Boston could be beyond Peak Poutine

My old quote there is about countering that exact sentiment. Food isn't just what some people think it's supposed to be, including the notion that humble food should always stay humble.

Saying how long you've been eating poutine sounds like an assertion of authority on the subject. You don't call yourself a "foodie", by any chance, do you?

"I also believe that despite its relative youth – most sources agree that poutine first emerged sometime in the 1950s – there is a genuine canon or tradition associated with poutine, a classic recipe, any variance from which will offend purists. (I’ve gotten an earful on the depravity of American poutines from a Québécois in-law of mine.) So I think it's perfectly germane to note a widely-held set of expectations about a dish from the regional or ethnic group that originated or popularized it. I have no problem with chefs breaking from a canon -- our food world would be pretty sad if this never happened -- but I think it's important to understand the tradition as a reference point. Maybe nobody cares that spaghetti and meatballs isn't often served in Italy, but it doesn't help your credibility in a discussion to pretend this isn't so, or to market your version as 'just like they do in the Old Country'."

Understand the original and honor it, but don't marry it.

and I suspect I'm forgetting a couple, but poutine was a much-discussed food-nerd trend for a good few years. I imagine you'll like the Cafe du Pays version a lot. Also, don't miss their vegan simulacrum of pork rinds, made with mushrooms, tapioca, and modernist-cuisine magic, the best mock-meat product I've ever tasted: really convincing texture.

One of my favorite new restaurants of the year, a fusion of traditional Québécois cuisine and its New England adaptation, which along with Azorean food was the most traditional immigrant cuisine I grew up with. Lots of old-timey dishes like tourtiere and creton, plus game and tree-based flavors, most little-seen outside of French-Canadian-ancestry homes in these parts.

days of poutine frenzy in Boston. It echoes some of my points with Swirly above on the authenticity question, etc. I hardly ever write anything on my blog, had forgotten entirely about this piece.

Also, it contains reminders of other good versions I'd had by 2010: Harvest (in the Mary Dumont era, before she opened Cultivar), Garden at The Cellar (in the Will Gilson era, before he opened Puritan & Co.), Russell House Tavern (when Michael Scelfo was there, before he opened Alden & Harlow), and All-Star Sandwich Bar. I'd also had the grand-père of fancy poutines, the foie gras version at Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon.