Let the battle begin!
When homesick, people search for ways to connect to the things they have left behind. A taste of something comforting…
When homesick, people search for ways to connect to the things they have left behind. A taste of something comforting or a familiar smell can help to quench that pain in the belly. French Canadians have many dishes that can serve that purpose: , , , – but none has been so universally adopted by the rest of Canada as poutine.

Primer: Invented in rural Quebec in the 1950s, poutine is to one of Canada’s greatest inventions. It marries the unholy trinity of French fries, cheese curds, and gravy to create a cardiac-arrest-inducing melange that can be described only as magical. Or as it was first described, a “mess” which is a rough translation of the slang word “poutine.”
There are various iterations of the dish which add hotdog bits, smoked meat pieces, chicken chunks, pepperoni, or an Italian meat sauce. A true poutine must be able to survive without the extra accoutrements. As this is a distinctly Quebecois food, places that serve it well tend to attract a Francophone crowd.
A battle royale
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[…] center is attached to a French bistro, Salade de Fruits (see it compete in La Vie Vancouver’s Poutine Battle Royale), they either did not have coffee or were not able to serve it in the library […]