Short Stuff: Poutine: Canada's Pride | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's. here. Wait, no, she isn't. No, Jerry's. not here. Dave's not here. We're left on. our own like a pair of losers. And this. is short stuff. That's right. Uh, big. thanks to howstuffworks.com, the. Canadian Encyclopedia, and Food and Wine. Magazine. Wow. for uh the information. that I called about Canada's national.

dish at 740 calories and 41 grams of fat. per serving. The French fried brown. gravy cheese curd squeaky delight that. is poutine. Yes, I love poutine. How. about you? What's not to like? I don't. Of course I love poutine. I can't eat a. lot of that kind of thing. Well, no. Who. can't? because, you know, I'm trying to. look be healthier and look better and. poutine does not lend itself to that. You look you look both, by the way. I.

appreciate that. But in Canada, you got. to eat some of that poutine. You you. definitely do. Whenever we visit. Toronto, I'm always on that stuff. Um, you have to. But one reason why we can't. eat it as much is because we live in the. southeastern United States, whereas. poutine was originally invented in. Quebec, which can get awfully cold in. the middle of winter. So, it actually. makes a lot of sense to eat higher. calorie diet during that time, like a. bear. That's right. uh popped up in the.

1950s in the snack bars of rural Quebec. and uh started gaining in popularity. kind of you know it kind of spread out. from there. Um as we'll learn it. eventually started popping up in fast. food menus in the 1980s uh like. McDonald's and Burger King and and stuff. like that uh in Quebec and then. eventually uh over the border into. Ontario and nowadays you can find it all. over the world. Um, even though if you. want, you know, if you want that OG, you. got to get it somewhere in Quebec,

right? And if you're a purist, you. definitely have to get it from Quebec. That's just the way it goes. That's. right. So, there's a bunch of different. um families uh or people who lay claim. to inventing poutine, but they all hail. from the same area called the Santra de. Quebec, which means center of Quebec, which is ironically in the south. Uh, and that is a really important place. because that's where the frogeries, the. cheese makers who made these squeaky.

cheese curds that are essential to. poutine, if you're a poutine purist, where they're made. Uh, and there's a. first guy who we'll meet um is from. Warwick in Quebec and his name was. Fernand. Lash of Cafe Ideal. Uh, and he said that. he first added kurds to fries because. one of his customers, Eddie Leness, said, "Hey, add some curds to these. fries." Yeah, that was in. 1957. And he replied in French. I'm not.

even going to try it, but he replied in. French, "That will make a damned mess.". But he did it anyway. Served it in a. paper bag. It became pretty popular, and. people started kind of customizing it, adding vinegar and ketchup and stuff. And then six years into that, um, he. started to serve that on a plate because. it was such a mess. And customers were. like, "Hey, they're on the plate now. They're not in this bag staying warm. They're getting cold." So he. said, and dumped some brown gravy on. that stuff and said, "How you like that.

for warm, but in French." But in French. Do you. want me to try the French quote? Sure. Oh, sure. Nice. Uh, so, okay, we've got our first. first entrant, Fernand Lashants, courtesy of Eddie Leness. This is. 1957, I guess. And no, 1963 is when he. added the gravy. 57 is when Yeah, that's. when poutine complete poutine was 1963. Uh, but our next guy comes from uh in.

Drummondville, Jean Paul Roy, and he. said, "No, I had a place drive-in. restaurant called Loy Juiceup." And in. 1964, which was clearly a year later, uh. he said, "I've been serving fries with. this sauce though since 1958." I called. it patat sauce. And he said, "Customers. started adding cheese curds. I was. selling those at the snack counter and. they started dumping those in there." So. he started doing that and added it to. the regular menu and named it Fromage.

Patat sauce. And uh kind of a fun little. side note there. Apparently he couldn't. find a container um in his province like. that could even hold this stuff. It was. so heavy. So he had to go to Toronto to. source a vendor who could provide these. sturdy containers. Yeah. Pretty fun. Um. so poutine actually the name of it is um. it essentially means messy or mess at. least in slang in Quebec for sure. Um, but people say that it's probably or.

possibly one of the etmological theories. is that it hails from the um English. word pudding and not pudding like you. and I think that has the jiggly skin off. top that you have to peel off when you. take it out of the refrigerator. This is. pudding as in like figgy pudding, which. is essentially like a mixture of various. foods, sometimes fig. Uh, and that it. can be kind of messy. It's not like it's. just like a um a hodge podge just kind. of mixed together that kind of messy. And so um poutine possibly from pudding.

uh is where this whole thing came from. Yeah. Or maybe one of the other like 10. to 15 explanations of root words like. French words like pate or uh how would. you say that one? Poutit, which is a. potato ragu. Uh so that you know no one. agrees on that kind kind of like a lot. of the stuff that we talk about with. these uh origin stories of foods a lot. of people will lay claim and no one. agrees on who the who the person is. although I'm sure there will pe people.

write in and say no it's definitely for. sure one of these people or maybe even. someone else. Yeah. So what we do know. is that it showed up from the more rural. area of uh SRA Quebec to Quebec City in. 1969 at a place called Ashton Snack Bar. It made it to Montreal in 1983 and then. it started to spread far and wide from. there. I say we take a break and we come. back and we trace poutine spread like so. much gravy flowing over a pile of fries.

