11 Types of Poutine in 12 Hours. Which is the Best? | Bon Appétit

[Music] so good that my [Music] they said we wouldn't do it they said no you won't take the show international well guess what we did we're in Montreal you guys asked for it we're here to eat poutine this is what I'm looking for in a good poutine it starts with french fries they need to be well seasoned and I want a little bit of crisp on the edges of the fries next cheese curds I want them to be a little bit melty and when I eat them they should squeak against my teeth and finally the sauce that brings it all together the gravy I want a deep brown color I want some umami meat flavor and I want a little bit of herbal flavor in there to a balance of light and dark you all know how this goes I've got one day to hit a bunch of spots and find the best poutine in Montreal I'm gonna have a couple friends helping me along the way let's get to it [Music] we're at the green spot and I am here to eat my first poutine of the day the Holy Trinity right here in a bowl in front of me there seems to be that quintessential dine earnest that exists in this place you've got the jukebox on the table got the old coca-cola signs give the placemats with the diner's name on it I didn't really figure this out like my brain is telling me eat this with my hands because it's french fries and I always eat french fries with my hands but the fork and my hands are saying no dude you cannot eat this with your hands you got to go with the fork so I'm gonna listen to the fork super-flavorful gravy super super dark it's been heated for a long time gets kind of condensed and you get that true beefy flavor a little bit of Irby action going on curds will they squeak yeah they're squeaking and the fries these are super crispy on the outside and the inside is that creamy borderline mashed potato consistency I'm pretty impressed if the rest of the day is looking like this and improving I think we're gonna be in a good spot at the green spot this is the Triple P the potato purists poutine there's a lot of potato going on but it doesn't dominate it has a nice texture and a nice flavor if you like potatoes this is the guy for you [Music] we are in Point Saint Charles at pulpit at and this is filled with poutine fries look like they have some nice color on them gravies pretty well spread across looks like some of them are getting soggy but we can expect that I'm just gonna dive in on this the fries that hang around the outside are still crispy not super crispy but crispier than the ones that are soaked by all the gravy in the middle there's actually like a little bit of sweetness to this gravy there's not any like heavily dominant herb flavor but you get that nice brown sauce beef stock like mommy from the gravy and then the curds you got some real big guys in here do you definitely get a little bit of that squeak we're in a pretty residential neighborhood right now this is truly like a corner spot we got a counter that runs along the whole place a couple seats along the window but people have been coming in and out maybe grabbing poutine maybe grabbing a hotdog at Papa Todd this is the peaceful poutine your friendly neighborhood poutine quiet streets nice people and tastes good too [Applause] it's just in routine left floor for this let it catch that glow but seam the floor it seems almost kind of like fast food joint almost people are running in and out quickly it doesn't look like there are that many people sitting down to eat and if they are they're gonna get pretty quickly and then bounce here we go okay I've got a couple of thoughts about this one gravy color wise and flavor-wise it's on the lighter side but you do get like an herb II kind of thing happening from the fries are super thin though you can see like when it's packed in there there's gravy everywhere there's no crispy texture on the fries I don't think we're looking at number one at poutine Lafleur this is the penalty box poutine if you catch two minutes we're hooking you can grab one of these eat it real quick in those two minutes when you're back out on the ice your poutine is finished penalty box [Music] little bit crowded in there we're gonna go to the park I got it dig into these before these squirrels jump me for these uh gravy soaked rats la banquise let's get this Oh melty curds lots of fries one thing to notice about this poutine cheese curds are not crumbly they're like kind of squiggles lines thin fries very thin and gravies everywhere the gravies like very clearly all mixed in with the fries there's still a bit of crunch on the fries but most of them are soaked up with the gravy and I'm thankful for that because this gravy has that deep flavor it's got the herb thing going on it's got the beef thing going on it's the brown sauce that I've been looking for so far and the curds are actually melty which is nice Hey Dude how do you like your poutine we've moved locations the squirrels we're actually invading when I was in there it was jam-packed there were plates of poutine constantly coming out of the kitchen this seems the most like an institution of anything that we've had so far today la banquise this is the ice floe poutine la banquise translates in French to roughly the flow or the ice floe and this is the poutine in the dead of winter in Montreal surrounded by snow and ice that I want to be eating still warm you right up [Music] Morris poutine at party ha ha and these of you can see hanging out there looks like we're dealing with some crispy fries oh-ho surprise Olive what's up with that thinnest fries we've had so far crispy as fries we've had so far looks like good coverage on the gravy gravy's looking on the lighter side in terms of color and the Kurds chopped up pretty well it's kind of like a mixture of chopped and those longer pieces yep look at that cheese pull we got curds flying all over the place let's get it sounds like my teeth is like a car windshield and the cheese is like the wipers like ate these fries are still super crispy some of them are soggy with the gravy but these are definitely the crispiest fries we've had so far I'm happy about that the gravies well-seasoned you can tell the gravy seasoned and the fries are seasoned well it's actually a pretty mellow gravy but overall well done it's a pretty small spot bruised a counter a couple high tops there maybe I want to say like 18 seats in there seems like they're a lot of younger people here it was a good vibe I actually really like the vibe in there everything's out in the open you can see everything that's going on kind of feels like you're in someone's kitchen almost a party pocket ah this is the Hallelujah poutine so it makes me want to sing hallelujah and also Leonard Cohen used to live right up the street my heart hangs on your every curd your gravy streams throughout my dreams as Singley move said why am i to fall to tell them long shaft wha we see Friday IO magazine we are at Chez Claudette and if you guessed it was more poutine you are correct exterior is bright yellow Morris Rashard is watching over the place he's painted on the side of the building and I'm warming my hands up with this this is the new skin treatment this is what people will be paying like 80 bucks for in New York in like two months fries are looking very dark gravies looking on the darker side curds are well spread they're getting melty I'm getting like a like kind of a Brown sugary smell from this like I haven't tasted this yet but I I think it's gonna be sweet oh oh the potato flavor is very this like tastes like potatoes a little bit of the ends of the french fries are crispy the gravy is like it has that deep flavor you can tell that the gravy has been simmering for a while it's losing moisture all the flavors are getting concentrated you get that deep umami a little bit of Irby stuff going on curds are squeaky this is good poutine and it is a little bit sweet again that's probably coming from the potatoes the really high starch red potatoes all that starch turns to sugar gives you a nice little sweet note to balance out the saltiness of the curds and the gravy and check load up this is the checks-and-balances poutine you got the rocket rishaad delivering the checks and this poutine perfectly balanced between the sweet and the salty [Music] we're at Lua just smoke me this place is super old-school it's kind of Awesome I'm obsessed with the color palettes at the baby blue and bright red the guys working behind the counter love them too there's an old gentleman back there who's slicing up brisket he's making some brisket sandwiches wish I could eat that but I'm saving my stomach room for this this is looking really good I wish you guys to smell it the gravy smells nice you guys hear this okay these are crispy these are crispy boys right here gravy colors looking nice curds are they kind of all mixed in there which I appreciate they're not just sitting on top first thing off the bat this gravy is one very good but to taste more like poultry gravy like it's either turkey or chicken this tastes like the gravy that I associate with Thanksgiving fries they kind of lose that crispness and the gravy they're not bad but they're not totally soggy and they're not crispy cheese curds pretty straightforward I'm getting the squeak the things speaking the most meat here is definitely the gravy this is the poultry poutine it's got that Turkey vibe to it it reminds me of Thanksgiving whether it's Canadian Thanksgiving or American Thanksgiving I'm thinking turkey all right we've got like the 42nd best seat at La Belle Province and more poutine there are multiple locations of this place the vibe inside it's like a fast-food restaurant wow that's really good curd size is mixed you got some big curds you got some little curds the fries and somebody can find them under here oh yeah they're kind of thick at this point they're soaked in gravy there's like gravy all over this thing you can see it goes all the way down into the bottom the gravy actually has pretty good flavor you can tell this is loaded with salt like this is seasoned to hell the fries are solid they're very soaked there's no kind of variety and texture there this is the first time that the squeak of the cheese curd isn't really standing out to me I don't know if it's because the curds are small I don't know if it has to do with the freshness but that's the first thing that I notice with this at La Belle Provence this is the let me get a routine because you know when you're driving through the drive-through a fast-food place and you get to the thing and you're just like I kind of know what I want but I don't let me get a booty [Music] you might notice that we're not at the snack bar we're not standing outside we're sitting down inside a restaurant and that's because I have a special guest with me and we gotta do something special when Emily Ison wine connoisseur excellent a petite staffer and Canadian thanks have you ever eaten poutine before I have yeah I have okay is this what it usually looks like every protein or every put in sorry has foie gras on it so I've been eating guys done what makes a good poutine good puts in would say thoughts say this is videos just to be mean being correct again crispy french fries all around you know slightly getting soggy from the gravy meaty real gravy nothing from the packet here we don't have any powder in ER okay should we eat this it's like the crispy gone soggy gravy taste what do you think it's super rich as you'd expect it to be it's almost like a little béchamel ease like it's super creamy super salty you know all the right things all right I feel like we have to get a slice of the the foie how does this compare to the gluten you've been eating today definitely more opulence the flavors are like a little bit more refined there's a lot more going on in the gravy the texture of everything is really nice these fries like protector is pretty perfect I think for butene everything else hasn't had a big slab of foie gras so if you had to give this poutine a nickname what would it be this is your like Upper East Side poutine I think that was a dig at me because I lived on the Upper East Sider for years so what's the Upper East Side equivalent in Montreal I would say it would be West Mountain okay so is this Westmount butene yeah even though we might not be in Westmount we're definitely not in West Mountain but yeah I mean I don't think anyone ever called pretendin chic but I just didn't say booty chic Claire no Claire I told you you can't call me on this payphone not no never hold on one second hold on okay so that last place if you didn't notice there was some foie gras on top of that on that poutine gets disqualified tasty but not exactly what we're looking for it's pretty dark out it's getting late but I still have some work left to do some more patina to eat so let me just say goodbye and we'll get to it yeah oh yeah I'll see you in the kitchen all right bye [Music] poutine we're coming out of to see neon and the vibe in there is absolutely incredible every little detail in there is killer it's kind of throwback to like an Italian maybe 60s 70s era cafe and kind of already in love with the place but I haven't tasted this yet again classic poutine we have our brown sauce our gravy are curds and our fries red potatoes are what the fries are made from gravies made in-house and the curds get shipped in every day I feel like I've had enough of this today but more this is the squeakiest week of the day easily the brown sauce the gravy that deep flavor that do mommy it's here it's really really here you get a little bit of the herb you get the seasoning the salt you get that meaty flavor in there too and the color you can see it's not that kind of light glaze it's a true brown this poutine is kind of getting me excited again I've kind of been fading off a little bit this is gonna be said to be back in the poutine game also not to be missed or understated the little crack of a fresh black pepper on top Shea Tousignant this is the new school old school inside the vibe it's all classics but this the poutine itself the new school care is taken we've got a couple more spots to hit let's get to him we are outside the Montreal pool room and by we I mean me and my friend Steph from Montreal a poutine expert yeah I grew up on this you can tell she's glowing because of this have you been here before I've been here many times but every time I come here I only get the hot dogs so we're both having this for the first time right now should we see what's up yeah yeah this looks pretty good I can tell that the fries are brown so this tells me that the oil is really old which is a good thing yeah that's what you want and then the cheese is melted cuz we closed the box for a while which is what you want the gravy looks thick enough guys we're gonna reshoot today and Steph's gonna be your host not leave when I have a burger I want the griddle to be like 60 years old so students season received it so that's the same thing but what do you look for in good petit dirty dirty oil and this is exactly what you want after a night out but it's super salty and then it kind of guarantees that you'll have a terrible hangover yes where would you eat your last poutine of your life what is the best so in Montreal my old answer would have been shake low depth and I think this is now maybe top one in Montreal I'm witnessing oh I feel honored what is the nickname for this poutine I feel like it needs to have like an old québécois name like a guy who smokes a lot of cigarettes and like owns at like dive bar yeah I used to go to this dive bar on the south shore of Quebec City when I was a teen and the bar owner's name was Oki Shah and I think that's the name if you're from come back you can say it like Steph okay shop if you're from America and are gonna get slaughtered on the internet for saying anything French you can just call it the Richard okay I've eaten far too much poutine today I have an idea of what my top three are but I'm gonna sleep on and get back to you guys back to you guys I slept on it I took the night to think about my poutine preferences and before I get back on the plane to New York I had to stop by the Olympic Stadium and tell you who made it on the poutine podium the bronze medal goes to green spot thick-cut serious fries and a gravy that was super dark and super flavorful really like 17 the silver medal goes to Shea to Zinio everything there you could tell the quality was just at the top the Kurds were the squeakiest I had the gravy super flavorful lots of herbs going on and the potatoes brought just enough sweetness to balance it all out so who's standing at the top of the podium who's taking the gold medal the pride of Montreal the Claudette everything about that poutine it was bold it was flavorful the gravy flavors super concentrated the fries again brought that sweetness balance out the saltiness of the curd and the seasoning in the gravy everything about that poutine was exactly what I was looking for even those little crispy bits on the end of the fries but these are my favorites if you think I missed a spot I want to hear it in the comments below and on the off chance that I mispronounced any of those French words you can yell at me for that too thanks to Montreal for having us thanks to all the poutine shops we visited for serving up the fries and the gravy and the curds I'm Alex Delaney Bon Appetit [Music] well sing the fry I like a little crispy although the gravy it does have a nice flavor I can't wait to finish this one and get my next home Alex Elena I'll navigate

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 2,665,389

Rating: 4.9036493 out of 5

Keywords: poutine, alex delaney, montreal, canada, what is poutine, best poutine, make poutine, making poutine, poutine recipe, canada poutine, montreal poutine, alex eats poutine, alex eats it all, la poutine, how to make poutine, best poutine in canada, best poutine in montreal, poutine 2019, best poutine canada, french fries, fries gravy, gravy french fries, canadian poutine, alex tries poutine, best montreal restaurants, montreal restaurant, montreal food, food, bon appetit

Id: IWQ9x1-6KbQ

Length: 20min 44sec (1244 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Tibbox]

It’s baaaaaack!

[u/wiklr]

I didn't know I missed it til I saw a new episode up.

He doesn't eat everything right? Because deep fried potatoes and cheese are fucking heavy on the tummy.

[u/hhg111]

Pretty sure the "Claire" he was talking to on the payphone was BA Test Kitchen's own Claire Saffitz. I believe she studied at McGill.

[u/rarebiird]

"mahntreal"