Behold Poutine Week’s Most Over-The-Top Creations

Montreal is fairly loaded up with themed weeks dedicated to pizza, burgers, hot chocolate, and beyond. Yet Poutine Week is where some of the city’s kitchens throw all restraint (and sometimes common sense) out the window, with everything from shrimp ceviche to graham crackers on offer as a poutine topping.

Divided into three categories — the fully-loaded poutines, rich people poutines, and non-poutines — here are the most excessive and, uh, interesting takes on the Québécois classic being whipped up this week.

The sixth Poutine Week begins today (February 1), and runs through to February 7.

What If Poutine But Too Much?

• Mange-Moi: fries, curds, gravy, beef meat loaf, mashed butternut squash, parsnip, and chives — it’s a little bit like a countryside mom’s meat-and-vegetables dinner copulated with a poutine; the hunk of meatloaf really pushes it over the edge

Olya Krasavina

• Le Smoking BBQ: fries, tater tots, apple-smoked ground beef, smoked bacon, homemade poutine sauce, curds, shredded cheddar cheese, maple syrup caramelized onions, Big Mac-style sauce, and marinated chili peppers — with two cheeses, two potato styles, three meats, and some maple syrup thrown in, you may as well at least pour some Pepto-Bismol over the top to balance things out

Olya Krasavina

• Burrito Revolucion: build-your-own poutine with chorizo casero, chipotle chicken, beer pork, cumin beef, chili con carne, vegetarian chili, grilled tofu, shrimp ceviche, and grilled cod — this one isn’t inherently over-the-top, but with that many toppings in play across such a broad flavour spectrum, there’s a lot of potential here for overkill

Olya Krasavina

“Poutine But Make It Diamond-Encrusted”

• La Champagnerie: lobster, filet mignon, kenogami cheese, foie gras sauce — it has more status symbols than a private school parents’ fundraiser.

Olya Krasavina

• La Brasserie Saint-Denis: pork belly, Rockefeller oysters, curds, white beer sauce with soy/ginger, coriander, sour cream — this one isn’t overloaded, but the oysters push it into conspicuous consumption territory.

Olya Krasavina

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Poutine

• Dirty Pizza: dough, gravy, fries, mozzarella, and cheese curds — this is a tricky one to assess. One one hand, it has all the elements a poutine requires, yet when they’re all transposed onto a pizza base, does it cease to be a poutine? Tough call.

Olya Krasavina

• Fabergé: no description was provided, but it appears to be a wrap with poutine components inside — and while a poutine can be many things, it’s not handheld.

Olya Krasavina

• Medley Simple Malt: dessert poutine with graham fries, cheesecake curds, and caramel sauce — honestly, it sounds pretty good (and props for not going overboard), but at the same time, it boasts zero out of three core poutine elements.

Olya Krasavina