Due to unforeseen interruptions due to the global pandemic, Mom's Kitchen has been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner since 2013, but owner and chef Manon Amiott also operates two kitchen trucks. I have a very busy schedule, especially in the summer.
Step up a few steps from the street and enter the casual restaurant on Laundry Road, where you'll find a point-of-sale system behind plexiglass, a self-serve soda cooler, a pool table and miscellaneous goods, tchotchkes and tin china. There is a fully stocked dining area. -Includes an old Singer sewing machine and an old-fashioned cash register, the latter two of which are relics of a bygone era.
And Mama's menu is chock-full of classics, from breakfast sets including baloney and creton maison, to club sandwiches and “hot hamburger” platters, to piping dogs, fish and chips, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs. .
What also caught my eye was “Old Canadian Food” on Amyot's business card.
“When it comes to catering, we try to serve traditional dishes like our grandmothers used to cook,” says Amyot. She started her career in the kitchen from the age of 15, preparing meals for local entrepreneurial families.
Classic diner food and home cooking, to be sure. But I was interested in another version of the classic. It's what mom calls poutine du fermier, available from a short list of specialty poutines. The menu said, “Famous for its Farmer's Poutine,” which piqued my interest even more.
Granted, this is a self-proclaimed distinction, but my mom makes a lot of poutine. We travel with two trucks, especially during the summer. And even though this famous dish is high on my list of favorite snack foods, I always tell myself to eat it. some degree of discretion.
Poutine is ubiquitous across Canada. I can't count the number of times I've cut into takeout cardboard clamshells filled with crispy hot fries and melty cheese curds in several different cities. , and dripping gravy.
We have seen an evolution over the past decade or so. French fries, which form the basic starch of poutine, have been transformed into a blank slate for a variety of unique flavors and ingredients, including butter chicken poutine, lobster poutine, gumbo poutine, and pizza poutine. .
I sometimes dive into the orgy of possible and sometimes improbable ingredients, but here in my new home, I feel differently about poutine. I feel like I'm getting a little closer to the origin and epicenter of super rich and luxurious ingredients. Not just for geographic reasons, but also for snack foods.
I don't support the idea that poutine is Canada's national dish, but it's certainly not just a regional dish.
In any case, its origins have a mythical status, dating back 60 years to Quebec, where the word first appeared on the menu at Lideal in Warwick, about two hours northeast of Montreal. Let's go back to the beginning.
According to poutine historian Sylvain Charlebois's book Poutine Nation, gravy wasn't added until 1962, when it was first added as a side dish to fries and cheese curds. Drummondville resident Jean-Claude Roy likely created the trifecta in 1964, Charlebois said.
In the Toronto Star's 2008 Poutine Pilgrimage, “Food Sleuth” Marion Kane tried to trace the origins of the dish to Drummondville, Victoriaville and Warwick.
Poutine arcana aside, this dish is simply delicious and a truly indulgent feast, to say the least. This includes deviating from the tripartite purity of the original ingredients into the mouth-watering, heady space of foie gras, pulled pork, or grilled andouille sausage. exterior.
At Mom's, Amyot stakes claim to her version of the six dishes. And the connection to farmers has become a myth in itself, she explains.
“A young farmer from La Ferme Ouellette used to come and eat at my food stall in Sarsfield,'' says Amyot. “He asked me to put all the meat in one poutine. Then when I served it at the Russell Fair, it was in demand.”
Indeed, it's a meaty platter in front of you, perhaps six different kinds of meat mixed with fries and cheese curds, all smothered under a thick brown gravy.
First, the hand-cut fries are twice-cooked, blanched, and fried to order hot and crispy (and so delicious). The cheese curds, of course, come from St. Albert Cheese, a historic cooperative founded in 1894.
Perhaps a master of poutine, Amyot won't reveal the specific ingredients or techniques he uses, only that some of the meat is marinated and slow-cooked over a day.
I root around the bowl for a bite to find pork breakfast sausage and crunchy pieces of roast pork and beef that add texture to the dish.
Mama's Poutine has a wide range. Her truck appeared at the recent Orléans Her Poutine Her Festival and will also appear at events in Wendover, Macksville, Chesterville, Metcalfe, Carp, Kanata and Chauville, Quebec.
Poutine, a classic Quebecois and Canadian dish claimed by Charlevoix, has been nominated as the first Canadian dish to be declared an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'' by UNESCO, along with Neapolitan pizza and Parisian baguette. Poutine, as it should be, is summer all the way through October. .
I will take that nomination second.
*When visiting Mama's Kitchen, please check the availability of food and business hours in advance.
Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of Farm to Table and co-author of Cooking with Shakespeare. Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.