by Emily Monaco
When I tell people that I went to Canada for college, most people seem surprised, especially when they learn that I have no family connection to the Great White North. I’m not entirely sure what drew me to Canada, but as soon as I arrived in Toronto, I found that a perfect mix of the familiar and the foreign was awaiting me. Toronto was just similar enough to American cities to be easy to navigate and get used to; it was just different enough to always give me new things to explore.
My favorite, however, was getting out of my comfort zone, like we did when ten of us decided to pack up for a week of skiing in Québec. Up until that point, skiing had always been a family affair for me: our trips to Vermont were spent cocooned in our rented condominium; meals were homemade by my mother and delivered directly to cold laps. Our ski vacation in Québec was a combination of skiing and tourism, of getting to bed long after nightfall and getting up shortly after daybreak to hit the slopes. I don’t think I’ve ever been more tired, but I never had more fun either.
The Québecois are quite adamant about their status as neither Canadian nor French. People from Québec have their own culture, their own traditions and — as this standard French-speaker learned — their own language. Wandering through the town during what the Québecois quite perfectly call après-ski – after-ski — I felt as though I had been catapulted back in time: the quaint buildings dusted with snow, the cobbled streets, the mountains rising high and proud in the background. But what struck me the most, without question, was the language.
I had been confident, when I arrived in Quebec, that I would be able to translate for my non-Francophone friends. As soon as we got in the taxi to our hotel, however, I was shocked at how little we understood each other; the French I spoke and the garbled series of sounds that was coming quickly at me like buckshot from the front seat of the cab were nowhere near similar. I resorted, first to slow, textbook French, and finally, much to my dismay, to English.
As with many trips, it was over a beer (all right, several), that I finally lost the self-consciousness that had been hindering my ability to create a pidgin tongue, almost certainly acquired in France, where the pride of their language often outweighs their desire to help a foreigner be understood. In Quebec, though, the perfect combination of French pride and Canadian friendliness united us over chopes of beer, jokes that were impossible to translate for everyone, and piping hot plates of poutine, French fries with gravy and melted cheese. I don’t know if it’s what the French would have intended, but there’s nothing better after a long day of skiing, and who better than the Québecois, who spend at least 6 months a year under the snow, to come up with the perfect remedy.
Poutine
2 lb. potatoes
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup beef gravy (use your favorite, or mine — recipe follows)
1 cup cheese curds (if you don’t have cheese curds near you, use cubes of cheddar cheese)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Slice the potatoes into fries. Toss in a baking dish with olive oil and salt. Roast 1 hour total, tossing once or twice to ensure even browning.
Meanwhile, heat the gravy in a saucepan until warm. When the fries are cooked, place them in your serving dish of choice and pour gravy over them. Sprinkle with the cheese curds and cover with another plate or pot lid, about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.
Beef Gravy (and Beef Stew)
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. butter
2-3 tsp. vegetable oil, if needed
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut in chunks
salt, to taste
3 cups hot water, plus more, as needed
1 Tbsp. flour
Heat the butter and onions together in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over low heat. Cover and allow to caramelize over about 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions are dark brown and sweet.
Remove the onions to a bowl. Add vegetable oil if needed and turn the heat up to high. Salt the beef generously and add in one layer to the pot. Sear the beef chunks on all sides, cooking in two batches, if needed. When the beef is browned, add it all to the pot along with the onions and the hot water. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook 3-4 hours, until the beef is fall-apart tender. Add more water over the course of cooking as needed.
Reserve 1 cup of gravy; the rest goes with the stew. Enjoy it another day. Combine a Tbsp. of gravy with the flour in a small saucepan, whisking to make a roux. Add the rest of the gravy slowly, whisking continuously, until you have a thickened gravy.
Emily Monaco is native New Yorker, living and writing in Paris since 2007. She loves discovering new places and, of course, their local cuisines! Read about her adventures in food and travel at tomatokumato.com or follow her on Twitter at @emiglia