Since nobody has discussed the 'competition':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTTSWrO889U
(cut to around 4:30 to miss the sometimes exhausting buildup).
Swiss Chalet is now advertising 'shawarma' rotisserie sauce, which ought to be dramatically delicious taste on poutine... and, unlike St. Hubert which appears to be barely south of Ottawa so far, they have a couple of locations in Niagara Falls...
Word on the street is that neither BK nor McDonalds poutine is really worth getting for the price; I'm not quite honorary-Canadian enough yet to relish the squeaky-cheese thing as a necessary quality.
Swiss Chalet is now advertising 'shawarma' rotisserie sauce, which ought to be dramatically delicious taste on poutine...
Ok thank you .. I was long gone by the 90's.
Yes, the Edgewater is still there but is now a seedy Howard Johnson's hotel. A new addition to the streetcar barn behind the hotel was added a few years ago to accomodate the new streetcars. The only route that still runs the CLRVs is the Carlton 506 and there is one occasionally on Queen st. The ALRVs are gone as of 3 weeks ago but I imagine one or two are now in the Halton museum. The 505 Dundas st route is still all buses, I don't know when the new streetcars will run on it. I didn't move to Toronto until 25 years ago so no, we probably didn't meet. I live four blocks up Roncey in a good-size apartment. I've lived here in this place since 1997, the longest I've lived anywhere.
Is the Edgewater Hotel still there? That was my 'second home' while a student at the U of T. Was a semi dive back then but had a lot of fun and good memories. Lived in Parkdale back then up until the early 80's...if you were there back then we likely crossed paths. 40 years ago! Can you believe that!
Miningman- the King 504 streetcar stops right across the street- I live directly on Roncey above a shoe store.
St. Hubert's and Swiss Chalet- If you recall Howard Johnson's food, that's about what it's like. Just like Ho Jo back in the day, the parking lots are full on Mother's day when you take the old bag out of the home for a hot turkey sandwich, mashed potatoes, green beans and a dessert she can eat without her teeth.
St. Hubert BBQ chicken restaurants are very good and preferred over their big competitor Swiss Chalet, which is also very good. Try either one or both next visit, you won't be disappointed.
Just checked the St-Hubert menu. Wow. Stuff looks good!
Not likely they'd deliver to Virginia either.
Oh well, put it on the bucket list.
Say, how did a transit topic get sidetracked into a food discussion? Who cares?
Here's the rest of the story.
The spuds can be home grown as they are in the photo or store bought.. I prefer the Cavendish to the other brands. Left the price sticker on.. sorry 'bout dat! Robertsons Trading still uses price stickers and no scanning whatsoever at the store. Also like a little bit of malt vinegar.
Worse still, they taunt us with a Web site. I did not know until now that they're a restaurant chain.
http://www.st-hubert.com/menu/Poutines/poutine-st-hubert.en.html
and there is an online damn menu. Wanna bet they won't deliver to me? ...
Strangely, they refer in the recipe to 'barbecue' sauce. And rib sauce. Those aren't two things that come to mind when I think about poutine. But now that you mention them, my mouth is watering...
"St. Hubert Poutine Gravy." Nope, don't have none of that down here neither. I'm out of luck all 'round.
The closest I can get to St. Hubert is Ginger, our attack Basset. The real Saint Hubert is the patron saint of Basset Hounds, and hounds in general.
Now I see what happens when you get too many nitwit literalist thirtysomethings in a regulatory agency.
The 1938 regulation clearly bans toys EMBEDDED in food, where a child might likely be gobbling and inadvertently swallow the toy. (That 'functional purpose' embedding covers lollipop sticks, the plastic in ring pops, and the like.)
I can see how this applies to King Cakes, and much as I hate to see tradition go by the wayside there is certainly this risk present for them or other issues like it.
The 'original' Kinder Surprise (as I recall) had the prize entirely separate inside the hollow chocolate eggshell, but only technically 'embedded' in it... you might as well say there was CO2 "embedded" in a hollow chocolate Easter bunny because of the trapped air. On the other hand, though -- there are supposed to be at least two registered deaths from Kinder Surprise, so why would an agency that banned cyclamates on goofy evidence hesitate to act on that?
The problem is that the company has rather egregiously addressed the problem by providing the moral equivalent of a childproof pill bottle in every egg: there's an inner plastic capsule that kids have to work on to open, and that ought to pass the Federal choke test. There's video on the Web of children standing on them to try to induce them to open! Nestle now has a plastic capsule so large that it separates the halves of the 'chocolate ball' (thereby avoiding the complete embedding; clever Swiss legalism at work!) which then has to be solved to get at the 'small parts inside'. Presumably few children under 3 who are unattended will have the wherewithal to get at the chokables now.
But just as foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, expect a ban on "Kinder Surprise" to persist beyond any attempts to make it safe or compliant.
I have to look into this poutine gravy. Is there something special in the formula that's different from normal diner-style brown gravy? I never thought to look!
And there are a couple of facilities ... known to me in rural west Tennessee that will provide raw cheese curd made with proper attention to avoiding contamination. Got raw milk from them for a while before I gave up cow's milk except for cooking or as processed. It's there if you look but don't tell.
Re Kinder Surprise Chocolate Eggs and the USA
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibits confectionery products which contain a “non-nutritive object”, unless the non-nutritive object has functional value.[40]Essentially, the Act bans "the sale of any candy that has embedded in it a toy or trinket".[41]
In 1997, the staff of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) examined and issued a recall for some Kinder Surprise illegally brought into the US with foreign labels.[42] The staff determined that the toys within the eggs had small parts. The staff presumed that Kinder Surprise, being a chocolate product, was intended for children of all ages, including those under three years of age. On this basis, the staff took the position that Kinder Surprise was in violation of the small parts regulation and should be banned from importation into the US.[42]
Kinder Surprise eggs are legal in Canada and Mexico, but are illegal to import into the US. In January 2011, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) threatened a Manitoba resident with a 300 Canadian dollar fine for carrying one egg across the US border into Minnesota.[43] In June 2012, CBP held two Seattle men for two and a half hours after discovering six Kinder Surprise eggs in their car upon returning to the US from a trip to Vancouver. According to one of the men detained, Joseph Cummings of Seattle, WA, a border guard quoted the potential fine as "$2,500 per egg."[44]
In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) re-issued their import alert stating “The embedded non-nutritive objects in these confectionery products may pose a public health risk as the consumer may unknowingly choke on the object”.[45]
Kinder Surprise bears warnings advising the consumer that the toy is "not suitable for children under three years, due to the presence of small parts", and that "adult supervision is recommended".[46]
As of 2017 Kinder Joy eggs, a variant lacking the encased toy, are sold in the United States, although Kinder Surprise eggs remain banned.
As for Cheese Curds:
So Overmod what you likely saw was the variant Kinder Joy.
Flintlock-- Never had Poutine? Are you kidding me, I just can't imagine that ..here's the best gravy for Poutine.
Note latest Trains magazine in background just arrived via Dogsled... err, Canada Post and numerous Pisachio shell bits all around the 'puter because I eat 'em while reading and posting!
Annnd.. 54light15-- thank you for the response, glad to hear something's left and the festival is still alive. I suppose you can hop on a streetcar or take the UP and get outta Dodge for the duration! ( just to add some Railroading and bring it back to the the other UP)
Flintlock76Mussel nuggets? Man, I'd try those in a heartbeat, especially if they had a marinara "dippin' sauce" to go with 'em!
One of the great comic moments in New England commerce concerned the economics behind these nuggets. As I think I mentioned, we set up early and cordial relations with a certain organization that says it is not the Cosa Nostra to be sure our products would find the proper sort of willing distribution. If you are familiar with the Massachusetts equivalent of the Jersey Shore you may be familiar with 'clam fritters', which are made of a few pieces of clam and some clam juice with a great deal of breading, and of course are supplied by one of the 'family' enterprises. We determined that we could easily make these with superior mussel meat ... in fact, the major cost was the breading, so to make them full of tasty nourishing meat actually cost less than making the pathetic clam equivalent. The test batch was something to experience; it put most crab cakes to shame, and a very small additional investment in spices and sherry made it something you could serve in far more places than a tourist shack.
