WHOA lansi

Oh My Curd – my favourite food week is upon us! Lucky for me, I’ve already had my stretchy pants on for weeks. Talk about perfect timing to be pregnant! If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed a lot of posts about poutine; I’m an official Poutine Pusher for #PoutineWeekYYC again this year!

Calgary’s Poutine Week is the seven days of the year you can eat poutine guilt-free! Why?  Every poutine sold at participating restaurants provides a meal to a youth in need thanks to Mealshare YYC! Last year, 8,000 poutines were sold over the course of the week, providing 8,000 meals to those in need. We’re looking to break that record for 2018, & with 85 amazing restaurants participating in the cause, we have high hopes!

It’s easy to get involved:

1. Find a restaurant or poutine you want to try at poutinewithpurpose.com
2. Eat poutine.
3. Provide a meal to youth in need
4. Tell everyone!

This week, I tested 5 of those 85 poutines. If you need some help narrowing down the list, here are my thoughts on the five poutines I tried.

Calcutta Cricket Club

I’d been meaning to get to Calcutta Cricket Club since they opened, so when I saw them on the list, they were my first pick. I’d been hearing rave reviews about this 17th ave spot since they opened this summer.

CCC has two options on the menu this week. Both include curry in place of the usual gravy, either butter masala or fenugreek-cream. As I think you’d expect from a Indian-inspired poutines, they’re spicy & full of flavour. The fries are seasoned with Kashmiri spices & would stand up on their own as a fantastic snack over cocktails. I’ve been obsessed with fenugreek lately, so I immediately feel in love with the fenugreek-cream curry. It’s to die for! & the Butter Masala has a hint of that Butter Chicken flavour that’s so popular, but stands on it’s own. To top it all off, they brought in some seriously legitimate cheese curds. (Honestly, these were the most authentic curds I tasted all week – the squeak!) They didn’t cut any corners with these dishes & it showed in each beautifully executed component.

If you like spicy Indian flavours, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a better poutine option this week. I couldn’t get enough of either option & definitely struggled to put down my fork. My only regret is not asking to take the leftovers home with me.

On top of the delicious food, both the ambience & service are spot on. I’m already planning my next visit – I think I need to try the rest of the sharing-friendly menu, & hopefully enjoy one of their fantastic-sounding cocktails post-baby.

Butter Masala Poutine

Fenugreek – Cream Poutine

Wine Bar Kensington

My next stop was Wine Bar Kensington, a hidden gem & sister restaurant to Brasserie & Container Bar. I think Brasserie is one of the best kept secrets in the city, & my personal go-to spot for fantastic brunch without a wait. Now that I’ve given away my personal brunch secrets, let’s talk about the Not-So-Traditional Poutine from @winebarkensi .

Featuring duck gravy, pickle-brined shoestring fries, Alberta cheese curds, chives, radishes, & a lovely side of house-made pickles, it’s delicious. I thought this one was the perfect combination of rich, comforting, & flavourful, all while not putting me into a total food coma.

Poutine Prep

Their intimate downstairs space is perfect for a date night, or catching up with some girlfriends over wine & cheese (or poutine!)

the Not-So-Traditional Poutine

I’m honestly not usually a fan of shoestring fries, but they worked so well here. The dish comes with the gravy on the bottom, so the chef suggested I mix the shoestring fries into it. I think this is the key to the success of the shoestring fries as they don’t get soggy from having the gravy on them from the start. The chives & radishes serve to balance the richness of the duck gravy, which is exactly what the dish needs. I’m always a sucker for a side of pickles, especially when they’re as delicious as Wine Bar’s, so they were the perfect accompaniment to a well-executed poutine.

Cleaver

Third on my personal poutine week tour was Cleaver. My friend, Heather, joined me for dinner Friday evening & we started the evening with their AMASIAN duck & pickle poutine.