Great. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. All right, so where we left off, poutine. was spreading like brown gravy through.

the streets uh all over Canada. Um, different variations started to pop up. like Italian poutine with spaghetti. sauce or sausage instead of like the. gravy. Uh, veggie poutine. There are. regional variations apparently. Montreal. style has smoked meat. Um, but you know, have you? Yeah. How'd you like it? It. was great. I mean, it's hard to mess up. poutine in my opinion. Yeah. But, you. know, as far as traditionalists go, it's.

it's just the straight up Kurds and. gravy. There was also one one more. thing. I'm sorry. There's also a. restaurant in Toronto. I can't remember. else I totally name checked, but they. made like Korean poutine. Oh, I can't. remember what made it Korean, but it was. the bomb. Oh, okay. I think it had some. sort of smoked meat on it as well. All. right, I'd try that. Uh, by the 70s, poutine had spread to the United States. in New York and New Jersey. They called. it disco fries and use shredded mutz uh. instead of those cheese curds because.

you know one thing we mentioned it was. made where it was made because you get. those cheese curds um fresh and they say. like hey man if you're if you're keeping. these curds for a couple of days they. don't squeaky anymore and it's not the. same. So uh this this disco fries thing. is an abomination. Yeah. But it's a. great name. Yeah. Pretty good. So, um, it first started to spread to national. restaurant chains back in 1985. There. was a Quebec fast food franchise called.

Fritz, Frit T-S. Um, and they did not. last very long, but they seemed to be on. record as the first national chain or at. least large regional chain to feature. poutine. But the one that really kind of. kicked it off was Burger King. One of. their franchises, uh, Jean Louie Roy. back in 1987 was like, "I really want to. offer poutine Burger King. Please let me. offer poutine." And the Burger King. thought on it and said, "Wish granted.".

And so this first Burger King franchise. started selling poutine. And I guess it. sold well enough that Burger King was. like, "We're going to sell this in all. of our Quebec restaurants." Yeah. Uh. McDonald's followed suit afterward. Uh. they added it to the menu in 1990 uh and. then in Quebec only and then expanded to. the rest of Canada. And uh got to shout. out Harvey's uh Canadian fast food joint. Harvey's started doing so in.

1992. And then something happened in the. 2000s when uh sort of elevated comfort. food became a thing and people were like. let's let's try and charge you know 35. bucks for chicken pot pie. Edison bulbs. everywhere. Yeah. Edison bulbs, you. know, lighting up rooms all over the. place, like barely. Uh, so they said, "Yeah, let's let's do that with. poutine." And I think uh Martin Peard of. um what's that restaurant? Jo Kosh, that's right. Um he was the first.

supposedly or at least first to become. known for serving elevated poutine uh. when he um invented his fuagra poutine. Yeah. Yeah. And so other people are. like, "Oh, fuagra, how about lobster? How about brazed beef? And yeah, as you. um as more and more like professional. chefs kind of did their own spin on it, it got further and further away from. what it was originally. And I don't know. who spoke to a chef Hugh Achinson from. Montreal. Um I believe, right? He grew.

up in Ottawa. Okay. So, but he grew up. on Poutine. He said there was a poutine. truck parked down the street from his. high school, which I I would have been. in big trouble every day if there I had. grown up like that. But he's basically. saying like the people who were coming. up with these spins on it probably had. never even been to Quebec, had never had. actual poutine, and um that that it's. not supposed to be gussied up. It's like. a very simple basic street food. Um and.

he was really angry. I think in the. interview they said that he um kept. pounding his fist and eventually took. off his shoe and was pounding his shoe. on the table while he was shouting about. this. Oh, I don't believe that one. Uh. Huerson, great person. He has. restaurants here in Atlanta in Athens, Georgia. So he's a uh he was a top chef. guy, too. So I love all What's he uh. what's he what what in Atlanta? Well, I. mean he the you remember the coffee shop. at Pon City Market? That was his. Oh,

okay. Yeah. Great. downstairs and his um. Empire State South in Atlanta is Edison. Bulbs and Oh yeah, Edison Bulbs and then. uh Five and 10 in Athens is his. restaurant because Athens has got some. like legit good restaurants now. Yeah, five and 10 was great. That that uh went. in where what was the the like super. threadbear. um restaurant that had been there for a. million years before 5 and 10? It was. like a Athens institution.

Oh, I don't know. I was just there. I. tried to go to 5 and 10, but they were. booked up because I went to those shows. again this year and in Athens is just. still one of my favorite places to go. Great, too. Yeah. But this is about. Quebec and Canada. And uh Hugh Aerson. closes out his quote by saying, "It's. just really comforting garbage food.". That's awesome. Which I love. Um so I. guess that's it, right? Yeah. I got. nothing else. Uh you know, go visit. Canada, go to Quebec, and order some. poutine. Yeah. But even so, just maybe.

also if you can't make it to Quebec, like look up how to make as close an. approximation as you can and enjoy it. that way. Yeah, I think that there I. think General Mure here in Atlanta. serves poutine. So, uh, you know, I. might give that a shot. Sure. Sure. Uh, since Chuck said he's going to give it a. shot, everybody, that means short stuff. is out. Stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart. Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple. Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your.

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