Alas! there were internecine conflicts that kept this from happening. But imagine the fun if a whole class of junk food suddenly became nourishing at a lower food cost!
54light15 And 5 coffee shops, only one of which is Tim Horton's selling their watery swill.
Horton's is no more a 'coffee shop' than Dunkin Donuts is. It's a donut shop that happens to serve watery swill on the side.
Of course, I think Starbucks isn't really a 'coffee shop' either, unless you think burning rather than roasting the beans is part of making coffee. But that's another story.
Brown gravy on French fries is a regional specialty in a number of places in the 'States. And it's really good -- albeit a little messy. The cheese if you get it is commonly melted over the top, not laid on in curds; it takes a little getting used to, but so does eating fries with the ketchup sprinkled over the top, or having your hash browns scattered, smothered and covered.
Mussel nuggets? Man, I'd try those in a heartbeat, especially if they had a marinara "dippin' sauce" to go with 'em!
I can get mussels with marinara at my local Italian restaurant (The owner's from Brooklyn) but unfortunately not in the big pot quantity I used to get in New Jersey. Hey, at least they're available!
Mussels are great! Shows you the benefits of going fishing at low tide!
Poutine? No thanks, never had it. Looks like a plate of barf to me. As I understand it, it was what you ate in Quebec after playing hockey in -40 degree weather. I'll pass. It's really not as common as you jokers seem to make it out to be, but having said (written?) that, there are restaurants that only sell poutine. Look up Smoke's Poutine, there's a bunch of them around.
Roncesvalles avenue is still Polish somewhat but nowhere to the extent it was 25 years ago- there are only two Polish restaurants left and two Polish delis. The Polish places have mostly been replaced by stores that sell high-end baby carriages, Beautiful Things For The Home and places where women go to get manicured and waxed- there are only 6 of those places on the street. Oh, and there are 4 Thai restaurants. And 5 coffee shops, only one of which is Tim Horton's selling their watery swill.
Every September there is a Polish festival that takes up the entire street, North America's biggest celebration of Polish culture. People come in from the suburbs and do whatever it is you do at a street festival. I have buskers right outside my door playing the pan flute and I only hear them play that Simon and Garfunkel song that goes "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail" abut 20 times a day. It's a good time to get the hell out of town!
Kinder Surprises are illegal in the States? Odd, they're sold everywhere around here- every corner store has them and yeah, I sure remember when Cracker Jack had decent prizes- I stopped buying it when there was only TWO peanuts in the whole box!
Flintlock76 The cheese curds? Not likely.
We need a better marketing name. I actually found 'cheese curds' as a product for sale in my local supermarket in Erie yesterday, so they're an 'item of commerce' in this part of the United States, and presumably available to restaurants to serve... it's just that nobody wants something with a name and appearance so close to 'turds'.
Back in the '80s I was involved in a startup aquaculture operation that raised mussels (Mytilus edulis). Lots and lots of mussels, and many of them had their shells broken in processing, so it was actually cheaper to process them for meat than to dispose of them safely. When I got there, they were making extremely tasty breaded 'nuggets' largely out of this better-than-free meat ... but calling them by the extremely unattractive name "mussel nuggets". Would you buy such a thing to try in a Burger King? This was particularly unfortunate because once you'd actually put one of the things in your mouth you'd be a repeat customer immediately.
The 'curds' are very similar to the product known as string cheese, which is itself not a very attractive sounding thing if you haven't tasted it. We need something better to tout as an essential ingredient.
Hmmm, poutine. I have to confess I needed to look that one up.
Looks pretty good! I'd try it. (Hey, I tried and loved codfish tongues when I was in Newfoundland!) Although I doubt Burger King's likely to poutine here in the US anytime soon. Maybe up close to the US/Canadian border if market research shows it might be a good seller.
The thing is, any good American diner worthy of the name will put brown gravy (usually turkey) on your fries if you ask for it. The cheese curds? Not likely.
Still waiting for a Timmy's here in the Richmond area. I suppose I'm in for a long wait. Probably a longer wait than Abe Lincoln had waiting for the Union Army to take the place.
