"0"^^ . . "0"^^ . "0"^^ . "3"^^ . . "2017-08-12T00:00:00"^^ . "+ Poutine! Taters!! Cheese!!! Graaaavy!!!! \n+ Chain of poutine stores in Toronto \n+ Gourmet options also available \n\nSmoke's Poutinerie is a chain of poutine shops in Toronto. It's quick, affordable, and it gives you an instant satisfaction with sodium and carbs - it's essentially Gregg's of Canada. \nAs I entered the poutinerie in North Toronto, I was immediately greeted by the familiar fast food world of bright colour scheme and unnecessarily friendly shop assistants. Ok. This should be easy enough. Just pick your food, size and your choice of unhealthy fizzy drink. I think I can handle this. \nIn fact, the menu suggested they have a lot of creative options. But as a newbie, I picked a regular poutine. I had to leave something for next time. At a quick glance, other options seemed to revolve around adding extra meat, cream or syrup in different shapes and forms. I can see myself eating poutine with added bacon or pulled pork. But poutine with French toast sticks (whatever they are, indeed) and maple syrup ('Oh Canada!' option) might be a bit much. \nAnyhow, my poutine was very nice. It consisted of firm cheese curd, crunchy French fries and hot gravy sauce. Cheese curd was closer to haloumi than mozzarella on the scale of firmness except, it wasn't smeared with concentrated salt as typical haloumi cheese you find at a supermarket in the UK. \nMuch like kebab and chips after a night of drinking, poutine hits the most basic parts of your taste bud with the combination of sodium, fat and carbs. Of course it tastes good. It's designed to make you want more! Sure, it's not exactly fine dining. But it's good. I would come back to try more daring options. After all, I feel eating poutine is mandatory while in Canada. I went to the one in North Toronto. But there are a bunch of them in downtown."^^ . .