Curds 'n' Birds & Byzantine poutine

Construction of a specialty poutine and chicken restaurant in Washington D.C. called Curds 'n' Birds is well underway, witness reports indicate.

The brains behind the operation gave me a recent update about what's going on at the site, which is in upscale Georgetown at the intersection of M and Wisconsin Streets.

"Off to meet the decorator," he said in an instant message on Saturday. "Today we choose the colour scheme for the restaurant. Very important. Colour-wise, we're going with something called 'poutine green' with highlights and trim in 'gravy brown'."

He expects a poutine craze to take off and balloon into a chain of restaurants across the United States.

There's already buzz in the U.S. midwest over the prospect of ready-to-go poutine.

"Why is poutine not available in Wisconsin?" queried a resident of the Cheese State. "Given the standard Wisconsin diet is french fries and cheese curds, you'd figure they would have adopted poutine by now! Idiots. Tell your friend to open up his first stand in Racine. He'll make millions."


Research into the history of poutine in Canada shows that there is a wide variety of recipes beyond the standard medley of fries, gravy and cheese curds served up in restaurants of such urban centres as Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

Some poutine recipes are said to have originated among French-speaking Acadians of Atlantic Canada. Acadia was first settled as a French colonial territory in the 1600s on the east coast of Canada and the United States.

For example, poutine râpée is a ball made of a mixture of grated raw and mashed potatoes.

Sometimes poutines râpées, which are boiled in water or stewed for a few hours before being squeezed dry in a cloth bag, are stuffed with chopped salt pork.

An online source describes a variation known as poutine en sac as an “old European pudding steamed in a cloth bag.”

Poutine à la vapeur is made of lard, sugar, eggs, flour, milk and baking powder. Dried or fresh fruit is added to the mixture and it is made into a large ball, placed in a cotton bag and steamed for a couple of hours. It can be served with cream, brown sugar, or slices of fried pork. This variation is also known as son-of-a-bitch-in-a-sack, bugger-in-a-bag, cloutie and figgy duff.

Poutine à la mélasse is a pie and poutine au pain is bread pudding.

Then there is the American Poutini, the vodka and potato schnapps cocktail with cheese curds floating in it created by my friend in leafy Georgetown especially for his Birds 'n' Curds chain.

"Those drinks are wicked," he said. "The gravy and frying oil help carry the alcohol right to the bloodstream." ~


For more about poutine, please click on the blog entry entitled "An obsession with poutine cuisine."