This is what passes for poutine in America (as seen in the SanFrancisco airport).
This ain’t “American poutine” by a mile. This is “airport poutine” lol
Not to victim blame, but you ordered the national dish of Canada, that has famously never been made well south of Wisconsin, in CALIFORNIA! In an AIRPORT! What did you expect?
I guess I do mean to victim blame.
A local Fish store in Seattle sells Westside Poutine: It’s fries topped with Salmon Chowder and deep fried cheese curds. I quite like it, but it obviously doesn’t taste like poutine :)
PS: Take my pity point upvote, OP ;)
That looks divine.
That doesn’t pass for poutine here. Don’t generalize.
I’ll generalize you poutine imposters all I want!
My first guess was crappy airport green chile cheese fries (which nobody outside of Colorado or New Mexico seems capable of doing right either), but this is an abomination no matter what they slap on it. That “gravy” looks like dumpster drippings poured over fries, I’m glad you survived that nightmare dish.
As a frequent flyer of SFO, congrats, you managed to find one of the worst restaurants in SFO. The food options here is actually pretty great for an airport, but unfortunately still can’t escape some shitty airport restaurants.
I would honestly want to try poutine, but not being near canada makes getting good stuff… well, impossible. If anyone has a recipe for authentic poutine, I would love to give it a try. Looking recipes up online is a hit or miss scenario since I have no real way of knowing if something is real or a not-very-good take on something.
Don’t get to stressed out about ingredients, as most are pretty common. You’ll want fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds. We made poutine at home for Canada Day and added green onions, sauteed mushrooms, and bacon, too. I’m lazy and grabbed frozen fries and packets of gravy mix, and it turned out delicious. The hardest ingredient to find is typically the cheese curds, but a lot of grocery stores will carry those over in the deli/fancy cheese area, so check there. In a pinch, I’ll cut mozzarella string cheeses into chunks, as that’s close-ish. Good luck!
Everyone from Canada will have their favourite recipes, but here is a good looking one that is a good base- simple ingredients, an explanation for cheese curd substitutes if you can’t find them in the cheese section at the grocery store, and some good footnotes and tips- no backstory to read through, either.
Once you try the basic recipe, you could try different spices, toppings, combinations etc.
https://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/authentic-canadian-poutine-recipe/
Where’s the brown sauce? WHERE ARE THE CHEESE CURDS? Tabarnac.
Yes!! This looks less like poutine and more like someone clearing out leftovers.
Where is literally anything that makes poutine a poutine?!
UK person here. Leaving the decorations aside, is that the usual size for a portion of fries? It’s pretty much double what we’d get here.
Not at most places, but normally fries are a side rather than the main thing that you’re eating. That being said, it varies.
I remember a hamburger place at the university I attended. They had this big sign on the wall listing the number of tons of potatoes they had served. They had something of a reputation for their fries.
One day, they had this alumni event and a lot of older people showed up. One – clearly health conscious – elderly lady tottered up to the counter and asked for a small water, a small garden salad with no dressing, and a small fries with no salt. I leaned against the wall and started laughing to myself, just waiting for this. The guy comes out, puts down the lady’s plastic tray on the he counter. He puts a – fairly small – cardboard little container on the tray. Then he starts pouring fries over the thing until the cardboard container is lost to sight and there’s just a huge mound of fries on her tray. The lady looks at her tray “Err…I think that there was some mistake. I ordered a small”. The guy: “Lady, we sell three sizes of fries. Small, medium, and large. And that is a small.”. She says “oh, my” and totters off with her order.
A large at that place would be a dinner for maybe three hungry college guys, without anything else going with it. But that’s atypical.
HERESY.
This 100% should make anyone furious.