This one has a lot going on, in all the right ways: double dipped duck fat fries with confit duck leg, topped with teriyaki gravy, pickled zucchini, pickled onion, Gochujang aioli, & Montreal cheese curds.

AMASIAN duck & pickle poutine

The promise of pickles, duck, & Gochujang were what immediately drew me to this one when I saw it on the roster. Despite these heavy hitting flavours, it’s somehow both balanced & complex. We both really enjoyed each varied bite. & I even learned something new, pickled zucchini is delicious! Before tasting this one, I was a bit worried it might have too many competing elements, but they all really worked together.

During our meal, our server shared a fun fact about how they landed on this particular poutine as their entry for the competition. They held an in-house competition amongst their staff a few weeks ago & it came out on top! How’s that for an ingenious way to come up with a creative new dish?

Royale

After a weekend of bachelorette activities, my best friend & I decided to grab a late lunch at Royale on Sunday. If you haven’t been since this space was Melrose, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how bright, open, & beautiful it is inside. It’s the perfect spot for a boozy brunch with girlfriends or a romantic date night. The service was friendly & welcoming & we never once felt rushed. It was a beautiful spot for a lazy afternoon catch up.

The gorgeous bar at Royale

I love this beautiful mirror & the giant skylight . Such a pretty spot.

The menu at Royale is French-inspired, so they went with some pretty classic flavours: duck leg con fit, cheese curds, & pan gravy. This is not a poutine for the faint of heart; it’s huge! If you’re not the biggest duck lover, I would probably advise trying a different poutine this week. This is a true homage to the bird. There is so much rich, duck flavour in every bite. Even with two of us, we couldn’t get halfway through this one. Bring friends. Order some fun drinks. Sample a couple other things from their delicious menu. That’s how I would do it. 😉

I’m not sure if the photos truly do the size of this thing justice.

It’s massive!

4th Spot

My last stop is a neighbourhood favourite. I made a reservation for lunch at 4th Spot this week, hoping the weather would cooperate & I could walk over with Odin & enjoy their patio. I couldn’t have planned it any better. We had the perfect day. I found a quiet spot at the edge of the patio in the sun, where I could pay attention to the doggo while enjoying my lunch. I think he might have stolen the show for everyone else on that patio though, with that adorable mug. He has a real knack for winning people over.

My patio poutine partner in crime.

On to the poutine, though! This was another monster serving. 4th Spot is doing a BBQ Burnt Ends Poutine this week. Their hand cut kennebec fries are topped with Quebec cheese curds, brisket burnt ends, crispy jalapeños, crispy onion strings, & covered in homemade gravy & BBQ sauce drizzle.

BBQ Burnt Ends Poutine

My favourite part of this poutine was the crispy jalapeños. I could not finish this one, but I made sure to eat every last jalapeño. They were battered & fried, & so addictive. All of the flavours are fantastic, but it is very heavy. I was glad to have a walk home afterwards! If I didn’t love the crispiness of the jalapeños so much, I might suggest they be fresh, just to offer a counterbalance to the heaviness. Then again, poutine is supposed to be heavy, so I can’t hold that against it.

After a week of sampling poutines, I’d like to be able to say that my cheese cravings are satisfied, but pregnancy doesn’t seem to care that I’ve consumed enough to last me a few weeks. I am looking forward to some lighter meals over the next week, but with so many delicious options out there still, I’m having a hard time not finding an excuse to grab another Mealshare poutine. It’s for a good cause, right?

As always, thanks to Karen for organizing this amazing event & thinking of me again this year. I always love being part of Poutine Week, & the fact that it’s turned into such a great opportunity to give back to our community, with the help of Mealshare, may just be the best part. Thank you also to all the restaurants who hosted me & were so open to chatting about their creations this week – you guys have been so awesome & accommodating! I can’t wait to find out who are overall winner is!

Happy Poutine Week, friends!

(I unfortunately had to miss my favourite event of poutine week – the Gravy Bowl – which was a huge success! Anju took home first place in the competition this year. Congrats to Roy & his awesome team! Find my previous year’s posts here, including my first Poutine Crawl experience way back in 2014! I can’t believe this is my 5th year of poutine-ing!)

As official #PoutinePusher for Poutine Week YYC this year, I had the opportunity to sample several poutines around the city & today, I’m going to share how they each stacked up. This year there are over 70 restaurants participating, so there’s a little something for everyone!

You have until Saturday to get some poutine in you for a good cause. I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with any pick, & for every poutine you buy, a free meal will go to someone in need (thanks to Mealshare). It’s a true win-win. If you need some help narrowing down the list, here are my thoughts on the six poutines I tried.

Mill Street Brewpub

If I’m being honest, I picked Mill Street for what I knew of their beers. N was going to be home for the weekend & I figured we coukd convince a few friends to join us for drinks at some point in the evening. It wasn’t until closer to the date that I really took a serious look at their entry: the Donair Poutine.

Donair Poutine

If you’ve ever spent any time in the maritimes, namely Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, then you know all about Donair sauce. This sweet & savoury sauce is most often talked about as a late-night pizza topping. My experience is mostly limited to a few stumbly nights at the Wheel in Antigonish, NS. Since then, I’ve had it a few times at different spots around Calgary, but I mostly think of it as drunk eats.

Enter Mill Street’s Donair Poutine with house-made donair meat, crispy russet french fries with hop salt, cheese curds, house made gravy with 100th meridian beer, sweet donair sauce, topped with diced tomatoes and red onion. N & I each ordered our own. When they arrived at our table, we realized our mistake: this poutine is huge! We could have easily shared.

A few bites in, we both agreed this poutine was a winner. The donair meat was tender & flavourful, the curds were squeaky (a huge win in my book), the donair sauce complimented the gravy, & somehow the fries held their own underneath all of that. It was a great start to a huge week.

We stuck around for a few more beers that evening, friends joined us, & we had a great time. Our server was attentive & friendly & our overall experience at Mill Street was wonderful.

Kensington Pub

The next morning we’d made plans to join Kevin from Different Alphabet Productions to shoot some video for poutine week. We headed that way for noon & grabbed a table with Danny from Whistler Brewing to wait for the rest of the crew.

The KP Yolo fries use Whistler’s Black Tusk Ale in their gravy, so of course, we had to grab one of those. Normally I wouldn’t go for a dark ale so early in the day, but the Black Tusk is smooth & easy to drink.

YOLO!

Since we were hitting a couple stops that day, we ordered two Yolo fries for the table. It was the smartest decision – this one is not for the faint of heart. KP mixes double smoked cheddar with that Black Tusk ale to make a smoky, rich cheese gravy that tops slow cooked ham hock and crispy fries. We all agreed the side of housemade horseradish aioli was the perfect sidekick. With all that decadence, I was impressed by how well the fries held up – a testament to truly great potatoes.

As always, Kensington Pub was a real treat: the staff & owners are always welcoming, they have great beers on tap, & the poutine was fantastic.

Ship & Anchor

Our next stop before we hit the Gravy Bowl was the Ship & Anchor Pub. The ship is a staple for many Calgarians, & for good reason. It’s an institution here. That patio is packed the minute the temperatures rise above zero (ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. Slight.). The chances of running into someone you know at the Ship is always high. & they could totally half ass their food & still probably be packed, but that’s the best thing about it – they don’t. (Their servers are also some of my favourites in the city.)

Patio beers at the Ship

Last year, they sold 277 poutines to win the 2016 Poutine Week title. I didn’t get a chance to try it so I knew I had to check out their Le Meaty Mediterranean Poutine this year. We lucked out with some gorgeous afternoon sun & snagged a spot on the patio. That’s how I suggest enjoying this poutine if you can swing it (come on weather!).

