Eat & Drink
The great Toronto poutine challenge: the midtown poutine
For poutine enthusiasts weary of making the trek deep into the bowels of the city for their fix, fear not. Great poutine is hardly exclusive to the downtown sect. If Yonge & Eg is more your steez you're in luck, Bamburger serves up a top notch poutine perfect for the young professional in all of us.
But Bamburger shows restraint in its poutine. It's a deceptively simple, unsophisticated creation that marries taste and texture in near perfect harmony. Read on for the details:
Fries
A nicely seasoned nest of skin-on Yukon Golds, with a hint of cayenne pepper. These are thick cut, chip truck style potato spears that exemplify all the traits of a top quality french fry, some of the best we've seen yet. They are entirely satisfying both to the eyes and the tongue. 5/5
Gravy
Ok, so it's taken a full 12 days to get here, but it looks like we've finally been able to add the much sought after, vaguely mysterious polkaroo of poutine, the element that always seems to be missing by those inclined to complain--chicken gravy... I think! Was it worth the wait? Sure was. This is a unique gravy in the Toronto poutine scene (poutine scene?) where beef is generally king. To say it's better or worse is impossible, it's different, but in a really great way. In reality though, chicken or beef or veal or anything for that matter is pretty inconsequential. What's important is the quality and flavour of the sauce, and at Bamburger they've got them both. 5/5
Curds
The curds play two roles in a poutine; the first - and most obvious - is to impart flavour. The second is all about texture: providing that gooey, stringy, melty, squeaky counter to the crispness of the potato. The curds at Bamburger provide just that role, save for the squeakiness. There is a generous amount of cheese in this poutine, partially melted by the hot gravy, stretchy enough to twirl on a fork. Squeaky and flavourful they are not, but enjoyable nonetheless. 3/5
Portion
An impressive plate piled up with enough poutine to satisfy. It seems depending on the establishment a poutine is priced either as a side (less than $5) or an independent dish in it's own right (greater than $5). This dish works all on it's own, but I'll definitely be back to sample the burgers. 4/5
Price: $6.95
Total Score: 17/20
Sometimes the greatest trick is just to keep things simple. The Bamburger Poutine is all about balance. Each ingredient plays it's own role and refrains from encroaching on the others. The fries are the vessel, they provide texture and weight to the dish, the gravy takes care of flavour and the curds are the counterbalance to the fries, providing an alternate texture for comparison, each highlighting the other - no additives required.
Discussion
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5
good!
Being way out in the suburbs of North York, even Yonge & Eg is downtown to me.
I like my chips crispy on the outside with a mashed potato texture on the inside. Gravy will soften up the crisp for sure. At my local diner I prefer they put homemade chili over the fries rather than a gravy sourced from powder.
As for the cheese, curds are great but not necessary. Freshly grated cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, goat, whatever...) can be just as good as curds.
I do admit that some of the poutine photos have been less than appetizing. That one from Caplansky's almost made me lose it (I have tried it, and it tastes much better than it looks if you like smoked meat). Don't need bacon. Don't need to fancy it up. Simple is better. And smaller serving sizes are the way to go. It needs to be eaten while hot and delicious, not cold and stodgy.
Very important is the size of curd and cross-section of the fry, the volume of a curd should be at LEAST the square of the fry's cross section.
These are fundamental aspects. Grated cheese? maybe on TOP.. but never as the building blocks. The rest is all gravy.
Eat what you like! What's most important is whether or not you enjoy what you're eating, not the cross-section of the fry vs the volume of a curd. Recipes change over time as do those that eat them and the availability of ingredients change. I'm quite happy to call what I like as 'chili cheese fries', maybe not traditional poutine to your standards, but definitely in the same family.
Eat and enjoy.
Perhaps you're better off eating in the dark out of a can using your fingers? What it looks like need not matter... Happiness is relative to the situation, after all - tasty and ambiguous soylent green was made out of people, PEEEEEEEOOOOOOOPLE!
Those outside of Ontario likely won't understand the Polka Dot Door reference. :)