As a born and bred West Coaster I harbour the requisite amount of guilt over only speaking one of Canada's official languages. As such I was more than a little surprised when I got a call from the good folks at Francouver to take photos of their first annual Poutine Festival.
Yup, that's the kind of night it was!
In the name of transparency I feel I should mention that I haven't eaten meat in over 20 years (and there is no arguing that gravy is essentially easy-to-pour meat). Thus, given my ignorance on both the flesh and language fronts I couldn't possibly imagine how something like a festival based on extra-messy fries could possibly fly here in BC. I couldn't have been more mistaken.
Turns out this thing was a BIG deal. There was TV and radio coverage from both English and French CBC and a huge amount of funding came directly from the government of Quebec.
There was a massive "Poutine Crawl" (in which participants walked or rode the bus to restaurants around Vancouver, while collecting points for various challenges), children's activities (including a potato sculpture contest) and various Quebec-based musical guests. The best part though was a poutine cook off in which pairs of chefs came up with amazing poutine-based concoctions that were served and judged throughout the night.
In what can only be described as a truly Vancouver moment the winning recipe went to these two guys who dreamed up a Peking-Duck-tine.
Yup, that's the kind of night it was!
Seriously, if you missed it this year don't make the same mistake next time around. Vive La Francouver! Vive la (le?) Poutine!