This was another huge poutine that I was happy to be sharing with a bigger group. I think they might have been going for go big or go home cuz it had a crazy number of components to it. We decided to get it with grilled sirloin (which they cooked to medium rare for us), but they’re happy to take that off if you’re vegetarian. I heard they can also make it vegan if that’s your jam. It’s nice to see more options like this during these food weeks. It’s so much more inclusive.

Le Meaty Mediterranean Poutine with a beer

So much going on!

In addition to the sirloin, saffron fries were topped with crumbled falafel, grilled pineapple, fresh mint, baba ganoush, sweet garlic sauce, feta, cheese curds, and gravy. The pineapple was cut deceptively similar to french fries, which threw me off on my first bite. I honestly wasn’t sure that the pineapple was even going to work here, but it ended up being one of my favourite parts of this poutine. My favourite bite included pineapple, fries, both cheeses a bit of falafel, gravy, & some mint.

I’m not sure if this one will win everyone over, but it certainly wins points for originality. & as with most things I’ve eaten at the Ship, it was well executed. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, I say go for it!

Roosevelt

On Sunday, we headed over to Roosevelt for lunch. If you’ve never been for Sunday brunch, I’d suggest checking it out, mostly for the complimentary milkshakes. How can you go wrong if you start your brunch with a milkshake?

I’ve only been to this 17th ave spot a couple times. As more & more great spots open up in the area, it’s harder to get back to the ones you’ve already been to. When I saw that their poutine included gochujang gravy, I was sold though. Gochujang is a spicy & sweet fermented Korean red chili paste.It’s one of my favourite condiments!

Roosevelt Korean Poutine

This poutine came out with crispy fries, cheese curds, Korean beef, & a fried egg. N & I are both suckers for fried eggs on pretty much anything. There’s something so satisfying about that runny egg yolk. That spicy gravy stole the show with this one. As spice lovers, neither of us could get over just how good it was. The cheese curds were squeaky like I prefer them, the fries held up to the gravy, & the beef has lots of great flavour, but the gravy is what would bring me back in.

Possibly my favourite gravy

Brewsters

We went to bed Sunday night thinking there was no way we could eat any more poutine this week. I was almost read to tap out until I remembered I’d scheduled Brewsters’ Tater Tot poutine for Monday’s lunch. Anyone who knows me knows my love for tater tots runs deep. I’m not ashamed to admit they’re my favourite anytime snack. I’ve been known to order them even if we’ve already eaten that day.

N & I used to hang out a Brewsters in Crowfoot pretty regularly back when we first started dating, but it had been years since I’d stepped inside their downtown location. We got its sister restaurant, Beer Revolution, fairly often, but hadn’t been to Brewsters for some reason. I was pleasantly surprised by how bright & open the restaurant was. They also have a decent sized patio out the side & parking, a rarity in the beltline.

I was relieved to see that it was a manageable portion when our order arrived at the table. I love poutine & tater tots, but we’d seen some pretty daunting portions. Our cheesy tater tots were perfectly crispy & topped with a bacon cheese sauce, smoked gouda, bacon marmalade & Oilberta stout bbq sauce. It was rich & flavourful, & I enjoyed every bite. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to go wrong with bacon & cheese. The bbq sauce cut through some of the richness of the cheese sauce.

I love tater tots, cheese, & bacon

If the food & atmosphere weren’t enough to convince me I need to be stopping by more often, their staff really did. Thanks to both our server & Trevor for being so welcoming.

Pig & Duke

I took a little break from sampling until today, when it was time to check out my last stop. A coworker & I headed over to the Pig & Duke for lunch. It was hopping! Despite it being a quick walk from my office, I’d never actually been inside. It’s much larger than you’d expect from the outside.

