Eat & Drink
The great Toronto poutine challenge: the vegetarian poutine
On day one of my great poutine odyssey that will see me consuming a poutine a day for the next three weeks, I stop by the Stampede Bison Grill to get started.
A place known for serving up thick and juicy bison meat might be an unexpected place to sample a vegetarian poutine, but at this Parkdale haunt they've got an eye out for the neighbourhood herbivores as well. I'm looking forward to becoming an authority on local poutine and Stampede is as good a place as any to start out.
Poutine is a simple enough dish with three basic components: French fries, gravy and cheese curds. It's finding the proper balance between the three that proves tricky. Getting each aspect just right has been the undoing of many valiant efforts.
Fries
The potatoes at the Stampede Bison Grill are on the thinner side, which I like generally. The more surface area a French fry has, the more crisp, deep fried, flavour it is able to impart - plus, they will cook faster which leaves the inside light and airy. Unfortunately, thin shoelace potatoes don't hold up nearly as well to piping hot gravy. A poutine fry needs to take into account the hearty weight of it's second and third floors. A mound of creamy curbs smothered in thick brown sauce will easily overpower a delicate fry and unfortunately, that's what happened here. 2.5/5
Gravy
Stampede uses veggie gravy for their poutine, a blessing for the herbivores out there, but really no substitute for the real thing. It's okay; it has that "gravy" flavour. Unfortunately, what it's lacking is the depth and complexity of flavour that only a big pile of beefy bones can provide and honestly, a great poutine is probably 40 per cent sauce alone. So what can I say? Top marks for inclusiveness, it's just that sometimes compromise can ruin the party a little bit. 2/5
Curds
Here's where Stampede steps up. The curds here are soft, moist, a little bit gooey and extremely plentiful. Since poutine is, in part, little more than an excuse to gorge on curds and not feel guilty about it (feel guilty about the fries and gravy), Stampede has earned back some much-needed marks on this one. On arrival the fries are all but covered by them with only a stray stick poking through. This is a cheese lover's poutine through and through. 3.5/5
Portion
It's big - big enough for a meal itself, big enough to share. Poutine shouldn't be this big, people shouldn't eat this much cheesy, deep fried potato at one time, but they do, and they will continue to do. 5/5
Price: $4.25
Overall it's a decent showing for a place that prides itself more on its grill. The gravy is a decent veggie gravy, unfortunately it's very mediocre in comparison to the real stuff.
Keep checking back on the site over the next three weeks to see where my great Toronto poutine challenge takes me next.
Discussion
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This is one of the best, if not THE best veggie poutine in Toronto.
As per our lovely friend Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet - "There are non-animal sources for rennet that are suitable for vegetarian consumption." There is an explanation of vegetable based rennet in the article as well.
Deep breath, exhale. ENJOY the POUTINE.
That is, if you eat animal products at all.
Happy Hunting.
a suggestion to all you food chain denyers out there: a bullet is not just vegetarian, its vegan, try eating one of those. that would make the world a better place.
For the record, I have no issues with humans eating other animals, generally speaking. In fact, I have no issues with killing a wild animal with my own hands for the purposes of feeding myself... even if that animal is a cute, cuddly baby cow.
What I have an issue with is those humans who think that blood, bones and killing animals is disgusting and don't want to think or hear or see it, but they have no problem chowing down on the products of their death.
Poutini's has the best vegetarian poutine in town HANDS DOWN.
The people who mindlessly chant that poutine is solely fries, curds and chicken gravy need to get a life. There's nothing wrong with variations especially if it makes a better product. I personally prefer poutine with beef gravy and some sort of meat on top. Bacon works nicely. Smoked meat is nice too. Hmmm, even chorizo sounds good, never tried that yet. Horrors, upon horrors, some places in Quebec even do that too.
did you read the article? or even the entire headline?
if you want the real deal, then check out the top 10 poutine article:
http://www.blogto.com/toronto/the_best_poutine_in_toronto/
The Vegan Police knows that chess is not Vegan, Todd doesn't.
Cheese is not Vegan - that the Vegan Police knows, Todd doesn't
Just because something was done first, doesn't automatically mean it was done best.
Face palm. Some of us, as in the ones who purposely seek out and eat vegetarian poutine, don't want, need, or care about "the real thing." But I do appreciate you're writing for a greater audience.
That aside, I am beyond thrilled to see BlogTO cover poutine, vegetarian food, and a combination of the two. Happy eating!
Rock on.
Who cares what the carcass-based gravy tastes like? Rate veggie gravy as veggie gravy. It's not <em>supposed</em> to be anything else.
If you'd read the ENTIRE article, as you so eloquently put it in your attempted slam towards me, you would have noticed that the vegetarian poutine was step one in an all-encompassing poutine saga that will cover all grounds on the dish.
Nice try. Read the entire headline next time.
I know this more relaxed attitude towards the evils of our nature can offend your self-righteous sensibilities but not all of us have our moral compass pointing in the same rather inflexible direction.