Vladimir..Poutine!!!!!

Poutine crept into my life slowly but surely. First, it was the programs on two of my favorite TV channels- food network and Cooking Channel TV.
Canadian chef Chuck Hughes did a show on poutine recipes. His recipe is what I looked up.
Then there were street food shows showcasing poutine.
Wait, before I go into the details of my love affair with poutine, let me introduce you to what it is.
Poutine is a Canadian take on chili cheese fries- except that the cheese is molten cheese curds, and the chili is a gravy, sans any meat. And it tastes very different from chili cheese fries, needless to say.
But it's still very fatty, and still very delicious!

So, now that you know what it is I'm sure you'll be curious to find out how it tastes.  So was I.

I first tried poutine at a fast food joint in the West Coast in August 2014. I was in Vancouver on business and couldn't pass up the opportunity to sample poutine, albeit from a run of the mill American burger chain at the airport on my way back to the Bay Area.
It had me hooked on the very first mouthful!
Simple, oh so ooey-gooey cheesy warm and super tasty cone to mind when I remember how it tasted that first time. I am a sucker for salty-sour-sweet fare and poutine had all the three profiles married perfectly!

So, before I return to Canada (this time to Toronto) the following month I try to follow Chuck's recipe and make Poutine at least five times, thanks to the easy availability of all the ingredients including the mysterious cheese curds, at the local grocery store across the street from where I live!
Let me tell ya, I'd never dared to polish off a large order of fries all by myself until I poutinized them! The transformation is that total, and that good. Of course what it's doing to my waistline can't be anywhere near good.

But Poutine surely found a loyal lover in me.