of Japa Dogs in Vancouver is the thing to do when walking around downtown in the evening or before and after a movie. The best location is the corner of Burrard and Smithe St. downtown Vancouver.
    If you Google map Burrard and Smithe St. Vancouver you will see the original Japa Dog as a location.

  26. While you’ve reminded me: Why doesn’t Seattle have GOOD potica? it’s impossible to find a decent slice of the delectable nut roll anywhere outside of Cleveland or Llubjana. THIS STUFF IS PERFECT FOR COFFEE PEOPLE!! DUH!

  29. @72 – I’m from Toronto and I say keh-bek and poo-tin.
    @ 77 – I’m pretty sure there’s something about the way they cure smoked meat in Quebec that isn’t allowed in other provinces, so it’s actually slightly different? Maybe 76 could enlighten us.

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