The swinetine featured Chipotle BBQ pulled pork, bacon, green peppercorns, curds, Pig Sauce, & a fried egg on steak cut fries with green onions. As soon as our orders arrived our conversation was basically put on hold as the only thing we could say was, this is so good. I love pulled pork, & this one was especially tender & delicious. The chipotle bbq sauce had so much flavour & every once in a while you’d get a green peppercorn surprise, which we both enjoyed. The fries were thick & crispy so they held up well to all that sauce, & there was a good mix of melty & squeaky curds to keep me satisfied.

Swinetine!

This was one of the more traditional poutines I tried this week. The pulled pork was so tender & delicious that I found myself wishing for more. The restaurant was full, but our service was still efficient & our server spent time chatting with us, while still turning over her tables quickly.

Now that I’ve waxed poetic about all of the fine poutine creations, I will say that I do not recommend consuming this much poutine in one week. It’s intense. That’s not to say I wouldn’t do it again, however. I will gladly sacrifice myself in the name of poutine anytime (wink wink, Karen). I’m so impressed by how different each one was, & how much I enjoyed each for what they were. The one thing I think most restaurants could have done better was to advertise their specific poutine a little more. I think only 2 of the 6 I went to were doing it, & I’m curious to see how this reflects in the final competition.

After a week of eating poutine, my pants are definitely fitting a little snugger, my cheese cravings are gone (I mean, until like Sunday probably), & I think I’ve already carb-loaded for my half marathon in August. It’s salad week next week, right?

All kidding aside, it’s been a great week! Thank you to all the restaurants I’ve linked for hosting me, to Karen for thinking of me for poutine ambassador, & to Mealshare for providing so many meals to those in need. I can’t wait to find out who our poutine week winner is!

The last couple years, I’ve been lucky enough to score tickets to the Poutine Crawl. Both times, it was a highlight of Poutine Week, which is clearly my favourite of all the food themed weeks in the city. For seven days, the sale of each creative poutine provides a meal to someone in need. Eating poutine & supporting Mealshare, how can you go wrong? If you haven’t gone out yet, you still have one more day to get down to one of the participating restaurants & grab one of their delicious contributions to this cause.

Due to my unwavering commitment to stuffing my face with cheese curds, gravy, & fries, I scored an invite to the Gravy Bowl Battle this year. Seven Calgary Stampeders were paired with seven chefs to battle for the title of best poutine. (Shout out to Karen for thinking of me! She’s the awesome lady behind this week!) 

N happened to be home last weekend, so I brought him along as my date. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to head down a little early & grab a beer on the sunny Local 510 patio before heading over to Anju for the main event. Can I just take a moment to say that I love how many patio beers I’ve had so far this year?

Anju was already hopping when we arrived. We were immediately told to join everyone mingling by grabbing a drink & that Village was on the house (Thanks Anju & Village!). They’d provided many of their standbys, as well as the new (to me, at least) Village Squeeze. I can definitely see myself ordering this beer as I’m sitting on a patio this summer. It’s light & a little bit fruity without being overbearing. Totally perfect for those hot summer days.

Waiting for the competition to start

After a few words from our poutine week creator & from Mealshare, the competition began. Teams prepared their poutines two by two, presenting to the judges in Anju’s fabulous open kitchen, followed by the rest of us at the back, by the bar (& the drinks…).  As the poutines started coming out I had a tough time deciding between grabbing a photo of each creation & digging right in. I managed to get a photo of each (although some are a little blurry), & luckily there seemed to be enough poutine to go around so I didn’t miss a bite.

First up was quarterback Drew Tate & Blanco Cantina‘s Matt Davidson with their Blanco Poutine Burrito. It was shaved skirt steak, cheese curds, spicy Mexican gravy, & house cut fries. I really had no idea what to expect with this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s so different (a burrito? what?!) while being so familiar. Does that make any sense?

They were matched against defensive back Adam Thibault & Wurst‘s Rudy Schmid. The Smoking Duck Poutine is a longtime personal favourite & it did not fail to disappoint once again. Schmid tops ducks fat fries with cheese curds, green peas, speck gravy, truffle oil, & duck confit. This was N’s favourite poutine of the day. He’s a true duck lover. The minute he took a bite, he said, well, that’s it.

Blanco Poutine Burrito

Smoking Duck Poutine

N answering some questions about the first two poutines

Next we had Briggs Kitchen & Bar & Market. Running back Tim St Pierre was paired with Xavier Lacaze to create Newf’s Poutine, which had chunks of lobster & lobster cream sauce. The fries held up well to the rich & creamy sauce & well, what can I say about lobster. Can you really go wrong here? I think this might be cheating, but I have no real complaints.

Sean MacDonald of Market and running back Rob Cote we very creative with the Carbonera Poutine. I had the honour of breaking the sous vide eggs over this one. It also featured black pepper bechamel, peas, pancetta, curds, pea tendrils, & parmesan. I really liked this contribution as well, but I found myself still thinking about Wurst’s poutine. Truffle oil always lingers on my palate a bit, so I think it would have been better to have it last.

Newf’s Poutine

Carbonera Poutine

I was starting to feel the effects of four poutines at this point, but we ordered a couple more drinks & prepared for the next pairing.

Anju‘s Roy Oh & offensive lineman Quinn Smith were up with Poutine for your Seoul. Now, we all know how I feel about Roy & his restaurant, but unless we’ve hung out, you may not know about my love of tater tots. Roy’s creation combined curds, carrots, green onion, & an incredible Korean curry with tater tots. It was a match made in heaven, if you ask me. I loved this untraditional take on an old favourite & the flavours were incredible, as to be expected with all of Roy’s food. (Who’s surprised that I loved Anju’s poutine? No one!)

Their competitors were running back Charlie Power & chef Mel LaFleur of The Unicorn. They created a tacotine with a crispy flour tortilla shell, tater tots, cheese curds, cheese sauce, chili, pico de gallo, cream fresh, cilantro, & scallions. This one had a lot going on. I definitely enjoyed it, but I kept commenting that I couldn’t find the poutine (it was a little buried). The chili was fantastic though, so I know where I’m going next time I have my next chili craving!

Poutine for your Seoul

Tacotine

At this point, I thought we were done. I’d told myself there were six poutines for some reason. But then this last poutine arrived on its tree stump plate & I’m glad we still had a great spot at the bar. The Oxtail Poutine was brought to us by kicker Rene Parades and Brasserie‘s Cam Dobranski. They took their amazing duck fat fries & smothered them in a red wine duck gravy and chanterelle emulsion. I loved it & only wished I wasn’t so full. I’d definitely recommend checking out any of their food. Brasserie consistently has some of the best food, but seems to pass under the radar too often! Get your butt down to Kensington & try their poutines. You won’t regret it.

Oxtail Poutine

With all these delicious poutines, the judges had a tough decision. They deliberated for a while before announcing the winner: Briggs Kitchen & Bar’s Newf’s Poutine! (I mean, lobster.) Congrats to all the participants though. You’re all winners in my book! (D’awwww).

Congrats Briggs!

We lingered for a while longer, chatting about the poutines & grabbing a few more photos. I even worked up the nerve to ask Roy for a photo. It made my day to officially meet him. You know how people get really excited when they see a celebrity? I get like that about chefs.

Meeting Adam Thibault & Rudy Schmid

The judges deliberate

My new favourite photo

We ended up spending the rest of our evening in the glorious sun on Anju’s patio, ordering dinner & drinks with friends until it got too chilly to stay outside. It was a fantastic day! I think the Gravy Bowl was a great success & I can’t wait to hear what’s in store for next year. Thank you to everyone who made this a possibility & congrats to Karen on an incredibly successful event.

I hope you’ve had the opportunity to get out & try some of these poutines. Personally, I’ve decided it’s ok that my pants fit snugger this week since it’s for a good cause!