Long before I actually got the blessed idea to sample McDonald's in every country, I came to Montreal. Not thinking that some place like Canada would have anything interesting to offer in the form of a McDonald's menu item, I made no plans to go. However, upon my last hours in Montreal, I found myself in a bit of a bind: too hungry to go straight to the airport, but not enough time to venture out and find a good place to eat. So I hopped into McDonald's, right beside my hotel. Much to my surprise, there was a menu item I had never before seen: Poutine? Like "routine" with a "p." Thinking my French was less than satisfactory, I was too embarrassed to even say the word aloud, so instead I ordered, "french fries with gravy and cheese curds" which was exactly what I got. What a delicious idea! Whoever thought of it was pure genius.
So I come back to Portland feeling like a connoisseur of French-Canadian delicacies, and I'm raving about poutine like it's caviar straight from the Caspian Sea. And my friend just looks at me and says, "Yeah, I just had poutine last night."
Well, that kind of killed my connoisseur buzz. Apparently Portland is crawling with poutine. It ought to be called Poutineland. So the next thing I know I'm at a food cart, eating Portland's version of Poutine:
Peanut butter and jelly fries with cheese curds...
And just in case you were missing the original, there is straight up cheese curds and gravy as well..