Crackerjack prizes? They stopped being worth a damn decades ago.
Flintlock76, if GO Transit was ever of a mind to use something like this for a radio commercial or such, of course they would have to approach Union Pacific about rights to use the tune.
However, I think a jingle radio campaign and a serving of poutine for each rider would fill up the trains!
Now I know there's something wrong. First 4935 in Tuscan and now this.
I distinctly remember seeing Kinder Surprise for sale numerous times, in places like Walmart even. Perhaps there is some version made specially for the United States, but this is the first time I've read about a ban on the things; I haven't looked carefully at the history but it's certainly interesting reading.
Kinder Surprise is kind of like the FAO Schwartz of candy, the same way that those Rocher truffle things in the foil are waaaaaay too expensive for what you get until you get them on Manager's Special. Perhaps the idea was to make them so expensive that only rich, caring parents who carefully supervise the 'experience' could get them.
One thing this suggested to me is that it helps explain something that even today I remember as defining one of the ends to my childhood: the ruining of the toys in Cracker Jack. There used to be cool stuff in those little boxes, the high point being a green locomotive that you had to snap together -- there were other train cars that went with it; I had the caboose and I think a tank car -- which was actually well-proportioned. And then, one day, what we got was some little paper thing. Thereafter that was the only thing. Not worth picking the unpopped kernel pieces out of your teeth for those.
Only now, in the hindsight of enlightenment, do I see that this could be a response to the kind of law supposedly used to justify confiscating those eggs: far less likelihood of inhaling Oh My Goodness SNAKE micro-stationery 'by accident' than some plastic tchotchke, and perhaps less likelihood it would pass down a tiny windpipe even then.
Don't get him started on Kinder Surprise. If caught entering the USA with even one it's really bad .. really bad!
Delicious Chocolate and very very kool toys inside.
They will tear your car apart, throw your kids in the slammer, it's just awful.
My favourite columnist Mark Steyn crossed the border from Quebec into Vermont and his kids had one each in hand. All friggin hell broke loose!
Probably ok on the Southern border though.
Miningman... "Building on its iconic fries, cut from whole potatoes, cooked skin-on, served hot and crispy with a sprinkle of sea salt, Wendy's poutine adds fresh Canadian cheese curds (a poutine must!) and is covered in the brand's rich poutine sauce.
Damn you, you sadistic bastids.
ALL of them have Poutine-- Wendy's, McDonalds, Burger King, Tim Hortons, A&W, Dairy Queen ... even KFC but it's Poutine Popcorn Chicken whatever the blazes that is :
Here is a Wendy's review-- " Building on its iconic fries, cut from whole potatoes, cooked skin-on, served hot and crispy with a sprinkle of sea salt, Wendy's poutine adds fresh Canadian cheese curds (a poutine must!) and is covered in the brand's rich poutine sauce.Apr 25, 2012
Apparently fresh cheese curds are illegal
in the US.. it must be aged 60 days then voila
its legal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcvoOT4N1xM
There are video reviews for all of them .. I'm sure if you watch this one the others will pop up along the right hand side
SD70DudeBurger King sells poutine now. Maybe it's only available in Canada.
I haven't seen it in any domestic BK yet, and that includes Erie, PA which is relatively close to the border. I'm planning on going up to check the Falls, and I now have an additional 'reason'...
Burger King sells poutine now. Maybe it's only available in Canada.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Taber-r-r-nacolo dei tabernacoli!
Miningman Perhaps in the future it will be a reality... poof, poutine! I'm sure there was a few "tabernac and a half" thrown around although in Toronto I suspect the construction workers and foreman were Italians.. they get it done and done right!
Perhaps in the future it will be a reality... poof, poutine!
I'm sure there was a few "tabernac and a half" thrown around although in Toronto I suspect the construction workers and foreman were Italians.. they get it done and done right!
Roman heritage baby, it's in the blood!
By the way, I hope the other UP down in Omaha doesn't give the Union Pearson any grief over unauthorized trademark use. There was a helluva flap over that when the Union Pacific put the squeeze on railroad model companys over that. It was eventually resolved, but it was ugly while it lasted.
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