What even is poutine? Canadian food EP1 | Natural English with Nick

Hi guys, welcome to Speaking Canadian with Nick, a podcast for learning English in a natural and dynamic way through authentic content.

I hope you've already eaten, because today we're going to talk about the delicious and famous Canadian québécois or Quebecer dish.

That is sure to stimulate your appetite.

Yes, my friends, I'm referring to our beloved Poutine, or Poutine as it's pronounced in Quebec.

Poutine was founded in the late 50s in Centre du Québec area and actually there's much controversy as to who officially founded it.

But I did some digging and three names surfaced from the depths of Wikipedia.

The first man of honorable mention is named Thernon Lachance, who was the first allegedly to put the three most essential elements of a good poutine together and serve it to his customers in 1957.

If you don't already know, our legendary classic poutine is comprised of three main ingredients french fries, gravy and cheese curds.

Over the years there's been much evolution in the poutine world that is sure to blow your mind and your taste buds over the Atlantic.

But before we get into all that, let's briefly pay homage to the runners-up or arguably the true founders, of poutine.

In fact, Giuseppe Leroy can be identified as the patented inventor of Poutine, as in 1958, one year after La Chance displayed Poutine on his menu, Leroy did the same thing at his drive-in restaurant in Drummondville, Quebec.

Sounds a little fishy, right?

Oh yeah, when someone says something is fishy, it means that it's odd and not very credible.

The third potential creator of Poutine is nameless.

However, the restaurant La Petite Vache, or the little cow, began to serve what is now known and loved around the world as poutine.

Around the same time period,

Now that we've gotten all that controversy out of the way, you may be asking yourselves what's the big deal?

Do Canadians really get that excited about greasy french fries, hot salty gravy and big old cheese balls all mixed up together?

The answer is, more than you can even imagine.

By the early 60s, poutine was already paving a legacy for itself all across Quebec.

At the time, poutine was mainly sold in fry trucks, pubs, and in hockey arenas.

As the dish began to spread and reach more and more tables in Quebec, poutine started to get a bad rep for being a greasy dish of the uneducated or those of a lower social status.

Plus, for a long time, it was considered nothing more than a great cure for a hangover.

That was until 1969, when the famous Chez Ashton or Chez Ashton food chain began serving a more sophisticated and much more expensive version of poutine.

Once word of this cheesy and mouth-watering delicacy really started to take off in the streets of Quebec City.

However, right around this time period, more precisely in October of 1970, The October crisis, aka the LFQ crisis, which stands for Front de Libération du Québec, took off rather unexpectedly and greatly escalated the pre-existing division between French and English Canada.

I won't get into the details of this major historical event in Canadian history for time reduction purposes today, but I'll leave you a link in the description where you can read about this issue at your leisure.

The early 1970s was a pretty socially antagonistic period in Canadian history.

A certain re-emergence of chauvinism occurred and the effects following the chilling uncertainty of the October crisis temporarily ruptured Canadian sovereignty.

You may be asking yourself, wow, Nick, that got deep quick.

But what does this have to do with cheesy fries and delicious homemade gravy?

Well, this cultural division bled over to all aspects of Canadian society, including cuisine.

Cuisine is similar to language in the sense that it is an integral part of that social group's identity and tradition, making it, in times of conflict, a means for discrimination and prejudice.

And yes, poutine was and still is associated with Quebec, and many Anglophone Canadians, especially from older generations, following the FLQ crisis, criticized all aspects of Francophone culture, including their cuisine, like poutine, for example, to delegitimize Quebecois food as being unrefined and ultimately impure, not English, which was always grounds for discrimination at the time.

Fortunately, by the 1990s, things calmed down a bit and Putin really began to gain popularity and rise from the ashes, so to speak, meaning to come back with vengeance and finally earn the gastronomical recognition that it deserves in my opinion.

Think of the 90s as the golden age of poutine.

New recipes are emerging, such as the foie gras poutine, which is french for duck liver.

Poutine is now on the plates of hungry customers all around the world and, like never before, poutine is respected and proudly accepted as a national dish of Canada.

In recent years, poutine has done nothing but rise in popularity, both domestically and internationally.

Montreal, a major city in the province of Quebec, is famous for Montreal smoked meat, among other things, which has been incorporated into many variations of classic poutine to add a modern flair on a traditional delicacy that is sure to be a bon souvenir, a fond memory in the hearts and stomachs of born-and-bred Quebecers, to foreigners alike.

Wow, I should write reviews for restaurants, right?

I'm making myself hungry here.

Okay guys, that's enough food talk for one day.

I hope you liked today's episode.

If you did, please recommend me to your friends learning English.

As always, I want to see this community grow and help more of you guys learning English across the world to enrich your vocabulary by listening and following along to content that inspires and motivates you to keep going.

It goes without saying that a fundamental pillar in language learning is consistency.

Don't forget to do a little English every day, and over time your friends will be blown away by your ability to communicate in English, not only on a primitive level, but really by talking and articulating like a native speaker.

That's it for today, my friends.

Feel free to send me an email at speakingcanadian.com, speakingcanadian.com.

If you want to suggest me topics to talk about.

I always want to get feedback so I can improve this podcast to help you better.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

[The Cultural Evolution of Poutine: From Quebec Staple to Canadian Icon]-[What even is poutine? Canadian food EP1 ]

📋 Summary

The History and Cultural Significance of Poutine

The Origins and Controversy

From Stigma to Sophistication

Cuisine as a Mirror of Social Conflict

The Golden Age and Global Recognition

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript