At The Maine Oyster Bar & Grill, a hidden-away hot spot accessed via the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dubai Jumeirah Beach’s car park, Joey Ghazal is slowly building a subculture of “poutiners”.
The eatery’s founder and managing partner, who is originally from Montreal, Quebec, takes Canada’s national dish very seriously – as do his Dubai band of foodie followers.
“The problem is people love it so much that when we don’t have it, they’re so upset,” says Ghazal. “It’s like sucker-punching someone.”
What is it they want? In the slang of Canada’s vast French-speaking province, poutine means “mess”. The late-night favourite – a mix of French fries, gravy, cheese and whatever else the chef might fancy – is pretty much a national dish, beloved as the ultimate sturdy, cold-weather food.
And as the 40,000 Canadian expatriates living in the UAE get ready to celebrate their 149th Canada Day tomorrow, there are more places than ever to get it. At last count, more than a dozen – many part-owned by Canadian companies or with Canadian chefs or managers at the helm.
The increasingly trendy dish – pronounced “pü-tin” – may have only been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2014, along with Vietnamese pho and the turducken, but was born back in rural Quebec sometime in the 1950s. Extremely versatile, chefs these days are jazzing it up with everything from lobster to foie gras. A Montreal restaurant serves about 30 different varieties. In Abu Dhabi, Reem Island’s Bshawarma adds chicken or lamb, sliced straight off its rotating spit.
Glen McPherson, Canada’s Chargé d’affaires – who favours the classic variety offered by a roadside chip truck back in the capital of Ottawa – says simply that the dish “reminds me of home”.
“I suspect that if you asked around, many Canadians would characterise it as classic Canadian comfort food, that is easily identified as being uniquely Canadian, similar to ice wine and maple syrup,” he says.
For poutine purists such as Ghazal, the dish is nothing without squeaky authentic cheese curds. Regular mozzarella and one local alternative – halloumi – won’t do. That is why Maine only offers poutine as a special rather than putting it on the menu.
Poutine is one of these things, it sounds really simple, but you have to get the ingredients right,” he says. “First of all, cheese curds are not that easy to find in Dubai. That squeaky cheese, it’s kind of the solid parts of the milk that floats to the top. It’s what adds the tangy flavour to the poutine. It’s really important to have the right cheese. It’s got to melt and it also has to stay firm.”
Over at Abu Dhabi’s The Sportsman’s Arms, an American-Irish gastropub in Zayed Sports City, executive chef Ivan Sabol decided to start making his own cheese curds when he couldn’t find a supplier.
Although he’d like to add animal rennet and some microbiology culture when he can access it, for now he is making do with lemon juice added to warmed, fresh, unpasteurised milk. When the milk and cream curdle and split, he takes the solids and drains them through cheese cloth for several hours.
Sabol decided to offer poutine not because it was Canadian, but after noticing it was a trend in Boston. Not only is it a regular menu item, from July 12 the pub will host a weekly poutine and grape night every Tuesday, launching with a mouthwatering bourbon-glazed short-rib poutine, as well as confit duck, butter chicken and sweet potato varieties.
“It’s so versatile and most of the things can be homemade – cheese curds, which I’ve never done before,” says Sabol. “Pub dish, definitely. Filling.”
Tariq Zabian, the 33-year-old co-founder of Shedd, the fashion app, is partial to the varieties on offer at Eggspectation (The Beach, Dubai) and Beavertails (Kite Beach, Dubai). Despite being increasingly able to get poutine locally, he still makes sure to seek it out when visiting his hometown of London, Ontario.
“Poutine is one of the first dishes I have when I go back, honestly,” he says. “I’m a cheese guy, cheese and gravy, just the combination is awesome ... I’ve had poutine that had just regular mozzarella that was OK. I think it’s more about the gravy than anything.”
Zabian likes to order extras at work to convince sceptical staffers of the dish’s merits. But in a society increasingly geared towards healthy eating, he acknowledges poutine can be a hard sell. “The first reaction is always, gravy and cheese on potatoes – what?” he says. “It’s obviously a tough sell, it’s not the healthiest dish.”
It’s for that reason Ghazal thinks Canadians have a “love-hate” relationship with poutine.
“It’s definitely for indulgence,” he says. “It’s not guilt-free.”
amcqueen@thenational.ae